Saturday was a big test for the Men’s program at Burnaby Lake. The day would see 4 matches played at 3 venues. A testament to the strength of the club was that ALL teams started their games with a few fresh spares on the bench.
The 11:30 match was against Capilano at Klahanie Park. As luck would have it, 2 nd Narrows Bridge was shut down and the trip to Klahanie (normally a 10-15 minute drive) would take many players over an hour and a half with some game sheet “starters” not arriving until half time. The game was entertaining to watch, albeit with many stops and starts; both teams would have flashes of brilliance with many drives containing 4 or 5 phases full of flashy offloads…only to run into touch or bounce the ball off of teammates “not ready” hands. The match would end with the score 24 to 7 for BLRC. Scorers for BLRC were Flello, Uppal, Keif, Schinbein. Colin Thompson was good for a 50% conversion rate. Special mention must go to Marvin Omaque for an outstanding game! Post game, the victorious 3B’s were on the move as some were needed at SFU for the 3A match and some were headed to Kitsilano for the 1st Div + Premier matches. Those who went to SFU would have been treated to an entertaining 1st half which was closely contested, but most arrived mid 2nd half, just in time to see the flood gates finally break open and the MOB start piling on some points. The final score was either 38 or 43 to 19 in favour of our neighbors. Blue + White alumni + current Clan member Moreno Stefanon reported that Wayne Lawson + Tyron Stojanov were the standouts for the BLRC.
The 1st Div game was a story of two teams at different ends of the standings. The 1st division league doesn’t quite have the parity that has emerged in the CDI Premier League, and it was evident as the BLRC ran in 10 tries, hit a few conversions and added a 3 pointer here and there for a 67 point shutout victory. Everybody looked good; it was hard to pick out one or two outstanding players. What WAS easy to see is that VP Wheels needs to visit the club shop.
Excellent + professional game write ups of the Premier match against the UBCOB Ravens have already been supplied to the BC Rugby community by Patrick Johnston (http://t.co/BzA6o2wNuT) and Andrew Smith (http://www.bcrugby.com/news/2013/03/09/article-board/burnaby-lake-cruise-past-ravens- castaway-wanderers-down-uvic-vikes/) and so I won’t bore you with my play by play. Many watching the game saw the explosive UBCOB attack in the 1st half and thought that the BLRC would be undone by the “Alberta Pipeline” soon enough. But, the BLRC have a close knit squad. Most of the team have played together for 3+ years and many since they were juniors. Missing a training session doesn’t get passed over lightly here. That type of familiarity, combined with the loyalty + respect for your brother that is borne from the hard Tuesday + Thursdays nights on a scrum machine in the freezing rain… is something that can’t be flown in. In the end, the BLRC were led by #8 Admir Cejvanovic who finished his outstanding game with 2 tries and too many big hits to keep track of. This guy wanted the win on Saturday! BLRC #10 James Reekie had his best game in a Blue + White jersey (well pink camo actually) kicking 15 points and punishing any UBCOB indiscretion. For the Ravens, enough can’t be said about their #9, Gord McRorie. He’s the type of complete player that we rarely get to see in Canada. In the Ravens pack, Kyle Weisnewski was in every ruck and was a huge part of their set pieces.
I would also like to answer the question I received from 100% of the BLOBS on the sideline: “Where is Scott MacKay?” Well, at 3:15 pm on Saturday, Scott + Steph welcomed Samantha Willow MacKay into the world. Hopefully she has her mother’s looks! Congratulations!
Mike Devlin www.burnabylakerugby.com Many Teams~One Club
