Capilano Rugby
By John Langley

Provincial U-19 Finals and Miller Cup Finals for the Lower Mainland

This was an exceptional day for rugby considering the date.  The field had been
slightly frozen during the week but as luck would have it, it didn’t freeze on Friday
night.  Thanks to Tim Bannister, Dennis Page et al for organizing rolling crews to flatten out the muddy areas. 

U19 Finals:  Capilanos vs Castaway-Wanderers

Capilano defeated Castaway Wanderers 46-5 to win the Provincial Championship.  For Caps it was a return to glory following a disappointing U-19 season last year.  This is a very talented team with a lot of bench strength.  It doesn’t seem to matter which player is in at any given moment the beat goes on!  CW is also grooming some excellent talent but today they were no match for this powerful Cap side.  CW started slowly but in the second half they came out roaring and managed a well taken try by their big number 3 MacBryan Bos.  He looked like a blue chipper, as do several of his teammates, Bos has the size and ability to play senior rugby.  The CW try made it 25-5 and gave the many CW fans hope.  CW threatened to make a game of it but stiff Capilano defence stopped their attack today.  Caps came back to score a series of tries to win going away.  Nathan Yanagiya came on in the second half to score three tries.  Other try scorers for Caps were Zach Smith, Jordan Harvey, Neil Courtenay.  This was an undefeated season for this side, thanks and congratulations to the coaching staff Ramses Langston, Glen Smith, Rory Holmes and Curry Hitchborn; also thanks to several other Capilano players that assisted from time to time. Thanks also to referee Saro Turner and his team of officials. 

Vancouver Elite Finals: Capilanos vs Burnaby

Capilano won the league but this was the playoff final.  Capilano has no difficulty getting up for games against their cross town rivals.  I won’t get into last seasons peculiarities but the memories linger on!  A trophy was on the line and Caps wanted it.  Burnaby won the 1st division game but could not double up with a win in this one.  Matt Yanagiya opened the scoring with a penalty kick after missing an earlier attempt. 

Burnaby was given a golden opportunity to take the lead after Nate Rees was binned for a dangerous tackle.  Burnaby was able to draw even with the penalty kick awarded on the same play and Jeff Ryan slotted it.  They were not able though to score a major while a man up.  Caps scored their first try on a quick penalty tap by Matt Yanagiya who got near the line then dived over for the score.  He then converted his own try to give the Caps a 10-3 lead.  Burnaby tried hard to answer and it looked like they might when Akio Tyler intercepted a backline pass deep in Capilano territory which he took at full pace.  Mike Langley, one of his former 7’s teammates saw the play developing and turned on the pace in support.  Tyler saw Langley, drew the fullback and made a perfect pass to Langley who went all the way.  It looked like a 7’s try, out in the open with lots of space. This play was a major turnaround as Burnaby looked like they might score but instead it was Caps who put the points on the board.  The conversion was good by Yanagiya to give the Caps a 17-3 half time lead. 

In the second half Burnaby put on some pressure but a pass went astray and it looked like Caps would take off in the opposite direction.  A fortuitous bounce went to Joe Dolusau who took it in for the score.  The conversion was missed but Burnaby had some life.  Burnaby had their chances but suffered from bad hands today and many opportunities went begging.   Caps managed to get the ball deep in their own end and Mike Langley broke away.  He had support but his pass went astray and the scoring chance was lost. 

Burnaby tried running out of their end but a poor Burnaby pass ended another chance and Caps got the ball. Burnaby was ruled offside and Caps slotted another penalty kick, this made the score 20-8.  Caps were in good shape but another yellow card made it difficult.  Evan Mallory who had recently entered the game as a substitute was ruled offside and yellow carded.  Apparently he was the victim of too many Capilano infractions and was sentenced to 10 minutes in the bin.  The Caps fans were not pleased with this decision as Burnaby had just been given a lengthy warning for what appeared to be the same infraction.  My official friends informed me that this happened because Caps had made too many infractions.  While this may be the case, I thought in these circumstances the captain or captains would be called in and warned that the next infraction would be a binning. I didn’t see this occur.  Anyway Caps were again down a man and Burnaby had the upper hand.  They were not able to take advantage though and Caps ground away in the scrum and ground down the clock.  With a minute or so left they were back to full strength.  Burnaby was pressing but couldn’t cross the line.  The referee penalized Burnaby and Charlie Jones hit the sidelines to end the game. 

My man of the match for Capilano is Glenn McKinnon who was all over the field and really played hard in the trenches.  He stole a lot of ball, ran hard and has the best beard since Kleeberger.  I don’t know where he got the idea but he was in NZ during the world cup.  Things are looking good for the Capilano Club on the field and they continue to develop excellent talent.  The U-19’s are champions, The U-17’s are in the finals and the U-16’s lost a close decision to Bayside.  Congratulations to Capilano on an exciting fall season of rugby!  This is my last report until early March as we are heading to the desert.  Hopefully we will see some of you at the Las Vegas 7’s. 

Season’s Greetings and Happy New Year to all members of the Rugby Community. 


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Match Report - December 3rd, 2011
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