Two Defenses Collide

Men’s Rugby Team Battles it Out and Settle for Draw

SportsAllan Morais — Published September 20, 2011

Concordia’s men’s rugby team fought an epic battle on Sept. 16 over the Bishops Gaiters that ended tied up at 14 at the Loyola field.

Defensively the Stingers had a very strong; back and forth battle against the Gaiters. It was a hard fought and gritty battle in which both teams were very strong defensively and the game saw a lot more kicking than anyone expected.

They got on the board first, but fell behind 14-7 until they scored a dramatic last minute try to equalize the score. They then had to fend off the Gaiters who pushed hard late in injury time trying to regain their lead and get valuable points in the standings.

After the game, Stingers prop Jimmy Bang said that he had a lot of respect for the Bishop’s team, but felt that his team is the more talented.

Stingers head coach Clive Gibson said that tying the game felt ‘terrible’ since they thought the Stingers would come out with a win. Gibson noted his team played a great defensive game. “Defensively we played exceptionally well and had a very solid game… the biggest problem we had all day again was penalties, it was ridiculous, we probably had more than last week,” said Gibson. When asked how he felt his forwards had played this week he replied: “Our forwards played a strong game, but they were the cause of most of our penalties and that needs to change.”

The Stingers have a tough game next week against McGill and they know that they will need to eliminate the penalties from their game if they want to beat the defending champs on their own field.

As tough as it is to accept a tie when they had high hopes for a win, it was a character building game and the fact that they managed to tie it up and hold off Bishops late in the game, shows how well this team can perform under pressure.

The Stingers will be heading to Molson Stadium this Sunday, Sept. 25, to take on the Redmen. Kickoff is at 1:00p.m.