26 FINAL 34

A sun splashed day, a large crowd and a close and exciting game between two clubs who had never met before; this was the fine setting on the final day of the NICC championships in Edmonton on Sunday, and few could be disappointed with the spectacle.

The James Bay AA, BC league and cup champions, outscored the Irish Canadians 34-26, five tries to four in front of over 1000 people at Ellerslie Park to become the deserving first ever Canadian Club titlists, and when it was over there was no doubt that everyone on both sides had left it all on the field.

JBAA had reached the final downing Manitoba Wombats 77-0, UBC Old Boys Ravens 22-5 and Strathcona Druids 24-3, while the ICRC topped Edmonton Clansmen 29-10, Montreal Barbarians 26-5 and Balmy Beach 58-0. (contrary to earlier reports, the ICRC did not advance on point differential, but gained 3 bonus points in the preliminary rounds to Calgarys’ 2).

The final began with Irish captain George Azar snaring the opening kickoff from the Bays, and some early Irish pressure resulted in a try for Dave Knowles off a fumbled Bays 5 meter line out.  Irish fullback Jason Verstraten then went off injured, lifting the JBAA hopes.

The Bays, poised and skilled after their 8 month season, came back with tries from Jared Kirkland, Hugo Belanger and Geoff Warden to lead 19-7 after 25 minutes, but the Irish clawed their way back with a driving line out try from prop Nathan Amos to close to within 19-14 as halftime approached. A dust up between Dave Laing of the greens and Dave Ramsay of the blues resulted in a curious one person bin to Laing, but just when it seemed the Irish would escape the pressure, an Andrew Moffat intercept stuck a knife in Irish hopes, giving the Bays a 24-14 halftime lead.

As heat and fatigue on both sides increased, Irish went to their bench and survived some early Bays pressure, scoring through replacement lock Ramzi Azar to narrow the gap to 24-21 on the hour and setting the stage for an exciting finish. Jarod Barker kicked at 65^th minute penalty to make it 27-21, then former Irish centre Scott Humphreys dashed in from 30 to make it 34-21 with 12 minutes to go.

The Irish continued to substitute players and were rewarded with a fine try from 18 year old flanker Kial Venter to narrow the gap to 34-26, but when replacement kicker Roger Tumminieri missed the tough conversion, the result was sealed.

“ James Bay were an excellent team, they were physical and minimized their errors, and our hats are off to them as deserving champions,:” said Irish coach Mark Winokur afterwards. “We are of course disappointed in the result, but it was a great game and good for Canadian rugby in so many ways. We hope to continue this kind of event.”

Scorers for the greens this weekend:

Game 1 vs. Clansmen: Rodrigo Lacassie, Steve Conlon, Dave Knowles and Jeff Feeney with conversions by converts by Verstraten (3), and penalties - Verstraten (1)

Game 2 vs. Montreal : George Azar, Andrew Thompson, Kial Venter & Spencer Cameron, converts Verstraten (3)

Game 3 vs. Balmy Beach : Dave Knowles (2), Kial Venter, Ken Van Allen, Fabian Rayne, Andrew Thompson, Dave McCully, Ramzi Azar, Jordan Dodds, Steve Conlon, converts Verstraten (4)