Here is Walt Brandl’s take on the premier women’s latest victory….
Burnaby Lake vs. Nanaimo Hurricanes
Oct 22/05
Nanaimo, BC
The Burnaby Lake Premier Women defeated Nanaimo 31-3 in Nanaimo this Saturday. Burnaby Lake and Nanaimo have had a fairly intense rivalry over the last three years in the Women’s Premier league or as one Nanaimo supporter was heard to say on the sideline Saturday, “a love/hate relationship, except without the love part”. The teams have split two BC finals 1-1 and the regular season match-ups stood at 4-3 in favour of Nanaimo.
The game started in predictable fashion with play going back and forth with neither team having an advantage in either possession or territory. Nanaimo scored first on a penalty 15 minutes into the game but other than that neither goal line was threatened due to both good defensive work by both teams and the tendency to give up possession in the tackle. By the end of the first half, however, there were signs of impending Burnaby domination as the very young Nanaimo team was put under increasing pressure. Shortly before the half Kary Steele used some rare, quick recycled ball to burst through a flat footed Nanaimo back line and score between the posts. Anna Schnell was good on the convert and the score at the half was 7-3.
Immediately after the break Burnaby shook off the ferry ride and got down to business. New recruit Rosie Cobbet, running at outside centre, took a miss pass from Anna Schnell and broke 50 metres down the right side of the field, leaving the winger and fullback grasping and gasping and scored between the posts. Next, on the identical play from the identical spot on the field, Rosie again breeched the Nanaimo line. This time the defense collapsed on her and she off-loaded to Anna Schnell in support who touched down. The play was run a third time looking like a replay, but this time Anna took the ball on the off-load and grubbered through to the Nanaimo 10 metre line. Following a period of sustained Burnaby pressure Julia Sugawara pulled her signature “show and go” from the base of a breakdown to score. Finally, capping a strong performance (even by her high standards), Kary Steele crashed into the Nanaimo end zone again. In addition to the scorers mention must be made of the strong defensive work of Shannon Fedewa and Mandy Lewis and the solid work rate and lineout adjustments of Jessica Whidden. Nanaimo, who is obviously in re-building mode this year, fielded a number of extremely talented and dedicated high school players who should accelerate Nanaimo’s climb back to the top.
Footnote – The 3 points given up by the Burnaby Lake Women balloons their Goals Against Average to 1.60. The women have given up 1 try and 1 penalty in 5 games.
