The men’s rugby team bagged their second OUA win of the season Saturday, defeating the Carleton Ravens 24-5. Playing to a packed crowd at Kingston Field, the Gaels surged to an early lead in the first half with four tries. However they were dogged by penalties, and were held to a stalemate by Carleton in the scoreless second half.
Team captain Kiel Perchinig said he was happy to “return the favour” to the Carleton Ravens, who have beaten the Gaels consistently over the past two years.
“I think we played fantastic in the first half … in the second half we kind of fell apart with the penalties and whatnot,” said Perchinig, a four-year veteran.
“I think we were successful in what we wanted to do, which was use our forwards, and we scored most of our tries with that strategy.”
Queen’s came out strong in the first half, with inside center Jordan Foley scoring an early try. Kicker Nick Hodgson converted the try, giving the Gaels a seven-point lead.
The Gaels’ second try came shortly afterward, when Foley swung an inside pass to fullback Geoff Carran, who sprinted the last 10 meters and drove through several Carleton players to touch down inside the Ravens’ try line. Hodgson then converted for another two points.
Queen’s then racked up a third try, scored by Spencer Cameron, which was followed by an answering try from Carleton. Neither try was converted successfully.
The Gaels were playing a tight, close game, hammering Carleton at every opportunity and making gains in short strides up the field. Their play was marked by good rucking and consistent ball recoveries rather than spectacular outside runs.
Queen’s fourth and final try came late in the first half. The Gaels had advanced the ball to within 10 meters of the Ravens’ goal line, but were stymied by a series of strong defensive tackles. Finally Jordan Foley carried the ball inside and across the try line, scoring his second try of the match. Hodgson then missed the conversion by clipping the ball of off the post, leaving the score at 24-5.
The second half was considerably less eventful. Carleton’s defence seemed to have improved markedly, and neither team was able to put the ball across the try line, despite several close calls.
Carleton Team Captain Aaron Cardon said he was pleased with his team’s performance in the second half.
“The second half was a lot better than the first half,” Cardon said. “We showed a lot of weakness. Queen’s is our biggest competition in [Eastern Ontario] so we know now what we have to work on until playoffs.”
The Gaels continued to dominate up front, winning more than their share of rucks, and at one point, driving the Ravens’ scrum back more than 20 meters after lineout. They were unable to capitalize on this advantage, however, as they were hampered by a series of penalties that broke up the play.
Perchinig blamed the team’s lesser second-half performance on a breakdown in discipline.
“The guys kind of lost composure in the second half—we were taking a lot of penalties and they compounded on each other,” Perchinig said. “Discipline has been a problem with past teams and I don’t want it to be a problem on this one.”
Nevertheless, Perchinig said he felt Queen’s had outplayed the Ravens.
“They’re a hard-nosed team, tough, strong, but once you get past that they’re pretty out of shape,” Perchinig said.
Head Coach Peter Huigenbos concurred.
“We need to clean up some things from the second half,” Huigenbos said. “We kind of lost our focus, but we still dominated the play—all in all it was a good win.”
The Gaels will be facing some stiff competition this year. Huigenbos said that the gap between teams in the league is closing.
“Mac and Western has been the top of the league, and Brock has some very fine young players and a very strong team—league-wide the gap is narrowing and there’s less and less separation from the top and bottom teams,” Huigenbos said.
The Gaels will play Trent at home on Wednesday on Kingston Field at 3 p.m. and then will face Brock on the road during Homecoming weekend.
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