Cowichan Secondary’s girls rugby program had a busy couple of days last week, collecting three wins, one loss and one tie in three days.
The Thunderbirds senior and development teams played host to Alberni District on Wednesday, while the junior team travelled to Parksville to visit a young Ballenas team.
On the home pitch, the seniors got four tries from Megan Lewis, two from Mia Eagar and one each from Mikaila Cardin and Brigitte Reid as they beat the Armada 52-10. Amy Oakes also kicked six conversions. The development side downed Alberni 37 -5, getting two tries from Hannah Gundersen, and one each from Ryley Loiselle, Melanie Robertson, Jenna Batty, Brianna Margerison, Jordan Mangelsen and Kayla Metcalfe. Robertson also slotted a conversion.
“The Seniors scored over 40 points in the first half and paced to a dominant win, while the juniors waited until the second half to score most of their points,” Cowichan head coach Brad Skene said. “At times our rucking was lacking against tough opposition but our ball movement, evasive running and speed gave us the upper hand.”
The juniors battled Ballenas to a 17-17 tie, getting two tries from Deanna Cvitanovich and one from Tamara Knight-Robinson, and a conversion from Lucy Boon.
“This was a hard, physical encounter in which the juniors had to battle back to tie the game at the end,” Skene reported.
On Friday, 45 Cowichan players travelled to the Mainland for a pair of games against the defending provincial champs from Carson Graham. The Cowichan seniors lost 24-12, and the development team won 34-5.
“Both games were physical and hard fought, along with being in great spirit of the game,” Skene said. “The seniors played outstanding for about 75 per cent of the game but a small letdown at the end of the first half allowed Carson to take the win. We made some mistakes in ball-handling and positioning on defence which you can’t do against a team as powerful and able as Carson.
“We did a lot of things right but the few mistakes we made cost us greatly. The development game had end-to end-action with two very committed teams of young or novice players. It was very exciting with our team’s second half being the difference.”
Lewis and Eagar scored tries for the seniors and Oakes kicked a conversion. The development team got two tries from Kaitlyn Crichton and one each from Cvitanovich, Jezlyn Cardinal, Elly Hajdu and Dionne Seymour, while Robertson and Boon each kicked a conversion.