James Bay, Burnaby Lake Post 5th Premier League Wins

Canadian national team standouts Sean White, Connor McCann and Thyssen de Goede teamed up for another impressive performance to lift James Bay Athletic Association to a bonus point 27–14 win over Meraloma Rugby Club.

National Under-20 rep McCann and Canadian sevens standout de Goede each crossed over for tries while Sean White battled heavy winds to contribute two converts and a penalty to see the Bays move to 8-2. The Bays are now six points clear at the top of the Canadian Direct Insurance Premier League standings while the Meralomas drop to fourth place at 5-4. James Bay were down 14-12 at the break but found their scoring touch and capitalized on the wind advantage in the second half.

Tries also came courtesy of scrum half Spence Dalziel and Jim de Goede to secure the valuable bonus point. The win was James Bay’s third straight since the winter break as they have now defeated title contenders in the resurgent Castaway Wanderers (4-5-1), Capilano RFC (7-3) and now Meralomas.

Across town at Wallace Field, another team enjoying a consistent second half were busy defeating the UVic Vikes (4-6) by a score of 40-14. Burnaby Lake (6-3) has now won five straight and are ranked no.1 defensively allowing just 15 points per game against. Their league-leading scorer James Reekie kicked five of six conversion attempts and notched a try to top the division charts at 77 points.

Giuseppe Laudisio recorded two tries for Burnaby with additional tallies coming from Anthony Luca, Matt Alexander and Joe Dolesau. North Shore outfit Capilano RFC moved to 7-3 with a narrow 37-32 win over Bayside Athletic Association (2-8). Capilano had four tries from BC Under-23 provincial team rep Mike MacDonald and single tallies from Nate Rees and Charlie Jones. Scrum half Matt Simms had two converts.

The Castaway Wanderers continued their climb up the standings with a convincing win over the UBCOB Ravens (2-7-1) to move within three points of Meraloma who currently hold the fourth and final playoff berth. Ravens’ Nick Blevins and Brodie Henderson recorded tries with Gordie McRorie kicking a convert.

The weekend of March 23rd sees James Bay on a collision course with Burnaby Lake in a rematch of the 2012 semi-finals which saw the Bays pull off a thrilling one point victory.

Three matches will be played out in Vancouver with the UVic Vikes away to the UBCOB Ravens, Bayside on the road to Meraloma and the Castaway Wanderers scrumming down at Klahanie Park against Capilano RFC.