Saturday, he returned to the rugby pitch and looked right at home there, too.

Rowney, making his first appearance of the season on behalf of the New Brunswick Black Spruce and pressed into service at the fly half, or number 10 position to replace the injured Simon Pacey, made a solid debut at a position he hasn't played since his days at St. Thomas University.

He also had a pair of penalty kicks and a convert - not enough, as it turned out, to have a significant impact on the result of the Rugby Canada Super League contest against the Newfoundland Rock.

The Rock rolled to a 33-11 win over the Spruce, improving their East Division record to 3-0 while the Spruce remain winless at 0-3 on the season. But to hear Black Spruce coach Keith McAlpine tell it, things are getting better.

"I think we regained a little bit of our pride," said McAlpine. "We felt we significantly underperformed in the first two games (losses to Niagara Thunder and Quebec Caribou). But in this one, we got a bit of our pride back. We kind of wobbled a little in the middle of the second half, but until that point we were in the game."

It looked like it might be another long afternoon early. Rowney actually opened the game's scoring with a penalty kick two minutes into the match, but the Rock answered quickly, with Morgan Lovell rumbling up the right sideline two minutes after that and the Rock backs moving the ball quickly until Mike Rudofsky touched it down between the goalposts three minutes later. Dean Blanks converted both and suddenly it was 14-3 for the Rock and it looked like they were cookin.'

But the Spruce "tried to make sure we matched up a little bit better and tried to get up on them a little more quickly," said McAlpine, and it seemed to work.

Chauncey O'Toole, returning from a tour of the U.K. with Rugby Canada's senior men's sevens side, penetrated down the left sideline for a try at the 12 minute mark to cut the deficit to 14-8 and the Spruce battled the Rock tough the remainder of the first half.

Early in the second, Rowney punched through another penalty kick to close the gap to within three, to 14-11, and the Spruce seemed to be controlling the flow of play, winning the scrum and making some aggressive tackles.

"We had some of the ball and just failed to execute things," said McAlpine.

Stuart Cosman was sent to the sinbin for an aggressive tackle as the Rock pushed toward the goal line, and less than a minute later, Andrew Fagan of the Rock took it in for the try McAlpine felt was the backbreaker. The convert made it 21-11 and the Rock added another at the 70 minute mark and another by Robert Wilson on a long dash in the 76th minute to complete the scoring.

Rowney, who normally plays scrum half in the Spruce scheme of things and hadn't been doing that, first because the flood forced him to evacuate his Maugerville home and then due to a sprained ankle suffered at the training camp with the national team senior coach, enjoyed his return to fly half.

"I just kind of stepped in at practice last week, not expecting to stay there, but I think it worked out pretty good," said Rowney.

McAlpine agreed.

"I thought he had a fantastic game," he said. "For a guy who really hadn't played there very much, to step in, I thought he had a very composed performance."

McAlpine welcomed O'Toole back, too.

"He stole a number of balls. I didn't count but he must have had a half dozen steals. He ran well in the open field and stayed on his feet through tackles. He really is a good player and his fitness and the skill level he has out there shone through again."

The Under-20 Timber made their 2008 debut against the Newfoundland Jr. Rock and fell 29-24 in a hard fought match. Matt Cole had three tries and a convert for the Timber, while Brendan Johnstone had the other try and Jordan Blizzard punched through the other convert.

The Rock got tries from Evan Buckley, Stefan Barter, Alex Ryan, Grant Moffatt and Robert Spearing. Adam Paul converted a pair.

Both the Spruce and Timber are in Halifax next Saturday in search of their first win of the season.

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