BLRC Premier Women 29 – United RFC 33 (By Walt Brandl)
The Burnaby Lake Premier women entered the halfway point of their season in first place and left the weekend struggling to hold on to fourth place. An uncharacteristically slow start by the Burnaby ladies, perhaps due to unplanned lineup changes allowed a motivated United team to gain the upper hand early and to draw first blood. As United continued to move the ball wide at every opportunity, Burnaby steadily gained ground through the forwards resulting in tries by Carolyn McEwen and Shelby Sloan. Julia Sugawara would capitalize on another forward rush to sneak through a seam in the United D to score between the posts. A slim lead at the half left Burnaby feeling like they had found their groove and would cruise to their fifth straight win. United however had seen weakness in the Burnaby defense and went straight to work in the second half, opening and exploiting gaps in the Burnaby backline. The Burnaby lead soon turned into a two score deficit as the United backs worked the ball into open space time and time again. A long try by Emily Young snapped Burnaby out of the doldrums and the comeback appeared to be on. Burnaby pressure resulted in a series of misplays near the United goal line. A forward pass, ball lost in the tackle and unnecessary penalties all snuffed out the Burnaby efforts until a take against the head on a five metre scrum with 5 minutes left allowed Alicia Noger to score and Burnaby to regain the lead. The collective sigh of relief was premature as United was unfazed and used each second remaining to regain possession and pound the ball into the end zone. Final score 33-29 to United. The Burnaby Lake women play the next two games at home against SFU on April 5 and Velox on April 12.
BLRC 3rd Division 13 – SFU MOB 12
Games between the 3rds and SFU are always played at a frenetic pace with local pride perhaps meaning more than the W in the standings. The MOB showed up ready to play and came firing out of the gates to take a 2 try lead with one convert. The BLRC battled back, led by Rick Flello and Full back Casey Evans. Casey started the comeback with a beautiful run, shedding a few tacklers on his way in for the score. Casey would be named Man of the Match on this day for his stellar defence and skills on attack. Casey would also see some game time later on with the 1st division. Did he do enough to earn a 1st div spot? This weekend, we’ll know. Captain Flello would cut the deficit to 3 points when he bulled through a few tacklers for his try. With no time remaining, the BLRC were awarded a penalty just inside the SFU 22m line. Casey Evans made good on the kick to end the game 13-12 for the home side.
BLRC 1st Division 66 – Meraloma 12
The 1sts came out strong and ended strong on Saturday, running in 12 tries by games end. Giuseppe Laudisio led the charge, touching down 7 times, Stu Vincent contributed 3 tries and Nate Mantle & Paul Murphy would each add singles. Nolan Shelley would add 2 conversions and Alec Douglas one to round out the scoring. The victory secured the Palmer Cup for the BLRC for the 4th consecutive year. The Palmer Cup is contested by the BLRC + Lomas every year as a celebration of club on club rugby. It’s named in honor of the late Doug “The Bear” Palmer who was a member of the Trojan Rugby Club and the BLRC. Doug passed away in France at the 99 World Cup while supporting Canada on tour with his friends.
*BLRC Premier Division 59 – Meraloma 6*
The BLRC were confident coming in, but didn’t take the Lomas lightly. They still field a few names in their starting XV that are capable of striking fear in the hearts of opposing coaches. The scoreline was fairly indicative of the play. The Lomas fought hard, but were overmatched in a lot of areas. Jeke Gotegote scored 2 tries and the BLRC got singles from Evan Thomas, James Reekie, Geoff Ryan, Admir Cejvanovic, Scott Plummer, Steve Battie and Gurvinder Kalar. Geoff Ryan would add 7 conversions to bring his points total to 19 on the day. Mike Hall added 2 penalty kicks for the Lomas.
The post game was a great time as we renewed old friendships with our West side friends. The Lomas were gracious guests and we wish them the best of luck for the rest of the season. Also, thanks to Dave Burns, Saro Turner and Sherry Trumball from the Referee Society for their management of the days matches.
