The bus from Jericho late yesterday afternoon with the JBAA players, coaches and support staff, had an air of contentment. The visiting James Bay rugby teams were leaving after tying the UBC Old Boys in the Premier Reserve match and notching a convincing win in the Premier match-up.
In the opening game, the Reserves bounced back from their tough loss to Burnaby on the previous weekend to put in a dominant performance against the Raven Reserves. With the front row of Andrew McPherson, Mac Greed and Riki Gunn setting a solid platform throughout the match, the young guns put on a well balanced performance on offense and defense. Despite having a distinct majority of possession, the visitors were not as successful as they would have liked in terms of converting this possession into points. Captain Greed notched a crashing try for the Bays while JT Boehme made the convert and added a penalty goal to account for the JBAA scoring. The defence for the Bays held the home team to a single score until a last minute try by the Ravens brought the score to even, at 10 pts. each, as the whistle blew to finish the game.
In the Premier game, the Bays struck first when Kainoa Lloyd found some room outside and scored the first try of the game, allowing the visitors to jump into a 5-0 lead; a lead that would never be relinquished. Thomas Burton added three points to that total midway through the first half as the Bays moved to 8-0. The reigning BC Champion Ravens attacked vigorously but the JBAA defense remained solid until the home team got on the board with a successful penalty kick just before the half ended, to make it 8-3 Bays.
The Ravens come out hard to begin the second session and are able to tighten the score to 8-6 with their second successful penalty of the match. Lloyd repeats his first half success by scoring his second try right after this and the score goes to 13-5 when Burton hits the upright on the difficult convert attempt. The Bays backs, in particular Mitch Sora, Lloyd and fullback Aaron Evison make good use of probing kicks to find touch and play in the opposition's end during the back-and-forth action. The stubborn Ravens are able to score their first try of the match midway through the second half and the score tightens to 13-11. The Bays' scrum half, Rhys Gregory, who had a stand-out performance on the day, countered the Raven success when he used a clever kick-through to speedster Evison who gathered the ball and dove in for the third try for the visitors. The score goes to 18-11, as Burton clangs the convert attempt off the post again. Not long after the re-start, an ill-timed Raven pass is picked off by the opportunistic Lloyd, who races in for his third try of the day. Burton confidently stroked the convert, successfully going 'between' the posts this time, to put the Bays in a commanding 25-11 lead. However, with 17 minutes left to play, the UBCOB stormed back to score a converted try and turn the game into a barnburner, reflected in the 25-18 scoreline. As time winds down, the Bays forwards begin to show dominance and after a prolonged maul, a powerful run by JC Fidinde allows the crazed Frenchman to touch down for the fifth visitors' try and a 30-18 lead. Despite a frantic effort by the home team, who manage to score a try just before the final whistle, the Bear could not be stopped, and the final was 30-25 for the James Bay Athletic Association.
A special recognition needs to be made of Nathan Tough's efforts on the day. He played a full 80 minutes in the reserve game and then came on as an injury substitution in the second game only minutes after it started. Great job, Nathan.
Next week the Bays will travel to Windsor Park to take on the Castaway Wanderers, giving the MacDonald Park grass another week to grow.