It’s a good thing for the Capilano Rugby Club’s premier men’s team that they didn’t leave anything to chance on Saturday because, it turns out, chance did not have their backs.
The Caps came into Saturday’s regular season finale at Klahanie Park against UBC knowing that if they beat the first-place Thunderbirds they would guarantee themselves a spot in the CDI Premier League playoffs. A loss, however, could have dropped Capilano out of the playoffs if the two teams right below them in the standings — James Bay and Burnaby Lake — won their finales.
In the end James Bay and Burnaby did record victories but so did Capilano, riding a massive second half performance to a 33-3 win over the Thunderbirds.
“You never want to leave it in someone else’s hands,” said Capilano head coach Tom Larisch following the match. “It was great to do it ourselves.”
It looked, however, like the Caps could use all the help they could get through a tight first half. It was tough to gain any terrain for both teams and the difference in the half came down to kicking as UBC’s Murphy Burke nailed a penalty while Capilano’s Chris Robinson nailed the post, making it 3-0 for the university squad at halftime.
Potentially facing an early end to their season, there was no gnashing of teeth in the Capilano halftime huddle, said Larisch, just acknowledgement of the situation.
“It just came down to the guys knowing they really had to do it,” he said. “They were under the gun and just went after it. We put a couple of guys in that had fresh legs and that helped change the game in our favour.”
The second half started with another missed kick for Capilano but from then on it was one-way traffic towards the UBC end zone. Capilano captain Glen McKinnon got the home team on the board, finishing a long push with a short try, converted by Robinson to make it 7-3. Brady Carpenter then used his speed and power down the right side to score the first of his two tries on the day to make it 14-3 following a tricky convert from way out wide from Robinson.
By the time McKinnon touched down for his second of the day the rout was on, finished off by another speedy try from Carpenter down the right side and a bruising run down the left side by James Dempsey in the final minutes. As the final whistle blew, Capilano coaches and fans took to their phones to see the out-of-town scores coming in and realized that the game they just won was, in fact, a must-win.
“It was a great performance by the guys to get in the playoffs here,” said Larisch. “I realize UBC is missing a few of their top guns through exams and injuries, but they gave us a massive game for the first 50 minutes and we were lucky there to just stay with our pattern and get a couple of tries in. And then we really turned it on in the end there and it was great to see.”
McKinnon provided the team with a big boost after missing two games due to suspension and Carpenter’s running — once Larisch moved him to an outside position in the second half — helped blow the game wide open.
“That was a big turning point,” Larisch said of Carpenter’s shift to the outside. “He was able to open the game up for us.”
Capilano will now travel to Victoria to take on the second-place UVic Vikes in one Premier League semifinal Saturday starting at 2:45 p.m. at the university’s Centennial Stadium. Larisch is hoping Capilano’s big win over UBC will give them momentum heading into Saturday’s semifinal.
“You want to be going in on the front foot and I think today we gave ourselves a bit of confidence,” he said. “Hopefully we can do something with that moving forward in the semis.”
In the other semifinal action on Saturday fourth-place Burnaby Lake will play UBC at Thunderbird Stadium.
Larisch knows not to jump ahead of the matchups but admitted that a rematch with UBC in the final would be a fun one given how many connections there are between the two teams.
“We have such great ties with them,” he said.
Coaches Ramses Langston and Curry Hitchborn as well as strength coach Joe McCullum are all on the UBC staff, and the roster is stacked with North Shore players, including recent North Shore Sport Awards junior male athlete of the year winner Cole Keffer who played scrum half for UBC Saturday and was all over the field in a losing effort. The Rounsfell Cup will be handed out May 9 following the CDI Premier League championship game at a location to be determined.
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The premier men’s win anchored a four-for-four sweep at home for Capilano teams Saturday. The Div. 1 men knocked off UBC 27-15, the Div. 3A men beat UBC 36-22 and the Div. 3B men knocked off SFU 8-5.
The Div. 1 team finished second in their league and will host a playoff game May 2. The 3A squad also finished second and will host Kamloops RFC in a playoff quarterfinal starting at 1 p.m. April 25 at Klahanie. The 3B team finished fifth and will play Ridge Meadows RFC in a playoff quarterfinal April 25 starting at 1 p.m. at Thomas Haney secondary.
The premier women, locked into fourth place and a playoff spot, will play Bayside in their final regular season game at South Surrey Athletic Park April 25 starting at 11:30 a.m.
The Div. 2 women, also locked into a playoff spot, will play their final regular season game on the road against Kelowna April 25.
