THE Capilano Rugby Club's elite men's team would certainly rather have a win and a berth in the CDI Premier League provincial final following their semifinal matchup against James Bay in Victoria on Saturday but, perhaps, the team can take some solace in participating in what was, by all accounts, one of the most entertaining rugby games ever seen in these parts.
The Caps fell behind big early but roared back in the second half, eventually sending the game to overtime before finally falling 34-27 to James Bay.
"It's unanimous from their spectators and ours that it was one of the most exciting rugby games seen by anybody," Capilano head coach Tom Larisch said after returning home to the North Shore. "It was filled with every type of drama - mistakes to high end skill play. It had everything. It was a great spectacle for the sport and it was played in good spirit."
For Capilano it had everything except a happy ending. For James Bay the win gave the team a little revenge after losing last year's championship game to Capilano by a single point.
Saturday's semifinal at MacDonald Park actually started well for Capilano as a Matt Simms scored a penalty kick for a 3-0 lead. From there, however, the scoreboard spun only for James Bay for the rest of the half. A converted try in the 13th minute made it 7-3 James Bay and then the game broke wide open with Dave Moonlight making an incredible play, blocking a kick and catching it all in one motion and running it in for a try.
With time winding down a missed defensive assignment for Capilano led to a third try and by the halftime whistle it was 22-3. While the scoreboard said blowout, the Capilano sideline felt much differently. Larisch said there wasn't screaming or panic during the halftime talk, rather affirmation that the Caps were actually playing well and that luck would have to change.
"Their pressure resulted in points and our pressure resulted in heartbreak . . . we were very unlucky to be down 22-3." said Larisch. "We put ourselves in a really big hole. It wasn't because we had a bad start - we actually started really well, we prepared really well, the guys came out and played very well."
With the wind and slope of the pitch now favouring them, Capilano charged back in the second half with tries from Adam Zaruba, Simms and Steven Jones, all the while playing shutout defence. By the 70-minute mark the game was all squared up, 2222.
After 80 minutes the score was still tied so on they went to play two 10-minute overtime halves. James Bay struck first with an unconverted try in the first overtime but Capilano once again fought back, this time against the wind, with Taylor Dalziel touching down to tie it up. Here the hard luck came back, however, as Capilano's convert nailed the crossbar and bounced straight up into the air, falling back to earth just outside the goal line.
"It was brutal," said Larisch. "If that convert goes through we probably win the game because now they have to score and they're deflated."
Instead James Bay's Spencer Dalziel, Taylor's brother, took sibling rivalry to a new level by beating his bro's squad with a try in the 98th minute. The win moved James Bay to this Saturday's championship final against Burnaby Lake while sending Capilano to the sidelines for the summer.
"We just kept plugging away and we were rewarded by our efforts with a hugely exciting comeback but we just couldn't finish it off," said Larisch. "The guys believed in the plan and we got right back into it but unfortunately we just created too much of a hole to win in regulation and once it goes into overtime it's anybody's game."
Though the bounces were unkind to Capilano, Larisch said their opponents were deserving winners.
"I have to give full credit to James Bay," he said. "The guys played outstanding and for them to regroup for overtime and play how they did in overtime was quite surprising, because it looked like we were going to kind of manhandle them."
Larisch said he'll leave the 2012-13 season feeling good about the club even though they fell short of a repeat championship.
"I couldn't be prouder of the effort of the players," he said. "The club is in a good spot. Last year at this time we retired five or six key players and next year we're only going to be adding to what we already have. Hopefully we can bounce back and make another go of it next year."
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Four Capilano men's teams were in provincial semifinals on the weekend, a strong show of force that also stretched the club very thin. The Div. 1 team lost 18-3 to Burnaby Lake. Following the match five players took a Heli-Jet to Victoria to provide reinforcements for the shorthanded premier team, arriving five minutes before kickoff.
At the Div. 3 level the Tier A Capilano team knocked off Kats RFC 15-10 while the Tier B squad beat Comox 15-12. Capilano's Klahanie Field will play host to four provincial finals this Saturday with the Caps taking on the Brit Lions in the Div. 3 Tier A final at 11 a.m., Capilano B playing Abbotsford RFC in the Div. 3 Tier B final at 12: 40 p.m., the Surrey Beavers meeting Abbotsford in the Okanagan Spring Brewery Men's League 2 final at 2: 20 p.m. and Vancovouver Rowing Club facing Abbotsford in the Okanagan Spring Brewery Men's League 1 final at 4 p.m. General admission tickets for the day are $15 or $10 for under-15s and students with valid IDs.
