It’s the first week of the BC Rugby season so a lot of unknowns in rosters and team strengths. The Coastal Cup seems to be the most serious competition, the teams are fired up, rosters out early, and coaches are well organized. UBC, Pride, UVic and TWU are competing for this cup.
A team of Coastal Cup Selects, labeled as Rugby Canada West Selects, will take on the Seattle Seawolves on January 28th. The Seawolves will take on the UBCOB Ravens the weekend before. The games likely won’t be live streamed as Seattle have already stated there will be “Play-by-play tweet and score updates”, interpreted that means no live stream.
The Vancouver Wave won the inaugural Coastal Cup championship with a 26-17 win over the Pacific Pride national development academy. The Wave led throughout and were up 16-5 at the half. They were up 26-5 with a few minutes left before the Pride answered back with two late scores.
Vancouver Island Crimson Tide 18 – TWU Spartans 8
The best result for the TWU program this season as they kept the game close. This is their match report:
Pacific Pride 46 – TWU 17
The Pride were in control from the opening whistle but TWU played with heart for 80 minutes and were rewarded with two late tries through their star winger, Tamilore Awonusi. He’d be a useful addition to the 7s long list if he was Canada eligible.
UVic Vikes 36 – TWU 25
UVic booked their ticket to the Canadian University Championships in Kingston in November. They’ll represent BC along with UBC. We had predicted a +13 UVic win and weren’t far off. Tamilore Awonusi scored 2 tries from the wing for TWU and Matthew Willemse added another. UVic scored 5 tries but Vikes media haven’t posted a recap of the match yet to provide details.
It’s midway through the 8 week season and it’s looking like the title won’t be decided until the last week when the two undefeated teams meet, Pacific Pride and Vancouver Wave. There’s a lot of rugby to play in between and one or both of those teams may lose a game before then.
[52 photos from the game at nationalrugbynews.com]
It was a 7 try to 2 win for the Pride, up 4 tries to 1 in the first half. The Tide closed out the scoring with a late try.
We’ll add more info as it becomes available but here are the scores from the weekend.
Van East 45 – Trinity Western 11
[Note: Time changes at MacDonald Park]
It’s the second weekend of full action in BC Rugby and the second weekend of the Coastal Cup. Most of the club games are exhibition as teams get used to full contact again.