Prior to last weekend’s game against the Castaway Wanderers, Bayside Sharks premier men’s rugby coach Pat Kearney figured his team needed at least three points from their final four games to move out of last place.
“Desperation rugby,” he called it.
Now, however, they’ll need a whole lot more.
The Sharks, still winless this spring, lost a nail-biter Saturday, 26-25 to the Victoria-based Wanderers, though they did pick up a vital bonus point in the loss.
The team they’re chasing for seventh place, however, had an even better day, as the UBC Old Boys upset James Bay 39-12 in what Kearney called “the upset of the (spring) season.”
“We just can’t catch a break,” he said.
Now, if the Sharks are to crawl out of eighth and avoid relegation, it will take something of a miracle; they’ll likely need eight points in the next three games, while hoping UBC gets skunked.
“That’s a pretty tough task. The way it is now, it looks like eighth is likely where we’ll finish,” Kearney said. “But stranger things have happened.”
The Sharks host James Bay Saturday at South Surrrey Athletic Park. The first-division sides play at 1 p.m., and the premiers follow at 2:45 p.m. A third-division game precedes both contests, when Bayside battles the Brittania Lions at 11:30 a.m.
“No matter what, we aren’t about to give up,” Kearney said. “We’re going to work hard and battle until that final whistle.”