The Cowichan Piggies have been hard at work over on the Herd Road rugby pitch, as well as on the road, this fall.
Most recently, the men’s 1st XV travelled to Surrey and had a solid showing in what is always a tough trip to the mainland.
“We travelled with 19 players, which gave the coach some limited options from the bench,” said the club’s John James. “The game was very close with the score at 6-8 at the half for the hosts.
Cowichan took a 9-8 lead early in the second though, on a nicely slotted penalty by Danny Hamstra.
Surrey scored a try to make it 9-13.
“We held the balance of play for most of the second half and eventually scored after some tough forward work made the score 16-13 for Cowichan with 10 minutes left in the game.”
Pressing hard and down two players due to penalties, they finally punched it in to make it 16-18 with mere minutes to left to play.
Cowichan was in tough.
“Still down a man, Cowichan had the ball and time for a quick comeback attempt. As luck would have it, the ball squirted out of their set piece into the hands of a Surrey flanker and he rolled in for a late try to seal it. The convert ended the game 16-25.
“The game was certainly one that could have been won,” James noted. “For the most part the team is quite solid and left for home heads held high.”
The lads had a game Saturday, Oct. 22 against Port Alberni’s Black Sheep and came away with a 48-23 win.
In other rugby news, the first division women pummeled Comox 40-10 recently.
Scoring were Lauryn Bons with six tries, and Renée Kennedy, and Britnie Taylor with one apiece and five conversions from Lauryn Bons.