The senior rugby team experienced the highs and lows of sports in their final three days at the BC Championships. On Thursday, the Cavs were beat on the last play of the game in the semi-final. After regrouping on Friday, the team bounced back on Saturday morning to defeat Sir Charles Tupper 29-18 to win the bronze medal. This was the 12th straight year that Collingwood has medaled at the BC AA Championships.
The semi-final loss was definitely tough to swallow. With four minutes left in the game, the Cavs were nursing a 4-point lead and had one player in the sin-bin with a yellow card. Brentwood was able to take advantage of their one-man advantage and pushed close to the Collingwood goal-line. With Cavs in desperate defence mode, the referee then sent off another player for an offside infraction. Brentwood surged to the goal-line again but after some forceful tackling by Collingwood, he made the unprecedented move of handing out two more yellow cards at the same time which gave Brentwood a 15-11 man advantage. Needless to say, they scored and won the game 17-16.
On Saturday morning, the Cavs took the field with 8 starters on the bench with injuries or illness. However, throughout the season the team had developed enormous depth so the coaches' mantra to the team was 'next man up can do the job'. And this is what happened. After falling behind 8-5 midway through the first half, the Cavs exploded for 17 straight points and went into halftime leading 22-8.
Collingwood opened the second half determined to increase their lead. After a number of blown opportunities, the Cavs finally go the try they were looking for and widened their lead to 29-8. Two late tries by Tupper were not nearly enough and team erupted in joy at the final whistle.
It really was a fantastic performance and proved that when you go into the BC Championships you will have to rely on some unsung heroes stepping to the fore if you hope to have success.
2022 AA Bronze Medalists - This is the 12th straight year that Collingwood's rugby team has brought home a medal.
Nathaniel Fava got out of his sickbed on Saturday morning promising Mr. Larisch that he could give him 15 good minutes. Instead he played the whole match and had the best game of his young rugby career.
Inno De Cotiis was missed terribly in the first two games of the BC Championships. He was a difference-maker when he was inserted into the line-up on Saturday.
Elliot Wardle had a number of excellent runs in the bronze medal game.