The Martlet

The Vikes definitely missed their enforcers Adam Kleeberger and Neil Meechan on Saturday, March 7, as they took on a powerful Meraloma side on Wallace Field.

Well aware of the Vikes lethal backline scoring abilities, Meraloma kept the ball in tight and forced the Vikes back for most of the match through pick-and-drive tactics.

It rained, snowed and the sun shone during the 80 minutes of rugby, but the visitors were the side to capitalize on the poor conditions through short, quick passes to keep the Vikes at bay.

After edging the Vikes back towards their own try through several grinding phases of rugby, Meraloma’s scrum half Eric Wilson fed Sam Jenkins at top speed, who broke through for the first points of the match. Meraloma’s Shawn Mercier and Brian Erichsen would punch in two more tries to lead 19-0.

UVic would respond through some crafty play by fly half Nathan Hirayama. After flattening Meraloma’s quick defence, Hirayama kicked through for John Moonlight to run onto the ball. The forward blitzed past his tacklers to get the Vikes on the score board.

After converting Moonlight’s try and a difficult penalty through heavy winds, Hirayama closed the gap 19-10 at the half.

Meraloma stuck to their forward play as they pounded the Vikes deep into their own half. After pushing the Vikes past their 22, Meraloma fly half Jake Hirst blitzed through his tacklers to spread the lead 24-10.

As the snow began to fall, Hirayama would notch six more points through his kicking abilities before Meraloma answered with try scoring runs.

After a well-supported run that changed hands between five of the Meraloma’s forward pack, Shawn Mercier would touch down beneath the posts for another five points.

Despite being down 33-16, the Vikes climbed their way back into the match. After feeding the ball out to Ben Grant for five points, UVic’s Kyle Buckley sprinted past five tacklers to make it 33-28.

Meraloma again responded with well supported runs by their forward pack, and eventually saw Dave Biddle force his way over to take the lead 38-28.

After the final whistle, Meraloma scrum half Eric Wilson spoke of his side’s adjustments against UVic.

“We definitely kept the ball in the forwards a bunch. We have a pretty dynamic backline this year but playing against UVic [who] certainly has strong runners, we decided to keep the ball in tight,” Wilson said.

“I think we had an advantage there so we scored a couple of nice pick and drive tires that sort of put the game out of reach for them.”

After suffering their second consecutive loss, the Vikes now slip to sixth place in the Canadian Direct Insurance Premier League standings with 20 points, with one game in hand.

On Saturday, March 14, UVic will take on a tough Castaway Wanderers side that recently thumped the UBC Thunderbirds by a score of 46-26.

Meraloma now advances to second place with just two points between them and table leaders Capilano.