Scottish Scrum Report Vol.10

 

As August rushes by and the feel of fall starts to enter the air, the rugby season is also starting to reach it’s conclusion.

The last full month of summer has brought some of the best moments thus far in the Senior Men’s season. The highlights began a couple weekends ago when the team made the trek to challenge TMR on a hot and humid day.

The 2nd’s were able to pull off their second consecutive victory by a score of 21-16. Sydney Stokes scored a highlight reel try with an excellent run from the wing position that was set up by some superb passing. Big shout out to recent addition Wi Luke who suffered a broken nose minutes into the match but got patched up and showed a lot of dedication in finishing the match and also playing in the 1st’s.

The 1st’s channelling the hard fought victory from the 2nd’s kept it close at the outset of the match by scoring an early penalty kick but ultimately fell short by a couple of tries.
This past weekend the Senior Men finally had a “home” match after having the previous five consecutive matches on the road. The men welcomed Parc Olympique to Twin Elm Rugby Park on yet another scorching summer day. With Coach Dan Gauthier manning the sidelines the 2nd’s team battled in a hard fought loss with the final score being 36-10. Fraser Colquhoun despite having the leave the game early from a lower body injury was able to make the two kicks he attempted.

Video link for 2nd’s game

The return home was just the ticket the 1st’s team needed. Despite falling in an early hole the men fought hard to get back in the game. Two amazing tries by Connor Mannion provided some mid game highlights but the sequence that sealed the deal was a late try by Eric Reid to push the score to 38-30 which ended up being the final result. It was a truly inspiring effort by all and although the first win of the season did take longer to secure then was hoped for, the victory was a long time coming based on the heart, dedication and perseverance shown by the team.

Video link for 1st’s game

 

The final weekend of the regular season has now passed and the Senior Men’s team welcomed Beaconsfield to South Nepean Park. While the results of either game wouldn’t affect where the Scottish finished in the standings it didn’t stop the men from playing a couple hard fought matches.

The 2nd’s began the early kick off but fell into an early deficit. The final score ended 43-22 favouring Beaconsfield. The match was hard fought with the bench getting lots of action due to some minor bumps and bruises that occurred throughout the match. I big shout out to some of the Old Boy’s including Einar Murchison, Chris Kinsella, Jason Tulk, Jason Craig and Ben Williams that suited up for the game as well as a few previous ones.

The 1st’s were trying to build off of last weeks victory over Parc Olympique. The men battled hard but unfortunately the regular season finale ended with a final score of 38-14 for Beaconsfield. While the final score and overall record for the season isn’t what the team envisioned at the beginning of the year, the second half of the season provided some highlights that showed the progress and chemistry that has developed amongst the players.

At the moment it appears that both teams will travel to Montreal for playoffs. The 1st’s will likely challenge Parc Olympique while the 2nd’s will dig in with TMR. With the regular season now concluded hopefully the post season provides a new slate and opportunity to grab a couple of wins.

The U18 Men’s season saw the pivotal match of the season happen in rainforest like conditions on Thursday, August 20th against an experience Baytown Blues Team. The Scottish gave them all they could handle, and but for a few bounces found themselves on the wrong side of the ledger. Despite the game going down in the loss side of the column, the result showed a marked improvement over the domination exhibited by the Blues in previous seasons and truly shows promise for this important feeder program and cog of the club.

The Barrhaven Scottish women continue to power through and represent our club, province and country. Alex Ellis made the long journey to Seattle, Washington to represent the Canadian U2o Women’s team against the U.S.

Rugby Ontario followed along and provides a great break down of the action here RugbyOntario.com

 

Twin Elm Rugby park was jammed to the proverbial rafters as Team Canada and Team U.S.A battled it out in a test match in advance of this September’s Rugby World Cup.
Over 5,100 strong cheered on the Canucks who fell just short losing 34-23. On the Scottish front, special thanks go out to the executive including but not limited to Chris Kinsella, Gary Thomas, Jennie Maynard and Old Boys and supporters such as Glenn Jung and Einar Murchison for turning the morning into a club day atmosphere and helping to manage the busloads of supporters, many decked out in bright pink “Rucking Over Cancer” T-shirts (proceeds going to the Price family) which jumped out at Twin Elm.

And Congratulations are in order for the Scottish U16 Men’s squad who held on against a scrappy Ottawa Irish squad in their final game of the season to build great momentum as they head into the playoffs.

With Submissions from
Ken Simonsen
LeeEllen Carroll
Michael McCleery
Phil Selig