Saturday's Struggle

With just three more home games remaining, CW takes on UBCOB Ravens this Saturday at The Park. This will be a mammoth occasion for both clubs with a mere three competition points separating the teams. These clubs have very similar records in their play this season. Ravens are 3 – 7, CW is 2 – 8. Ravens lost recently to Caps, 16 – 25, CW 16 – 24. Ravens are coming off a huge win over UBC, 27 – 26 at their last outing. It was a tremendous second half performance, keeping the Birds to zero points after being down, 10 – 26 at the half. In the first round, CW was nipped 18 – 17 at Jericho. As far as points scoring differential, the difference is in CW’s favor. So there’s the stats which all go out the window when the whistle tweets.

Led by Tom McKean, brother of the oft-capped Stan, the Ravens can muster strong lineups. Witness the recent inclusions of McRorie, Blevins, Sean Ferguson, a new Irish scrum half, Sutton and Trainor. Many of these players will not be seen on Saturday so a reliance will be placed on the regulars, Morrison, Tom Luke ( a very dangerous goal kicker), Burak, Garbe, Hendrickson and a young fullback, touted as “having the goods”, Carrol. Ravens have recently been the beneficiaries of graduates from a U20 program that has been League Champs over the past two seasons, giving the club hope for the future.

Any prognostication here for Saturday segues into the structure of the future of the CDI League. As things stand at time of this article, CW would be “relegated” for next season. In reality, fortunately, there are considerable unknowns, going forward, about the CDI League in September. There has been considerable committee work which seems to have resulted in three options. At a recent “Town Hall” meeting it seemed that preferences leaned towards Seattle being a bona fide member of the BCRU, so they, along with eight BC clubs would compose the league. The eight would arrive via fall “elimination” play, five from Vancouver area and three from V.I.  This would see Velox, JBAA, UVic and CW battle for the three spots in the fall. With Velox rapidly becoming a virgin Westshore’s threat, this would be a very competitive scenario.

The other scuttlebutt relates to equability. Already, the two university clubs, UVic and UBC are seen as having a distinct recruiting advantage with their ability to offer expanded alumni scholarships. South of the border, it seems as if Seattle Saracens (a title not by chance), has become a center for excellence for American players. With the U.S. not having a system for “carded players”, establishing an equitable eligibility rule will be a challenge. Hopefully, one offshoot might be a total elimination of the “international players” rule that currently exists.   Players come to clubs via way of personal choice and if indeed they can be selected to a 1^ST. XV, their inclusion surely bolsters the standard of play. This, along with a definitive conclusion as to what constitutes a Canadian “carded player” would be for the good of the league. It will probably be the position of the Competition Committee (from pressure from the sponsor), that Seattle competes on the basis that they could be League Champion but not Premiership Champion, akin to the participation of the former Pacific Pride club.

So, back to Saturday. We’ll bring you more when the teams are posted but we appeal to the faithful that rain, hail or shine, you need to be out in force on Saturday to hwyl The Tricolors over the line.

(Ed. Opinions expressed in this blog are purely those of The Ruggernut. & an "oops"! Morrison on the bench Vs Samoa, Saturday.)