Men’s Rugby: Stingers Win in Dramatic Fashion

Concordia Defeats ETS Piranhas 41-36 For First Win

SportsSafia Ahmad — Published September 26, 2016

However, injury time turned out to be all the Stingers needed to end their losing streak. Concordia’s last substitution paid off when François Yaccarini scored a try to secure his team’s first victory of the season at Concordia Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

“It was a full 22-man roster that won it,” said Stingers head coach Craig Beemer.

The Stingers seemed dominant for most of the first-half, taking a 19-7 lead early on. First-year rugby forward Julien Cantin scored two tries in only his third-ever game in the sport. Jerome Levesque added a third try.

“Honestly, I’m still sometimes trying to figure what I am doing but I’m just playing with instinct and working hard in practice,” said a smiling Cantin. “Sometimes, good things come out of that.”

However, penalties and mistakes caught up to Beemer’s team. The head coach blamed his rookies for the indiscipline but acknowledged that it was due to a lack of experience. However, he blamed the veteran players just as much for mistakes occurring in the second half of the game.

After 40 minutes of play, Concordia was down 21-19. The Stingers played catch-up for part of the second half before tying the game at 26 a piece.

Despite going down twice afterwards, the Stingers displayed resilience on the field and didn’t stop pushing until the very last minute of play.

It was an important win for Concordia since ETS had surprised them in the Réseau de Sport Étudiant du Québec quarterfinals last year by winning 19-18.

For the head coach though, it was more than just avenging that playoff loss.

“You know what, I hate to say it, but it was really important,” explained Beemer. “These guys have been working really hard for a month. They really deserved it.”

The rugby team will be looking to extend their wins to two when they face the number one ranked Université de Montreal Carabins next Sunday afternoon at Concordia Stadium