A crosstown derby at the B.C. AAA rugby championships brought out the best in the Robert Bateman Timberwolves.
The T-Wolves cruised past the Yale Lions 29-10 on Thursday at Abbotsford's Exhibition Park in consolation action on the winners' side of the draw.
The victory means Bateman will play the winner of Thursday afternoon's late game between Earl Marriott and the Carson Graham for fifth place, which would match the program's best-ever provincial AAA finish. Yale will play the Marriott-Graham loser for seventh, and both games go at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
"The boys were just ready to play," Bateman co-coach Dave Chambers said of his No. 4-seeded squad, which was coming off a disappointing 21-10 quarter-final loss to No. 5 Lord Byng on Wednesday.
"They're our crosstown rivals, and it's an easy game to get ready for . . . both teams want to beat each other."
Yale had Bateman under pressure early, but the T-Wolves' defence stood firm and allowed the offence to get into gear en route to a 7-0 halftime lead.
After the break it was all Bateman, who ended up getting tries from Jake Thiel, Josh Thiel, Christian Pederson and Gerrin Tramm, along with three converts and a penalty kick from Gavin Rowell, en route to their third win over Yale in three tries this season.
Travis Murray and Thomas Rennie scored the tries for Yale, who weren't nearly as sharp as they'd been Wednesday, when they put a scare into five-time defending AAA champ Shawnigan Lake in the quarter-finals.
"We didn't play well today at all," Lions coach Doug Primrose acknowledged. "The guys reached such a high yesterday and were so close to pulling off a huge upset. I thought that coming into this one, it might be tough for them to get motivated.
"And Bateman played well – they're a good team. Some of our key guys didn't show up today."
In the AA draw, the Rick Hansen Hurricanes picked up their first win of the provincial tourney, thumping G.W. Graham of Chilliwack 34-10. In other consolation-side action, L.V. Rogers of Nelson beat the Abby Senior Panthers 14-5.
Both local AA teams play at 8:30 a.m. Saturday – Hansen takes on Rogers in the 13th/14th placing game, while Abby faces Graham to decide 15th/16th.
The AA (2:30 p.m.) and AAA (4 p.m.) finals go later in the afternoon on Saturday.