The Cowichan Secondary Thunderbirds locked up a berth in the provincial AAA girls rugby championships with a come-from-behind 31-12 win over G.P. Vanier in the Island semifinal on Wednesday afternoon.
After a series of mistakes, the T-Birds trailed 12-0 in the early going, but found their composure and pulled even, where the score stayed for a long time.
“Our starters played with a lot of character and heart,” T-Birds head coach Brad Skene said. “I was impressed with their commitment. We are very fortunate to have a deep bench and over the course of the game we made six changes. Those fresh bodies made a difference. It is great to say to the starting group that they can play as hard as they need and that when they are spent, we can bring in players to add to the game. The win was a group effort.”
Mia Eagar scored two tries and Madi Jumeau, Mikaila Cardin and Kaitlyn Crichton had one each, while Amy Oakes kicked three conversions.
“We had some barriers to overcome in preparation for the game,” Skene said. “It wasn’t our best performance as a group but there were moments of great individual ability and commitment. Tough games aren’t pretty. We play against Vanier three to four times a year and the two programs know each other so well that it is hard to surprise each other with tactics. Usually the games are physical and frantic with the team that makes the least mistakes often winning.”
Cowichan will visit Shawnigan Lake School in the Island final at 4:15 p.m. on Friday.
The T-Birds were coming off a 69-22 win in Port Alberni last Wednesday. Cowichan got four tries from Eagar, three from Melanie Robertson, two from Megan Lewis, and one each from Crichton and Taylynn Smid. Oakes kicked six conversions and Crichton added one.
Crichton also scored twice and kicked a pair of conversions for the Cowichan development side in a 22-14 loss to Alberni’s development team.
Last Friday, the Cowichan junior team attended the Development Jamboree in Nanaimo. Tamara Knight-Robinson scored the T-Birds’ lone try in a loss to a more senior Ballenas team, but Cowichan bounced back to beat Carihi 29-0 in a game where all their Grade 8 players started. Tries were scored by Lily Bigotte-Bruhn, Maxine O’Leary, Elizabeth McCorkell-Rafter, Elly Hajdu and Deanna Cvitanovich, while Crichton kicked two conversions.
