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Warren de Bruin - UBCOB Ravens
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| © Pamela Smortchevsky |
2009 VRU Spray League Champions – Ravens Defeat Rowers 15-10
by Hamish Greig
posted Dec 10 2009
The hardy fans that ventured to a frigid Stanley Park on Saturday, December 5 were treated to a great afternoon of rugby. November rains had finally subsided long enough for the Brockton Oval pitch to become firm again, the sun came out, the north shore mountains shimmered, and what followed was a riveting encounter that kept the crowd on its feet for eighty minutes.
Rowers won the previous encounter on Oct. 24 with a 19-10 victory at Jericho, and were expected to attack the Ravens through their very strong outside backs. Despite an early Ravens’ penalty by Braeden Waters, Rowers scored the game’s first try after some sustained pressure, with the Rowers’ fly half putting in a deft cross kick to the corner where his winger won the footrace against Ravens’ flyer Kol Henriksen.
The Ravens responded with a try of their own through a try by Dan Wainwright. Ravens new South African center Warren de Bruin made a great break through a tiny gap in the Rowers backline to feed Wainwright for the try. Waters converted, for a halftime scoreline of 10-7.
Early in the second half Waters engineered a great try for the Ravens after looping around a miss-3 and delivering the scoring pass to Dan Wainwright who hit the line again at pace and touched down in the corner for his second try of the afternoon. It was a classic try that had aged Ravens backline stars from yesteryear on the sidelines beaming with pride!
At the ten minute mark of the second half, however, a yellow card to Ravens’ de Bruin gave the Rowers a chance to take back their lead. With the scoreline at 15-7, a Ravens victory was anything but guaranteed, and when Ravens flanker Tom McKeen got isolated deep inside his own half the Rowers looked like taking over. Several chances came their way but they were only able to salvage a penalty for their efforts and when de Bruin returned to the field there was a frantic final 20-minute battle. In the end Rowers couldn’t convert pressure to points but full credit to the Ravens for a their defensive effort in bringing the hardware back to Jericho for the first time since 1996.
Ravens lock John Fahey was awarded man of the match for a dominant performance all over the park and despite a yellow card, center Warren de Bruin was the outstanding back. Fahey helped the Ravens gain a slight edge in the lineouts and Mike Smith at loosehead prop provided a vital veteran role in the Ravens scrum.
Phil Cronje’s Ravens and Jermey Sabell’s Rowers should both be commended for committing to a positive style of rugby. Congratulations to coach Phil Cronje for his first title in Canada and congratulations to all of the players who worked so hard at training over the last four months.
UBC Old Boys Ravens are pleased to announced that former Club Captain Dr. Jim Yeganagi will be the new head coach for the 2008/09 season
by Nick Allen
posted August 13 2008
The UBC Old Boys Ravens are pleased to announced that former Club Captain Dr. Jim Yeganagi will be the new head coach for the 2008/09 season. Jim is a UBC product from the Don Spence and Rod Holloway era. He would later go on to receive two caps for Canada at the hooker position. Yegs has been with the club for almost a decade as a player and coach. Please congratulate him on this appointment. Practices will be commencing Tuesday, August 12th at Jericho Park at 630pm. If you are interested in putting on the boots this fall, email either Jim at jyegs@hotmail.com or Nick at nallen@stgeorges.bc.ca.
We will begin the year with an exhibition game against UBC on Saturday September 6th. On Saturday, September 13th the season will open at Jericho against the Meraloma in a memorial match for Ripper. That day we will see the debut of the Ravens' Ripper 2nd Div squad that will be sporting special Raven Ripper Retro jerseys.
UBCOB Ravens came out winners 15 points to 12 against Burnaby Lake, in a nail biting game that wasn’t decided until the last play of the game
by Tyler Hotson
posted Feb 25 2008
In their home opener of the 2008 CDI BC Premier League, the UBCOB Ravens came out winners 15 points to 12 against Burnaby Lake, in a nail biting game that wasn’t decided until the last play of the game. The partly sunny skies at Jericho Park, made the perfect backdrop for an entertaining game between two similar teams, both with 0-2 records, looking to improve on their first two performances in the Premier league.
The game opened with the Ravens, fielding one of their strongest teams so far this year, putting several good phases together through the 9-10 combination of Brendan Starling and Braeden Waters linking with their forward pack. Burnaby’s defense stood strong though, with both teams exchanging phases back and forth, until a kick through by a Ravens back saw outside centre Ben Trevorrow pick up the loose ball and touch down for the try. Waters converted making it 7-0 Ravens, but Burnaby came right back with possession through their big front row forwards and dynamic back line. The Ravens then regained possession and turned to their kicking game with inside centre Jason Hartley sending probing kicks into the corners and pressuring Burnaby’s back three. This tactic seemed successful as the Ravens were able break through the Burnaby defense and cross for another score. With the conversion missed this made it 12-0 for the Ravens at the half.
The second half started with a resurged Burnaby team (after hearing some choice words by coach Mike James and player/coach Colin Mackenzie) putting great pressure on the Old Boys forcing them to play stout defense for long periods inside their 22. Soon after an errant Ravens quick lineout, Burnaby picked up a loose ball and dotted down the wing to score, making it 12-5 Ravens. Burnaby picked up another score soon after through their forwards as they ground out a try through good mauling and pick and go’s.
The conversion was good leaving the score at 12-12 with just over 10 minutes remaining. Both teams exchanged possession in the last few minutes of the game, but with less than a minute to go the Ravens picked up their game and brought play into Burnaby Lake territory. After half a dozen phases inside Burnaby’s 22, Referee Dave Smortchevsky penalized Burnaby under the posts. Captain Brendan Starling made the simple decision to kick for points and fly half Braeden Waters made the easy kick to seal the win for the Ravens. The final whistle blew and the Ravens won 15-12.
Both teams had several players stand out with strong games, for Burmaby Colin Mackenzie played his usual stalwart game at #8, and hooker Reid Kirkham showed well in the loose. For the Ravens the kicking game of Jason Hartley stood out, as well as the back row combination of Joey Alexis, Angus Taylor and Moe Tapueluefu worked well together on defense, with the turning point in the game being #8 Tapueluefu’s crunching tackle on Burnaby substitute Ryan Banks, during his first touch of the ball off a 22 metre drop out. Next up for the Ravens is an away game against the University of Victoria on Saturday March, 1st.
Lineup
1 Pat Dessaulles
2 Beau Chapman
3 Alan Cooper
4 Grant Munro
5 Tyler Hotson
6 Angus Taylor
7 Joey Alexis
8 Moe Tapueluelu
9 Brendan Starling Capt.
10 Braedan Waters
11 Neil Adamson
12 Jason Hartley
13 Ben Trevorrow
14 Dan Wainwright
15 Nick Allen
16 John Mee
17 Ben Cobbledick
RAVENS LIVE UP TO NAME AS TRUE "UBC OLD BOYS"
posted Nov 8 2007
by Ravens correspondent
One of the semi-finals for the Lower Mainland Spray League will be a west-side derby between the Meralomas and the Ravens. The Ravens came away with a tight victory in the regular season encounter at Jericho earlier in the season. Matches between these two clubs are always filled with great intensity and not just because of their close proximity. Many players from each side were once team mates playing at UBC together. The two sides combined have no less than 15 UBC alumni that could be playing in the match. While the Meralomas have 6 alumni (Mike and Greg Georges, Aiden Buan, Adam Byers, Rob Corcoran and Jackson Hall) the Ravens have 9 premier team players that are former Thunderbirds. The Ravens ex-UBC talent are former UBC captain and current Ravens captain, the hooker / scrum-half Brendan Starling, flankers Joey Alexis and Jonathon Mee, lock Tyler Hotson, centers Fabian Leitner and Rob Petretta and props Pat Dessualles, Beau Chapman, Alan Cooper. The Ravens are also coached by UBC Alumni and Raven / Meraloma legend Jim Yeganegi. Coach Yeganegi has step in for the Ravens to cover for Gareth Rees who has been away at the World Cup.
The Ravens also have a young back line which has been lead since the third week of the season by fly-half Braeden Waters, who has played with the Ravens since 2000. In the back line the Ravens also have Ben Trevorrow who came on as a reserve for BC against Canada in the World Cup warm-up match last summer. On the outside of the Ravens backline are Neil Adamson, who scored three tries in the Ravens win against Bayside, wings Dan Wainwright and Nick Allen and Nathan Curran, a young man who has made the Ravens premier side in his first year of playing rugby. Upfront the Ravens also have Canada u-20 trialist Justin Chelak who is having a promising start to his senior rugby career. There is also a pair of kiwis playing in their second season at Jericho - utility back Ian Hickman and Togan born No. 8 Moe Tap, who played his school boy rugby at Auckland Grammar School. The Ravens have also benefited from some great performances from openside flanker Ben Cobbledick and locks Mariano Tappata and Paul White who are often doing the hard, unseen work on the field.
The Ravens also have a dedicated and hard-working men's second division side and a women's team. All teams are often competing against each other at training sessions working hard to make each other better. The premier side has had great support from the 2nds team with many of those players playing in the 1pm game and then coming on as replacements or stepping up into a starting role, hooker Jon Wynn being one, for the premier team. The Ravens club, like many others, has truly benefitted from those who have been willing to "do the yards" for little recognition. Those people's work is what really is behind the Ravens success in the first half of this year.
When the Vancouver Rowing Club upset the BC Premier league finalist Meralomas last weekend, they certainly got some people’s attention. Unfortunately they couldn’t follow up on their win, as the UBCOB Ravens crushed them 46-18 on their home field at Brockton Oval this weekend
By J.L. Frender
Oct 23 2005
When the Vancouver Rowing Club upset the BC Premier league finalist Meralomas last weekend, they certainly got some people’s attention. Unfortunately they couldn’t follow up on their win, as the UBCOB Ravens crushed them 46-18 on their home field at Brockton Oval this weekend. Despite the high score, the game was pretty sporadic, with a lot of whistles interrupting play. Referee Al Hudson wasn’t quite in control of the players from the start, although he was clearly heard telling them to “shut up” once or twice.
The Rowers came out looking pretty impressive, with an aggressive forward pack giving their skilled #10 Matt James some good ball to use. It was a chippy affair from start to finish, and they had the better of the Ravens at the breakdown to begin with, either through good tactics, or negative rugby, depending on which sideline you watched from. James scored all the Rowers first half points, scoring a good transition try after a blocked kick about 25 minutes in, and converting it himself to add to his two penalty kicks early in the game.
The Ravens got one try from hooker Jim Yeganegi 15 minutes in, and one more late in the half from prop John Morelatto with Rowers #7 Justin Pierson in the sin bin. John Graf kicked 7 points to bring the halftime score to 17-13.
The second half started with Rowers #10 James sidelined due to injury, and like the Winston Stanley-less Velox, without him the Rowers didn’t seem to have much to offer. Aside from a well worked team try finished by fullback Brian Anderson, they turned to pretty negative rugby. The referee called a number of penalties, and the game spilled over to a couple of fights, one in particular which saw #7 Pierson ejected after coming in as the third man and sucker-punching Ravens halfback John Graf. Pierson will likely see a suspension, but Graf would return to the game and continue to kick conversions as the Ravens added 4 more tries to their tally.
First, centre Bruce Reid bounced two defenders off him to touch down early in the half. Then #8 Stan McKeen, easily the player of the match for his punishing tackling alone, scored from the back of the set piece, after he held the ball up to force a 5 meter scrum. One more would come from lock Grant Munro, and the final salt in the wounds came from #10 Jason Hartley, with a drop goal and a clever try of his own in the final minutes.
The Rowers got good performances from Anderson, centre Nick Hooge and #8 Jordan Sieffert, and clearly missed the presence of international winger Stirling Richmond, who suffered a bad facial injury last weekend and is thankfully healing well after his surgery. As well as McKeen, Canadian lock Mike Burak played well for the Ravens, as did fullback Trevor Hammond. With Bayside dropping a game to the Meralomas this weekend, it will be a good clash next weekend between the Sharks and the Ravens to see who can stay in the hunt behind the still undefeated Capilanos.
Womens Rugby Action this weekend: Vikes 42 - Ravens 12
Submitted by J.L. Frender
posted Oct 17 2005
This Saturday was a beautiful day for running rugby in Victoria, and while the Men’s UVIC team enjoyed a bye weekend in the pool, the Vikes Women took to Wallace field to host the newly formed UBCOB Ravens Women’s team. An exciting game for the full 80 minutes, this clash saw dynamic running, terrific tackling and 9 tries before the Vikes walked away with a 42-12 victory on their home turf. The score definitely reflected the Vikes’ potent attack, but didn’t quite do justice to the Ravens, who defended well against a fast, skilled backline and put together some good sequences of play themselves.
The Vikes opened the scoring at 12 minutes when #13 Jenna Waddy broke through after the Ravens gave up two costly penalties between their posts. The Ravens would respond 15 minutes later as #10 Rosie Corbett finished off a gorgeous passing sequence involving at least 8 teammates. More action would follow, but both teams’ defenses were solid. The Vikes squeaked one more in just before the halftime whistle to go ahead 14-7.
The player of the match, Vikes #12 Jessica Dovanne, put her stamp on the game early in the second half. She scored a fantastic try 5 minutes in when she gathered her own chip on the hop to go in untouched under the posts. She put two more down in quick succession for the natural hat trick, as the Vikes went up 30-7. They would get two more late in the game from wingers Amy Cheung and Selina McGuinness. The Ravens got their second from open side flanker Dara Parker, the busiest player on the field on the day if you’re more inclined to measuring in tackles.
As well as their scorers, the Vikes also had great performances from their #7 Jessica Redlick and fullback Brittany Waters. They did a great job of bouncing back from a tough loss to Velox, and played with real confidence. The Ravens look like a team capable of improving quickly, this being only their second ever game after a full month off. Its great for rugby to see a new team emerge and they will surely look to become competitive soon.
Ravens open their season in impressive fashion: UBCOB Ravens 38 – Seattle 8
Submitted by Jesse Lennox Frender
posted Sept 17 2005
The opening weekend of the BC Rugby season saw the UBCOB Ravens home field at Jericho Beach still closed, and the club hosting their season openers against Seattle on a beautiful, sunny day at nearby UBC. There was some breaks of exciting play, but generally it was a slow game on a fast pitch, with both teams looking to tune up after the summer rust.
1st Half
The better part of the first half was played in Seattle’s end, and steady pressure saw the Ravens go ahead with tries from BC hooker Jim Yeganegi at 12 minutes, prop John Morelatto at 18 minutes, and National team lock Mike Burak, who stormed the line in the 35th minute, dragging defenders with him as he dotted down.
Although Seattle had plenty of possession, they failed to capitalize on any of it, committing poor handling errors in the face of solid defense. They managed a penalty kick from #10 Ryan Bishop in the late minutes to bring the halftime score to 19-3.
2nd Half
For a moment the second half looked as though the tempo was going to escalate. Only minutes in Ravens #14 Brayden Waters finished off some terrific backs play and a crisp pass from National team backrower Stan McKeen. However the game soon slowed to a static, disjointed affair: Plenty of penalties and aside from a try from #1 Will Bauer, Seattle continued to display more knock-ons than creative ideas on offense.
The Ravens would manage three more rewards for their defensive pressure, scoring in transition throughout the half: Yeganegi, a former BC Premier league scoring leader, had his 2nd try at 25 minutes, Waters found his 2nd a few minutes later, and late in the game #11 Nick Allen finished off some smartly moved turnover ball with a 70 meter dash to the corner.
John Graf kicked 4 of 5 conversion attempts to bring the Final score to 38-8.
Conclusion
Much credit for this win can be given to the six Ravens who played in the back row, in particular current national team member #8 Stan McKeen. Along with Captain #9 John Graf, they frustrated Seattle’s attacks at set scrum and around the fringes of loose play from start to finish. Indeed, Ravens head coach Gareth Rees seems to have a pleasant dilemma in the back row at the moment: Even with injuries and RWC veteran Jim Douglas busy with medical studies, he still could not find room to start Joe Alexis, recently selected to the long list for the upcoming Canada East vs. West game at Thunderbird Stadium on October 10th.
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2nd Division
In the second division, the UBCOB Ravens put together a 9 try performance to demolish Seattle’s second team. As well as some exciting backs play out wide, the Ravens had good performances from #10 Fabien Leitner, #8 Morgan Jones, and #6 Joe Alexis. All three of these players came on for the 1st team later in the afternoon, and will be likely to see a lot more action with the club’s top side.
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Women’s
Another exciting game came earlier in the morning, with the debut of the first ever UBCOB Ravens women’s team. After getting down early to the newly merged Pocomo-Douglas 2nd team, the Raven women rallied in the second half with help from Canadian national team hooker Lesley MacKenzie, but a late try against saw them fall 38-24.
Anybody interested in getting involved with the Ravens women’s team can contact Colleen Higgins at colleenhiggins@hotmail.com. New members are always welcome.
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