From the Director's Desk - April 8, 2014

UBC Rugby Newsletter - April 8, 2014

On The Field

I am behind a week so I will first talk about our March 29th results. We hosted Ridge Meadows in the third Division and Langley in the first. The Totems had a strong game scoring seven tries to down the boys from Maple Ridge 39-14. It was good to see and catch up with past T-Bird captain Cal McIntosh who is looking after the Ridge Meadow lad’s. Langley could only put together one team on the weekend and proved to be a spirited lot on the day as the Birds recorded an eight try, 48-12 result.

This past week the Totems hosted the Caps and put together a very credible performance on the day. Despite a losing 19-0 score the Totems played some very good rugby on both sides of the ball. Well done boys.

The Birds and the Braves hosted Seattle RFC and both games proved to be very competitive on the day. The Braves opened the scoring early as Peter Stockton (St. Georges) touched down from a nicely waited chip kick to open the scoring 5-0. Seattle responded with a penalty and it was 5-3 for UBC at the half. Seattle responded in the second half with a nicely worked try to go up 8-5 but the Braves capitalized on a penalty near the posts as Gavin Stephens (Brentwood) made good on the penalty attempt to tie it up 8-8 which turned out to be the final result.

The Birds, missing a number of starters, were a little slow out of the gate as Seattle dotted down twice for a 10-0 lead after 20 minutes. Bryan Tyrer (McRoberts) opened the scoring for the Birds capitalizing on a penalty kick to make it 10-3. Sean Ferguson (Brentwood) crossed the line shortly after to make it 10-10. Bryan Tyrer fell on a loose ball in the Seattle in goal area and converted his own try to put the Birds up by 17-10 at the half.

Injuries, nothing to seriously we hope, played a card in the second half as three more players exited the game. Seattle struck quickly and tied the game 17-17 apiece but the Birds put together some excellent phase play that ended with a tremendous kick pass try to Sean Ferguson who dotted down for his second of the day. Bryan Tyrer converted and it was 24-17 for UBC. Unfortunately the last quarter belonged to Seattle as their size and strength seemed to wear us down. Our tackle rate fell off and they scored 20 unanswered points and left the field with a 37-24 result. With that win Seattle will likely capture the league title by one bonus point despite the fact that both teams may finish with identical records. Seattle has two games remaining while UBC has three games through the rest of April.

Down The Road

April 12th UBC at United RFC

April 19th UBC Hosts Bayside RFC

April 26th UBC at Surrey RFC

May 3rd Provincial Semi-Finals

May 10th Provincial Finals.

Sincerely

Spence McTavish

Director of UBC Rugby

Department of Athletics and Recreation

272 6081 University Blvd Vancouver BC

V6T 1Z1

Email: spence.mctavish@ubc.ca

Website: www.ubcrugby.com