This is when getting the Boot is a good thing.
Gareth Rees of Victoria, arguably the greatest Canadian rugby player of all-time, played in four World Cups and captained Canada in two of them.
His legacy lives on in the Rees Boot Game, in which his alma mater, St. Michaels University School, annually takes on cross-town rival Oak Bay High, with the winner hoisting a bronzed cleated-playing shoe once worn by Rees.
This year’s game, the 20th in the series, is under the lights tonight at 7 p.m. at Centennial Stadium.
Between them, these two schools have produced several World Cup players and Canada internationals such as Winston Stanley, Mark Wyatt and Phil Mack from Oak Bay and Rees, Bobby Ross, John Graf, Ed Fairhurst and Mike Pyke from SMUS.
“Great high school coaches took me to another level,” said Rees, who, with his young sons Lleycon and Guy, will present the Boot tonight to the winning team.
“So it’s important these kinds of matchups continue,” added Rees, now men’s program manager for Rugby Canada. “This is a great rivalry, obviously, and an awesome tradition.”
The schools will be looking to break a tie in the series, which currently stands at 9-9-1.
Oak Bay has a veteran Grade 12-laden team, captained by No. 8 James Carson, which has just returned from a tour of Argentina. The forwards are led by Braonain Masterton and the backs by Jay Zimberlain, Tyler McDiarmid and fly-half Kieran Atkinson.
SMUS won last year’s game 10-5 but was hit heavily by graduation and is in a rebuilding phase with 10 players of the 15-man starting lineup in Grade 11. The senior leaders are captain Zach Kahn, kicking full-back Michael Baart and flanker David Boroto. That rising Grade 11 class is led by centres Max Pollen and Mitchell Newman along with scrum-half Carson Smith.
Meanwhile, the newest Summer Olympics sport, set to make its debut at Rio 2016, will be on display Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Centennial Stadium. The dream starts here with the Island high school boys' rugby sevens championships, sponsored by the Saanich Police. Representing the South is SMUS, Oak Bay, Spectrum, Glenlyon-Norfolk. The North reps ae Brentwood College, Cowichan, Alberni and G.P. Vanier of Courtentay.
Shawnigan Lake School, the current B.C.-championship dynasty team in high school rugby, is unable to attend because it is representing Canada in the prestigious Sanix world high school rugby tournament later this month in Japan.
