McKechnie Cup and U20 Dunbar Keg Results: Wave Late Surge Over Tide; Pride Dominate Valley; North Island U20 Defeat Valley U20
[ed. photos from the Dunbar Keg match North Island v Fraser Valley can be viewed here.]
The BC Premier has closed down for the Dec/Jan break and it’s the McKechnie Cup and U20 Dunbar Keg regional matches now. It took a while to get the rosters but they’re in now. Vancouver weren’t able to put together a U20 team and the South Island win that match be default.
MCKECHNIE CUP
Vancouver Island Tide 29 v Vancouver Wave 35 @ 2:30
Venue: Cowichan Rugby Club
The Tide led 24-7 at one point but the Wave came roaring back. As someone at the match reported, “Tide outplayed Vancouver then kicked it to Aaron [McLelland] 3 times it cost them 3 tries”. Aaron McLelland the best Canada-eligible player who was never selected for Canada. Next week the Tide visit Fraser Valley at Exhibition Stadium in Abbotsford and the Wave host the Pride at Klahanie Park.
PREGAME
The BCRU has marked this as an exhibition match, even though the BC Premier has no limits on imports, the McKechnie Cup does as it’s meant to be a pathway to the BC team and the national team. Vancouver have a large contingent of import players therefore it has been marked as exhibition.
The Vancouver team is mostly a Ravens/Lomas effort with a couple of Burnaby players and Johnny Franklin from the Caps. Aaron McLelland at #10 is always a danger player. The coach is Christiaan Esterhuizen from the Lomas.
The Island team has a strong JBAA representaton, especially in the backline where they provide 6 of the 7 players. Nanaimo’s Samuela Nakuna being the only exception. The presence of Siaki Vikilani at #8 and Ollie Nott at #7 will boost the forwards. The team is coach by Brett Beukeboom and Nanyak Dala from James Bay.
The competition unfortunately overlaps with the University Championship, otherwise we would expect a lot more UBC, UVic, TWU players to be present. It might be worth considering moving it to the Jan/Feb time frame next season to avoid the conflict.
It should be a competitive match and hopefully the national team coach will be there to watch. As for predictions, only that the Pride will be favourites to win the McKechnie Cup this season, but this weekend will provide some further insights.
Vancouver Island Tide
1 Andrew MacPherson – JBAA
2 Jace Peters – CW
3 Nathan Groenewold – Westshore
4 Jon Humpphries – CW
5 Mike Finnemore – CW
6 Aidan Holland – Westshore
7 Ollie Nott – CW
8 Siaki Vikilani – Westshore
9 Brady White – JBAA
10 Mitch Sora – JBAA
11 Henry Do – JBAA
12 Isaac Gonevou – JBAA
13 Kainoa Lloyd – JBAA
14 Samuela Nakuna – Nanaimo
15 Craig Mitchell-Herman – JBAA
16 Alex Clark – CW
17 Wyatt Pilz – JBAA
18 Jack Sponarski – CW
19 Antonio Corbin – CW
20 Matt Weir – Westshore
21 Makz Foot – Westshore
22 Liam Clark – Westshore
23 Caylem McCormick – Cowichan
Vancouver Wave
1 Pat Zuk – Lomas
2 Jesse McKail – Ravens
3 Tom Kaijaks – Ravens
4 Jim Mulvany – Lomas
5 Noah Poirier – Ravens
6 Darcy Hinkley – Lomas
7 Matt Bluck – Ravens
8 Jalan Farris – Lomas
9 Bayce Leatherby – Lomas
10 Aaron McLelland – Ravens
11 Mark Wandeto – Ravens
12 Andy Cooper – Lomas
13 Johnny Franklin – Caps
14 Keith Graham – Lomas
15 Louis Whelan – Lomas
16 Chase McCrum – Burnaby
17 Mark Rickard – Lomas
18 Luca Brabay – Burnaby
19 Zack Klassen – Ravens
20 Corne Ludick – Lomas
21 TBC
22 TBC
23 TBC
Pacific Pride 42 v Valley Venom 3 @ 3:45
Venue: Starlight Stadium
It was always going to be a tall order for the Valley to contain Canada’s best young academy players. The 42-3 result was not unexpected and shows a good effort by the mostly Div 1 visitors. The Valley will host the Tide next weekend while the Pride visit Vancouver.
PREGAME
The Pride will be a formidable opponent for the Valley especially since Burnaby haven’t gone full in with players, only #8 David Dinbandhu is from Burnaby. The Valley team have a lot of Div 1 players from Abbotsford and Langley with some representation from SFU, Chilliwack and Surrey. The team is coached by Steve Bennett of SFU.
The Pride have a strong roster with Kyle Steeves and Matt Klimchuk back from national duty.
The scoreline could mount up in the last 20 of this match.
Pacific Pride
1 Willem Den Ouden
2 Dan Cooper
3 Tyler Matchem
4 Alastair Bruce
5 Karl Hunger
6 Tyler Wong
7 Cody Nhanala
8 Elias Hancock
9 Sam Reimer
10 Max Stewart
11 AJ Kosempel
12 Taylor de Souza
13 Noah Flesch
14 JC Vinette
15 Oliver Mackenzie
16. Liam Bolton
17. Sam Miller
18. Kyle Steeves
19. Matt Klimchuk
20. Zephyr Melnyk
21. Zech Pilgrim
22. Justin Taylor
23. Jack East
Valley Venom
1 Josh Warner Surrey
2 Austin Zimmer Abbotsford
3 Steve Beckett SFU/Ridge Meadows
4 Aaron Cole SFU/Ridge Meadows
5 Andrew McIntyre Surrey
6 Von Richardson Chilliwack
7 Mac James Abbotsford
8 Ethan Ohlman Langley
9 Miller Thind SFU/Ridge Meadows
10 Gavin Rowell Abbotsford
11 Jack Brady Langley
12 David Dinbandhu Burnaby Lake
13 Luke Toroca Abbotsford
14 Matt Turi Abbotsford
15 Noah Jensen Abbotsford
16 Preston Lahmer Langley
17 Aiden Taylor Chilliwack
18 Cameron Tomm Abbotsford
19 Tyler Tsoukalas Langley
20 Brad Hanna SFU/Ridge Meadows
21 Liam Harrison Langley
22 James Kaufman Abbotsford
DUNBAR KEG
It’s encouraging to see the Island put in two U20 teams, a North and South Island team, and this really is the future of BC Rugby at the U20 level. We don’t know a lot about many of these players but we will be out on the sideline to take notes, and photos. The Fraser Valley is traditionally strong at this age level with good high school programs as the feeder.
North Island Tsunami 35 v Fraser Valley Venom 7 @ 1pm
Venue: Westshore Rugby Club
A competitive match with some standout performances on both teams. The Island #12, Dylan Cleaver, was outstanding and converted all 5 tries with some difficult kicks from the sidelines. The Valley #8, Connor Dueck, was a force to be reckoned with on some strong runs. We’ll have photos to post later on. Next weekend the Valley will host the South Island Tide.
FVRU U20
1 Chad Falk
2 Riku Konrad
3 Nicolas Willey
4 Lukas Debruyn
5 Aiden Gibbons
6 Dominic Krasjek
7 Euan Wiebe
8 Connor Dueck
9 Brady Howlett
10 Austin Trowbridge
11 Emerald Lockhart
12 Tyson Hoy
13 Marc McLaughlin
14 Connor Gibbons
15 Matthew Van Heerden
16 Jason McLaughlin
17 Kade Dayton
18 Ty Dayton
19 Shane Fowlstone
20 Rylen Land
NVIRU U20
1 Alipate Yagomate
2 Sione Fine
3 Harry Seymour
4 Jamieson Stewart
5 Hanno Fourie
6 Lauchlan Kapuscinski
7 Jaxson Jones
8 Andrew Mattes
9 Noe Tsang
10 Ben Martin
11 Monty Hopkins
12 Dylan Cleaver
13 Joesef Paradis
14 Jesse Kilgour
15 Kaelin David
16 Cody Steeves
17 Dennis Fagan
18 Emmett Allen
19 Jaiden John
20 Solomon Yeung
21 Emmanuel Gucela
22 Jake Lumely-Holmes
South Island Tide v Vancouver Wave
Defaulted by Vancouver
from BCRU
The opening rounds of the 2022/23 McKechnie Cup and Dunbar Keg Regional Cup competitions kicks off this Saturday, November 26.
For the first time since 2019, the McKechnie Cup and Dunbar Keg competitions return to the calendar with BC Rugbys Senior Club Leagues now having paused for the winter break.
As well as the honour of lifting silverware, players will be hoping to impress to improve their chances of being selected to BC Rugbys Senior Provincial Representative Team, the BC Bears.
The 2022/23 McKechnie Cup will be contested by teams from South Vancouver Island (Tide), Fraser Valley Rugby Union, Vancouver Rugby Union (Wave), and the Pacific Pride Academy.
The 2022/23 Dunbar Keg will be contested by teams from the North Vancouver Island (Tsunami), South Vancouver Island (Tide), Vancouver Rugby Union (Wave), and Fraser Valley Rugby Union.
The Round 1 fixture between the South Vancouver Island Tide and Vancouver Wave will be played as an Exhibition Match, while the Dunbar Keg between the same teams has been defaulted by the Vancouver Wave.
[ed. note on Dunbar Keg. The photos below are from the 2011 Dunbar Keg, we selected Doug Fraser (Island Tide) and Jared Douglas (Valley Venom) as best back and forward respectively in the competition. They went on to represent Canada in XVs and 7s.]
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