Pink Day 2023 - Match Reports

Quite a Day at Klahanie Park. Thanks to Burnaby for 4 hard games of Rugby; and also Langley RFC for the 2nd Division Women’s game. Capilano won the 2nd Division Women’s game and the Premier Women’s game against Burnaby Lake. Caps won the 3rd Division game over Burnaby Lake. Burnaby won the Premier Reserve game and the Premier Men’s game. Capilano prefer to host Burnaby Lake as they are one of the few clubs that field teams in all Divisions. The have a good following and this always helps swell the numbers at the gate. This was the 10th annual Pink Day and it seems to get better every year. All involved deserve a shout out. What a group effort!

The 3rd Division Men’s game won by Capilano by by a score of 43-20.

Caps fielded a strong team today with many reserves. This is a big turnaround for the Capilano RFC that have struggled for the last couple of seasons to field 3 men’s teams. The Snowcaps over 40’s have assisted the club by supplying players to help field a full squad. This doesn’t look like it will be necessary this season as the player turnout has been very encouraging. The only Snowcap that played in this game was Jose, “Chile” Santiago who still plays well at this level and scored another try today. He was last season’s back of the year. Capilano backs ran hard and were provided a lot of ball by a very active hard tackling pack. Burnaby did answer with some fightback and managed 20 points. Caps though doubled the score today and looked very much in control. Rugby teams are built from the bottom up and several of today’s players will likely move up as the season progresses. This win has been a long time coming for the Capilano 3rd squad. A victory over Burnaby Lake is very significant! Congratulations to the coaches, players, and training staff.

Premier Men

This game was won by Burnaby by a score of 28-21

This game could certainly have gone either way Caps had many chances to score when they had the lead but seemed to take penalties at the breakdown and or lost ball in contact. Matt Nicol led Caps with two tries. He opened the scoring following a break by Johnny Franklin who passed to Matt. Matt spun out of a tackle and touched down for the first score of the contest. Mike Moloney hit the convert and Caps were up by 7. It looked like Caps would increase their lead but it wasn’t to be and Burnaby scored and converted to even the score at 7. Burnaby then scored again to increase their lead to 14-7. Caps evened the score with a try off a lineout deep in Burnaby territory. The Mike Moloney conversion made it even at the half 14-14.

Early in the 2nd half, Matt Nicol intercepted a pass and took it the distance. A convert from Moloney put Caps up 21-14 .For Capilano that ended their scoring for the game. A penalty kick was missed that would have increased their lead. Burnaby fought back and answered with a well earned try in the South East corner of the pitch. The convert missed and Caps had a tenuous two point lead, 21-19 Burnaby looked to have scored another but the player must have gone into touch. The referee was playing advantage and a penalty kick directly in front of the posts game them the lead 22-21. Caps had several late chances but were unable to score. Burnaby added two more penalty kicks to take the win 28-21. The game was quite clean except for a late scuffle after a dump tackle off the ball. I though the officials missed a clear penalty deep in the Burnaby end late in the game, a Burnaby clearance kick bounced off a Burnaby player ahead of the kicker and I thought that should have been penalty. The game film seems to back this assertion up. Other than that I thought the officials did a good job controlling the game. Thanks to them for their assistance. Players that I noticed for Burnaby their number 9 had a strong game as did their number 10 who kicked well. For Capilano the ageless Glen McKinnon seemed to be everywhere. Jason de Freitas looked good at hooker. In the backs Caps Matt Nicol had a good game as did Captain Johnny Franklin. The aftergame tug a war and children’s fun stuff is a great addition and helps make Klahanie a special place for family fun. Next week Caps are in Victoria against U-Vic. See you at the next home game.

Written by John Langley