Ian Stewart – former Chair of the U Vic Board of Governors, former BC Lion, and long time player/supporter of James Bay, established the Bays-Vikes Challenge Cup last fall to recognize the respect these two rugby programs have for each other – and the excellent games and citizen-athletes they produce. Saturday, at Wallace Field on the U Vic campus, the men of JBAA and U Vic demonstrated the prescience shown by Stewart – engaging in a rugby competition that will be remembered by all who played or witnessed the game for years to come. 

The game pitted these teams – both 2 and 0 in BCRU spring play – and with Bays holding a 7 point advantage in the two game total point Challenge Cup series – in a winner take the Cup event. 

The game was played under a Chrystal-blue winter sky, with a fierce quartering wind blowing from somewhere cold. With the wind favouring them, JBAA jumped to a 3-0 lead two minutes in, when Jeff Williams slotted a penalty goal. The teams ground up and down the field – defence comprehensive and dominant - neither able to convert threats into points. Then, mid-way through the half, Nathan Hirayama, just returned from the international 7’s wars, kicked a penalty goal in reply – evening the score. 

Seven minutes on, Bryn Keys pressed over in the corner to give Vikes an 8-3 lead. But two minutes from half, the Blue Crush powered to the Viker line, and Hugo Belanger dove in to even the score. Vikes 8 – Bays 8. 

At the half, each team made a forward row change – JBAA’s Russ Ward entered the game to join Dave Cameron and Eric Forsythe, replacing an injured Pieter van der Merwe. Canada Captain Pat Riordan came in to join Toby Peyton and Andrew Tiedemann for the Vikes. With the wind now raging against the Bays, Navy Blue supporters held their breath. 

The initial 22 minutes of Half Two saw a pattern of thrust and parry – Bays winning the warfare in the trenches, advancing up-field – Nathan Hirayama pinning them back deep in their end with massive tactical kicks – the Bays advancing again, without score – comprehensive tackling by both teams from end to end, and sideline to sideline. 

Finally, at 62 minutes, speedy winger Willem du Plessis slashed into the corner of the Bays’ in- goal to give Vikes a 13-8 advantage. Fierce play continued – and the thought around the park was: “What, if anything, would break under the withering pressure – and on which team?” 

Six minutes from time, with Bays exerting pressure on the Vikes 5 meter line, the first crack occurred – a Viker sealing off the ball in-ruck, earning a yellow card. In defensive confusion that followed, JBAA’s Spenny Dalziel spied the hole he had been searching for all game – and slashed through for a JBAA try, converted by Jeff Williams. Bays 15 – Vikes 13. 

With two minutes left, and the game apparently in JBAA hands, the Bays handed opportunity back – going offside in their own end – to facilitate an apparent winning Hirayama penalty goal – Vikes 16 – Bays 15. 

Then, with the referee raising the final whistle to her lips, JBAA initiated an attack from near their goal line that will be watched on tape and re-watched by rugby aficionados for many years to come. The play saw all seven JBAA backs – Dalziel, Jeff and Morgan Williams, Belanger, Meechan, Harlow and Dave Moonlight - handle the ball – with Danny Harlow surging some 30 meters up the sideline, passing to Morgan – and hence to Moonlight, who outran Vikes’ defenders to the right corner of the in-goal. Whistle blows! Game over! Bays win 20 to 16! 

This is JBAA’s 125th Anniversary Year. In celebration, we plan a number of major game events – including visits from Old Puget Sound RFC, Golden Gate Rugby Club of San Francisco, and The Rock from Newfoundland. JBAA will also face off against Vancouver Rowing Club in two weeks, in competition for the venerable Cox and Ferguson Cups. As with the Barnard and Bays-Vikes Challenge trophies, each punctuation mark in this Anniversary Season will have to be earned – with major opponent challenges still ahead! This anniversary year progresses with a game against resurgent Abbotsford RFC next Saturday at MacDonald Park. 

In the CDI Division One game yesterday, U Vic Norsemen broke away for four trys to defeat the JBAA Ones 29 to 20.