Wednesday's Ruck & Maul

CW offers congratulations to two of our boys who have been selected to play for the Bears in this one, taking place this coming Friday evening at Klahanie Field, North Vancouver, 7:00 p.m. kickoff. Brendan Kelliher has been selected at #6 and Doug Fraser, in the centers.  This will be an excellent show case for these two deserving players as they take this first step for selection for the upcoming ARC Championships.  The Bears pack features an all Burnaby FRF, perhaps a little disappointment from this pundit with no Thornber, Big Chisholm from UVic will be at lock and many really like the work of this man, plus no small amount of mongrel he can add and the backrow will have the feisty Boyd from Caps and Glen McKinnon at ‘tail-up’, potentially a group where Kelliher could stand out if he possesses the speed to beat the Englishmen at the “forage”.  Great to see McKinnon in the mix at this level. In the backs, a solid halves combo of Robinson from Caps and Reekie from Burnaby should provide ample variety of attack and it will be fun to see similar style players in the centers where Dougie will join “Jumping” Joe Dolesau, the ever entertaining Fijian from Burnaby.  Hopefully opportunities will be given to Stewart from UVic to put his stamp on affairs.  On paper things look interesting from a B.C. point of view, although I must say there are a glaring number of selection absences from the CDI Championship, UBC Birds.

The Big Game will be preceded by a replay of Vancouver Women and V.I. Women, battling for the Ruth-Hellerud Brown Cup.  There will be a number of CW ladies on show in this one as the Island seeks revenge of an earlier one point loss to a Vancouver combination that featured players from clubs who did not finish as strongly as CW and Westshore, so there will be plenty of pride on the line.