The Cowichan Rugby Football Club’s U18 girls did the unthinkable over the past month, knocking off No. 2-ranked Caswatway Wanders one week and then a week later beating undefeated Comox to become the Island rugby champs, according to coach, Sherry Spence.
The win propelled the squad into the BC Rugby age-grade provincial finals, which the Cowichan Rugby Football Club happened to be hosting.
The age-grade final pits the best of the Island against the top Mainland team and Cowichan faced off against Abbotsford Sunday afternoon. Cowichan did have home field advantage, but both teams had an extra week to prepare as the game had originally been scheduled for the week before, but snow kiboshed that plan.
Abbotsford must have felt Cowichan’s renowned hospitality, however, as the visiting side felt welcome enough to settle into attack mode despite Cowichan’s strong defensive play.
“Abbotsford came out fast and furious at the whistle, getting on the board right away,” Spence said. “Unfortunately Cowichan couldn’t catch up.”
It wasn’t for lack of trying.
“Cowichan’s Maggie Mycroft made a solid effort to push back, pulling off some massive tackles in open field, while Deja Peary did a great job of finding space on the field to help set up their best try of the day, finishing with a long run by Bella Anderton-Teasdale,” according to BC Rugby’s game report.
Spence agreed.
“There were moments of exciting rugby from the Cowichan side,” she said. “Deja was a spitfire at No. 9, and attacked the Abbotsford line very quickly on the penalties, but unfortunately we just couldn’t capitalize.”
Cowichan lost the game 68-12.