News and Press Releases

Cowichan Rugby logo

July 24, 2010

Mid summer update on the club's activities...

CONGRATULATIONS

Michelle Moore from our Women's Premier team has been selected to play for the Canada U-20 Women this summer. Michelle, who hails from Ladysmith and attended Ladysmith High School has been the club's starting #9 at Scrum Half the past couple of years after a great High School career. The club is proud that Michelle was the only Island player selected to this squad and 1 of 5 selected from British Columbia. Michelle sat on the Club's Executive Board last year as a Senior Player Representative and has represented the club on various Island and Provincial Sides. Another picture for the wall of fame!

Michelle and the rest of the Canadian contingent leave for Nassau in the Bahamas to take part in the NACRA Championship. The other sides involved in this tournament are the Cayman Islands, USA and the Caribbean Selects. The team will return on August 22.

PIGGIE ABROAD

Matt Evans seems to be fitting in well with his professional team in Newport, Wales where he hopes to crack the line-up for the Gwent Dragons in the Mangers League. There is a good article on the Rugby Canada website that was taken from the very popular RugbyRugby website. Please see the article by going to http://rugbyrugby.com/news/story_23710141702.php If you are interested in following Matt and Newport RFC team, please go to http://www.blackandambers.co.uk/home.aspx to check out their cool website.

ABBOTTSFORD SEVENS

Cowichan sent two teams to this very prestigious Sevens tournament. Both a men's and women's side will participate in this event that will see about 40 teams ranging from International Caliber teams to age grade sides. Gregor Dixon has been a great help with the men's side and his experience at the International level will no doubt help our guys as the Sevens becomes more popular.

COWICHAN SEVENS

This two day event is the final match weekend for the BCRU Seven's Series that started on June 12 down in Esquimalt. The dates are the 4th and 5th of September and it is hoped many teams will come for the finals and enjoy the opening days on our new fields.

FALL VIRU RUGBY LEAGUES

The fall season will kick off on Saturday, Sept. 11th for the Elite Men, 1st Div Men and Premier Women. Now is the time to start moving towards getting the fitness up in preparation for pre season training which will start in a couple of weeks. The VIRU has increased the number of games for the 1st Div. Men as the 7 game clubs were getting in previous years was simply not enough. The 8 teams will play a Round of 7 games which will complete at the end of October. The 8 teams will then be split into two groups based on standings. Both groups will play a further 3 round 2 games within the group. The top two teams in each group will then play for their respective Cups. The top group will play for the Times Cup, the bottom group will play for the Cowichan Cup. (The Silvered Rugby Ball that Cowichan RFC presented to the VIRU in 1921 to represent the "Island Champions" as at the time, The Barnard Cup, which was first awarded in 1912, was for the Championship of Victoria. The Cowichan Cup, which is quite spectacular, was last presented in the 40's where it went into storage. It was recently recovered and will be put back into use)

The Women's fall league will have Comox, Port Alberni, Nanaimo, Cowichan, Velox and U-Vic in the mix and their league will be full on with 10 league games, a semi final then final at the end of the season.

FIELD/GROUNDS PROJECT

Stan Holman Backhoe finished his work today on the parking lot and around the club infrastructure. It's quite amazing the change. Everything is sloped and graded properly into 3 catch basins in the middle of the lot. We figure our parking space has doubled now that it is complete.

The drainage around the clubhouse was also improved by completely removing the old clay tiles and replacing them with proper 4" perforated PVC pipe to pick up ground water and 3" solid PVC pipe to take the water from the downspouts. It was apparent the old system was completely clogged and went nowhere except through the basement of the clubhouse. The foundation was also pressure washed and redamproofed. The old wood cleats though the foundation had also rotted out allowing a pathway for water right into the building. These were also filled. Another 4" Drain was placed along the fence line adjacent to the clubhouse to catch water coming off the neighbors property. We also installed a new 3" domestic water line from the clubhouse and 100' to the edge of the parking lot for future hook-up to the Herd Rd. Main. (Our current water comes all the way across the fields from Stamps Rd.

We also recovered the "hole" and made another 20m x 70m field space with sand based turf. Another line of sprinklers was installed between the parking lot and the new field so we are now up to 13 circuits on the filed space (up 5 from last year) This area will make for a training area until we secured aluminum yet portable grandstands in the future.

The next step is the 6' high fence which will be installed in August. This will feature three gates, with the main gate being situated just to the right of the concession and closest to the parking lot. There will be a 14' sliding gate close to the east property line for equipment access and another 4' gate near the front of the clubhouse. There will be some changes, but for the better.

SPONSORSHIP PROSPECTS

The club has put together a comprehensive professional sponsorship package. The packages can be obtained from John James at the Trophy Shop. Any sponsorship leads need to be passed onto John James or Paul Grantham which will be followed up on by the sponsorship team.

SPONSORSHIP HIGHLIGHT

Anyone can for $5000 per year for a minimum of 5 years sign a contract with the club to name the grounds after your corporation or business. This is commonly done these days with the local arena being call "Island Savings Center". The grounds has been called a hodgepodge of names, (Piggie Park, Herd Rd. Field, Piggie Dome, The Club, The Rugby Club etc.) therefore steps are being made for a company to secure the rights to name the field. The exposure would be great considering the local media coverage, signage etc.

All for now.

JJ