Gaels top Brock to remain undefeated

McMaster and Guelph next tests for defending champions

Men’s rugby stayed perfect in 2014 by gutting out a tight win on the road.

Facing the Brock Badgers (2-2), Queen’s held on in the second half for a 24-17 victory and moved to 3-0 on the year. With the win, the Gaels have now won 19 straight games, including playoffs.

Gaels flanker Brendan Sloan said even though Queen’s didn’t play at a top-notch level, they were still able to pull out the win against a hungry Badgers squad.

“They came out strong. It was their Homecoming and they were all pretty fired up. Hats off to them, they played a pretty good game,” he said. “It wasn’t our best game, but we’re looking forward to next week and fixing a few things. I’m just glad we got the win.”

Queen’s managed to get on the board first in the match’s opening half, when wing Kainoa Lloyd scored his fourth try of the season. A successful conversion handed the Gaels a 7-0 lead.

The Gaels scored again later in the half, recording a penalty try, bringing the score to 12-0 before Brock trimmed the lead with a try of their own to make the score 12-5 at the break.

“We just tried to play a physical game, tried to match them. They play pretty hard so you try to bring it to them,” Sloan said.

Lloyd struck again in the second half, adding his second try of the match. Shortly after, Sloan scored a try of his own. Full back David Worsley tacked on a conversion to increase the Gaels’ lead to 24-5.

The Badgers added a pair of tries in the half, but couldn’t equalize, as the Gaels defence held strong.

“In the second half, we managed to hold off their offensive charge with some solid defence,” Sloan said. “We were able to hold out for the win.”

He added Queen’s might have taken the Badgers a little lightly, but the team is focused on tightening up their game heading forward.

“Going into the game this weekend, we’ve got to fine-tune some things and get our offensive structure and defensive intensity up to where they’ve been in past games.”

The Gaels’ next two games come against the OUA’s other two undefeated teams. On Sunday, Queen’s travels to face the McMaster Marauders (4-0), while the Guelph Gryphons (4-0) come to Kingston on Oct. 4.

Sloan said contests with top teams such as the Marauders and Gryphons are the games the Gaels look forward to.

“Those are the games you remember, the big wins that matter,” he said. “All these blowout wins are fun, but they’re not the ones you look forward to.”

Tags

Brock, Gaels, Men's rugby, Sloan

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