From the Director's Desk
UBC Rugby Newsletter - January 22, 2014
On and Off The Field
This past weekend UBC hosted the University of Victoria at the U20 level and at the Varsity level. The U20’s kicked off at 1:00pm and they came out of the gate quickly. Freshman, Alex Pflaum crossed the line twice in the first half along with Rob Fenton to put UBC up 21-7 at the half. The U20’s stepped it up another notch in the second half touching down for another five tries from Theo Chapman, Ben LeSage, Allan Hogarth, Peter Stockton and two from Karsten Leitner. Chris Rey was good on seven for eight with conversions and the U20’s finished with a 54-12 result. These two teams had hosted each other during the fall season with both sides winning their home games.
The Birds were up against the Vikes for the 2:30 match and the Birds certainly soared on the day. Erik Hunter-James was the first to cross the line with 50 meter effort leaving many Vikes in his wake. The Birds had many line breaks during the game with centers Ben Grant and Nathan Rees penetrating often and then moving the ball to support runners. Quinton Willms and Francois du Toit also picked up first half tries with Quinton being good on two conversions giving the Birds a 19-8 halftime lead.
The Birds had a number of very good opportunities in the beginning of the second half and left two certain tries beginning as put away passes varied from their path. Willms was successful on another penalty goal to make it 22-8 with fifteen minutes on the clock. The Vikes held onto the ball for long periods of time but could not crack the tenacious defense of the Thunderbirds. The game finished with a 22-8 result and the Birds first Wightman Boot triumph in 17 years. The two game total point series ended with UBC 51 Vikes 21.
Special thanks to all the alumni and supporters who showed up on the day as the rumor mill talked about 1000 fans or so at the event. I’m not sure about that number but I am sure that the bar ran out of beer…just for a short while.
UBC is taking a team down the Las Vegas International 7’s tournament this January 22nd to January 26th. We are entered in the 24 team College Division with games commencing on January 23rd. The Birds will play against the University of Oklahoma, St. Bonaventure University and the American International College in the pool play Thursday. Quarter-finals take place Friday and semi-finals and finals on Saturday.
Birds and Braves will resume their league play on February 1st @ Richmond RFC while the Totems will play the Vancouver Rowing Club.
Off the Field
California
February 2014 will see the World Cup kick off in Berkeley. A small and dedicated fan base has made the trip down to San Francisco in the past years and the UBC rugby program would like to expand upon this. We invite you to come down on the 15th of February for the 1pm kick off. Our Alumni and parent group will be organizing the UBC Tailgate party before and after the game. We plan on not only winning the game on the field but also putting on the best tailgate in the lot! We look forward to seeing you cheer on the Birds and soak up some California sun.
2014 Millennium Breakfast
Tuesday February 25th marks the date for the fourteenth millennium breakfast. The university will match up to $7500 of money raised which would give us $15,000 for scholarship money that could be used immediately if desired.
UBC Alumni Reunion and the World Cup Weekend
Please set aside Friday March 21st as we are going to have our alumni reunion at the Gerald McGavin Rugby Center. $75 gets you a truck load of appetizers and quality wine and beer. Can you believe that! For all you guys out of town, get back into Vancouver and make a weekend of it as Sunday, March 23rd we host Cal. KO at 1:00pm. I will be contacting alumni from various decades to spread the word and organize this event. We are looking at selling 100 tickets for this event.
Sincerely,
Spence McTavish
