from Mike Devlin
posted Oct 31 2013
BLRC Women 14, Seattle RFC 25
Another hard earned loss for the ladies. Although the results are not what the coaches wish them to be, I wouldn’t go so far as to call this a rebuilding year for the defending BC champs. Attendance is very high on Tuesdays + Thursdays, and I’ve started to see a few more familiar faces as some veterans continue to trickle back. The importance of the experience gained by the younger girls who have been battling every Saturday can certainly not be over stated and will pay dividends this year and in the coming years.I don’t expect this new trend of losing to continue for too much longer.
The upcoming weekend will be a true test for the girls though as they make their first trip down to Seattle to face the Emerald City Mudhens!
BLRC 3rd Div 22, UBC 0
UBC is traditionally a tough opponent for our 3rds as their youth & fitness normally allow them to dictate the pace of the game. Today was a different story however as the Blue and White pack earned all the possession and dominated the scrums. The reward was 2 MULTI phase tries. A scrappy UBC side showed good courage and started moving the ball around near the end of the first half. However, the Burnaby men kept the pups out to end the half up 10-0. At the opening of the 2nd half, a determined Barry Bonnel broke a few tackles and dotted the ball down for a try. Casey Evans converted and the score moved to 17-0. After another 30 min of scrappy play, newcomer Amir Khaledi scored his first try for the club. Try Scorers: John Decaire (9 min), Mike Cavezza (20 min), Barry Bonnel (44 min), Amir Khaledi (77 min) Conversion: Casey Evans
BLRC 1st Div 59, CW 14
The BLRC and Oak Bay have had a great rivalry in 1st division the past 5 years. Many great games have been played between the 2 squads at Windsor Park during that period and the BLRC 1sts who boarded the ferry on Saturday morning were ready to continue that rivalry. This was not one of the great evenly matched games that we’ll cherish, but well played to CW for pulling some bodies out of the woodwork and giving 100% until the very end. Veteran leadership like Roger Robinson + Doug Hepp is a commodity that few clubs can call on. In the later stages of the game, with the score well out of hand, if you were listening to Roger + Doug as they instructed their youngsters you would have thought it was a 4 point game rather than a 40. The CW squad had some flashes of brilliance and for much of the 2nd half held an advantage in the scrums. Both of their tries on Saturday were hard earned as the forwards mauled & crashed the ball through the red zone. The effort would not be enough to hold out the Blue +White attack though.
Throughout the match the BLRC would use their size to loosen up the CW defense with Alec Douglas, Andy Drummond, Brad Gordon and Seveci Duruloka smashing into the Oak Bay line, sucking in defenders time and again before the ball was moved to the powerful BLRC backline of Anare Tuidraki, Angus “Veep” Fisher, Stu Vincent, Jeke Gotegote + Colin Thompson who would have some serious space to run. Drummond, Duruloka, Gotegote, Fisher and MacKay would score a try a-piece with Vincent & Tuidraki each dotting down 2 times. Nolan Shelley would add 7 conversions to put the game away.
BLRC Premier 30, CW 10
As has been reported, the BLRC Premier squad had found Windsor Park a difficult place to pull out a win in the past decade. Only one current BLRC player was in the lineup 10 years ago when the BLRC squeaked out that victory. This fact was fresh in the minds of the Blue + Whites who took the field on Saturday.
The scoreboard saw its first action at the 12 minute mark in the game in the form of a Brian Murphy try. Brian is a product of the Tupper Secondary + BLRC junior system who is noticeable on the field for (amongst others) still wearing his BLRC junior socks + shorts! This is his first year with a starting role on our Premier side and he’s been outstanding on the wing, scoring tries in all 3 CDI matches and 4 in total thus far.
The BLRC had been camped out inside the CW 22 for what seemed like an eternity. Throwing everything they had at the Tri color defenders but without results. Tragedy seemed to strike when a CW player did the “dirty work” in a ruck and came up with the ball but he was drilled as he rose and the ball flew out the back of the end zone. The BLRC would have a scrum at the 5m line and Cody Rockson hit Brian Murphy with a skyhook pass for the opening tally. The BLRC’s 2nd try came from a great individual effort from James Reekie. The BCRN editor was nice enough to feature it in slow-mo so I won’t elaborate… but watch it… and you’ll be impressed.
http://bcrugbynews.com/show_news.cfm?ID=1167
Geoff Ryan kept the score board moving, punishing a CW infraction to close out the half. BLRC 13-CW 0
The 2nd half started with some great defensive efforts from the BLRC’s James Reekie, Ryan Ackerman and Doug Breadon, but an even better offensive effort from CW’s Matt Buckley who powered through the blue + white wall for CW’s 1st try of the game. And just like that, it was a game again! 13-5.
The CW try seemed to ignite a fire in the BLRC, and an opportunity arose when the CW #15 failed to find touch on a clearing kick .The ball made its way to Brian Murphy who was taken down at the CW 10m line. From the ruck, Geoff Ryan took off on a great run before fixing his man + passing to Dolesau who sprinted in untouched.
The next score came as a result of a Ryan McHollister steal inside our 22. A CW maul was slowly inching towards the BLRC goal line. Somehow McHollister emerges with the ball and gains some yards before CW #9 Armstrong is able to ride the big guy to the ground. A couple pick + goes from Luca + Kalar, and then Ryan puts the ball to Joe Dolesau who moves the ball into CW territory before a try saving tackle from the CW #15 brings him down. Rockson provides some quick ball and Michael Gough finds himself with some space to take the BLRC inside the CW 22. More quick ball and some crashes from Breadon, Luca, McHollister + Kalar leads to Evan Thomas performing a simple “switch” with Reekie out wide who sails in with his 2nd try of the day. Ryan converts and the BLRC are on top 25 to 5.
The last BLRC try of the day was a team effort finished in spectacular fashion courtesy of Joe Dolesau. The BLRC stole a scrum just inside our half. Micha Govorchin ended up with the ball and made a huge run, tossing a few tired defenders aside before being brought down inside the CW 22. Oak Bay were applying pressure + counter rucking so Gough picked up + gave the ball to a stationary Joe Dolesau who was standing beside the ruck, about 4 feet from the CW defenders. Joe steps left + fend’s off one tackler. Steps right causing another would be tackler to fly through the spot where he should have been. Puts his head down +bulls through the arms of the next tackler before finishing by stiff arming the last defender to the floor and touching the ball down. It was astonishing enough to bring a round of applause from the CW faithful in the balcony as many can be heard on the game video cheering and trying to explain to each other what had just happened.
CW did answer back with a well earned Johnny Morris try. Off the ensuing kickoff, CW came away with the ball and started moving it wide. The man who is an inspiration to the millions of us not born with chiseled abs, took a pass from one of his 2nd rows and outpaced not one…but two BLRC backs before stepping back inside to deke out a 3rd BLRC defender and rolled on in for a try! It gave the hometown fans something to cheer about and ended the game on a high note for all in attendance.
Post game, CW had the BLRC back to their clubhouse for food, beer, Gator-tini’s (?) and good times before we caught the ferry back to the Mainland. Another positive – we finally won a boat race! Well done Gus, Andy, Doug + Cody!!
This week the men are at home in 3 games to Capilano RFC. It should be a great day, so get out + support rugby.
www.burnabylakerugbyclub.com
Many Teams~One Club
