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Rugby: Mice squeak out win over Mid-Island power-house

15 October 2008
Steven Cowie
On Tuesday (14th October), the Grade 8 (Mice) returned from their Thanksgiving feasting to take on traditional mid-island power-house George Bonner School. The boys in Cowichan black and green arrived at Brentwood's "B" fields with nearly two full teams and many much larger boys than Brentwood could field with a school population of only 25 boys total. Without star scrum-half and team captain Joey Robb who had broken his collar bone the previous week playing hockey, it looked like a tough challenge for the wee Mice. However, they came up mighty in defence, with all of the boys stepping up to make key tackles. Good pressure yielded an early penalty goal by Alejandro Alvarez and then the team weathered a storm of attacks by Bonner, but refused to yield. Notable in defence were Ben Florez, Alejandro and Diego Perusquia, Captain Randy Barton and the tackling machine, Roger Anderson. Finally, good pressure allowed Eric Hyun to pounce on a loose ball and deliver a perfect pass to spring Roger Anderson who sprinted down the sideline for a thirty-yard try.  At half-time the lead was 8-0 and the coaches agreed to play all of the reserve players in the second half. The play resumed with spirited attacks on both sides being thwarted by stout defence and some handling errors. Everyone contributed and some of the smaller Brentwood boys, like Jason Yu and Graeme Bradley came through with courageous tackles to prevent tries. In the end, Bonner took advantage of a crooked throw in the lineout to score a try from ten yards out and the game finished with Brentwood clinging to an 8-5 lead. Both sides were battered and weary, but the game was played in the best spirit as many of our day students know the boys from Bonner and some have played with them on the Cowichan U-14 team. The Mice have had a good season so far with two wins over Shawnigan as well as wins against Ladysmith and Bonner. The only loss came at St. George's where we were up against a school that has fifty players in their rugby programme, most of whom have played before in Grades 6 and 7. On Saturday, Brentwood will host St. Michaels from Victoria for another tough ISA match which kicks off around 1:00 pm.

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