ABBOTSFORD — The rubber match comes Saturday.
The Shawnigan Lake Stags and Vancouver’s St George’s Saints are set to meet for the third straight season in the B.C. boys Triple A rugby championship final after the two giants showed themselves to be absolutely dominant en route to semifinal victories Thursday at Abbotsford’s Rotary Stadium.
The Saints blanked the Yale Lions of Abbotsford 37-0 in the first semifinal, while the Stags followed with a 46-3 victory over Surrey’s Earl Marriott Mariners.
St. George’s did all they could to build a 10-0 halftime lead, Saints head coach Mike Stiles admitting his team “weathered a storm.”
Ian Meikle scored a pair of tries for the winners, while Tamar Tucker-Harrison, Jayden Bloom and Will Sauder scored one try each. Kicker Chock Lopez kicked three converts and a penalty.
“It’s a tournament and we don’t expect to have perfect game but we’ve gotten better in each game,” said Stiles. “But (Yale) took it to us. They were able to come out and move the ball very well. We missed first-time tackles, but today our support was outstanding. Yale had the home-field and the crowd and we did have to weather a storm. But the boys were patient and eventually things started to open up.”
Shawnigan Lake, meanwhile, won a battle of attrition with Earl Marriott.
“We had to play well and create opportunities,” said head coach Tim Murdy, “and they played us hard. But we wore them down. We created opportunities and we were able to capitalize.”
St. George’s rallied from a 12-3 deficit in last season’s final to beat the Stags 15-12, snapping Shawnigan’s streak of five straight Triple A-title wins.
In their only meeting this season, an April 23 date at Saints, the Stags came away 29-7 winners.
Murdy said afterwards that his team has not talked about last season’s loss to Saints in the B.C. final.
“We don’t talk about that at all because that is last year,” he said. “It’s a different team. Saints won, and that happens, but it’s a good lesson for our guys that you don’t always win. I am just happy for my guys right now. They played well and they deserve to be in the final.”
