March 15, 2010
This past weekend's round-up
Whew....two, actually three key victories of Saturday with the Premier Men, Premier Women and 1st Division Men all winning Saturday.
We were very disappointed Thursday evening to find out that the Bayside Premier Women had to forfeit for reasons not known. The club and players were looking forward to hosting it's first even "BC Premier Women's" rugby match. This would been a great opener to the much anticipated matches for the men against UBC. The women will be off to the mainland next weekend to Coquitlam/New Westminster to take on United RFC.
1st Div Men: Cowichan 19 vs UBC Totems 5
This was youth against youth. The UBC Totems arrived full strength in anticipation of up ending Cowichan's 2 game winning streak but our guys would have none of it. Jerry Kusters has mustered up a good young team to start plus a full bench of wily veterans if and when they were needed.
The three amigos are really starting to come into their own playing men's rugby and the Ladysmith Mafia is starting to take over the club with their strong play on the field and tremendous support in training and getting everyone else going. All following in the footsteps of the likes of John Battie, Kenny Dodd, Bruce Barton and Gerry Anderson....
The three amigos, consisting of 16 year old Patrick Kay at fly half, 17 year old Doug Fraser at fullback and 17 year old Jordan Bowcott on the wing are becoming a real threat now against the usually older opposition. Kay was again picked as Man of the Match by his UBC counterparts. Fraser is very good under the high ball and very skilled when in the attack mode. Jordon Bowcott is a keen started now and had a couple of tremendous 40m romps in the game, both of which the opposition made last gasp efforts to finally shove the quick afoot youngster out of bounds close to the goal line. Malcolm Sacht, Tyler Buck and Andrew Cameron, all out of Ladysmith, played tremendously in the pack and are all coming into their own as rugby players. The game saw Dave Hitchcock back at #9 after recovering from an injury. Dave was busy all game marshaling young guys around the field. Sean Williams, 18 year old out of Frances Kelsey, came in for the old veteran at scrum half and again played well. We also welcomed back big Dan Cvitanovich after being away for the first half of the season. Also good to see big Kenny Dodd back out training and his return to the roster will no doubt build the confidence of the youngsters. The Moss Brothers, out of Frances Kelsey were also keen on the day snagging line out ball and rushing about colliding with people like their dad. The game also saw the return of Mike McDowell, who started on the wing and Dan James, who came in to solidify the scrum for his first start in 4 weeks after recovering from injury.
Actually, this game saw a plethora of players from the South and North end of the Valley. The Frances Kelsey crew, who were all coached by Wayne "Louie" Loutet, included Mike Roberts at flanker, Rob MacDonnell at #8, Sean Williams at #9, Neil Moss at #6 and Kyle Moss at #5. The Ladysmith crew included Doug Fraser at fullback, Malcolm Sacht at Prop, Joran Bowcott at wing, Tyler Buck at back row and Andrew Cameron at prop. Kim Anderton, Pat Kay, Mike McDowell, Darren Olsen and Jorddan McGarvey all hail from Cowichan HS. Great to see that the club and local high schools are developing so many!
This victory will advance the 2's up in the CDI 1st Div. Men's standings and hopefully into a playoff position.
Premier Men: Cowichan 25 vs UBC Thunderbirds 22.
This was a must win for the Cowichan Piggies Premier Men. Before the game I had a good conversation with Spence McTavish, the legendary coach of the UBC side and mentor of many young and aspiring athletes in his tenure as a High School coach at Prince of Wales and UBC. read below the blurb on Spence regarding his 2010 induction to the BC Sports Hall of Fame. Spence was concerned about relegation as are we, yet felt his team, depending on the day's results, will not recover their tenuous position in the tables. Cowichan, despite woulda coulda, shoulda and almost wins in the last two weeks were also on the bubble this weekend desperate for a win.....A win this weekend for the locals....and we are in the thick of the hunt for a playoff position....a loss...and we are in the mad scramble with 5 other teams to avoid relegation.
The game saw the return of Pat Fraser, Ty Hamblin, Dan James (off the bench) and Ian Manly(off the bench) which opened up many options for Coach Evans. The game started out superbly for Cowichan with big #8, Gord Kehoe, hustling down and catching the Cowichan KO cleanly and then bollocking over UBC players for another 10m. Wow...a good start....Not...The advantages secured by lots of hard work throughout the first half seemed to peter out as we neared the goal line and as such we had the goose-egg at the halftime whistle and UBC on the board with 7 points. Lots of pacing going on the sidelines.......
The second half started of again lack luster for the Piggies and the T-Birds quickly secured 3 points by way of penalty to go up by 10-0. On came Dan James, Kyle Geach, Ian Manly. This seemed to give the boys the extra boost and the Piggies then got their stuff together and started playing their game. Roaring back they did with a nice try by hooker Preston Petrovich. 10-5 UBC then scored again to make it 15-5. Cowichan then scored 20 unanswered points including a beautiful try from that freshly minted scoring machine, Andrew Gudmundseth. Andrew Wood hit a nicely placed drop goal. Then Louis Gudmundseth finished off a push over try after a scrimmage on the 5m line. (Gudmundseth had moved to #8 after Kehoe had to come off near the beginning of the game) The pressure on management, coaches and players somewhat relieved with a 25-15 scoreline with 10 minutes left. The ensuing KO after the pushover saw a UBC player make an incredible catch of their own ball then charge down and the ensuing scramble saw the T-Birds over the try line. Score 25-22. The rest of the game saw Cowichan stiffen their resolve and was played inside the UBC 15m line. The whistle went...we win. Game over!
Tidbits: Cowichan was over the try line on two other occasions, both considered to be held up by the referee. Big Steve "Chunk" Young, had a good game a had bollocked his way over the line and slammed the ball down for what appeared to be a for sure try....the ball bounced and in the ensuing melee, the ref. considered it as held up and awarded the scrum. John Dubiel had another great game at flanker and had a sure try taken away when the referee decided to blow the play due to blocking. Scrimmage to Cowichan? Andrew Wood had one of his better games at #10 and slotted a drop goal in the second half. When was the last time we've seen a drop goal from Cowichan?
The win moves Cowichan up 4 points in the standings. This, coupled with key losses by the 3 teams behind us and 2 teams in front, have seen us jump back into 8th place and only 1 point out of 6th place. Velox and CW have identical 2-4 records and the potential for more movement forward by Cowichan is clearly the goal. Velox got wiped out by JBAA 57-6 this past weekend and CW lost to the Vikes.
Our last 5 games are against the 4 clubs directly in front of us in the standings and 1 that is right behind. We play the Capilanos at home next weekend and we will need our "A" game in order to have an upset.
Training for everyone is key this week...so let's see everyone out...if you can't make it make sure you call the coach to let him know why.
Prems standings as I see it....
- 1. JBAA 30
- 2. LOMAS 26
- 3. VIKES 24
- 4. CAPS 20
- 5. BAYSIDE 17
- 6. CW 13
- 7. VELOX 12
- 8. COWICHAN 11
- 9. ROWERS 9
- 10. RAVENS 8
- 11. BURNABY 4
- 12. UBC 3
Rugby's McTavish Named to BC Sports Hall Of Fame
The British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame & Museum announced the full roster of 2010 inductees, which include Spence McTavish of BC and Canadian rugby fame. "Spence is a prime example of what a Hall of Famer should be," commented Colin Brown, chair of the trustees of the BC Sports Hall of Fame. "There are few others who can parallel his lifelong commitment to sport. Not only has he achieved international, national and provincial success as a player; he has continued to give back to the game at the high school, university and club levels." BC Sports Hall of Fame inductions recognize excellence in sport, contribution to sport and the impact on sport in British Columbia, in the categories of athlete, team, builder, and pioneer. A selection committee, comprised of members of the BC Sports Hall of Fame Board of Trustees, the media and the sport community made the final decision after lengthy discussions and detailed review of all nominations.In the induction class of 2010, McTavish will be joined by four athletes (Cheryl Gibson - swimming, Sean Millington - football, Richard Peter - wheelchair basketball, and Joe Sakic - ice hockey), two builders (Lorne Davies -- all-round, Jenny John, field hockey), one pioneer (Anne Clark Ayres -- athletics) one media (Greg Douglas) and one team (1994 BC Lions Football team).The official Induction ceremony for the 2010 Inductees will take place at the 42nd Annual Banquet of Champions at the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion on September 16. 2010. The 2010 class will be joining 309 individuals and 54 teams currently honored at the BC Sports Hall of Fame.
The current BC Sports Hall of Fame 7 Museum rugby inductees are as follows:
Douglas (Buzz) Moore 1967
Reginald Woodward 1967
Ted Hunt 1972
Robert Spray 1975
Jack Bain 1977
Barrie Burnham 1998
Don Burgess 2000
Hans de Goede 2007
Gareth Rees 2008
Spencer McTavish 2010
Cheers
JJ
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