In an eventful First Division rugby match last Saturday, the Cowichan Piggies overcame the loss of one of their own to a head injury to defeat Westshore 55-7.
The Piggies were already on their way to a one-sided victory when one of their players suffered a head injury, losing consciousness for a few minutes. The game started on the main field, but moved to the backup pitch as first responders, including local volunteer firefighters who happened to be on the sidelines, attended to the injured player.
“We’re lucky enough to have the other field available, so we hopped over there,” Cowichan coach Andrew Wright said.
The injured player was taken to the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. He has already stated that he plans to return to action when he’s ready.
“Everyone was kind of worried about that, but the guys regrouped,” Wright said.
The Piggies were already up by two tries before the injury as Darren Sage and Cody Milne scored in the early going, with Owen Wood kicking a conversion. Bruce Moss then added two more between the injury break and halftime.
Going into the match, the Piggies knew they had to focus.
“Before the game started, we were looking at the Westshore players, and we recognized a few from our days in the Premiership,” Wright said.
Cowichan veteran Louis Gudmundseth made sure his teammates were aware who they were facing.
“Louis made it known that this wouldn’t be a cakewalk,” Wright recalled. “Some of these guys had played a lot of years together. It was good of him to speak about that and get the guys in the right mindset.”
Following Gudmundseth’s talk, the Piggies came out flying, moving the ball with quick, crisp passes and taking the Westshore players down with hard tackles. They kept that going in the second half. Wood scored a try within a couple of minutes, and that was followed by tries from Colton Smith, Danny Hamstra and James Patterson before Westshore got on the board around the 70-minute mark. The Piggies still weren’t done: Darren Parcells scored, and Patterson added his second of the day to complete the rout.
Westshore had arrived at the field with about 16 men and were missing a front-row player. Due to BC Rugby rules, that meant all scrums were uncontested, a situation that played into Cowichan’s favour in some ways, but at the same time didn’t help the team prepare for some crucial upcoming matches.
The team’s next game, at Port Alberni on April 7, will decide who wins the First Division series between the two teams. Cowichan sits ahead of Alberni by five points in the standings, and owns the point-differential tie-breaker by 24, but Wright isn’t taking anything for granted.
“It’s a big hill to climb for Port Alberni, but we’re not going to take it lightly whatsoever,” he said. “They are more than capable of doing that at home. We have to take them very seriously.”