St Michaels University School - Black Red and Blue Yearbook (Victoria, British Columbia Canada)

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minutes. when the defence finally crumbled and Shawnigan had little trouble in adding three late goals. The following Saturday. against Brentwood. the School were three points in arrears within minutes of the kick off. A swiftly-taken short penalty allowed Brentwood to saunter through a lackadaisical home defence for an unconverted try. Recovering from this early set-back, the pack began to contain Brentwood in the line-out, and control most of the set and loose scrums. From a swift strike by Tunnicliffe Briggs fed McDonald. who moved past the scrum on the open side, before handing on to Stelck. for him to score near the corner. Rifeeker con- verted with an impressive kick. and the School changed ends enjoying a slender two-point lead. During the second half Brentwood pressed strongly and. with only two minutes left, regained the lead through a penalty. rapidly followed by a drop goal. The chance of victory seemed to have eluded the School again, but the home pack had other ideas. Continuing to win good possession, and pinning Brentwood deep in their own half, Singleton fastened on to a loose ball, and fed Mc- Donald. who burst through to score. Minutes later Reeves moved smartly to the blind side. timing his pass beautifully, to send in Mc- Donald unopposed for his second try. A five point lead would appear to have clinched the game, but Brentwood found time to dispossess Reeves. and work the ball to their wing for him to score a last-minute try. Hinson was left with the unenviable task of trying to save the game, but his conversion kick flew wide, giving the School its first victory since 1955. Neither match against St. Georgels produced the high standard of football witnessed in the Brentwood game. Both teams were guilty of an abundance of basic errors, and the spirited St. George,s defence never allowed the School back division to achieve their rhythm. Only in the last quarter of each match did the school pack dominateg dur- ing this time both Dade and Reeves were given sufficient latitude to take full advantage of defensive errors and turn them into tries. Any hope of repeating the heady triumph over Brentwood was obliterated in the opening phases of the return match, when the school team was comprehensively outplayed in every aspect of the game. The home side. taking every advantage of the school's brittle defence, scored sixteen points in as many minutes. Fortunately Brentwood eased their effort and a possible cricket score was averted. just before half time Reeves reduced the lead with a simple penalty goal. Perhaps the ad- monitions to his team by the injured Rleeker had some connection with the transformation of the pack on the resumption of play. Showing far more determination they began to get the better of the fiery exchanges in the loose. and from this possession Reeves and Singleton began to exploit gaps in the hitherto-sealed Brentwood defence. Two tries brought the school within striking distance of their opponents' total, but twice in the closing stages superb covering tackles brought down McDonald in full flight, and at the final whistle the school was still trailing by five points. A high wind prevented either side from achieving any fluency in the second fixture with Shawnigan. Soon after the start Dade and 26

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RUGBY FOOTBALL First Fifteen Tl ie successes o this year s XX have done much to raise the School's Rugby from the doldrums into which it had slipped during the past two seasons. Sixteen matches were played, thirteen of which were vic- tories, and this improvement spared the Team the indignity of a third season languishing at the foot of the Independent Schools League. Wlith only five members of last year's XV returning in September, much depended on those who had been promoted from the junior sides. In this department none did better than Briggs, an erstwhile star of the 5th. XV. W'ithout possessing any of the natural attributes re- quired by a scrum half, he still continued to provide Reeves with a workable, if somewhat erratic, service. The forwards possessed no one of any real size, leaving them with a marked disadvantage in the set pieces. This deficiency was largely overcome by a low and solid shove generated from the front five, allied to Tunnicliffe's fast striking. Spicer attained some success at the con- ventional line-out with well-timed deflections, but far greater use was made of shortened line, and long throw, where Dade was never mas- tered. Aided by accurate throwing from the wings, he frequently set in motion strong attacking movements, having first surged across the advantage line and committed several members of the opposition defence. In the backs Reeves was occasionally hampered by the erratic quality of Briggs, service, but his quick acceleration and sidestep often brought the best out of the opposing cover. The midfield featured Singleton's strong running and relentless tackling, backed up by his co-centre, Dykes, whose skill frequently belied his awkward gait. On the wings lXfcDonald and Rainsford demonstrated contrasting styles of play: lXfTcDonald made the most of his powerful stride with dangerous spurts on the outside, while the diminutive Rainsford's scurrying inside bursts were always liable to wrong-foot the cover defence. Both forwards and backs were much less sure in defence. Far too frequently last-ditch tackling and Smith's ingenuity were left to com- pensate for basic weaknesses, notably around the fringes of the scrum. The optimism engendered by three convincing victories over Public Schools received a sharp set-back in the first match against Shawnigan. The opening minutes, however, were promising: Reeves rattled the crossbar with an attempted drop-goal, and moments later Dade was felled only inches away from a try. Having survived this initial on- slaught the Shawnigan side steadiedg their powerful mobile pack began to wear down the school eight, and, following a succession of narrow escapes, the Shawnigan No. 8 forced his way through some lax cover- ing to open the score. During the second half the School attack was confined to individual sorties, as the Shawnigan pack became increas- ingly dominant. The School line survived precariously until the last ten 25

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Smith left each other to clear a loose ball near their line, then watched rnesmerised as an alert Shawnigan back nipped between them to score between the posts. At the end of the half, played down-wind, the school had only a single try to show for much hard endeavour by the forwards. After the interval the defence became increasingly casual. Twice the Shawnigan fly half carved huge openings through the cover, each break resulting in a try. After Dykes had been injured, Shawni- gan increased their lead to thirteen points before the school's most dis- appointing performance was brought to a close. QEASTERJ During the Easter ternr a further four matches were played 5 two against Royal Roads, one against Claremont and a third Fixture against Shawnigan. Claremont, the local champions, were beaten for the second time in a match where amphibious tactics were the order of the day Cat the appropriately-named Beaver Parkl. The game also allowed Hall to make a notable debut-splashing fully eighty yards at speed to score the opening try. At Royal Roads the backs wasted possession with such extravagance that the home side was able to build up a half-time 13-O lead, in spite of being outplayed at forward. Malevolent rnutterings from the pack must have been overheard, for within minutes of the restart the scores were levelled, and as the running of the backs increased in fluency another fifteen points were added. The result of the third fixture with Shawnigan was in doubt until the last minute. The lead had changed hands several times before Rainsford scored the match-winner. Receiving the ball in a most un- promising situation, he cut inside and darted past a maze of bemused Shawnigan defenders for a fine opportunist score. Meeker's nerve and right boot were equal to the occasion and the conversion brought vic- tory by a single point. In the second game at Royal Roads the school team proved them- selves more adept at overcorrring the atrocious conditions to complete a successful term's Rugby with an 11-O victory. Results were as follows: SEPTEMBER 25 School v. Motrrrt View QHomel , won 22-O OCTOBER 6 School v. Mount Douglas fHomel, won 44-3 9 School V. Claremont QI-Iomel , won 14-8 18 School v. Shawnigan QAwayl , lost 0-20 23 School v. Nfount View fHomej , won 62-O 25 School v. Brentwood QHomel , won 14-12 NOVEMBER 8 School v. Old Boys QHomel , won 29-6 11 School v. a Castaway XV CHomej , won 18-16 16 School v. St. George's QAwayl , won 14-3 School v. St. GeOrge's QHomel , won 19-13 School v. Brentwood QAwayj. lost 11-16 27 23 29