Monday's Musings

Pride Visit Temple for Post-game Action.

(Photo - Logan Dring)

Other matches at the House saw our Premier women drop a 12 – 26 decision to Capilano. CW opened the action very early with a sixty meter try by #8 Temitope Ogunjimi.  Caps immediately responded. The first half action ended with Caps ahead 19 – 5 at the break. The second half action was very even with both teams adding a try, CW’s from Emily Samek. The scoreline was probably indicative of the difference between the sides, however, the CW coaching staff noted a considerable improvement from last week’s performance.

The women’s Second Division side lost to Cowichan, in a match that was somewhat one-sided. Our women’s scribe describes the numbers growing, with many new players stepping onto the field for their first match.  This pundit, adds, a difficult task against a well prepared and experienced Piggie opposition.

The final game score is for the men’s Div. 3 match which visiting Comox Kickers won 48 – 12 against CW’s Islanders.


Elsewhere in the world of Rugby it was another ‘epic’ at the RWC with South Africa ‘pinching’ a one-point victory.  What a classic final there is in store between RSA and NZ. 

Speaking of NZ, Canada’s NSWT Women continued their winning ways on Friday night over Wales with a 42-22 (six tries to three) victory.  Hopefully CW’s age grade girls and many others watched this game.  The match was highlighted with the play of W-O-M Awarded to Captain Sophie DeGoede, a lady who played her pre-University rugby from a very young age to her U18 National selection, at Windsor Park.  Not to prattle on (but), it was exciting to hear a Wellington TV colour announcer describe Soph’s Club days as being with CW.  We are extremely proud of this lady whose play is world class, whose leadership is hugely respected and whose role modelling is exemplary.  Sophie finished her night’s work with seventeen points. 

There was plenty more to it than Sophie’s outstanding contributions.  The first half was quite close at 21-17 for Canada after a ‘telegraphed’ pass was intercepted by Wales in the dying seconds.  The second half score of 21-5 for Canada was more reflective of the action.  Rugby Canada posted these reflections from Coach Rouet: “We’re building. We won, but we just need to be more clinical sometimes,” said Head Coach Kevin Rouet. “We gave them an easy penalty, and after that a simple interception at 60 seconds before half-time. We know that if we didn’t give them those gifts, it shouldn’t have been a close game for us. The win was what we wanted, getting the bonus point [for scoring four tries]. We only have six days until we play England, we know it’s going to be a short turnaround. We are ready for that for sure.”

We let Sophie have the last words. “I think it was definitely a bit of a soft start,” said de Goede. “I think we had the momentum at times and then we just weren’t quite finishing some of our chances, but I thought we did well to get them. I thought our scrum was very strong, some good momentum with the backs on the edge. We just need to finish our chances and be a bit more disciplined to make sure that we don’t give them easy opportunities.”

Canada next sees action on Thursday against England, the #1 ranked team of six.  The game will be shown on TSN3 at 11:00 p.m.  It will be very interesting to see if Canada can draw even closer to this nemesis. 

Finally, a shout out to former CW Junior player and UBC rookie, Aida Pye. “Aida was awarded the Rookie-of-the-Year at the weekend’s Canada West Championships, helping UBC to a Final, 10 – 0 win over Uvic.

Pye burst onto the Canada West scene in a huge way for the Thunderbirds. Showcasing breakaway speed, the first-year Victoria product scored an incredible conference leading 11 tries for UBC, four more than any other player.

It didn't take long for the Victoria product to establish her dominance offensively, as she was named the U SPORTS Rugby Player of the Week on Sept. 20 after putting up four tries against Alberta, all in just her second career conference game.

She stepped her game up to another level in the postseason, scoring three tries in the first half of the T-Birds semifinal win over Lethbridge, before eventually helping the T-Birds claim the conference championship with a win over Victoria in the final.” (CWUAA).  There you go!  What a benchmark for our age grade ladies. ‘onya, Aida.