In Touch Newsletter Issue 6 – Island All-Star XV Named
Phil Smith has come up with a great resource for high school rugby on the Island and in BC. It’s a newsletter “Covering High School Rugby on Vancouver Island and British Columbia”. We’ve included a link below to download the full .pdf version which is formatted and includes photos. We’ve also copied some of the text below for a quick read.
Download In Touch – Issue 6 in .pdf
This week marks the halfway part of the season, so I take the opportunity to name the best XV of Vancouver
Island boys rugby. My aim was to pick the best XV to play a game, so I juggled some players out of position to
keep them on the field.
In addition, there were several games this week, including Oak Bay playing against mainland opposition. The
most notable win was SMUS out-muscling AA rival Brentwood in what will likely be the Island Final.
Games This Week
Tuesday Apr 22:
SMUS at Claremont (Jr and Sr)
Wednesday Apr 23:
Royal Bay at Brentwood (Jr)
Thursday Apr 24:
Shawnigan at Mark Isfeld (Sr)
Power Rankings April 20
1. Quw’utsun
2. Shawnigan
3. Oak Bay
4. SMUS
5. Brentwood
Island XV Team
Loosehead Prop: Milo McDonald (Shawnigan)
Scrummages well, smashes rucks.
Hooker: Ferg Jessop (Claremont)
Moves well, strong over the ball, can even play in the backfield.
Tighthead Prop: Simroy John (Shawnigan)
Big, physical, good footwork. Loves contact.
Loosehead Lock: Andrew Arthur (Shawnigan)
Big unit but always makes the gainline. Doesn’t jump in the lineout but lifts capably and anchors their driving maul.
Tighthead Lock: Sebastian Allard (SMUS)
Big and bruising, dominates lineouts and carries hard.
Blindside Flanker: Max Lang (Quw’utsun)
Freak athlete, involved everywhere, has been instrumental in what has been their best start in decades.
Openside Flanker: Ewan Webber-Smith (SMUS)
Plays at 8 in what is his fourth year in the Senior XV. Moves well, high rugby IQ.
Number Eight: Robert Reid (Oak Bay)
No one is harder to tackle: drops his weight to about six inches off the ground and boshes people.
Scrumhalf: Elias Palov (Oak Bay)
Returned from injury this week and scored a try against Carson Graham. His reputation as a sniping player at the back of rucks gets him the nod.
Flyhalf: Mike Oughtred (Oak Bay)
The best player to keep his team playing at the right end of the field. Tactical and powerful kicking, capable runner and passer.
Blindside Winger: Julian Bishop (Brentwood)
Plays #10 normally, but has pace to burn and a long fend. Reliable goal kicker.
Inside Centre: DJ Banks (Shawnigan)
Takes the ball hard at the line like a battering ram. Quick feet and always stays square.
Outside Centre: Jasper Keast (Oak Bay)
My guess is that he leads in linebreaks, offloads, and tackle breaks. To say he is the lynchpin of Oak Bay’s attack is a great compliment to lynchpins.
Openside Wing: Luke Prest (Quw’utsun)
Can play anywhere in the backfield, athletic, slick passing and can kick. All-round footballer.
Fullback: Rudolf Kruger (Brentwood)
After missing 18 months with injury, he returned better than ever. Combines great pace on attack with iron courage on defence.
Games Last Week
Carson Graham (12) at Oak Bay (31)
Three Stars:
★★★ Robert Reid (Oak Bay)
★★ Jasper Keast (Oak Bay)
★ (Carson Graham)
Oak Bay hosted Carson Graham in an early match for the annual Stadium Series cross-zone games. Under sunny skies and a mid day kick-off, Oak Bay managed to start very quickly and scored successive tries from Eli Palov and Jasper Keast. One more try from Eli, coming back from a long layoff, and a penalty kick from Mike Oughtred resulted in a 24-0 first-half lead.
Once the dreaded ferry legs wore off, Carson Graham was able to start maintaining possession, and the game became a more balanced affair with both teams battling back and forth. Carson Graham opened up the second half and scored a well-worked try, but the Barbs answered back through another Jasper Keast try to keep the lead. With impressive runs and defense from the man of the match, Robert Reid, and timely turnovers at the breakdown, the Barbs capably defended their lead until both benches came in to finish the final third of the game. Carson was rewarded with a converted try on the final whistle to round out the scoring. We are grateful for SMUS stepping up to help with transporting Carson to and from the ferry and for Carson Graham to make the long trip over to play.
Brentwood (15) at SMUS (33)
Three Stars:
★★★ Sebastian Allard (SMUS)
★★ Youto Imai (Brentwood)
★ Henry Williamson (SMUS)
SMUS weathered some exciting play from Brentwood and ultimately did the simple things better to win reasonably comfortably at home.
Led by athletic lock Sebastian Allard, who dragged several defenders on most of his carries, SMUS were better at going forward and converting pressure into points. Brentwood were the opposite, dropping the ball over the line on three occasions and having several other opportunities go begging. Other notable players for SMUS were Henry Williamson, who provided composure in the backline, and hard-charging prop Jayco Chen. For Brentwood, Rudolf Kruger was again influential though it was hard to look past wing Youto Imai who scored a brace of tries.
The two teams are favored to meet again in the AA Island Final, so the coaches will look to make adjustments. Imai may shift to the midfield to get more touches while SMUS might look to improve their discipline; on the day they struggled to adapt to the referee and had to play long spells of the game short-handed.
Alberni (7) at Shawnigan (60)
Three Stars:
★★★ Brady Zhang (Shawnigan)
★★ Michael Standly (Alberni)
★ Andrew Arthur (Shawnigan)
Under glorious sunshine Shawnigan was able to stretch their legs and score several long-range tries against a spirited Alberni team. Flanker Brady Zhang was influential throughout, with Alberni flanker Michael Standly tackling bravely.
Oak Bay (77) at Mt Douglas (5)
Three Stars:
★★★ Robert Reid (Oak Bay)
★★ Caleb Jonker (Mt Douglas)
★ Wes Beck (Oak Bay)
Powerful Oak Bay backed up a strong win against Carson Graham with a comfortable run-out against Mt Douglas. Though Mt Doug battled bravely, with strong tackles against Oak Bay’s Robert Reid, and strong play by fullback Oliver Ford who was put under immense pressure from some educated kicks of Oak Bay’s Mike Oughtred, they ultimately faded as the game wore on. Oak Bay was led once again by powerful eight Robert Reid, and sniping scrumhalf Wes Beck. For the Rams, forward Caleb Jonker and back Bennett Anderson were excellent in a losing cause.
Junior Rugby Roundup
Royal Bay (5) at Claremont (52)
Claremont had a good win though the game was much closer than the scoreline suggests. Justin Bell and Dane Campbell were excellent for Royal Bay.
Alberni (5) @ Shawnigan (70)
Another one-sided game with Alberni fielding many Grade 8s.
Brentwood (26) @ SMUS (19)
Brentwood were dominant at the breakdown and scored two exceptional tries from backine set-piece. Centre Arnie Marasek was prominent, with two tries and several breakdown turnovers. Winger Sebastian Ely and prop Santi Flores were best for SMUS.
Robert Bateman (52) at Oak Bay (5)
This might be the most remarkable result of the week, with BC defending champs Bateman putting out a statement performance against one of the Island’s best. Bateman narrowly lost to St George’s but were missing players so you would imagine they will be in the hunt to repeat as provincial champs this year.
Island Boys First XV Stars
Competition Leaderboard
April 20
Jasper Keast (OB) 8
Max Lang (QU) 7
Robert Reid (OB) 7
Jack Driscoll (SMUS) 5
Ferg Jessop (Clar) 5
Rudolf Kruger (BCS) 4
Sebastien Allard (SMUS) 4
Owen Duncan (Cla) 3
DJ Banks (SLS) 3
Julian Bishop (BCS) 3
Luke Prest (QU) 3
Conor Poulin (MtD) 3
Arthur Andrew (SLS) 3
Brady Zhang (SLS) 3
Short Lineout
One person’s opinion, expressed succinctly
Defence has improved significantly in school rugby over the last two decades, so teams would
do better by kicking accurately and strategically. There is much improvement to be made in this
area.
–Phil Smith