Vancouver Rogues Rugby Football Club

by Conor Walshe, Fullback, Rogues RFC

I remember watching a TV documentary on the New Zealand All Blacks. All the players talked about pride in the jersey and how once they put the jersey on it meant they brought their A game and nothing less. This same pride was shown last Saturday by all who donned the blue jersey. Passion and pride was demonstrated in all 80 minutes by every player on the field.

The game started off with a wayward kick (or just poor judgment of the wind factor by me) which resulted in a Richmond scrum. This gave the Rogues forwards a chance to put down a marker as to how they were going to play. And that they did, driving Richmond off their own ball with a strong strike at the head. This resulted in a number of strongly contested Rogues-dominated rucks capped by a series of passes out to Gareth (Wills) Williams, the Flying Welshman, on the wing where he managed to put it down in the corner.

From the restart, again Rogues had most of the possession with fly half Jon Corbiere orchestrating the flawless execution of some of the Rogues plays to open up Richmond’s backs. Strong rucking from forwards and backs alike gave scrum half and team captain Andrew Swan a chance to get quick ball to Jon who was able to pass the ball swiftly on to centre Derek “Speednuts” LaFortune, who crossed the line to score. More strong play from the Rogues after the restart helped to release Wills out on the wing again. With some fast foot work Wills crossed the line again for his second try of the game.

Richmond was not going to let the Rogues have it all their own way, however. A number of strong carries got them close to the Rogues goal line. By tidy recycling of the ball, Richmond continued to pierce further into Rogues territory and a final strong carry by their captain saw Richmond put 5 points up on the board.

Rogues heads didn’t drop and we came out strongly on the kick return. Some strong defense and hard rucking forced Richmond to put boot to ball and clear their line. The kick was well read by Jon Corbiere who caught the ball cleanly and passed off to Swany on the loop around who took an excellent line across the pitch opening up the Richmond defense, and then released Mark Barre to score under the posts. This was a well executed piece of counter-attack involving both forwards backs to score and an example of what this team is capable at its best.

Half time soon came and Coach Samara told us to go out and put another 3 tries up on the score board. A tall ask against a team that was getting stronger but none the less a goal the team were going to try to reach. Mark Pashley subbed in for Prasad at half time giving a new look to the front row with Dallas at hooker after Rusty retired due to a seriously respectable bruised right eye. That is going to look good in a few days Rusty!

From the restart the Rogues came out with all cylinders firing for the second half. With forwards rucking hard and presenting clean ball, Swany was able to make clean breaks or find Jon in space for Jon to pick his backs to pass onto. Wills shortly scored his 3rd try of the game down the right wing giving the Rogues a comfortable lead.

Injuries saw the Rogues coaches make number of personnel changes in the second half. Coach Gibson took the opportunity the lead presented to try out a new halfback/flyhalf pairing in Hafiz Norhahsim at 9 and Wilf Swartz at 10. This gave Richmond a chance to take the game to us a bit but again the Rogues held strong and through some intelligent play saw Chad Wilkinson sneak in along the left line for a well deserved try.

With only a few of minutes left in the game after this Richmond decided Rogues definitely weren't going to put any further points on the board. After turning over the ball, Richmond again advanced towards the Rogues try line by some tidy ball carrying and strong recycling of the ball. They eventually crashed over the line and were awarded the try.

With a well-taken conversion by Richmond, the game was called to a stop by the referee with the finishing score Rogues 36 - Richmond 12. It was a strong display by the men in blue, including subs who slotted in strongly when called upon. This has given the Rogues a strong platform for the rest of the season. Well deserved Man of the Match were: Mark Barre - Forwards and Captain Swany - Backs.

A word of thanks to the referee, who kept the game flowing freely as best he could. Also thanks to the ladies who were assisting the referee on the sidelines and all the supporters who came out to watch the Rogues play. Next game is against Abbotsford at home. Here's to Rogues continuing their winning streak and setting a standard for the rest of the season!