Stingers Win, but Lose Captain

Men’s Rugby Overtakes Bishop’s in First Game

SportsDavid Kaufmann — Published September 14, 2010

Concordia’s men’s rugby team opened its season with a costly victory on Sunday in a 24-7 rout over the Bishop’s Gaiters at Loyola.

“It was all right for the first game of the season, but we have a lot of work to do if we want to come away with the championship,” said Stingers head coach Clive Gibson.

Flanker and captain Ted McGregor, who recorded two tries in the game, had to be taken off the field late in the match as he appeared to have hurt his knee. Gibson wasn’t sure of the injury’s extent, but said a quick assessment would determine whether McGregor would be fit for the next game.

The Stingers broke out of the gate early after McGregor stormed his way past the try line. Moments later, Stingers rookie Curtis McKinney added another try for an early 14-0 lead. These early points didn’t sit well with Gaiters head coach Bill Robson.

“We didn’t play well at all. We had no brains. Everybody played pretty stupid. We gave away 14 points early, and then spent the rest of the game making mental error after mental error,” he said.

The Gaiters did get on the board moments before the first half ended when hooker Ryan Ozeroff caught the Stingers sleeping. But it wasn’t enough to please Robson.

“There, I thought there were a bunch of inflated egos. They thought they were better than they were and now they’ve discovered they’re not,” he said.

McGregor doubled his tally in the second half, but had to be taken off the field by medical staff following the play. As the clock was ticking down, Stingers fly half Xavier Birot added an insurance try for the win.

Overall, Gibson was pleased with his team’s progression in the game.

“I think their reading space is actually improving. We’re actually starting to see the space available on the field and attacking it, so the open play is exciting,” he said. “[But] we have to work on ball retention. There were far too many balls lost in contact. We have some serious work to do on that this week.”

McKinney echoed Gibson’s statement with the dropped balls.

“That ball is our baby, we’ve got to keep it,” he said.

The Stingers will try to make it two in a row when they take on the McGill Redmen Sept. 17 at Loyola Field. Kickoff is at 7:00 p.m.

This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 05, published September 14, 2010.