Piranhas 25, Stingers 8: Men’s Rugby Team Drops Rainy Home Opener

Stingers Fall to 0-2 After Indiscipline and Poor Preparation

SportsJared Lackman-Mincoff — Published September 21, 2022 2 minutes

Neither team had much fun on Sunday, with the temperature in the low teens and heavy rain. But the ETS Piranhas managed to find some success in bad weather while the Stingers could not.

Despite the loss, Concordia Stingers’ Head Coach John Lavery was quick to give ETS credit, saying that they “played the conditions super well.”

The Stingers started the game out well, knocking a penalty kick through in the 4th minute to take a 3-0 lead. Due to the tough conditions, not much happened until the 19th minute, when Piranhas' flanker Maxime Delespine got into the try zone to put ETS ahead 5-3, as the conversion attempt afterwards failed.

The Stingers had trouble generating offense. They were holding strong defensively until another ETS try in the 31st minute gave the Piranhas a 12-3 lead. The Stingers came close at the end of the half, but infractions and a slippery ball left them empty-handed into halftime.

Despite an ETS penalty kick to increase the Piranhas’ lead to 15-3 in the 41st minute, the Stingers came out firing on all cylinders to start the second half. The Stingers were inside the ETS five-meter line for close to a minute before Stingers lock Glen Bowler punched it into the try zone. The convert was unsuccessful, but Concordia cut the deficit to 15-8.

“We were gaining momentum,” said Bowler post-game. “We saw the space and took advantage of it.”

It was all downhill for the Stingers after that, as ETS converted a penalty kick in the 61st minute and scored another try in the 73rd minute to go ahead 25-8.

“There’s a growth process going on in our leadership crew,” said Coach Lavery. “I think we had the right messaging and the right energy at halftime, but I think that the stuff we talked about didn’t really emerge on the field.”

“If I’m being honest, it’s a players’ game. I think they’ll take a lot out of this,” Lavery added. He also noted his team’s ball-handling errors in the wet conditions and a lack of discipline.

When asked what the team should improve on, Bowler answered, “Exploiting the outsides a little bit more and really using our kicking game. That’s what we should try to work on for next week.”

With this loss, the Stingers fall to 0-2 and sit sixth in the RSEQ standings. The top four teams qualify for the post-season.

Concordia has five games remaining, the next of which is on Sunday, Sept. 25 against McGill. Kick-off is set for 12 p.m..