A Look at the Matchups for Week 2 and Standings After Week 1
There are four games in the BC Premier this coming Saturday. Hosting will be Capilano, James Bay, Meraloma and Ravens. The Vikes are playing a university championship qualifier at TWU and the Pride don’t have a match scheduled as far as we know.
We’ll do our normal predictions article on Friday when the rosters are released but we’ll take a look at some of the key matchups we’re expecting.
Capilano v UBC @ 14:30
Referee: Bradley Schwalger AR1: Lance Davison AR2: Mark Abercrombie
Venue: Klahanie Park
A traditional rivalry, Caps upsetting the Lomas last weekend and UBC being held to a draw against Burnaby in Week 1. UBC are the top ranked university side in the country right now according to the coach’s poll. They destroyed TWU in their first match, then last weekend defeated UVic, pulling away in the last 10 minutes. Will Talon McMullin come back into the roster now that Canada duties are wrapped up until November? Capilano have the possibility of seeing Izzak Kelly back in the roster after repping Canada last weekend. Should be a tricky one to predict.
James Bay AA v Burnaby Lake @ 14:30
Referee: Cole Pedrick AR1: Justine Blatt-Janmaat AR2: Juan Pablo Rey
Venue: James Bay AA- MacDonald Park
The big upset was the Bays over the Ravens in Week 1, what to make of that? The Bays forward pack has been beefed up a bit from last season, Sam Miller at loosehead prop is a good example. He was on loan to the Pride last weekend so it will be interesting to see if he returns to the Bays this weekend with the Pride on a bye week. Kainoa Lloyd, will he return to the Bays roster now that the Pacific Nations Cup is over? They’ll be hosting Burnaby who have that very talented Fijian #10 in the roster, Napolioni Bolaca. Burnaby drew last week with UBC which was also a surprise and Bolaca was very influential in that result. The Bays had young Ty Driscoll at #10 last week, that might be an interesting matchup if the rosters remain the same. It’s a shame that the Bays don’t have an active YouTube channel (that we know of), they stopped posting 3 years ago, 7 years ago they had quite a few of their games posted for viewing.
An interesting sidenote, one of the AR’s is Justine Blatt-Janmaat, she was the 3rd choice Canada scrum half behind Justine Pelletier and Olivia Apps this year and was part of the 36 player squad announced by Kevin Rouet for the Pacific Four Series in April this year.
Meraloma v Castaway Wanderers @ 14:30
Referee: Benjamin Lambrick AR1: Pierre Iachetti AR2: Marcus Treacy
Venue: Connaught Park
The Lomas lost their opening match, as did CW. This is CW’s first trip to the mainland, will Gradyn Bowd be playing this season? We heard the Lomas were missing a number of players in Week 1 so keep an eye on the Week 2 roster on Friday to see if there are any changes.
Another interesting sidenote in the AR’s, Pierre Iachetti was announced as the new Executive Director of the David Suzuki Foundation, congrats Pierre.
UBCOB Ravens v Westshore @ 14:30
Referee: Chris Assmus AR1: Phil Webster AR2: John Bay
Venue: Jericho Beach Park
This is going to be another tricky one to predict, last year’s champions after being humbled in Week 1 at home by the last place team from last season. Surely the riot act has been read. It will be interesting to see any roster changes, is Aaron McLelland returning this season? Westshore with Mark Balaski at #10 did well in winning their first home match but now they’re on the road. They have some 7s talent with Isherwood, Hancock and the Kenyan flyers.
Week 1 Standings
