Wednesday's Ruck & Maul

The CW U16 and U19 girls 15’s season is well under way with both teams 2-0 to start league play. Coming off strong performances against James Bay on Oct 27th, both teams travelled to Cumberland Village Park for games against the Comox Kickers on Sunday Nov 3rd.

The CW U16 girls came out the gates strong running the opening kick-off, all the way in for try! That play set the tone for the day as the CW girls were on the right side of a lop-sided score line. Six different players scored tries, with Gwynnie Fry running in four and Adia Pye adding a hat-trick.

The U19’s had a slower start with a good local challenge and found themselves on the end of a number of penalties.  It took some fifteen minutes to find their stride and they never looked back after that, leading 33-0 at the half.  The second half was more of the same as the ladies flexed their muscles, running up a number of tries, many of which were converted with a good display of place kicking from Kira Peary and Lucy Beauchemin.

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Try scored by Russia made them the bluntest attack in Japan, but at least it was a memorable one -- the first of the tournament by Kirill Golosnitskiy in the first few minutes, before the hosts got their act together with a vengeance.

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Points scored by Canada, equalling the lowest ever by a World Cup participant. Amid so much that was positive in this World Cup, the decline of the first nation to make an impact outside the traditional elite at World Cups, playing well in 1987 and giving the All Blacks a tough quarterfinal in 1991, was one of the sadder sights. Their point’s ratio of 14 to 177, or 12.65 points against for every one they scored, was the worst in World Cup history, although all of this is qualified by noting that their match against Namibia was one of the three cancelled as an extreme weather precaution.

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Consecutive World Cup defeats for Namibia, and not a single win. If the Canadians were disappointed when their match was called off, it is a fair bet the Namibians were downright furious.

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Years and 187 days was the age of Kane Thompson when Japan played South Africa in the quarterfinal, making him the oldest player in 2019 just ahead of the indestructible Schalk Brits. It places him third on the all-time list behind Diego Ormaechea, who played for Uruguay in 1999 and Canadian centre Spence McTavish, who played against Ireland in 1987. At 71, McTavish is the oldest living World Cup player. 'onya, Spike, stick around.  The world needs more Spence McTavishes!