BANFF – Everyone got in on the try party at Banff Rec Grounds during the Bears men’s rugby home opener last Saturday (June 1), but a mix of veteran and rookie contributors is what really impressed the team’s captain.
Officially, the match’s score was 20-15 for the Bears over the Calgary Saracens after the visitors forfeited due to a player shortage, per Rugby Alberta rules.
The match still went underway after some player swapping, which the Bears ran wild with and put up a ridiculous 94 points on the scoreboard.
In total, nine Bears scored tries in the dominant victory, including three from iron man Mark “Hoops” Hooper. With two tries each were Scott Chisholm, Daniel Dixon and Jeremy Woodcock.
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Elliott Smith made good on 11 conversion kicks.
“We may be a small team this year, but we’ve got quickness,” said captain Ben Rada. “We know the game … and like we always do, we play to our strengths and to their weaknesses.”
The win marks the Bears second straight and improves the team’s record to .500. Rada has been a fan of the team’s young guns stepping up over the streak, such as from Chisholm and Dixon, who won the 2018 provincial championship with Banff Community High School.
“The rookies I’ve known and grown up with them,” said Rada, who was a Grade 12 student in 2015. “I remember my first game [with the men’s team], I couldn’t step up like they do right now, they’re just filling in big boots and they’ve done really well and they’re playing comfortably.”
Despite Rada’s praise of the youth movement, there are learning lessons for the rookies though, as Dixon received an earful from Hoops on Saturday after botching a try.
While in the try zone and trying to get to the centre to give the Bears better odds at kicking a conversion, Dixon ran out of bounds and coughed up position.
“Switch on or get the f--- off,” Hoops barked at the rookie, who was laughing at the botch, citing had it been competitive that mistake could have come back to bite the Bears.
In the blowout over the Saracens, the Bears practiced plays with their forwards and backs in a live game atmosphere.
Chisholm said despite what the scoreboard said, the Bears could use the win to learn from mistakes.
“We need to kind of clue in a bit more and concentrate once we start getting up on a team,” he said. “We can’t let off the gas a little bit and definitely cleaning up our breakdowns a bit more would help, but other than that it was pretty good.”
The Bears next match is Saturday (June 8) against the Calgary RFC in Calgary. The next home match is Saturday (June 15) at 1 p.m. at Banff Rec Grounds against the Calgary Hornets.
