Powell River Otago Rugby Club will be taking to the pitch on May 13, facing the Victoria-area Castaway Wanderers.
Otago coach Jack Beardmore said kickoff will be at 1 pm at Cranberry Field, with this being an exhibition match. Otago is currently not involved in league play.
“I’m hoping people will come and watch and support us,” said Beardmore.
He said the game was supposed to have happened five weeks ago, but a BC Ferries cancellation left the Island team stranded.
“It’s a definite go this Saturday, providing BC Ferries don’t cancel again,” said Beardmore.
The coach said the Wanderers team play in the Vancouver Island Rugby Union’s third division, which is where Otago has played previously. He said it is comparable to what the local side would be involved in if it competed in league play.
Beardmore said he arranged the match because he knows the opposing coach very well. He said when he was watching league semi-finals in Nanaimo, the Wanderers were playing, and he invited the team to play in Powell River.
“The Wanderers’ coach said they’d love to come up and play, so the game was set in motion,” said Beardmore.
He said Otago has a full side to go up against the Victoria opposition, but he’s bringing over a couple of players from Comox, also. The coach said he has some young players with limited experience who will be subbed in during the game to gain experience. There are new laws governing rugby play, called rolling subs.
“Back in the old days, the only way you got a substitution on the pitch was if you had an injury, and if you took that person off, they couldn’t come back,” said Beardmore. “Now, they have rolling subs, so now we can dress 22 players (a full rugby team has 15) and roll guys in, take guys out and keep rotating players.
“Consequently, by being able to do that, I have three very young players who I’d like to play. If this was a full game, I would not want to put them out on the pitch, but now, with this, I can just slide them out there for 10 minutes and bring them back off.”
Beardmore thinks the rule is a good idea.
“It’s a perfect way to introduce young or starting players to the game.”
For the coming game, in the scrum, Beardmore said he has an experienced front row and back row, but inexperienced second row players.
“However, that’s not going to hurt us because our front row is so strong, so as long as those second rowers give us a shove, and our back row will keep them tight, I’m not too concerned,” said Beardmore. “The Castaway Wanderers are one of the weaker sides in division three so I don’t think we’ll be mismatched.”
