For much of this season the Rockridge Ravens senior rugby team was slugging away like a boxer unable to throw his best punch.
They were still winning bouts — including the Lower Mainland title with a win over their powerful cross-town rivals from Collingwood — but knew they could do even more damage if only they could unleash their most dangerous weapon: a swift uppercut named Adam Martin. The Grade 12 scrum half was practising with the team mostly in a non-contact role, unable to get into the real action as he came back from a fully torn ACL he suffered in November of 2012 that required surgery and intensive rehab. It was obvious to all observers that if Martin was cleared to play, he would be a difference maker right away.
“He’s an unreal player,” said coach Perino Zambon. “We see him in practice all the time playing touch and it’s like, ‘Oh, when can Adam come back?’”
Last week, Adam came back. It was a knockout.
Martin’s first action since the injury was last weekend’s provincial championship tournament and all he did was earn a spot on the Commissioner’s XV team as Rockridge’s MVP while guiding the Ravens to their first B.C. title since 2010. Rockridge clinched the crown with a 28-15 win over Collingwood Saturday at Abbotsford’s Rotary Stadium. Zambon lauded Martin’s efforts to get back on the pitch in time to finish his high school career with a championship.
“We knew he was a great player, it was just a matter of would he be able to come back in time,” he said. “He just committed himself to being able to get back to those provincials in Grade 12. I thought it was very fitting that he came back, played a great tournament and was our Commissioner’s XV.”
Martin, who didn’t have his surgery until September 2013, admits that he wasn’t given full clearance from his medical team but he and his parents decided to take a chance at the provincial championships.
“My surgeons and my physio both said to wait a year, so I was pushing it,” he said. “My physio said it was a 50/50 chance. If I played I could re-injure it, or I could be fine.”
Martin took the chance and came up lucky. Battling some nerves, he still managed to score in the first game and the Ravens cruised through their opening round opponents. Their first stiff test came from a talented St. Michaels team in the semifinals when Rockridge raced out to a 20-0 lead but barely hung on for a 20-17 win.
Coach Zambon said his team chose to view the win as a testament to their strength rather than an almost collapse.
“That was a huge win for us, it really gave the guys confidence that if they keep their heads on and keep their discipline, they could beat anybody,” he said. “These kids are good kids that we get to coach and teach, they’re tough kids mentally and physically. Rather than looking at that as a thing that might weaken us, we looked at it as a strong test that we survived.”
The good vibes did carry over to the final as the Ravens battled to a 7-3 lead at halftime — Martin opened the scoring with a diving try — before building up a 28-10 lead in the second half. Collingwood scored in the final minute to make it 28-15 but that was the end of the action. Rockridge’s other tries came from Wyatt Vickerstaff, Jackson Claridge and Brandon Leschert while Angus Carroll, co-captain along with Mitch Melenbacher, kicked four tough converts in the swirling Fraser Valley wind.
“Collingwood was defending and doing what they do really well, which is hold onto the ball through multiple phases,” said Zambon. “Our guys just relied on their defence and in the second half managed to get a couple of scores and develop a bit of a lead. . . . Our forward pack as a group played well. Charlie Macdonald played well. Brock Duncan was a boy who started playing rugby for us in Grade 12. He had just an incredible tournament. Incredible year, considering that he started in Grade 12.”
As for Collingwood, they cruised through the tournament until slamming up against the Rock.
“Rockridge just played really good rugby,” said head coach David Speirs. “They were worthy winners and that’s the way it goes sometimes. . . . We missed some key tackles. That was the bottom line. We put in some good tactical kicks and they escaped our grasp, got it into our half and played some good rugby from there.”
Carlos Sheppard and Bailey Speirs scored tries in the final, with Speirs earning a spot on the Commissioner’s XV team.
“He had a great game,” coach Speirs said of MVP Bailey, who also happens to be his son. “He was really strong on offence, made a lot of good runs and was outstanding defensively. It’s a bad sign when your scrum half has to make a lot of tackles. And he had to make a lot of tackles.”
The game marked the final Collingwood contest for co-coach Roger Hatch who is retiring this year after a 29-year run with the program that included 15 provincial medals.
“The storybook ending didn’t occur,” said Speirs, “(But) he went out going to five straight B.C. finals. A record of seven golds, six silvers and two bronze medals. That’s a pretty amazing record.”
This year’s final was just one more chapter in the Rockridge/Collingwood rivalry that ebbs and flows with neither team ever gaining full control. The Cavaliers won last year’s final over the Ravens.
“I definitely think both programs drive each other to get better,” said Zambon. “Because the expectations are high for each program, I think we do kind of force the other one to keep pace. It’s always kind of a challenge back and forth to see who can better the other one.”
The win was especially sweet for Martin who had to watch from the sidelines last year as the Cavaliers claimed the championship.
“I really felt like I let down the team not being able to play there — all this year I’ve been trying to get back on it,” he said, adding that the contests against Collingwood are always the most intense matchups of the year.
“All of our guys know each other from Capilano (Rugby Club) and all of the other leagues so there’s a massive rivalry,” he said. “We’ve always been out to get them. It’s always the most physical game and always a really close game.”
As for winning the team’s MVP award in his first action in 18 months, Martin deflected the praise onto his teammates.
“I’m still surprised,” he said of earning the award. “Our team is full of so many good players. It was just an amazing game for our entire team. At the end of the year everything just clicked. I can’t really say it was just me.”
Martin also seemed content with his decision to take his chances on the field knowing his knee wasn’t back to 100 per cent.
“It was definitely worth the risk,” he said, adding that he owes a lot of thanks to his coaches for the faith they had in him. “I was a year and a half without playing rugby and they still had the confidence to put me back out there. That really just made me want to prove to them that was the right decision.”
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West Vancouver’s Mulgrave School finished sixth at the AA championships while on the AAA side Carson Graham was the top North Shore finisher with an eighth-place showing while Handsworth placed 12th.
