Ada Sonnenfeld
Ada SonnenfeldThe McGill Redmen Rugby Team earned the right to be called champions on Sunday night, avenging their single regular season loss by defeating the Concordia Stingers 22-10 in the Quebec Student Sports Federation Championships. In the biggest game of their season, the Redmen turned in their best performance to win their fifth consecutive QURL title.
Both teams, although nervous, started strong. In the first minute, a penalty was called against Concordia; however, McGill’s Gideon Balloch missed the conversion. Cameron Perrin made a fantastic first half run. He was almost in the clear when a Concordia player made a nasty play and pulled him down by the collar of his jersey, choking him in the process. McGill was awarded a penalty kick but, again, it missed.
A few minutes later, Concordia committed another penalty and Balloch redeemed himself, making the kick and scoring the first points of the game to make it 3-0 for McGill. In the 23rd minute, Concordia answered with a successful kick of its own, tying the score at 3-3.
Then the Redmen took control of the game. In the 28th minute, Balloch scored the first try of the game off of some great offensive passing. He then succeeded at the conversion to make the score 10-3.
For the rest of the half, McGill dominated both offensively and defensively, making some great runs, lineout plays, and impressive hits. In the fifth minute, a Concordia player received a yellow card for a late tackle. McGill took advantage of this and with only a minute and a half to go Balloch scored the second try of the game and the conversion making the score 17-3 McGill.
The second half started off a little messy for both the Stingers and the Redmen. Concordia was offside for the first kick and then were penalized for hands in the ruck. McGill was called for a knock-on and a skewed lineout throw.
However, the most costly penalty was by Concordia’s Auguste Stoker who received a second yellow card for intentional obstruction and was ejected from the game. Concordia played the rest of the game a man down.
Sam Skulsky had some huge hits and stole some balls during the game.
“It was really a team effort—the team allowed me to get into position to make those tackles.” Skulsky said. “We really clicked today which is good, we really wanted it and we came out with all guns firing.”
In the 11th minute of the second half, Concordia scored a try and a conversion to narrow the gap to 17-10.
Again, McGill answered, as Balloch scored the third try of the game. He didn’t make the conversion, but the lead was enough and the game finished 22-10 for McGill.
“I was ecstatic,” said McGill Head Coach Craig Beemer. “I was really happy with our defence. The boys showed up ready to play and everything that happened is totally on them. They worked hard all year; the focus in practice was great. Their loss against Concordia helped our intensity level going into the playoffs and I couldn’t be more happy with them.”
The McGill forwards captain, Alexander Sunell, agreed with his coach.
“We took everything we have been learning all season and put it in one game,” he said. “It’s surely the best game of the season. We just need to work on being a team like we were today; nothing will stop us if we play as a team.”
Six players on the team—Sam Skulsky, Keelan Chapman, Liam Brown, Roderick MacKenzie, Max Gregory, and Jong-Wook Lee—have earned a berth on the Quebec University Rugby League’s all-star squad.
Chapman said, “The game was tough in the first 20 minutes, but once we got the motor running everything fell into place and we were able to get the phases going and get those breakthroughs to get those tries.”
Their next game is the Eastern Championships on Saturday, November 20, at 1:30 p.m. at Molson Stadium.
