Bytown Blues 2016 McCormick Cup Recap

Our own Kurt Dingwall wrote a recap for the Blues on the McCormick Cup Down in Brantford

Yesterday our Players played a committed, determined and extremely good side in Brantford, The Provincial Marshall League Champions…

Halftime – 17 -7

Final Score – 43 – 7 with a couple tries coming in the final 5 or 7 minutes

Our Sr Men represented us and the EORU extremely well. They should be PROUD of their efforts but like all true competitors, they were disappointed by the result!

They travel 6.5 Hours with only 3 subs at the 1st Team level, and played in a match at a level and physicality they have not faced all year long. Brantford had a full side of 23 waiting for us. I know some will look at the score and say we had our butts kicked…..not so! There are going to be a lot of sore Harlequins today, is what I say!

The Bytown Blues played with commitment, courage, and determination. As a long time Blue, I was extremely proud that they never gave up or relented under 80 minutes of pressure. In addition, for many sustained periods, we held possession and pressed them in their own half. Our try came after they went up 17-0, in the last 15 minutes of the 1st half. According to their stat guy we scored after 17 phases. Unfortunately this also cost us one of our top players, Ryan Surgenor, who scored on the play but broke his nose badly forcing him to leave the match. On 2 occasions during the game, had the bounces gone our way when applying pressure, we could have had 2 sure tries. Along with one poor call at the end of the match, a tackle and not release. Plus, counting a few times when we were 5 to 10 meters from their line and came up empty.. this could have been a much closer score. The final outcome would not have been different perhaps this time, but the score certainly would have been much closer. I could tell by the end of the match all our energy was spent.

For some additional perspective on our opponents:

Brantford Victories this season:

McCormick Cup Match Victory last Weekend:

• Ajax Wanders 73 – 14

Vs League Opponents in 2016

• Waterloo Cty 66 – 7
• Oakville Crusaders 45 -24
• Balmy Beach 42-10
• Markham Irish 42-20
• Toronto Scottish 39- 15
• Aurora Barbs 64 -7
• Crusaders 44 – 36
• Waterloo Cty 48 – 12
• Stoney Creek 50 – 0

We need more matches of this caliber to improve. It would also help if our first match was not the league champions as we are always coming in ranking in the 9th spot, not a true representation of what we can do…

Make no mistake we have lots of work to do, but we are getting there very quickly and are not that far away. What is better, I think our players know it!

Let’s continue to Advance

Share