Four years is not a very long championship drought for most sports teams but for the vaunted Rockridge Ravens senior boys rugby program, four years without claiming the New Zealand Shield as the Lower Mainland AA champions must have seemed like an eternity.
The Ravens last won the Shield in 2010 but since then have lost in the final every year to their cross-town frenemies from Collingwood School. Last Thursday the Ravens finally grabbed the prize back, beating the Cavaliers 20-16 on a gorgeous late afternoon at Stanley Park's Brockton Oval.
With the Shield finally in hand, the eyes of captains Mitch Mehlenbacher and Angus Carroll were instinctively drawn to the names etched into the trophy, proud to show their teammates the spot where the name Rockridge would land once more after a too-long absence.
"It's nice, I'm not going to lie," Rockridge head coach Perino Zambon said as his players celebrated the win. "It's a good one because we haven't won one in a while, they've gotten us the last three years. But at the end of the day I think there's a really good chance that we'll have to see each other again at some point. It's just nice for our guys to get a big win and be the first (Rockridge team) to get that Shield back in a little while.... It's nice to get a little payback but I think both coaching staffs will agree that our eyes are probably a couple of weeks down the road. Both teams expect to be in a final in a couple of weeks. We'll enjoy it, but not for too long."
The future battle that Zambon is predicting is the provincial AA championship final. The Ravens and Cavaliers head into the provincials ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and if they do both make it all the way to the final it would be the third meeting of the season between the two teams. Collingwood won the first round, the annual Hatch Shield game, 16-3 on May 2 at Rockridge.
The Ravens got their revenge in the Lower Mainland final thanks to a powerful performance in the dying minutes of the second half. Trailing 16-10 with the clock winding down, Rockridge mounted a quick counter attack that was finished off by a powerful dive and stretch from No. 8 Charlie Macdonald. Carroll kicked the convert to give Rockridge a one-point lead.
With Collingwood going into desperation mode to get the lead back it was Rockridge that kept the upper hand, bottling the Cavaliers in their own half for long stretches of time and winning two penalty kicks, one of which was converted by Carroll to bring the game to the final score. Rockridge's other try came from winger Brandon Leschert, while flanker Gian Steenkamp also had a standout performance.
Though they got the win, Zambon said the game could have easily gone either way.
"On the day I think there's really nothing between the two teams," he said. "(We) were very committed to being physical and playing good defence. You always have to defend Collingwood, they force you to defend the entire field by just presenting a lot of options on attack. They're tricky. I thought our guys' fitness was good and I thought our commitment was good. Our discipline needs a bit of work — we took a few too many penalties."
Both teams will now set their sights on the provincial championships which begin this Saturday. Rockridge will take on Sir Charles Tupper in the opening round while Collingwood will face Rick Hansen. Both games will be played at St. George's School starting at 2:30 p.m. The tournament then resumes in Abbotsford with matches scheduled for Wednesday, May 28; Thursday, May 29 and the finals on Saturday, May 31. A Collingwood vs. Rockridge final would be a rematch of last year's provincial championship game, won by Collingwood.
"I don't want us to get too far ahead of ourselves but I think that's what both teams expect," Zambon said of a potential rematch in the final. "I think both our programs start the year expecting to be provincial champions. I know that (Collingwood) is not going to give an inch in this tournament . . . . They're so well coached and they're a good team. Roger (Hatch) and Dave (Speirs) always have them ready and we know that it's always going to be a battle. It's a game that you always have to elevate your guys for because they're going to have their guys playing at a super high level."
For now Rockridge has a slight upper hand as the No. 1 seed. Zambon knows, however, that the pre-tournament rank is not the main prize the Ravens are hunting.
"(We're) No. 1 going in. I told them that's great but at the end of the day you've got to be No. 1 at the end of it," he said. "I think if our guys continue to be committed on defence and work hard, they have a good shot."
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West Vancouver's Mulgrave School also earned their way into the AA provincial championships where they'll be the 10th-ranked team. Their tournament gets underway Saturday when they take on G.W. Graham starting at 1 p.m. at St. George's.
On the AAA side the Carson Graham Eagles and Handsworth Royals will represent the North Shore. Carson topped Handsworth 22-14 in the Lower Mainland consolation game played Wednesday.
The 10th-ranked Eagles will travel to Vancouver Island Saturday to take on seventh-ranked G.P Vanier at Brentwood College starting at 2:30 p.m., while 11th-ranked Handsworth will meet sixth-ranked Earl Marriott Saturday starting at 1 p.m. at St. George's.
For updated schedules and results visit bcssru.com.
