Queen’s Rugby left Nixon Field with mixed results on Saturday, as the women’s team returned to the win column in dominant fashion while the men fell short in a heated home opener.
Bouncing back from a 22-19 loss to the Guelph Gryphons the previous weekend, the women’s team had a strong showing with a 91-5 win over the McMaster Marauders. The win improved the women’s team to 3-1 this year. The men’s team fell 33-22 to the Western Mustangs, moving the Gaels team to 1-2 on the season.
The men’s team played first at 2 p.m., with the women’s game following at 4:30 p.m.
On the men’s side, the physical matchup remained competitive throughout, with Queen’s continuing to push despite Western maintaining the advantage. Third-year winger Graham Walters, ArtSci ’28, led the Gaels with two tries.
Saturday also marked Walters’ first start in the men’s lineup. Despite the result, he said the game showed what the group was capable of.
“Of course, it’s not the result that we wanted, but all across the board, I think guys showed what they could do,” Walters said in an interview with The Journal.
He credited the players around him for creating the opportunities that led to his tries.
“The finish was there, but it all starts in the middle,” he said. “It all starts with the guys inside of me.”
For Queen’s, the focus now shifts away from the Western loss and toward its remaining regular-season schedule.
“Whatever happened here, we spend an hour on it, think about it, but other than that, onto the next game,” Walters said.
As for the women, team captain Jayne Armatage, ArtSci ’27, says the response came after a demanding week of preparation.
“If you saw us practicing all week, you would have seen a lot of bumps and bruises and just grinding,” Armatage said. “We honestly capitalized on everything we needed to.”
Queen’s held McMaster to a single try while scoring 91 points of its own. Tatum Lougheed, Kin ’28, led the Gaels with 21 points, while Kennedi Stevenson, ArtSci ’28, recorded four tries.
Armatage said defence had been a major focus after the loss to Guelph.
“Our goal is to get zero net metres all game,” she said. “We had everyone throwing shoulders all day, all game.”
The Gaels also wore white ribbons around their heads during the game as part of Consent Week. Armatage said the women’s and men’s teams took part in a seminar on consent and used the ribbons to raise awareness around consent on campus.
READ MORE: Consent Week asks students to rethink campus culture
The initiative accompanied a result Armatage described as a strong response from the group.
“It was electric,” she said. “It was a doubleheader on Nixon on a Saturday. It was beautiful.”
Both teams will be back at Nixon on Saturday, Oct. 3. The men’s team will be taking the field first at 2:30 p.m. against the Waterloo Warriors, with the women’s team to then take on the Laurier Golden Hawks at 5 p.m.
Tags
Men's rugby, OUA, Queen's Rugby, Women's rugby
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