St. George’s 15 - 12 Shawnigan Lake
Early in the second half of the senior boys rugby championship at Abbotsford Exhibition Park on May 31, St. George’s trailed the defending champions from Shawnigan Lake 12-3.
“Shawnigan Lake really took it to St. George’s physically,” said St. George’s Saints head coach Mike Stiles.
The defensively minded teams locked down for a battle of attrition and the Saints urgently needed to load their cannons.
Phil Berma fired the first bomb. With eight minutes left in regulation, the coaches called a play they hadn’t yet pulled off in competition. A short, five-back lineout delivered the ball to 8-man Berma, as planned. The tactic worked. Berma broke through the line to score a try from 40 yards out. The Saints trailed 12-8.
The powerhouse rugby outfit from Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»Island was sitting on a six-year championship streak and this spring won an exhibition game 10-8 over Saints. A year ago, the Shawnigan Lake Stags won the 2013 title 17-12 over St. George’s but Saints won their friendly. The 1-1 pattern repeated this year.
Saints captain John Hosking said perseverance is a defining characteristic of his side.
“Our coaches have always told us that mental toughness and focus is the foundation for success,” he said. Among the senior players, last year’s championship loss “created a readiness that spread throughout the entire team and, although nerves were high, all 35 players were ready for the game,” he said.
The Saints would get the better of the Stags this time.
“Our guys were relentless is scoring again,” said Stiles. “We seemed to have picked it up again a few levels in terms of our work rate, which is exactly what we’d been training for all year.”
Pressing in the Stags’ end in injury time, St. George’s distributed the ball aggressively and Berma punched in his second try of the game to take a 13-12 lead. Theo Sauder converted.
“[The win] was especially sweet because Shawnigan Lake is the team to beat and they have been for the past five years,” said Stiles. “We play them every year. I makes our team better because it gives us a point that we need to get to.”
The coach added that Hosking said and did all the right things.
“John was a true inspiration to the team. The things that he said and the way that he acted, it was so motivational for his teammates. For us it was all about following a leader like that.”
Lord Byng advanced to the final four in a very successful showing for the Grey Ghosts. They were seeded fifth and finished third, dropping the semifinal 35-13 to Shawnigan Lake before winning bronze in a 35-14 victory over Oak Bay.
