On Sunday, a day when many sports fans were watching the Super Bowl, Bayside Sharks head coach David Benoit was huddled in front of his computer screen, watching video of his premier men’s rugby team’s 16-10 loss to Capilano the day before.
And a repeat viewing of the CDI Premier League game, played Saturday afternoon at South Surrey Athletic Park, did little to quell his frustration level, as he watched his team squander a game which he quickly admits, was one they should have won.
“It was very frustrating. I thought we had a good enough team on the field that we should have been able to beat them,” Benoit said.
“It was clearly there for the taking, but we couldn’t get it done. They made fewer mistakes than we did… just a bad day at the office.”
Missed scoring opportunities and sloppy ball-handling were the culprits, the coach said, while nine first-half penalties didn’t help matters either.
At halftime, the Sharks – now 1-1 on the season – trailed 10-3, but had plenty of offensive forays end prematurely, due to dropped balls or poorly executed passes.
“We only scored three, but really, we could’ve had 20. We out-chanced them by about 15 to two,” Benoit said. “Give credit to the Caps, they’re a young team and they played very good defence, but we had over 20 ball-handling errors in the game.”
The Sharks’ scoring came courtesy of two players – Brodie Henderson had the lone try, while Peter Clifford had a penalty kick and a convert.
Capilano led by the slimmest of margins, 11-10, for much of the second half, until they tacked on a late try to extend their lead.
“It was basically the equivalent of an empty-net goal,” the coach said.
Benoit was also impressed with the play of veteran premier-leaguer Pat Bickerton as well as former first-division Shark – and Semiahmoo Secondary graduate – Jesse Train, who was making just his second-ever start at the premier level.
“Jesse’s fitness and skill is just at another level this year. He played really, really well,” Benoit said.
The one positive the Sharks can take from the loss, Benoit said, is that the mistakes are easily correctable.
“We have the skill, it’s not that, but we just made mistakes, and one led to another,” he said.
“You always learn more from losses than you do wins, so we’ll just get back to work and get ready for the next game.”
The Sharks don’t play this weekend, but return to the premier-league pitch Saturday, Feb. 19, when they host Meralomas at South Surrey Athletic Park.
In first division action at SSAP, the Sharks also dropped a game to Capilano, losing 33-19, while the Bayside third-division side knocked off the Caps 30-12.
In the first division tilt, Zach Thorpe had two tries and was named man-of-the-match, with Senirusi Rauge adding the team’s third try.
Dan Dixon and Mike Pinfield added conversions.
In the thirds’ victory, Neil Kinskofer led the charge for the Sharks with a pair of tries, with others coming from Joe Foulani, Spencer Marshall and Mike Pajic.
Man-of-the-match for Bayside was Bo Clark.
