Three of the North Shore’s top rugby teams are set to battle for some prestigious hardware as the New Zealand Shield Lower Mainland championship finals will be played tomorrow at Brockton Oval in Stanley Park.
At the AAA level second-seeded Carson Graham Eagles will take on top-ranked St. George’s Saints, while at the AA level West Vancouver neighbours Collingwood and Rockridge will add another chapter to their long and fierce rivalry.
The Eagles earned their berth in the AAA final with a tough 17-15 win over the third-seeded Handsworth Royals Thursday at Klahanie Park.
“It was a tight, hard-fought game,” said Carson head coach Glen McKinnon. “The boys just stuck it out, stayed together and got the win. … We got some big plays from all of our forwards. All the guys stepped up.”
It was a feisty affair as four Carson Graham players earned yellow cards, forcing them to serve out 10-minute penalties, while one Handsworth player was ejected with a red card.
“It was a fairly chippy game,” said McKinnon, chalking it up to the end of another year of cross-town competition between the two North Vancouver schools. “With the schools being rivals in almost every sport, these guys have been going at each other in football and basketball and all the other sports they play. It’s kind of end of the season, they’ve seen the same faces over and over again, it’s not surprising that they were going at each other pretty good. … They all seem like they’re friends off the field too. Maybe this was just their last chance to kind of go at each other before they graduate.”
The Eagles now have a tough task on their hands taking on the Saints, a team that went undefeated against Lower Mainland competition, including a 22-7 win over Carson Graham early in the season.
“We were actually up at halftime,” said McKinnon. “And then just a couple of guys went down and their depth – all their players are good, one through 15, and so they just kind of wore us down eventually.”
St. George’s has won the New Zealand Shield for the past three seasons. The last time they lost was in 2012, when Carson Graham knocked them off by a score of 29-13. The Eagles will be underdogs this time around but if they show up and hit hard, they’ll have a chance, said McKinnon.
“If you want to be the best you’ve got to beat the best. If we play our game, if we play our ball control style, I think for sure we’ll be able to give them a good run. That’s what I’m hoping we do.”
There’s a new format to the rugby provincials that will see the champions of the four top leagues – Fraser Valley, Lower Mainland, Lower Vancouver Island and Upper Vancouver Island – meet in a final four showdown that will be known as the AAAA championships.
Carson Graham, ranked sixth in the province, is hoping to be in that showdown. Vancouver Island private school juggernaut Shawnigan Lake is ranked No. 1 in B.C. while the Saints are No. 2.
“Our hope is to be the best team we can be, the best team in the province,” said McKinnon. “We’re hoping to make the AAAA tournament which would come with a win over Saints.”
Carson Graham and St. George’s will play at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Brockton Oval. The loser of the New Zealand shield final will contend for a new AAA Tier 1 championship along with the third place team.
Things aren’t quite so complicated at the AA level with longtime rivals Collingwood and Rockridge ready to renew acquaintances Thursday starting at 3:30 p.m. at Brockton Oval. Both teams cruised into the Lower Mainland final with top-seeded Rockridge scoring a 66-0 win over Sir Charles Tupper and second-ranked Collingwood defeating Hugh McRoberts 40-10 last week.
The New Zealand Shield AA final should be another barn-burner as Rockridge and Collingwood played to a near stalemate less than three weeks ago, with the Ravens edging the Cavaliers 24-23. The Cavaliers won three straight Lower Mainland AA titles from 2011-13 but the Ravens have claimed the last two Shields. The Ravens are ranked No. 1 in B.C. at the AA level while Collinwood is third, just behind last year’s champions from St. Michael’s University School.
The provincial championships are scheduled for May 25-28 at Rotary Stadium in Abbotsford.
