Jonas Emilsson
www.krammag.com

That motto has served the Bowness Trojans well all season, and since there’s no point in fixing something that’s not broken, the Trojans carried that philosophy into the biggest game of the season.

After surviving an early William Aberhart Trojans push Bowness retaliated with force to reach familiar ground atop the Sr. Boys Div I rugby podium with a 22-8 victory.

The win secured the Trojans’ sixth city championship in nine years, a truly remarkable display of dominance that will be near impossible to replicate by any school, regardless of the sport.

But with success comes the challenge of knowing that every other team is bringing everything, including the kitchen sink, into games in hopes of upsetting Bowness’ nearly unblemished apple cart.

Which is exactly what happened in this year’s final.
After jumping out to an early 3-0 lead, Aberhart’s confidence grew as they realized they were able match Bowness stride for stride.

“Credit to Aberhart because they did exactly what they had to do, which was to keep the ball in tight and try to control the ball,” said Bowness’ head coach Al Rodbourne. “We got into penalty problems and they took advantage of that and I thought they played a really strong, hard physical game.”

But like all elite teams tend to do, Bowness found a way to get points on the board courtesy of their captain Matt Whalley, who strong-armed across the line for a major.

The lead didn’t last long however.
With both teams battling for position at midfield, Aberhart managed to grab a lose ball and place a perfect kick deep into Bowness’ end. After some diligent scrum play, Aberhart’s Ben Charles was able to bully his way into the end zone for five points. The extra points kick went unconverted.

Cabunoc-Boettcher nailed a clutch kick for Bowness just as time expired to give his team a 10-8 half-time lead.

Like they had done so many times throughout the regular season, Bowness had bent just a little bit to give the impression that the game was far from over.

“They are the best team that we’ve played this year in the city and they’re a very good team,” said Rodbourne. “They have some really good athletes. Once their athletes started to run around the outside it was really hard to run them down, so I was pretty impressed.”

But as the second half got underway it was clear that the bending was over, and the time to unleash the dominant play that everyone knew they were capable.

“That’s the way our season has been,” said Whalley. “We’ll bend and bend but we’ll never break.”
Before the second half was two minutes old Cabunoc-Boettcher pounced on a loose ball at mid field that was caused by a ferocious Bowness tackle.

The grade 11 student turned on the jets and flew down the wing for an uncontested try to give his team a 15-8 lead.

Aberhart immediately threatened to retaliate on a determined drive that saw them come within a few yards of Bowness’ end zone, but a stoic stance by the defenders kept the ball from crossing the line before the it was eventually cleared of the danger.

That display of defense may have been the game’s turning point, for if Aberhart scores a major, the game could possibly have been even with just 15 minutes to play.

“When we stopped them right down here, right there,” said Rodbourne pointing to the corner deep in Bowness end after being asked about the the games’ turning point.

“The guy that did that was Troy Miller, he stopped them and drove them right back. We stopped that play and then went back up the field. That was the turning point.”

“That was tremendous, especially at that point in the game,” confirmed Whalley. “That would have been a game-changing try, no doubt about it.”

Two minutes later Bowness would put the games’ final points on the board. Cabunoc-Boettcher, who drew strong praise from his coach for his stellar play, grabbed another loose ball at mid field and headed straight for Aberhart’s goal posts. As he was was being tackled he spotted a sprinting Ryan Wilkes supporting the play on his right and flung a pass to the speedy winger for a clear dash into the end zone.

Game, set and another championship match in the bag for one of Canada’s most dominant high school rugby teams.

“We’ve told the boys all year that usually people can stay with us for a half, but it’s hard to stay with us for longer than a half especially when we start moving the ball outside,” said Rodbourne.

“I thought our defense is what did it. They really couldn’t attack on us inside at all and we wanted to absorb them until eventually we got the turnovers and we could get a quick ball out.”

Check out Kram Interactive for more game photos.