Burnaby Lake vs. Bayside – By Walt Brandl
Oct 15/11
On a weekend that had both the Burnaby Lake Men’s and Women’s Premier teams defending their undefeated record, the women got a couple of great individual efforts to carry the team through an otherwise non-descript team performance and avoid an entry in the loss column. Bayside looked well prepared to pull off an upset as they started strong and quickly gained territory. Burnaby was obviously unsettled by the pressure and commited numerous errors including missed first up tackles and countless dropped passes. Bayside eventually saw their methodical approach pay off when left winger Britt Blackford found space in support and scored on the right side. Score at the half Bayside 5, Burnaby 0. The second half was similar to the first with the exception that with Devon Luca now marshalling the forwards from #9 Burnaby obtained a modicum of go forward ball. On a short, rare foray into Bayside territory Julia Sugawara dangled and deked her way through the Bayside backline to score between the posts. With the score now tied, Mel Miyazaki was summoned from the reserve bench to perform her magic. Wasting no time, Mel intercepted an errant Bayside pass and limped 40 metres to score. Julia slotted the convert and Bayside was suddenly looking at a 12-5 deficit. Bayside continued to dominate both territory and possession but the Burnaby tackling was now back on track. Despite being penalized for repeated infringements at the breakdown and a visit to the sin bin by Lauren Tagg, Burnaby slammed the door shut on the Bayside attack and held on to remain undefeated. The Premier Women now have a bye week to regain composure, purge the demons and get their collective Mojo back.
Quiz Answer
Julia Sugawara, Lauren Tagg and Sandy “Cupcake” Smith are the three players who played at SFU prior to joining Burnaby Lake.
The winner of the quiz was long-time Burnaby player and coach Wayne O’Hara who went 0 for 3 on his guesses but we hadn’t heard from him in about 10 years so we want to encourage him to stay in touch.
This week’s quiz
Name three brother/sister combinations currently playing for the Burnaby Lake Rugby Club. For bonus points name previous brother/sister combination that have played for the club. E-mail your answers to waltbrandl@telus.net
