Last gasp try gives Wolf Pack win over Bears

A Grant Crowell try in stoppage time gave the Prairie Wolf Pack a 27-24 win over the BC Bears in Canadian Rugby Championship action at Calgary Rugby Park on Friday evening. It was a stunning finale with the Wolf Pack forced to go 95 metres with time expired to earn the win.

The Bears were themselves forced to recover from a 19-6 halftime deficit. Two early penalties from Guiseppe du Toit earned them a 6-0 lead but the Wolf Pack fired back with 19 unanswered points with three tries coming from their outside backs. Jake Bentley grabbed a double with Ben LeSage reaching the corner for a third before the break.

Gradyn Bowd sent over a penalty goal early in the second half to stretch the lead to 22-6 but a raft of replacements turned the tide. Dustin Dobravsky went in under the posts for a try and du Toit landed his third penalty. A searing line break from James Pitblado saw the replacement scrumhalf touching down but the conversion was no good to leave the gap just a single point.

[EDIT: The final Bears try was erroneously attributed to Jared Douglas. It was in fact Pitblado.]

With the Wolf Pack under pressure a penalty was conceded and du Toit made no mistake to give the Bears the lead in the 75th minute. Again the Bears pressed but the Wolf Pack won a penalty on their own goal line with only a minute to play.

Two line breaks later they would be in scoring position. A drop goal attempt sailed wide with a penalty advantage. Instead of the posts they opted for the corner and Crowell just made it into the corner to earn a famous victory over the defending CRC champions.

The two teams will rematch at Klahanie Park in Vancouver on Saturday, August 4.

 

SCORING

WOLF PACK 27
Tries – J. Bentley 2 (17′, 26′), B. LeSage (29′), G. Crowell (80′)
Cons – G. Bowd 2/4 (18′, 27′)
Pens – G. Bowd 1/1 (42′)
Drop goals – R. Povey 0/1

BEARS 24
Tries – D. Dobravsky (45′), J. Pitblado (65′)
Cons – G. du Toit 1/2 (46′)
Pens – G. du Toit 4/4 (4′, 16′, 52′, 75′)

 

TEAMS

PRAIRIE WOLF PACK
1 Hubert Buydens, 2 Gabriel Kajdy (16 Tyler Rockwell 71′), 3 Ryan Kotlewski (18 Logan Jones 73′), 4 Conor Turner (19 Joshua Pritchett 76′), 5 Riley Fahlman, 6 Jordan Roberts, 7 James O’Neill, 8 Grant Crowell, 9 Mark Discombe, 10 Gradyn Bowd, 11 Cole Davis, 12 Nick Blevins (capt.) (23 Mozac Samson 52′), 13 Ben LeSage, 14 Jake Bentley (22 Evan Thomas 66′), 15 Cam Hall (21 Robbie Povey 61′)

Not used: 17 Gareth Brown, 20 FJ Bronkhorst

BC BEARS
1 Noah Barker, 2 Steven Ng (16 Paul Ahn 30′ {17 John Braddock 47′}), 3 Clint Lemkus (18 Liam Murray HT), 4 Craig McLaughlin (19 Nathan Stewart HT), 5 Shea Wakefield, 6 Dustin Dobravsky, 7 Ollie Nott (20 Connor McCann 66′), 8 Luke Campbell (capt.), 9 Jorden Sandover-Best (21 James Pitblado 52′), 10 Theo Sauder, 11 Fraser Hurst (22 Clayton Meeres 61′), 12 Guiseppe du Toit, 13 Doug Fraser, 14 Mike Nieuwenhuysen (23 Jared Douglas HT), 15 Josh Thiel

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Chris Assmus (RC)
Assistants: Cole Pedrick (RC) & Kristina Wolfe (RC)