Prior to the start of the spring rugby schedule, Pat Kearney expected his Bayside Sharks to be competitive with other premier men’s teams.
And while he did not expect them to roll through the season undefeated, the cellar is not where the Sharks thought they’d find themselves two games into the BC Premier Rugby League season.
“Definitely not,” Kearney said.
“I don’t think we’re an eighth-place team, and I know the guys don’t think that either. But that’s where we are – we can’t just sit here and cry about it.”
Bayside’s premier side fell to 0-2 after being shut out 15-0 by the UBC Old Boys Saturday at a muddy, rain-soaked Jericho Park in Vancouver. The Old Boys had been in eighth heading into the, but the win leapfrogged them into seventh, three points up on Bayside.
“We have five games left to make up three points, so we just have to forget about these last two,” Kearney said. “We have three of the five at home, and we’ve proven in the past to be a pretty tough team to beat at South Surrey Athletic Park.”
Saturday at Jericho Park – which was the only Lower Mainland premier rugby pitch open, after rain soaked much of the region last week – the Sharks trailed just 3-0 at halftime, but couldn’t muster much offence against the defensively strong Old Boys.
“We didn’t have a lot of opportunities in the attacking zone… it was tough to gain past that 50-yard line, and when you keep getting pinned in your own half, it’s tough to put up points,” Kearney said. “It just wasn’t a very pretty 80 minutes of rugby.”
The Sharks’ first-division team, however, did manage a win at Jericho Park, defeating the UBC Old Boys’ first-division side 38-5 to move to 1-1 on the season.
