Ravens Defend Home Turf: Ravens 36 – Pride 9
Report by Peter MacDonald
A soggy November morning gave way to a dry afternoon and some good rugby for the players and stalwart fans at Jericho. The Ravens dominated possession for the first 25 minutes tallying two tries the first through Noah Bain beating his man outside and sending a grubber across the line to be touched down by Mark Wandeto and the second a Joe Locke line break and pass to Jake Tierney who also grubbered and then jackalled to regain possession for Cole Keffer who jinked about and dove in for a 14-3 Ravens lead.
Under the posts the Pride counselled one another to “trust the process” and for the rest of the half they did that, gained in confidence and took it to the Ravens earning two more penalty goals,14-9 at the half. Fitness, speed, good defending and a winning set drawing the third converted penalty at 40 minutes put the Pride back in the game.
But with the Ravens now heading north towards the mountains things went south for the Pride. Two quick Raven tries through the forwards sealed things for the home team. Frank Carson finished off a pick and go sequence with an unstoppable low drive and Riku Konrad touched down from a maul that crossed the line with plenty of steam, 28-9 at 48 minutes. A penalty kick and a try from the last play of the game, a 60-metre kick and chase sequence by Jack Carson finished the scoring.
The Pride captain, flyhalf Jamin Hodgkins, commented after the game that perhaps the scoreline wasn’t fully indicative of the play on the day. This wasn’t sour grapes, it was true. Possession and territory were tilted only slightly to the Ravens. Slow starts to each half by the Pride, final passes found wanting with tries on and difficulty defending the bigger Raven forwards made for the five try deficit despite long periods of good play by the Pride.
Hodgkins managed the game very well from his #10 position, centre Liam Poulton was a handful, fullback Glenn Roy counterattacked dangerously and the two locks, Jaiden John and Mason MacDonald, were joint men of the match in the forwards.
It was good to see Noah Bain make a mark for the Ravens after a quiet fall so far. The front row of Kokan, Konrad, Kassapian and later Tweed had a strong game and the backrow pairing of #8 Joe Locke and flanker Jake Tierney excelled again evoking memories of the 1990s pairing of Ravens/Canada backrowers Colin MacKenzie and John “Hutch” Hutchinson. Like MacKenzie, Locke has a powerful build and is playing as an “undersized” number eight. Like Hutch, Tierney is tall with a big wingspan. He may not be as menacing but his broad skillset is high level.
It’s off to Burnaby next week for another big game.