The Varsity Mens’ Rugby team opened its season on Saturday with a tightly contested match against the Brock Badgers. The game’s result looked in doubt until the final play, when Queen’s second-year fly-half Dave Poettcker slotted a dramatic 30-yard penalty to give the Gaels a hard-fought 22-21 victory.
The Badgers are on the rebound after not fielding a team in 2002. After winning the OUA’s Second Tier last fall, they entered this season hungry for one of the three playoff spots up for grabs in the OUA’s Eastern Division. That tough division also includes Toronto, Carleton and Trent.
“[Brock is] an up-and-coming team,” fourth-year second-row man Spencer Cameron said. “We knew that we’d have our hands full.” Fourth-year captain Rory Connolly was quick to give credit to the strong tackling of the Badgers. “They were very organized in defense and while we had a large advantage in possession we weren’t able to translate that into points on the board.”
Despite the Badgers’ ambitions, the Gaels were the ones to take control early in the game, advancing deep into Brock’s end of the field. Poettcker opened the scoring by converting a pair of penalties against Brock into a quick six points. A few minutes later, some fierce tackling by the Gaels forced a turnover on Brock’s 22-metre line. Queen’s Assistant Captain Kiel Perchinig scooped up the ball and ran it in for a try that put the Gaels up 11-0.
Brock was able to regroup after this pressure from the Gaels and moments later a Badgers forward rumbled through the Queen’s defense for a try, which was converted by Brock fly-half Jared Selby. Soon after, Poettcker pushed the Gaels’ lead to 14-7 with another penalty kick.
The beginning of the second half saw the teams trade scoring plays. Brock orchestrated a drive that resulted in a try, which Selby converted. Queen’s responded by spinning the ball wide to winger Dave Rapai who touched down in the corner for another Queen’s try, putting the Gaels ahead by a score of 19-14.
Once again, Brock was able to regain some momentum after a Queen’s try, and pressured the Gaels deep into their own end. The Badgers blocked a Queen’s clearing attempt, and a Brock forward recovered the ball and dived over the try-line for a score. Selby made the conversion to turn the score 21-19 in favour of Brock, setting up a thrilling conclusion to the game.
For the next 20 minutes, Queen’s pressed into Brock’s end of the field. The Badgers defended with some disciplined tackling, but their clearing attempts failed to gain enough yardage to relieve the pressure applied by the Gaels. Within a five minute span, Queen’s drove the ball over the Brock try-line twice, but on both occasions the ball was held up in contact and Queen’s was accordingly awarded a pair of scrums on the five-metre line.
With time ticking down, Queen’s won a line-out and began to spin the ball wide on their final push of the end zone, but the referee caught one of the Brock centers offside, and awarded a penalty to the Gaels. Poettcker showed the poise that earned him OUA Rookie of the Year honours last season, slotting the penalty kick to put the Gaels ahead by a single point, 22-21. The referee promptly blew his whistle to end the match.
Overall, Queen’s Captain Rory Connolly was satisfied with his side’s performance in its first game of the season.
“While it definitely wasn’t our best performance, I thought we showed some great heart in the last 20 minutes to come back and win it” Connolly said.
Next weekend, the Gaels travel to Toronto to take on the Blues.
“We have lots of things to work on for U of T this coming Saturday, especially stepping up our defensive pressure and capitalizing on our chances” Connolly said.
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