A fast and furious start propelled the Cowichan Piggies to a 55-5 road win over Velox Academy in Vancouver Island First Division rugby last Saturday.
"We had a decent first half, but we came out a bit flat in the second half," head coach Gord McGeachy said. "We made some changes at the half, and I thought we'd bring in some energy, but it didn't work like that. It wasn't the worst second half, but there was definitely room for improvement."
Andrew Gudmundseth opened the scoring with a try three minutes into the game that was converted by Owen Wood. The tries kept coming after that, with Cam Hall scoring at the 17-minute mark, followed by David Cowie, Jordan Weisner and Rob McDonnell, with Wood kicking three more conversions.
"Five tries in the first half and the game was pretty much over," McGeachy said. "That kind of showed when we came out flat for the second half."
Despite the slow start to the second half, McDonnell scored his second of the match five minutes in, and Hall scored his second, converting it himself, five minutes after that. Germain Lamothe added an unconverted try midway through the half, and Pat Fraser rounded out the scoring with an effort converted by Hall.
Cowichan's ball-retention and contact were "pretty sloppy" in the second half, McGeachy said.
"We probably kicked away more ball than we needed to with that kind of lead," he noted.
Both of Cowichan's senior men's teams will head to Nanaimo this Saturday. Having just claimed top spot in the cramped Cowichan Cup rankings, the First Division Piggies will try to retain it with a victory over the Hornets.
The Third Division Piggies will then be the first-ever opponents for the newly created Vancouver Island University rugby team.
"It's a neat thing," McGeachy admitted. "It's not every day you get to play a club in its very first game. It will be interesting to see how it goes."