Rooted at the foot of the Vancouver Island Rugby Union’s under-19 boys league this fall, the Velox Valhallians entered the semifinal looking up.

Velox’s fall season ended in a 42-10 loss to the Castaway Wanderers (CW) at Windsor Park on Sunday but wasn’t for a lack of trying.

In both of their previous two meetings CW hit the 50-point mark while holding Velox to single digits, but the flow of the game was a lot closer this time around.

“To their credit they came out and gave us a really hard game, their forward pack was very strong,” said CW eight-man John Humphries. “They really tested us in tight.”

As a club Velox seems to be the odd man left out these days, drawing from Saanich school based rugby programs like Reynolds, Claremont and Stelly’s. Meanwhile it’s no secret the rugby factories of Oak Bay high and St. Michael’s University School channel to James Bay and CW, respectively.

Despite playing second fiddle at the premier level to the successes of the James Bay and CW over the last decade, Velox are proving the well is deep enough on the South Island to field five competitive clubs with Cowichan and the University of Victoria being the other two.

Velox’s U19 are coached by Mike Pletch (22 caps for Canada) and Travis Robertson, who were both on Canada’s four-game leg through Portugal and Great Britain this month.

“These boys from Velox have to use their physicality and force these guys into playing that way, it’s an equalizer,” said Robertson.

“A lot of (Velox’s) kids are coming from non-traditional rugby schools and they’ve improved so much you just wish you could get more time with them,” added Robertson. “They came up against a really good team today and played their hearts out, and it showed.”

Indeed there was little quit in Velox’s game, evident in a late interception by eight-man Matt Evans who took it to within a breath of CW’s goal line only to have the ball end up on the sure foot of Connor MacKenzie who kicked it away.

MacKenzie was sharp on the day, converting all six of CW’s tries.

Stelly’s graduate and tight head prop Phil Erb was strong on the day for Velox, as was Reynold’s senior Cory Walker. Evans, Erb and Walker have put in some physically demanding weekends earning caps with Velox’s first division.

“They’re all great players who have a bright future with the premier and firsts,” said Robertson. “For a team with some players coming in that hadn’t played rugby until 14- and 15-years-old, they proved they did a real good job.”

A first-place finish in the regular season awarded CW the right to host the semifinal and their upcoming match against the Cowichan Piggies this Sunday for the VIRU Carson Cup junior championship. The Piggies defeated James Bay 32-5 in the other semifinal,

“Both Cowichan and James Bay have strong (forward) packs,” said Humphries, a student at SMUS.

In their first meeting of the season CW outgunned the Piggies 43-33 in October. But it was the Piggies who won the last outing, a close-fought 18-12 battle at Windsor Park on Nov. 9.

The winner of this Sunday’s Island title earns a shot at the provinicial final Dec. 13 on the mainland.

Game time for Sunday’s tilt at Windsor is likely to start at 2:30 p.m., though the time will be confirmed at www.bcrugby.com.

sports@vicnews.com