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January 31, 2009

Good day Saturday for the Piggies........

24 Senior Men traveled up to Nanaimo after a 1 hour spirited session, pre-trip, this morning at the club. There was as much apprehension as ever traveling up to Hornetville, who always get up for the Piggies...mostly at home. We barely beat them in Sept. in a 1 point win in the Wayne game. The year before Nanaimo beat us by 5 points....so the day was set on perhaps.......another close match....

Final Result: Cowichan 56 vs Nanaimo 15.

With a whole bunch of new players taking the field and with Judsen Garside, Andrew Gudmundseth, Pat Fraser, Ty Hamblin, Trevor Geach, Rob McDonnell and Kim Anderton not dressed, it was time to see what was up.

Coach Chris Evans decided to start Adam Shouten at #9 and the combination of Adam and Andrew Woods at #10 really clicked. Adam scored two nice tries in his first game out west and Andrew was able to distribute great ball to a diverse set of centers and scored tow tries himself.

Massive prop and newcomer, Steve "Chunk" Young, who tips the scales at 329lbs also started at tighthead with Dan James moving over to loosehead. Despite his size, Chunk was able to move around the field pretty well and did set up a nice try. Dan James had his usual steady game in the front row that saw three hookers on the day, Mike Stapleford, Preston Particpoich and then old war horse, Jake Teufel. Lineout ball and set pieces were decidedly in Cowichan's favour throughout. The combination of Gord Kehoe, who's now 265 lbs, Ian Manly, John Dubiel and Louis Gudmundseth were deadly in loose ball situations and Manly, as usual, was out patrolling and smashing into people all over the place. Manly and Kehoe were nice to watch. Great pace from the back row who had constant pressure on the Nanaimo 9/10 combination which gave them fits in ball distribution.

Tyler Cook showed his athleticism on the wing and his experience as a top Canadian University Strong Safety in football showed in his tackling abilities and strong bursts with ball in hand. Newly returned to the club, Mike McDowell, was also up to his crafty self on the other wing. Mike last played for Cowichan 2 years ago against Langley. Jordan McGarvey is back again and had a good game.

The first half ended 29-12 for Cowichan.

The second half saw Coach Evans move Hitchy into the #9 position for Adam, Scot McLeod into prop for Chunk, PP in at hooker, Gudy-East in at Wing and Kyle Geach in at Center.

The Piggies spent this half mostly in the Hornets end as they seemed to wear down as the game wore on.

Kyle Geach was electric from his center position and boy, is it great to see him back in a green and black jersey after 5 years away.....Lil' Muck also had a great game. Good secure ball in the kick-offs and not a miss in the lineout department. Another great addition to the Cowichan repertoire. The scrums in the second half were improving as the game wore on with Cowichan almost finishing with a push over set piece that actually resulted in a Nanaimo penalty for an offside and Cowichan quickly darted over for the score.

10 trys to 3 on the day for a final tally of 56-15.

We all saw really good stuff today and it bodes well for a charge this Spring.

JJ