Vancouver, BC: The defending Under-20 Men's provincial champs Vancouver Wave will kick off their title defence this weekend against the Vancouver Island Rising Tide in the season opener of the Dunbar Keg Men's Under-20 competition.

Match Details
4:00pm, Sat. July 9 - Vancouver Island at Vancouver Wave (Wolfson Fields, UBC)

Dunbar Keg Competition
Three regional representative teams will contest for the historic Dunbar keg this summer in the revamped British Columbia Rugby Under-20 Championship. The Vancouver Wave, Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island Rising Tide will compete in a round-robin competition, accruing points towards a championship appearance on July 30th. These three teams had previously competed against one another in the Pacific Conference of the now-annulled Rugby Canada Junior National Championship.

Scouting Vancouver
After guiding the Vancouver Wave U20 team to three straight BC U20 championships and a national title in 2009, Pat Fleck will once again be at the helm of the program this summer.

Fleck's roster will be led by three returning players who finished as runners-up in the 2010 National Junior Championship Final. Leading the backs onto the pitch is former Rockridge and BC provincial scrum half Kenny Tanaka, as well as centre Conner Fuller who is now a member of the UBC Thunderbirds program. The cornerstone of Vancouver's forward pack will be Capilano RFC product Thomas Pynn, who now competes as a member of the University of Victoria rugby program.

"I'm expecting all three of the returning players to step up and contribute this year," said Fleck. "I'm expecting Thomas to lead our forwards as he's a strong player with a very high work rate. He's got a lot of skill and a great deal of energy considering he plays in the front row."

Fleck is relishing the opportunity to see his players in action versus Vancouver Island, a game which promises to provide some fast paced rugby.

"What I'm expecting on Saturday is a very energetic Tide team," Fleck said. "It's the first game of the season so everyone will be fresh. It's expansive and up-tempo rugby with the U20 age group, which really makes it exciting to watch."

Scouting Vancouver Island
Former national team player and Castaway Wanderers RFC standout Ken Goodland will coach the Vancouver Island U20 team during their 2011 campaign.

Goodland's squad will feature three players that recently represented Canada's Under-20 team at the Junior World Rugby Trophy in Tbilisi, Georgia this past June. The Tide's forward pack will benefit from the scrummaging power of Cowichan's Scott MacLeod and the mobility of UVic Vikes back rower Dustin Dobravsky. Dobravsky proved to be one of Canada's top emerging players, recognized as Rookie of the Year by the University of Victoria Vikes Athletics program in 2011.

The Tide's back line will be led by Cowichan and Shawnigan Lake School grad Carlin Hamstra.

"At this level, it pays to have a player with Carlin's experience and leadership skills," said Goodland. "He really knows what he's doing and he will play a key role in leading our attack and directing the forwards where to go."

Goodland's game plan for this weekend's opener versus the defending champs evolves around his players maintaining possession.

"Pat Fleck is a great coach and the Wave are always well organized. They've won it the last three years so we have to be on top of our game. They will be very good defensively so we have to prepare ourselves for that," Goodland said. "We really want to starve them of possession. Our game plan is simple, we want our players to swing the ball out wide and have fun out there and hopefully score some tries."

2011 BC U20 Dunbar Keg Schedule
4:00pm - Sat. July 9: Vancouver Island Rising Tide at Vancouver Wave (Wolfson Fields, Vancouver)
2:00pm - Sat. July 16: Fraser Valley Venom at Vancouver Island Rising Tide (Peninsula School, Victoria)
7:00pm - Fri. July 22: Vancouver Wave at Fraser Valley Venom (Crush Crescent, Langley)
Sat. July 30: Dunbar Keg Provincial Final (Klahanie Park, West Vancouver)

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