Scheduled to play Velox Academy, the Cowichan Piggies ended up playing a team that looked more like Velox's first XV in a Times Cup clash in Victoria last Saturday.
"Their other team didn't have a game, so we played pretty much their No. 1 team," Cowichan coach Gord McGeachy said. "But we were okay with that."
It all worked out for the Piggies, who ended up winning 22-13. Cowichan started off well in the even game, but may not have been "clinical" enough, McGeachy admitted.
After missing a couple of chances to score in the first 10 minutes, the Piggies broke the scoreless draw near the 15-minute mark, when Andrew McPherson went over the line and set up an easy conversion by Andrew Wright.
About five minutes later, Peter Budina went over in the corner to give Cowichan a 12-0 lead.
Velox narrowed the gap to two points with a converted try and a penalty goal before the half was over.
"For the last 20 minutes of the first half, we kind of went to sleep," McGeachy acknowledged.
Cowichan started the second half with a yellow card, but held Velox off for the 10 minutes and started to pick up momentum, leading to a try by David Cowie.
Continuing to dominate, the Piggies eventually gave up a bad turnover, which led to a Velox penalty goal that made it 17-13. A try by Dan James closed out the scoring, and Cowichan held on.
"We had some moments of good rugby in that game, but we had some unsustained performance as well," McGeachy said. "It was a good test for us."
After a pair of bye weeks, the Piggies will begin Cowichan Cup competition on Oct. 18 when they play host to Nanaimo.