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Sharks edge T-Birds

Last Saturday in Vancouver, the Sharks elite men’s rugby side beat UBC 30-23

With a win last weekend over the UBC Thunderbirds, the Bayside Sharks set up a battle for first-place – or at least a share of it – against Burnaby this weekend.

Last Saturday in Vancouver, the Sharks elite men’s rugby side beat UBC 30-23 to improve to 4-1 on the season, which puts them in a four-way tie for first place, alongside Capilano, Burnaby and Abbotsford. The Sharks also picked up the bonus point for scoring four tries.

The top two teams will qualify for the premier league in the spring, with the rest relegated to Div. 1.

“It’s definitely going to come down to the last couple weeks of the season here,” said Sharks coach Pat Kearney.

Against the Thunderbirds, Bayside got on the scoreboard early when Trevor Giesbrecht scored a try at the three-minute mark, and Eric Sugawara – playing just his first full game after recovering from a pair of serious knee injuries – scored two more in the second half. Pete Johnson added a late try for the Sharks, and Peter Clifford added two penalty kicks, both late in the first half, to seal the win.

Clifford’s two kicks were important, Kearney said, because they came after two penalties put the Bayside down two men.

“We still have some work to do on discipline,” he said.

Two of UBC’s tries came late in the game, which made the game appear closer than it really was.

“At the end, we kind of let them off the ropes a little bit, and they squeezed a few over the line, but overall, it was a good game, and it’s nice to get the win,” Kearney said.

In Div. 1 action, Bayside beat UBC 50-10 to improve to 4-0-1 on the season.