Capilano Win 2005 Rounsefell Cup with a 33-16 win over the Vancouver Meralomas

Capilano Win 2005 Rounsefell Cup with a 33-16 win over the Vancouver Meralomas

By Jan-Christian Sorensen – North Shore News – jsorensen@nsnews.com

posted May 5 2005

THE Capilano Rugby Football Club’s premier men’s team is the best in the province.

Again.

Last May the West Van side won its first F.W. Rounsefell Cup provincial championship trophy in 49 years with a 17-12 win over the UBC Old Boys Ravens. Up to that point, a local team had not claimed the B.C. crown since the North Shore All Blacks won it back in 1955 – 14 years before the club merged with the West Vancouver Barbarians to form the current Capilano club.

On Saturday afternoon the Caps stamped a well-deserved repeat on the trophy when they dispatched the Vancouver Meralomas 33-16 at UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium.

As they did the week previous in their BCRU semifinal match against the Velox Valhallians – the host Caps were behind 10-0 at the break in that one but rebounded for a 28-10 win and a berth in the B.C. final – the champs saved their best efforts for the second half of the game.

After two frames it was the Meralomas who held a 13-11 advantage. But the Capilano offence cycled up after the break, the defence clamped down and the Meralomas only managed to put another three points on the board before the boys in black and yellow once again celebrated as they held aloft the Cup.

“That seems to be the story with us week in and week out,” said Capilano premier team captain Mike Andrew, who was named the man of the match after the dust settled. “The opposition just runs out of gas and we start holding onto the ball, keeping possession, and eventually break them down.

“The floodgates opened for us in the second half. We had a nice back move – Nick Belmar put in a nice pass to Tony Weller, who got off a nice pass to Chris Burk, who scored a try that was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back. You could see it in the faces of (the Meralomas) after that. They knew they probably didn’t have a chance to win. We were dominating the game at that point and we didn’t seem to give up the ball at all in the second half of the game. They could not get through our defence. We really stepped up in that facet of the game.”

The Capilano tries were scored by Ian Smortchevsky, Akio Tyler, Brent Steacy and Burk. Tom Larisch had a pair of conversions and a penalty, and Kevin Guidi added another two penalties to the tally. On the Vancouver side, Brian Erichsen scored the only try and Ian Breheney was good for the convert and three penalties.