South Delta Rugby

While the Grade 8 team competed in a Fraser Valley Playoff game, the crowd gathered in anticipation of the annual SDSS ‘Old Boy’s’ game, played each year on the second Friday in May.  Clearly, the high school team was pumped for the encounter. Coach Minns had his best fifteen take the field while the ‘Old Boys’ patched together a squad with a few bodies to spare.

The Devils came out hard and controlled the ball well, working their way down the field with quick rucks and a variety of distributions, a few to the backs and then the forwards would run it effectively up the middle.  Their persistence paid off, when early in the first half they worked it down the field and scored in the corner off a scrum blind side attack about 15 yards away from the line.

The ‘Old Boys’ were punished with some excellent running by the Devil backs, Mike Van Straaten, Jermey Wollin and Alan Casey.  However, the Old boys backfield defended well and prevented any further scoring.  Then, late in the first half the Old Boys scrum started to gel and they won some good ball and moved within the 22 meter line of the Devils team. Some good work by the Old Boys No. 8 Ryan Hummel and Prop Tim Ivens allowed the Old Boys to take one over the line to even the score at 5 each.  The Devils came back with several fresh attacks but both teams held their ground.

Right from the kick off to begin the second half, the Old Boys came out hard and moved the ball nicely down field with some textbook rucking and managed to control the ball through several phases. Then just inside the 22 meter line, Ryan Hummel picked from No. 8 and initiated a blind side attack and the Old Boys scored in the corner giving them a 10-5 lead. Later in the half, Josh Parks had a nice run for the Old boys scampering 40 yards for a score and making it 15-5.

Then late in the game the Devils applied pressure after a kick and managed to collect a bouncing ball and take it for a score. With the clock ticking down, the Old Boys managed to fend off several aggressive attacks and held on to their lead until the final whistle. Paul DeLauries, Phil Lipton and Mike Pinfield did well in the backfield, while John Sruthers, Dane Young and York Graham worked hard in the scrum for the Old Boys. In York’s case, it was his first match in 22 years and he really got stuck in.  

In the next match up, the Old Boys took on the Young Boys in a hard fought match. While the Old Boys joints were just starting to limber up, the Young boys took some time to organize and the Old Boys took advantage, by scoring shortly after the starting whistle with a good pack burst up the middle.  Once they got their bearing, the Young Boys played some good ball and it was clear that Lee Thompson had been playing some after school rugby and Adam Jarrett had only improved his moves down the centre. Jeff Hartman, Seungjoo Kee and Blake Rogers also played hard, helping the young boys take a 10-5 lead going into the half.

In the second half, the Old Boys managed to slow things down with some good possession and forward control.  Midway through the second half, the Old Boys broke from a 15 yard scrum and worked their way over the goal line to tie things up at 10.  Both teams pushed to break the game line but both sides defended well while the scrums controlled much of the play up the middle. The game ended in a draw, a fair outcome in a tough match.

The young boys then took on the Devils and it too was a battle. There was some good distribution by the Devils and some good running by backs Mike Van Straaten  Alan Casey and Jeremy Wollin. Tyree Alleyne, Ryan Helferty and Tanar Rushworth played hard in the scrum.  The teams traded tries in the first half and in the second the Devils came out hard wearing down the Young Boys until they score on a nice drive up the middle.  The Young boys countered later and not wanting to end the game in a tie, they played a little longer but neither team gcould break the line so they settled on a 10-10 tie.  

After the game, Charlie presented some fun awards which included several bricks and golden boots. He also provided tiara’s for the ‘men of each match’.  Luckily the recipents were not forced to wear them later on at the Tsawwassen Golf Course where we had a burger and brews and did some catching up. Next years game takes place on the second Friday of May. Hope to see all the Alumni out.                         

It wouldn’t be going out on a limb to declare 2008 the most successful season of rugby ever at South Delta. In March our senior team toured Ireland with a squad of 39 players and four coaches. Our ‘A’ squad won 3 of 5 games on the tour and most of these games saw the whole squad get playing time. The tour however, took it’s toll on the senior team and injuries prevented this year’s team from reaching it’s full potential. Healthy, this years senior team was certainly one of South Delta’s finest.

We fielded six rugby teams in 2008; two senior squads, two junior sqads, a grade 8 squad and new this year, a senior women’s squad composed of grades 8-12. Close to 150 students participated in this years rugby program and currently the Juniors, grade 8s and the women’s teams are active in the Fraser Valley Championships with games scheduled into late May.

On Friday, May 9th at 3:15 p.m. we celebrate our 20th Annual ‘Old Boys’ Alumni rugby game. It takes place at South Delta Secondary. Once again, former coach and founder, John Narbett, will come out of retirement to coach the Old Boys. The SDSS annual ‘Old Boys’ alumni game celebrates our friendships, our school and our sport.

We welcome the community and particularly former alumni to come out and watch this classic match up and challenge all former Sundevil rugby alumni to brush off their boots and put on the old school jersey for this annual friendly match. Festivities get under way around 3:00 pm at the South Park field. Later we’ll head over to the Tsawwassen Golf Club for dinner and hoist a few at around 6:30 pm.  

Women’s rugby is back at South Delta. Working with a squad of 24, only one player had any games expereince. Our first game against Heritage was a hard fought battle seeing three tries scored; one for us and two for them. Our set scrums and line-outs were flawless but we were beaten in the loose.
Our second game and the first with our new jerseys saw the team come out a little flat and Hanson was able to sore and convert a couple of first half tries. The She Devils came out stronger in the second half and managed to score a converted try and hold Hanson to only one score that was unconverted. The final score was 19- 7.
Our most recent game against Tweedsmuir was a hard defensive battle which saw the opponents display excellent ball control but we manged to hold them to only one unconverted try. The She Devils next game is against a strong Aldergrove side and our last league game will be against Haney.

It is now almost 1 am on Thursday, March 20th.  The bus has just returned from our 3rd match against a club in Tipperary called Clonmel RFC.  We are staying in a hostel in Cork and it is about a 2 hour drive to the club.  Our matches of course were Wednesday night but with the long ride home we passed into Thursday.  However, it is best to report while everything is fresh in one’s mind so despite real fatigue here goes:

Clonmel originally had planned to have two games simultaneously but as they were building bleachers on one of their main pitches they chose to have our 2nd XV play their U16 squad at 6pm followed by their U18s playing our 1st XV.  Our 2nd XV played a great game and moved the ball well in the tight and controlled much of the loose. 

However, as one might imagine, these lads who have been playing together since the age of 10 showed great skill on the outside and were able to crack SDs defense at the corners.  There was no quit in our boys but eventually they fell to the hosts 17 to 7.

The 1st XV and the Clonmel U18s then came on the field and with all of the usual pre-game emotional promotion the kick off to begin the match was at 7:10pm.  It appeared from the get go that our boys would be in over their heads, somewhat like the match versus Ashburne’s U18 side.  And this was confirmed with an early try in the corner.  This was a very skilled and physically strong side, certainly as good or better than the Ashburne lads.  But something magical seemed to prompt our boys and they somehow managed to keep covering the field and spoiling what often looked like sure tries.  Locks were coming across to support the backs and made huge tackles on their outside runners to time and time again spoil their efforts to cross the try line. 

After much of the first half being spent defending, one of our big props went for a ramble and suddenly became unstoppable and just when the Clonmel finally managed to bring him down, our #10 was there and our prop made a beautiful off load allowing our fly half to scamper in between the posts for our first blood.  As the game progressed, South Delta’s confidence seemed to keep growing and our defense just kept getting stronger.  So it had to, because the Irish sides show amazing skill at steeling ball in the loose and have kicking skills learned from years of Gaelic Football.  Our deep backs seemed to sense the distance and their positioning throughout allowed their side to keep returning and penetrating. SDs fly half avoided several tackles behind his 22 and managed to get away a kick that did not come close to touch, but he had the foresight to chase his kick and snatched it from their fullback and scored the next try.

The second half proved to be a bit more testing for the boys as the host side was not about to walk off the field as losers to this Canadian side.  But something seemed to keep pumping the Delta side up and they were just not going to let the Irish in.  Eventually the Clonmel lads scored an unconverted try and this seemed to give them a lift and put us back on our defensive heels for much of the half.  But again we broke out and eventually after some praiseworthy rucking and rolling mauls another of our props crashed over the line and another converted try was on the board. 

The score was now 21 to 5 but the Irish side was determined but with each flurry of great back play, our defense was just not about to let down.  Eventually they crossed over again but could not convert so the score now about half way thru the second half was 21 to 10.  They just kept coming and managed to score again but with no conversion.  The South Delta side however just kept battling realizing that a converted try would result in a win for the hosts.  When the final whistle blew with the score 21 to 15 for our side, the entire squad of 39 boys was elated.

I cannot remember watching a game with so much heart and so much commitment.  Our team somehow reached a new level in pace to the breakdown and defensive skills.  Most interesting was the fact that the second half was over 50 minutes.  It seemed that the ref who was also the U18 coach was having a problem with the time keeping side.  However, he eventually blew the final whistle only yards from our goal line and that paved the way for some superb hospitality.  This is a club worth hosting and certainly worth visiting again.  We are the first Canadian side they have played and I think the boys did the country proud.

What is also very noteworthy is the conduct of these young men from South Delta.  They are incredibly polite where ever they go and deserve a lot of praise for how they have handled themselves on this trip.  A bit of a lie in tomorrow, breakfast at 10am, bus departs at 11am to Bunratty Castle, then onto our hostel in Limerick.  On Friday morning they will have a training session with the Munster RFC coach so much is expected to come from that.

Rod Lotzkar has set up an Ireland Tour Gallery with some great photos of the trip so far.  I’ve posted a few of them to the Sun Devils website as well.   

Shaking Shaking off the jet-lag of the following day’s travels and tribulations the SDSS Devils team arrived at the stunning Malahide Rugby Club and took to the field against the experienced local U-18 club team.  The Devils were pumped.  Straight from the kick-off the team ran hard and aggressively with the ball and even harder and aggressively in defense. 

Although the local team were successful at turning over the Devils’ possession, the pressure started to tell and Malahide conceded a couple of penalties.  A great kick to the corner gave the Devils a line-out on the 5-metre line.  The ball was thrown to the back where Ryan Helfrety collected the ball and powered over the line for the first try.  Keagen McCabe converted the try and the Devils found themselves with a surprising 7-0 lead. 

Malahide came back hard, but the Devils defense in mid-field held firm and eventually caused a errant open field kick which was gratefully collected by Keagan and run back for try under the posts.  Continued pressure resulted in a second run in by Keagan, followed by a blocked clearance kick that was recovered by Nick Mills for the Devils forth try and a stunning half-time 24-0 lead

After half-time the Malahide team came back hard and pressured the Devils with some testing positional kicks and hard-running back-play.  The pressure told and Malahide clawed their way back into the game, scoring four unanswered tries and binging the score back to 24-22.  The last minutes tested the pride and determination of the Devils defense.  The defense held and resisted a final minute pounding of their goal line to record a hard-fought win in their first game on tour. The final score Malahide 22 SDSS Devils 24.

The Devils were hosted admirably by the Malahide club afterwards and the players, coaches and parents experienced the spirit and friendship of rugby which pervades the game world-wide

Welcome to the South Delta Rugby Blog. Our teams include two senior, a junior, a grade 8 boys team and a senior girls team. Our website at sundevilsrubgy.com includes the latest news about our current teams, alumni info and tour information. 

South Delta Rugby has teams entered in the Fraser Valley High School League. The season began in February with practices and a few exhibition games. For the first time in several years, we’ll field a girls side this year, entered in the AA Division. The senior boys will play in the AAA Divison.