The Battle of the Bears is back on.
The Bow Valley Rugby Club Grizzlies senior men’s team will have one more dance with the only competitor they’ve lost to this season, the Banff Bears, in the Calgary Rugby Union men's recreation league playoff final Sept. 10.
“It should be a good game,” said Grizzlies head coach Ty Hawes. “We won one against the Bears and lost one against them, so it’ll be a fun match.”
The rugby squads dubbed their two match-ups earlier this season "The Battle of the Bears.” The two-game series ended in a tie, with a win and a loss for both teams.
In an exciting twist of fate, the Grizzlies and Bears will meet again on the pitch at the CRU park for a tiebreaker to determine which bruins crew reigns supreme.
The teams will have a “standoff at high noon” Sept. 10, according to Hawes.
The Cochrane-based senior men’s squad is currently ranked first in the league with 10 wins and only one loss. Banff sits in second with eight wins and two losses.
The Grizzlies secured their place in the final with a 44-10 semi-final win over the Calgary Canucks Aug. 27 at the Mitford Pond pitch. Hawes said the match was “scrappy,” but nothing the team couldn’t handle.
“We just tried to stick to our game, punching points on the scoreboard instead of pulling punches on the pitch,” he said. “In the end, we were happy to get the W.”
Also scheduled for CRU playoff action last weekend was Bow Valley’s U16 girls’ and boys’ combined teams, however both games were called off due to lightning storms. The boys’ game against the Calgary Hornets/Rams combined squad was initially set for Aug. 27 at the CRU at 2 p.m. but was rescheduled to Sept. 10 due to the inclement weather.
The Grizzlies' U16 girls’ team was also scheduled to go up against the Hornets/Rams, but the game was forfeited due to a lack of players. A scrimmage was still played but did not count as an official game
The fourth Bow Valley squad playing in CRU playoffs this weekend was the U18 boys, whose playoff run ended in the final against the Calgary Canadian Irish/Saracens combined team. The game concluded with a final score of 13-10.
