Monday's Musings

Better Days for Port

Founding Fathers, Gio Mussato and Randy Rose would have been deeply disturbed by Port Alberni's inability to field fifteen for their road trip on Saturday.  Even club mentor, Jas Purewal, was mia. Port is not alone with this plight, as will be mentioned in today’s blog. Regardless, the points were forfeited and the host club loaned players who rotated, and an enjoyable game of rugby ensued.

Seen in the background (above), is perennial evergreen, Ty Shannon, who is still hoisting his towering, old school spiral punts to cause “all hands on deck” as well as choosing to make a boshing run to the try line, whenever the gap opens. So, the trip was not in vain as it was an opportunity for some young CW players to show their wares.  Kudos to Port and referee, Darren Munro, for the day. There will be better days.

For CW, old hands in the forwards, Kehoe, Ilnicki, and Hohert led the way for Regan and Goss to shine. #9, Welsh was a shifty handful with his snipes, along with a youngster in the centers from the prairies, Huiseman, who also stood out, complimented with ample pace on the wings. The prospect of fans seeing more from the Divvies this season than was the case last season, looks bright.

The club’s Premier women were on the road to Meralomas, promoted this year from a successful First Division campaign. Lomas were a handful for all last season and so it appears that this may be the case this season as they schooled the visitors, 41 – 7.  CW had numbers but youth and inexperience was no match for the ladies at Connaught.

We alluded to the issue of available players earlier in this missive and CW is no exception to the problem.  Our Girls U18 program is very sparse on numbers with few players being registered.  This is after the fact that just two seasons ago, this program was the BC Champion!

One cannot simply rest on one’s laurels.  Recruiting is an ongoing process and there is no rest. Success is tenuous. It will be with interest that we follow some of the spinoffs from the RWC results. Rugby is a “hot” sport now, so hopefully clubs can pig-a-back on this outcome.

 

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