For Trying Out Loud
Stingers Men’s Rugby Team Drops Provincial Championship to McGill Redmen For 4th Straight Year
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For the fourth year in a row, Concordia’s men’s rugby team was the groomsman and not the groom at the provincial championship game.
On a cold and wet Friday night, in front of a loud, yet neutral Molson Stadium, the Stingers, losers of the last three provincial finals against seven-time reigning champions the McGill Redmen, sought their first Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec title since 2005.
But in an all-too familiar fashion, the Stingers suffered a fourth loss in as many years in the championship game, losing 16-6 to give the Redmen their eighth-straight championship.
“We came out a little flat,” said Stingers all-star fullback and newly-crowned conference MVP Joey Fulginiti, who scored all six of Concordia’s points on penalty kicks.
“I thought we played relatively well but we couldn’t sustain it for 80 minutes and it was just unlucky for us.”
The Stingers were down early, allowing McGill’s Robert Ashe to score the night’s first try in the game’s opening minutes. Redmen fullback Cameron Perrin then added a conversion to make it 7-0, which was followed by a penalty kick that bumped the score up to 10-0 for the Redmen. Before halftime, however, Fulginiti scored on two penalty kicks to make it 10-6.
The Redmen went on to miss five straight penalty kicks, giving the Stingers ample opportunity to score and take the lead, but the Maroon and Gold failed to capitalize on their possessions.
Perrin added to the Redmen’s lead with less than 29 minutes to play with another penalty kick, and one final penalty kick from McGill fullback Thomas Stokes put the nail in the coffin.
The game was a boisterous affair, with the referee handing out two yellow cards to each team, including one to Fulginiti late in the second half.
The Stingers also lost two starters to injury, flanker Andreas Krawczyk, who left the game with a foot injury, and winger Caleb Jordan, who was taken away in an ambulance for precautionary reasons at half-time after suffering a head injury.
Jordan was responsive to the paramedics who tended to him and was able to move all extremities.
“It was a tough game to get into with the elements and then, obviously, the injury [to Jordan],” said Fulginiti.
“Through everything the guys really fought and never gave up for the 80 minutes, and we really battled to the end, no matter what the score was.”
“Obviously losing Caleb and his speed and his experience is not a good thing,” said Stingers head coach Clive Gibson.
“That being said, I think we had a long enough bench to cover for it. It may have been a mental thing on the boys, but I tried to calm them down and get them to understand that it wasn’t serious.”
But it wasn’t enough, as the team looked far from the squad that breezed through the regular season with a 6-2 record.
“We made too many mistakes,” Gibson said. “Too many mishandled balls, too many missed lineouts, too many lost scrums.”
The cold and wet weather also played a factor, but Gibson didn’t use it as an excuse for the team’s loss.
“It was the same weather for both teams,” said Gibson. “One team adjusted and the other one didn’t.”
Gibson, who has coached the Stingers since 1995 and led the Stingers to five provincial titles before losing his last five RSEQ championship game appearances—all to McGill—says Friday’s loss was the toughest of them all.
“[It’s] frustrating,” said Gibson. “Other years it doesn’t bother me as much, this year bothered me because I truly did believe we had the team to do it.
“We just didn’t connect on the day.”
The Stingers did boast a team of all-stars who could support Gibson’s claim and no one shone brighter than Fulginiti, who was awarded league MVP at the game’s end. Fulginiti scored 121 points this season, outpacing his closest competitor by 73 points.
Gibson listed off a number of accomplishments that Fulginiti achieved this year, from leading the league in overall points, to having the most conversions after a try, the most penalty kicks, the most game MVPs and even tying the league lead in tries scored.
In Gibson’s mind, as well as anyone who followed the league all year, Fulginiti was the clear league MVP this season.
But it’s a bittersweet feeling for Fulginiti.
“I would trade all [of my] individual success for a championship any day,” he said.
It remains to be seen if Fulginiti will return for another year with the team. He’s in his final semester of a finance degree, but the third-year veteran is still eligible to play two more seasons of Collegiate Interuniversity Sport rugby.
“It’s still up in the air,” said Fulginiti. “We’ll see where life takes me in the next couple of months.”
