There was a time you couldn’t browse through a Canadian national team rugby roster, right up to the World Cup, without glancing at the names of former Oak Bay High and St. Michaels University School alumni. The game programs were literally thick with them.
The two teams represent one of the greatest rivalries, across any sport, in B.C. high school athletics.
The latest chapter goes today with the 25th anniversary Rees Boot Cup game at 3:45 p.m. on the SMUS grounds. The annual matchup is named in honour of SMUS-grad Gareth Rees, a member of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, who played in four World Cups and twice as Canadian captain.
“It was a great rivalry in my day and it is still a great rivalry,” said Rees, of the annual SMUS-Oak Bay matchup.
As might be expected from the two mega programs, the series has been tight, with Oak Bay leading 12-11-1.
There should once again be a great atmosphere for the fixture.
“So many players have gone on to represent Canada from both schools,” said veteran SMUS coach Ian Hyde-Lay, who has been through more than a few of these battles against the Barbs.
“Many of those alumni come back for this annual game and there is always a big crowd with a high level of excitement. We know it’s a big day for our school.”
SMUS is young this season, as reflected by the fact prop and captain Josh Mao is among 10 Grade 11 starters. Oak Bay is the defending B.C. 4A champion.
“But you throw the form chart out the window for this game. It’s always been hard to predict,” said Hyde-Lay.
Oak Bay is captained by Grade 12 fly-half Jack Carson, who has just about every university program in the country salivating.
“[Carson] is the most accomplished high school player in the province,” said Hyde-Lay.
To the winner goes the bronzed Rees Boot. Legend has it that it was one of Rees’ old cleats. But legend would be wrong.
“I was in England at the time and [former Oak Bay and national-team coach] Gary Johnston picked out an old boot, but it wasn’t one of mine, although I paid to have it bronzed,” explained Rees.
Now the Rees Boot will have some company after 25 years. An annual competition will begin today, at 3 p.m. before the boys’ game, between the girls’ rugby sevens teams of SMUS and Oak Bay. They will play for the newly inaugurated Robinson Cup, named after brothers Spencer and Roger Robinson.
Spencer Robinson coaches the SMUS girls’ sevens team and Roger Robinson the Oak Bay squad. If that wasn’t a familial enough Rugby Family Robinson storyline, both brothers have daughters on their respective teams. Tate Robinson plays for SMUS and Marley Robinson for Oak Bay. One of the cousins will be able to lift aloft her family’s namesake trophy today and having bragging rights for the next year around the dinner table at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“We hope the Robinson Cup becomes as big on the girls’ high school side as the Boot is on the boys’ side,” said Rees.
Rees noted Spencer Robinson’s contribution to women’s sevens rugby: “He was one of the first to fight for it and he did a lot to help grow the women’s game in the early years, and he has not been credited much for that.”
Today that omission has been corrected, with the namesake Robinson Cup, which takes its rightful place alongside the Rees Boot.
