How to Overcome Adversity in 30 Easy Steps

By Ian Trevor
The Cowichan Women’s team were deserving winners of the Women’s Div 1 championship last year. With Caroline Gudmundseth providing flair and finishing from fullback, a tough defense, and a pack willing to do the hard work a tough game was expected and delivered.

From the opening kick off, it was apparent that Burnaby had a bad case of ferry legs. The kick sailed high and deep behind the forwards and the attempt to run out of trouble only caused trouble giving Cowichan a great attacking platform in the Burnaby 22. A very nice 8 – 9 – 15 move saw Gudmundseth weave her way though an uncharacteristically confused Burnaby defence to open Cowichan’s account. Gudmundseth clearly still has skills and pace, leading the Burnaby coaching staff to wonder if she (like Dorian Gray) has a picture in the attic that ages because she doesn’t seem to!
The try was unconverted, leaving the score Burnaby 0 - Cowichan 5 after three minutes.
Burnaby spent the next few minutes working the ball through the forwards and mid-field in an attempt to generate momentum and continuity, but with a third of the team new to each other the inevitable mistakes occurred. One of those mistakes lead to an offside penalty being given away at the centre of the Burnaby 22. The opportunity was dutifully converted by Cowichan to stretch the lead to 8 – 0 for the home team.
Realizing that the next score would be crucial, Burnaby stepped up a gear. Exploiting gaps close to the break down, the Burnaby forwards drove Cowichan backwards through a series of pick and goes. Eventually Lauren Tagg was able to find Devon Luca at 10 who got the ball through to hard running Mel Miyazaki. Mel was able to skip through a couple of defenders to open the scoring for Burnaby. The try was unconverted.
Burnaby continued to apply pressure to the midfield, and when brute force was being repelled, Devon Luca took the initiative and attacked the gain line directly, stepping though tacklers and setting up the Burnaby back row to continue the drive. Eventually enough defenders were sucked in and Mel Miyazaki was able to find space for her second try of the day. The conversion was unsuccessful and the score after 20 minutes was Cowichan 8 – Burnaby 10.
The ensuing kick off went to Shannon Fedawa, who promptly ran up the wing, taking a few Cowichan defenders with her, finding Emma Hadfield with an offload that Emma was able to punch through to the Cowichan 22.
Burnaby would remain camped inside the Cowichan 22 for the remainder of an extremely frustrating half. Burnaby attacks were either halted by ferocious defense, unforced errors, opportunities not taken, or an apparent law transgression.
On one particular occasion, Burnbay drove to the Cowichan goal line, the ball presented back to a Burnaby player who, while on her feet reached over the ruck and touched the ball down in in-goal. While this is acceptable on most days and would result in a try, in this particular match the apparent try scorer was leaning on one of her player while she scored making her part of the ground, and hence off of her feet. Ah well…
Half time gave Burnaby a chance to re-group. The Ladies of the Lake are never short of leaders and on this day the leader was Jody Dobush. Jody challenged herself to take the game back, and not let anything stop her from tackling, claiming the ball and powering through. The challenge to the squad was to keep up.
Burnaby kicked off to start the second half, and promptly camped out in the Cowichan 22. Jody was true to her word, and was the leader of the Burnaby wrecking crew. After several goal-line crossings were not given due to apparent knock-ons or other supposed misdeeds, Jody picked the ball up from a cleanly won ruck, and took route 1 through the defense to dot down unmolested. The try was unconverted, and Burnaby was up 15 – 8.
Cowichan clearly sensed the need to grab back the momentum, and worked their way to within sight of the Burnaby 22. An attacking scrum to Cowichan gave their backline an opportunity to free their fullback with a set move. Gudmundseth wound her way in-goal to score her second try of the day, The conversion was unsuccessful. Burnaby 15 – Cowichan 13. Game On!
Again Jody Dobush was the story for Burnaby, taking the game by the scruff of the neck, refusing to let go. The rest of the Burnaby forwards eagerly followed her lead, with Laura Harmse and Marley Harris continuing their harassment at the breakdown, poaching the ball, and disrupting the Cowichan backline. Add to that bruising first up tackles by the Burnaby backs, and Cowichan eventually gave up a couple of rare penalties. One being in front of the posts which Erin Clement was able to slot over the bar to increase Burnaby’s lead to 5 points.
Burnaby continued to pound away at the Cowichan defense and eventually Kary Steele was able to cross the line twice, with the second try coming at the final whistle. Kary’s first try was converted, the second not, the final score Burnaby 30 – Cowichan 13.

Congratulations to Cowichan for a well fought match, and to Jody Dobush for a player of the game performance!

Scoring Summary:

Burnaby:

Tries:
Mel Miyazaki - 2
Kary Steele - 2
Jody Dobush - 1

Converts

Erin Clement -1

Penalties

Erin Clement - 1

Cowichan.

Tries
C Gudmundseth - 2

Pen Kick
C Gieneranx

Final Score:

30 - 13 Burnaby Lake

Posted by Roko at April 11, 2010 11:06 PM