In Touch Newsletter Issue 4 – Order Restored or Brief Reprieve? Brentwood, Shawnigan, and SMUS register wins
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 4 in .pdf
Order Restored or Brief Reprieve?
Brentwood, Shawnigan, and SMUS register wins
This week featured two comfortable wins for both Brentwood and SMUS, while Shawnigan had a good win
against a slick but slightly out-muscled Oak Bay. Game reports below. There are minor adjustments to the
Power Rankings, with an intriguing match-up this week between Oak Bay and Quw’utsun.
Games This Week
Thursday April 10
Claremont at Brentwood (Jr and Sr)
Quw’utsun at Oak Bay (Jr and Sr)
SMUS at Alberni District (Jr and Sr)
Shawnigan at Royal Bay (Jr)
Power Rankings April 5
1. Quw’utsun
2. Shawnigan
3. Oak Bay
4. SMUS
5. Brentwood
Games Last Week
SMUS (36) at Mt Doug (0)
Three Stars:
★★★ Jack Driscoll (SMUS)
★★ Connor Steves (Mt Doug)
★ Sebastien Allard (SMUS)
Thursday afternoon was sunny and cool, perfect weather for Mt Doug to host their first home game
in recent memory. With a number of interested athletes sitting in the bleachers looking to get a
sense of what this ‘rugby’ was all about, the Rams delivered with a strong outing showcasing their size
and physicality against a fast paced SMUS backline and some large bodies of their own.
Some early pressure from the SMUS defence resulted in an early turnover, but, in a trend that
played out all afternoon, the ball seemed to want to get back into the Rams’ hands as quickly as
possible with multiple knock-ons slowing down promising attacking pressure. A stolen scrum inside
the 22 saw Ewan Webber-Smith rumble over for the first try of the game. Jack Driscoll converted.
Some dominant tackling by the SMUS forwards and sustained pressure on attack resulted in a try for
Braxton Lechner a few minutes later.
A promising dart through the back line by the Mt Doug #10 Yakoob Jalisi had the Rams sniffing at
the line but they were unable to capitalize on their attack with a missed kick for touch giving
possession back to SMUS.
The try of the game came from a SMUS line out on their own 40. With a layered attack they got the ball
wide and Quinn McMeekin dotted it down after a 50 meter gallop. Henry Williamson added the 2.
One more converted try from Tristan Mo had the score 26-0 at half.
The second half continued to be a bruising affair with lots of strong tackling from both sides.
Dangerous runs from Rams Conor Poulin and strong carrying from man of the match Connor
Steves and the rest of the forwards kept SMUS on the back foot for sustained phases and kept the
fans entertained. SMUS were able to get across twice more before the final whistle with tries from
Sebastien Allard and Marcus Lam behind the strong running of Teigan Wippell.
It was a treat to see the renascent Rams playing on their home turf and there is no doubt that as the
season progresses and they gain more playing experience that this will be a difficult team to play
against. Another standout for the Rams was Callum Rand, a consistent and physical scrumhalf. He is
one of four Grade 9s on the team, so the future of the team looks bright.
Oak Bay (24) at Shawnigan Lake (34)
Three Stars:
★★★ Jasper Keast (OB)
★★ Arthur Andrew (SLS)
★ Cole Mekelberg (SLS)
After an upset loss to Quw’utsun before the break, Shawnigan reasserted its dominance
with a comprehensive win over a slick but ultimately out-gunned Oak Bay side, winning
34-24. Played at Shawnigan’s firm field under the first sunny day this spring, the home team
comfortably scored three tries inside the first 20 minutes. From there, the two teams battled
evenly, with both teams scoring some slick, long-range tries. Some observations:
1. Oak Bay had the three best players, but Shawnigan never looked like losing.
This year more than ever, the Stags win not because their best players are great
but because their worst players are good. They scored some lovely tries
with basic straight running and passing.
2. Jasper Keast looked the goods. The Oak Bay centre looked elegant on
attack with pace to burn, and offloaded deftly at each contact. In addition, he
made a statement tackle on Stags man-mountain Simroy John, to the
delight of his teammates.
3. The Oak Bay lineout cleverly sacked their Shawnigan opponents each time
they tried to set up a driving maul. Shawnigan had better success in the
second half when they threw to the back of the lineout. It is likely these teams will
meet again, and we’ll see what adjustments the coaches have made.
Brentwood (55) at Port Alberni (5)
Three Stars:
★★★ Julian Bishop (BCS)
★★ Linden Andreesen (ADSS)
★ Rudolf Kruger (BCS)
Brentwood looked dominant against a team that was missing several players. Strong running by
Julian Bishop, who just committed to Cal Berkeley next year, ran confidently all day. Also notable was
the return of Rudolf Kruger, who missed more than a year of rugby with a leg injury; he looked
excellent on defence and made several searing runs. For Alberni, flyhalf Linden Andreesen played
bravely in a tough loss.
Junior Rugby Roundup
Brentwood (50) at Alberni (0)
Brentwood was bigger and older than their less experienced opponents and scored some
athletic, long-range tries.
Oak Bay (36) at Shawnigan (28)
Despite being down at halftime, Oak Bay charged back and scored late to beat their up-Island
rivals.
Royal Bay (55) at Alberni (0)
Because Alberni has so many Grade 8 players, they were a bit out-gunned but will be better for
the experience. For Royal Bay, “Little Wild Joe” had the play of the day with out-the-back pass
that set up a try.
Island Boys First XV Stars
Competition Leaderboard
April 6
Max Lang (QU) 6
Jasper Keast (OB) 6
Jack Driscoll (SMUS) 5
Owen Duncan (Cla) 3
DJ Banks (SLS) 3
Ferg Jessop (Clar) 3
Julian Bishop (BCS) 3
Arthur Andrew (SLS) 2
Olivier Balek (BCS) 2
Ben Bjorndal (Bat) 2
Miles Scott (MtD) 2
Tanner Evans (ADSS) 2
Milo MacDonald (SLS) 2
Linden Andreesen (ADSS) 2
Connor Steves (MtD) 2
Short Lineout
One person’s opinion, expressed succinctly
There is a trend in lineouts whereby the team not throwing in asks their opponents how many are
lining up, and the team throwing in tells them.
This is not required in law and is ridiculous. The best way to tell how many lineout players there
are is to count them.
–Phil Smith (math teacher).