*BLRC Women 27 – Kamloops RFC 30*
The BLRC women welcomed our friends from Kamloops on Saturday. The Raiders + BLRC have a long friendship with many Kamloops members (like Katie +Mick Larson, Mel + Kenji Miyazaki, Adam Martin, Barry Bonell, Max Heppner, Erin Connelly-Reed, Deb Capps, Emily Young, Alicia + Desiree Noger, Garrett Grimshire to name but a few) joining the BLRC when they have moved to the coast. On Saturday, the BLRC ranks were bolstered by the return of Katie Grudzinski who returned from a knee injury suffered in last May’s Premier Final. The BLRC played one of their best games of the season with tries scored by Nikolina Boundy, Angel Santos, Kyra Groll, Julia Sugawara and Katie Grudzinski but the KRC led by their star Fullback Emily Young always seemed to answer with a try to keep them out in front! Big thanks to the Kamloops Rugby Club for making the early morning drive to Burnaby and congrats on your victory. For our ladies, while we didn’t find the win we were looking for, it was one of the best games we’ve played and if we can keep that same effort, the W’s will come soon.
*BLRC 3rd Division Men 32 – SFU MOB 5*
In the past few weeks our men’s program has slowly seen our numbers climbing back to a normal level with many new rookies (Ruben, Amir, Trevor + Sebastian) arriving recently at training to combine with some returning veterans (Bonell, Gordon, McCluskey, Jarvis, Turkington)to build a pretty strong 3rd division team. I think that we are almost at the point where a 2 nd 3rd div team will be needed to ensure game time for all players. We’ll revisit that during the Christmas break. On Saturday we hosted the SFU MOB who have seen some improvement in their club in both talent and numbers in the past few years. In particular their #12 + #8 were outstanding, making some big tackles and running hard into contact when they got the ball. The Westons were alright too… But as the outcome suggests the BLRC were in control from the opening kickoff until the end whistle. The BLRC forwards were led as always by #6 + captain Rick Flello and his backrow partners Scott McCartney and Jonathan Van Elslander each played their best games of the season. JVE wore the #8 jersey for the 1st time and was dynamic on the pick + go from the back of the scrums. McCartney is quickly becoming a great #7, building up an impressive tackle count and keeping the opposing fly half on his toes at all times. #9 Cory Turkington kept the ball moving to an impressive backline and BLRC tries were scored by Bonell (2), Evans, Flello and Uppal with Casey Evans (the M.O.M.) adding 2 converts and a penalty.
*BLRC 1st Division Men 65 – UBCOB Ravens 0*
The BLRC 1st division had recently been chided by their miserly club president for their slow starts in the early part of the season. Captain Alec Douglas had the squad determined to change that trend today. The BLRC scored on the 2nd whistle of the game, the 2nd to last whistle of the game and many in between. By the end, the Blue + Whites had run in 11 tries. Singles from Brad McHugh, Andy Drummond, Craig McLaughlin, Paul Murphy; Doubles from Alec Douglas and Angus “Veep” Fisher and the Trifecta from “The situation” Giuseppe Laudisio. Nolan Shelley was good on 5 converts. Everyone looked pretty good out there, but special mention to the front row of Kaevon Khoozani, Val Sergeev + John DeCaire who were tough in the scrums and (especially Val) all over the field. The back row of McHugh, Drummond and McLaughlin were tough as nails and decided early that they were going to go through would-be tacklers instead of around them. On the opposing side, the Ravens #8 stood out for his hard tackles and aggression in contact. Next week the 1sts travel to Windsor Park for what should be a tougher test against the Castaway-Wanderers. Should be a good one!
*BLRC Premier Men 27 – UBCOB Ravens 10*
The Premier match would see the BLRC square off against a Ravens team with many new faces from the one they played in September. The additions that the Old Boys have brought in have helped to organize them defensively and added some size to their backfield. I think that this team may upset a few Premier teams if they can keep their house in order.
Off the opening kickoff the Ravens let it be known that this wasn’t going to be the walk in the park for the BLRC that the last few games have been. They were disruptive to the BLRC attack and the pressure they exerted on defence caused more BLRC handling errors than I would care to count. The BLRC kept pressing though, and got close to the try line on 3 or 4 occasions but just couldn’t make that last pass, got knocked out of bounds or were unable to get the benefit of the doubt from the officiating crew. Although the game remained scoreless at the 25 minute mark, the BLRC were pushing the pace + controlling the scrums…but as has been our tendency of late, had already conceded 10 penalties. One of the penalties saw Shane O’Connor put the Ravens on the scoreboard: 3-0. A few minutes later Geoff Ryan had the opportunity to tie the score on a Raven penalty and he made good on it tying the score at 3.
The next 7 minutes saw a flurry of Blue + White activity that brought the sideline back into the game. The BLRC were entrenched in the Raven 22 moving the ball from one side of the field to the other trying to find a gap with McHollister, Kalar, Wisniewski + Breadon hitting the UBCOB line time after time + sucking in Defenders. Finally there was a noticeable overlap on the far side of the field and our winger, Brian Murphy, was able to run in the game’s first try. Ryan made the convert to make the score 10-3 for the home side. On the ensuing kickoff the BLRC pushed back into Ravens territory with James Reekie, Evan Thomas + Rory Love making some great runs before the ball found its way to Geoff Ryan. The Ravens centers had been pinching a bit in the first half with the #10 sliding behind to cover. Geoff moved towards the #12 and faked the pass drawing the Raven #12 & 13 up quickly and the #10 over towards the centers opening a big hole where the 12 + 10 should’ve been. Geoff sprinted towards the try line as the head +shoulders of the opposing fly half dropped in disgust as he saw what had just happened. A Diving tackle from McKeen almost saved the try, but he couldn’t get enough of the slippery ginger to prevent the score. The conversion was good and the half time score was 17 to 3.
The 2nd half started slowly and there was no action until a Raven lineout just outside the Burnaby Lake 10m line gave the UBCOB the chance to claw their way back into the game. The ball was moved to the Ravens new flyhalf Tom Luke and he put the blinders on + raced in for a try carrying a few would be tacklers with him. The convert was good and it was 17-10. The next points would come from the boot of Geoff Ryan as he added another 3 points from a UBCOB penalty to make it a 10 point game, 20-10.
The final score would come with the BLRC camped out inside the UBCOB 22m line. #9 Cody Rockson found Ryan Ackerman hanging in the centers and the big guy contradicted what my wife tells me, and proved that size matters a lot. The Prop ran straight ahead and bulldozed over the line with a few passengers hanging on. Ryan converted (he was 3 for 3 on conversions + 2 for 2 on penalty kicks on the day) and the game would end 27-10.
Thanks to Sherry, Harry, Dave + Lindsay from the BCRRS for allowing the games to happen and to KRC, SFU, UBCOB and all the supporters who made the trip to Burnaby Lake on Saturday! See you next week!
Many Teams~One Club
