University of Victoria Vikes rugby head coach Doug Tate points proudly to a legacy that includes alumni Phil Mack, Jake Ilnicki and Brett Beukeboom playing key roles as Canada looks to qualify for the 2019 World Cup in Thursday’s big Test against Hong Kong.
The current Vikes generation takes to the field this week looking for glory in the 2018 U Sports national championship tournament taking place at Centennial Stadium and Wallace Field and featuring host UVic and five conference champions.
“This is a great opportunity for us at home against our university peers from across the country,” said Tate.
As a regular team in the B.C. Premiership, the Vikes are usually week-to-week up against players much older.
“The B.C. Premiership games are very physical and are eye-openers for a lot of our younger guys when they come into the program,” said Tate.
Not that it has stopped the Vikes (3-4 this season) from being a former power in the B.C. Premiership or the UBC Thunderbirds from being the current major Premiership force and 6-2 this season.
The Thunderbirds, who have produced recent players such as Theo Sauder, currently performing admirably with Canada in the World Cup qualifying tournament, are heavily favoured for the U Sports title this week.
UVic is in as host while UBC demolished the Calgary Dinos 103-3 in the Canada West final to qualify.
“The Thunderbirds are well deserving of their record the past three years,” said Tate.
“They have great balance on offence and defence and the other university teams will be hard-pressed against them.”
UVic features a potent roster of its own with Canada-capped Ollie Nott and Canada U-20 captain James O’Neill, both out of Shawnigan Lake School, Canada sevens Maple Leaf player Crosby Stewart, Vikes captain and Canada-A player Gradyn Bowd and star rookie Nicholas Carson out of Oak Bay.
“We went out to Westhills Stadium to get in a good running scrimmage with the Canada sevens team [which is training in Langford ahead of the Dubai Sevens],” said Tate, about his team’s preparation this week for nationals
Pool A in the U Sports championship features UBC, Concordia of Montreal and the Guelph Gryphons; while UVic, New Brunswick and Queen’s Gaels are in Group B.
Games begin today at noon with UBC facing Concordia while Queen’s plays New Brunswick at 2 p.m., both at Wallace Field. The host Vikes open Thursday at 2 p.m. against Queen’s in a game at Wallace Field that will be preceded by UBC playing Guelph at noon.
Round-robin pool play concludes Friday at Centennial Stadium with Guelph meeting Concordia at 4 p.m. and UVic playing New Brunswick at 6 p.m.
The fifth-sixth place game is Saturday at 2 p.m. at Wallace Field.
The bronze-medal game is Sunday at 11 a.m. with the championship final at 1 p.m., both at Centennial Stadium.
UBC defeated UVic 37-12 in last year’s inaugural U Sports championship game in the snow at Guelph, Ont. It won’t be that cold this weekend but it will be wet in that classic West Coast way.
“Too bad we couldn’t have played this over the last four days,” quipped Tate, about the recent run of Island sunshine that is about to end.
“But in rugby, a big part of the game is in adapting to the conditions.”
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