BC Premier Make-Up Weekend Results: Vikes Edged by Caps, Pride Fall Hard to UBC
This is a make-up weekend which is why there are only two Premier matches. After this weekend all but two teams will have reached 14 games played with 3 games left, the exceptions are UVic who still have one extra match left and the Lomas who have already played 15 and are out of playoff contention. The Pride aren’t included as they only play a single round and aren’t playoff eligible.
Capilano 43 v University Of Victoria 39 @ 14:30
Referee: Shanda Assmus AR1: Chris Assmus AR2: Jeremy Duncan
Venue: Klahanie Park
We called Caps by +5 and it was Caps by +4. Caps have a solid hold of 4th place with the bonus point win and are within striking distance of UBC and Westshore who are tied for 2nd/3rd. There are 3 games left in the regular season (UVic have 4) with some interesting match ups, Caps will play UBC, JBAA, Westshore while the Vikes have Meraloma, Burnaby, CW, Ravens. The match video is below, Vikes had a narrow 20-19 lead at the half, Caps owned the 3rd quarter going up 36-25, Vikes battled back in the last 10 minutes to earn a double bonus point in the loss.
PREGAME
#4 hosting #7. The Caps won this match up in February by +3 at UVic, this time they’re at home. The Vikes lost to the Bays in their last match after returning from their Portugal tour where the competition wasn’t the highest quality. The Vikes need the win, a loss will put them further behind Burnaby in the race for the final playoff spot.
The Caps bring Payton Teneycke into the starting roster at tighthead, Reid Brookes replaces Hamish McDonald in the starting loose forwards, the rest of the forward pack remains the same. The halfback pairing remains the same, some shuffling of positions in the backline with Jose Santiago coming into the wing position. Veteran Chris Robinson comes into the reserves to cover the halfback positions.
UVic have Muiredach Casey and Rider Heaney -Corns back in the roster and starting in the forwards. Keegan Neary starts at scrum half with Cooper Coats remaining at #10. Spencer Cotie replaces Thoron Koyote on the wing.
Cooper Coats hasn’t really had a big impact on the UVic performances in the mucky spring weather, especially against teams with strong forward packs. That could be the case again on Saturday. A change in scrum half may see faster ball from the rucks which UVic needs. Caps won the match last month on the road, at home should be better. Prediction: Caps by +5.
Capilano (Feb 28th/current)
1 Riley Canning / Caleb Hickey
2 Jacob Bossi
3 Caleb Hickey / Payton Teneycke
4 Ryan Hickey
5 Andrew Crane
6 Flynn Heyes / Reid Brookes
7 Hamish McDonald / Flynn Heyes
8 Teancum Tuiali
9 Sam Reimer
10 Wade Jansen
11 Austin James / Seamus O’Sullivan
12 Kyle Lamb / Austin James
13 Caleb Kingi
14 Seamus O’Sullivan / Jose Santiago
15 Ethan Smith / Toby Horn
16 Nate Bolton
17 Josh Leeks / Pat Zuk
18 Payton Teneycke / Riley Canning
19 Nick Pearce / Conrad Mitchell
20 Reid Brookes / Hamish McDonald
21 Ryan Leskiw / Angus Walker
22 Toby Horn / Ryan Leskiw
23 Willy Dormaar / Chris Robinson
UVic (Feb 28th/current)
1 Jack Marshall / Brendan Christian
2 Sully Curran / Jack Marshall
3 Brendan Kim
4 Carter Ebrahim / Muiredach Casey
5 Alex Gordon
6 Jaxson Jones
7 Aiden de Wit / Carter Ebrahim
8 Ronan Smith /Rider Heaney -Corns
9 Sion Griffiths / Keegan Neary
10 Cooper Coats
11 Alex Gamage
12 Dylan Cleaver
13 Lockhart MacGregor
14 Thoron Koyote / Spencer Cotie
15 Gareth Sandner
16 Clayton Miller / Sully Curran
17 Milo McDonald
18 Brendan Christian / Robert Reid
19 Seb Isherwood / Ronan Smith
20 Robert Reid / Aiden de Wit
21 Owen Barlow
22 Michael Oughtred
23 Spencer Cotie / Marcus Lott
UBC RFC 68 v Pacific Pride 19 @ 14:30
Referee: Justyn Roberts AR1: Nathaniel Hight AR2: Leighton Williams
Venue: UBC- Gerald McGavin Centre
This was all UBC and the bonus point win puts them tied for 2nd/3rd place with Westshore. UBC have 3 games left to decide their final ranking against Capilano, CW, JBAA. Westshore have JBAA, Ravens, Capilano. In this match it took UBC 3 minutes to score their first try and they scored often throughout the afternoon, notching 68 points in 80 minutes, not quite a point a minute. The match video is below.
PREGAME
#3 hosting #8. UBC have only lost on the field to the Ravens this year, a BP win against the Pride will put them up in a second place tie with Westshore. The Pride have only defeated CW, the last place team this season.
UBC missing Cody Nhanala for the second week in a row. Max Birtley takes on the #8 role this week and Aidan Sutherland starts at blindside flanker. The halfback pairing of Webb and James remains the same, Liam Turnbull returns at outside centre and Ben Beauchamp starts on the wing.
The Pride bring back Simroy John to start at tighthead prop, it’s a reshuffle of the loose forwards with Taine Clague returning from his trial at centre and back to blindside flanker, Evan Logan is openside flanker and Jack Part #8. Rogan Moir returns to #9 after starting at #10 last week and Jean-Louis Desgouttes takes the #10 spot. Thomas Cuzange returns to the roster on the wing.
UBC have more motivation for the win, plus they’re at home. The Pride returning to their more traditional roster after trying some positional experiments last match, even though they notched their first Premier win last match. UBC at home go in as favourites. Prediction: UBC by +7.
UBC (Feb 28th/current)
1 Jacob Blackwood
2 Ethan McCarthy
3 Graeme Francolini / Charlie Clark
4 Relmu Wilson-Valdes
5 Joe McNulty / Liam Kinghorn
6 Callum Arnesen / Aidan Sutherland
7 Viktor Wozniak / Callum Arnesen
8 Liam Kinghorn / Max Birtley
9 Stephen Webb
10 Liam James
11 Niko Andrianos
12 Caleb Seumanutafa / Liam Turnbull
13 Alastair Marshall
14 Lenny Bonduau / Ben Beauchamp
15 Max McGavern
16 Josh du Toit
17 Kevin Griffiths / Ethan Samuels
18 Charlie Clark / Viktor Wozniak
19 Aidan Sutherland / Kieran McRae
20 Max Birtley / Sandon Gupta
21 Ethan Samuels / Ronan Graham
22 Ronan Graham / Ben Martin
23 Ben Martin / Milo Knights
Pacific Pride (Feb 21st/current)
1 Justin Tasse
2 Jordy Auger / Theo Espagnol
3 Eric Rutledge / Simroy John
4 Jacques Bonsant / Mason McDonald
5 Jaiden John
6 Nate Cameron / Taine Clague
7 Noah Kyneston / Evan Logan
8 De Wet Van Rooyen / Jack Part
9 Chris Rose / Rogan Moir
10 Rogan Moir / Jean-Louis Desgouttes
11 Hudson Poppitt / Thomas Cuzange
12 Jean-Louis Desgouttes / Hudson Young
13 Taine Clague / Glenn Roy
14 Noah Hudson
15 Luke Prest
16 Porter Gook
17 Rudy Osborne
18 Theo Espagnol / Eric Rutledge
19 Mason McDonald / Jacques Bonsant
20 Jack Part / De Wet Van Rooyen
21 Jute Norlin / Sam Blundell
22 Alan Berros / Max Macleod
23 Sam Blundell / Alan Berros
Another fantastic showing by our national team academy. Future looks bright.
Curious as to what other clubs are losing players during the run up the provincial finals? Rumour has it that Rugby Canada are sending James Thiel and Noah Flesch to play in Uruguay (a hot bed of World Rugby) resulting in them missing JBAA’s remaining games of the season.
Yes Uruguay media reporting the following playing for Penarol in Super Rugby Americas, they apparently arrived last Tuesday in Uruguay.
Noah Flesh (JBAA)
Foster Dewitt (Westshore)
Ethan Fryer
James Thiel (JBAA)
Classic Rugby Canada, Always being disrespectful to the clubs?
The attitude by the current coach seems to be, put players in any country that’s ranked above Canada #25, so Portugal, Uruguay… expecting we’ll be sending players to Zimbabwe (#24) and Hong Kong (#23) next…
To Concern Citizen and Guest:
Deal with the problem:
Import rules in BC is in place so we can develop Canadian Player, because import players are too good and Canadian players do not get enough playing time to develop if there are too many imports???? But we export Canadian players to other countries so they can get better, by playing against better players, because the level of play in BC is not good enough for them to get better, because we are restricting imports?????
Clubs export Canadian player to become “imports” in other countries so they can play against other players, who we would classify as “imports”, so that the Canadian Player can get better by playing better players in other countries. WTF??????
Why are we shooting ourselves in the ass???? Get rid of import Rule!!!!!! The competition and the league gets better and stronger. When the level of competition is strong, it just make all the players better!!!!
Sending players to Uruguay is going to make them better players? How about the value that keeping them in club rugby here will do. Like making clubs stronger, building depth on teams, and making the league stronger.
How is doing this good for bc rugby ?