Mark Brown Jr. tries to slip past opponents during a game in Victoria on Sunday, Oct. 5. Mid Island United SC won 3-1 against Vantreights. The Vancouver Island Soccer League is up and running for the season. Next game is Friday. See Page 29 for more information.
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ShareGrade 8 team faced multiple defeats
By Stephen Thomson - Ladysmith Chronicle
Published: October 06, 2008 5:00 PM
The Ladysmith Secondary boys rugby teams will have to dig deep after a string of losses in recent away games.
For the Grade 8 boys, there have been two defeats during the past week.
The first came Sept. 30 when Brentwood College School crushed Ladysmith 44-22. Coach Kyle MacDonald said the team was hampered by tackling that isn’t aggressive enough.
He said the players are going to have to get down lower to take down their opponents. But he said the Ladysmith side is doing good work when it comes to ball handling and off-load passing.
The next game for the Grade 8s had a better outcome with the team shutting out George Bonner Middle School 22-18 on Oct. 2. MacDonald described it as a close match.
Ladysmith was losing 13-5 at the halfway point, but came back to overtake George Bonner 17-13.
But that wasn’t the last to be heard from the Mill Bay team.
They responded with a try in the closing minutes of the game, leaving Ladysmith little time to flip the table yet again and run home another try.
MacDonald said the team was rucking for the first time in the game and that it worked out well.
But after that narrow victory, it was back to the cold reality of defeat as the Grade 8s took on St. George’s School in Vancouver. MacDonald said tackling was again a problem, and the situation wasn’t helped given that the Vancouver private school has a player who can run the 100 metres in close to 11 seconds.
That player wasn’t watched closely enough, the coach said, and scored five trys.
But MacDonald highlighted the efforts of Jacob Mason, Colby Smith and David Jerome, who all scored trys of their own.
That Oct. 3 game finished with a score of 44-24 for St. George’s.
In junior boys’ play, there was slightly less to smile about for Ladysmith with two losses in two games during the past week. The first came Sept. 30 against Brentwood College School. MacDonald said Ladysmith was dominant but stumbled when it came to working well as a team.
Losing ball possession during contact was another problem, he added.
The score of that game was 27-15.
After that it was the junior team’s turn to take on St. George’s, which resulted in a score of 44-22 for the Vancouver players. MacDonald said there was good ball handling and support play by the backs and Jacob Fenner and Seth Jerome had a good game.
The two Ladysmith teams head to Courtenay Oct. 8 and the juniors play at home Oct. 9.
