The Cowichan Piggies faced their toughest test of the Second Division men’s rugby season so far last Saturday, and learned some valuable lessons in the process.
The Piggies lost 43-17 to Castaway Wanderers in a game that head coach Andrew Wright felt should have been closer than the score indicated.
“The tide went out on us and it never came back in,” he said.
With no disrespect to the Port Alberni Black Sheep or Comox Kickers, neither of whom put up much of a fight in their matches against Cowichan, Castaways represented the Piggies’ first real competition of the fall, and served as a wakeup call.
“Some of the boys seemed a little bit shellshocked,” Wright admitted.
The match was close for periods of time. Castaways led 18-12 at halftime and 23-17 early in the second half. It wasn’t until the last five or six minutes of the match that they put it away for good with a pair of late tries.
All three of Cowichan’s tries came from the forward pack: Kory Stepanick and Noah Dobson late in the first half and Robin Gusse in the second half. Danny Hamstra slotted one conversion.
The Piggies will head back over the Malahat this Saturday to visit Westshore.