Near gale-force winds and a physical opponent didn’t keep the men’s rugby team from finishing their season on an impressive note.
The Gaels traveled to the Royal Military College and staged an impressive 41-0 rout, clinching first place in the OUA East Division with a 5-1 record.
Josh Chambers scored two tries while Alexandre Nemetz-Sinchein, Michael Wong, Petar Jokic, Colin Alexander and Will Sorenson all scored one each. Bryn Davies, the OUA’s leading scorer entering the game, kicked two conversions while Ryan Kruyne notched one.
Queen’s head coach Peter Huigenbos said his team did a great job staying disciplined.
“What we focused on all week was being disciplined. We know that RMC’s prone to living on the edge of the law, so we were very focused and the guys really stayed away from the penalties,” he said. “[That meant] we had a lot of possession and they were on their back foot all day.”
RMC received two yellow cards in the game, once for a team foul and once for a high hit on Sorenson, who stayed down for several minutes but continued the game.
The Gaels started off strongly, pressuring RMC into their end before Jokic scored a try only four minutes in. The game then evened out with both sides struggling to take control. Queen’s sharpened up toward the end of the first half before taking complete control of the game in the second.
Huigenbos said his team’s defence never faltered.
“We kind of went into a lull and got away a little bit from what we wanted to do, but the guys settled down, played tough on defence and won the ball.”
Huigenbos said the Queen’s backs did a great job handling the powerful winds.
“When you have that much wind coming across the field it’s definitely going to be a factor in the game, but our back three of Colin Alexander, Mike Wong and Sean Duke played the wind well for the first half.”
Wong said the wind was a large factor in the game.
“It was blowing hard across the field,” he said. “Going left was a lot harder than going right.”
Nemetz-Sinchein, who started a game for the first time this season, said the early try set the tone for the rest of the match.
“Within the first five minutes we got that try where they fumbled it in their own zone,” he said. “If there was a turning point, that was it.”
Although he was pleased with his own performance, Nemetz-Sinchein
said the team is committed to winning, first.
“There are no individual performances on the rugby field.… That’s something you think about on your own. As a team, we played extraordinarily well today.”
The men will host Trent in the OUA quarter-finals this Saturday at Kingston Field at 1 p.m. Queen’s beat Trent 78-0 on Sept. 8. Huigenbos said the team is looking forward to a long playoff run.
“We’ll start building towards what we want to do in the quarter-finals and semifinals,” he said.
“It’s been a long time since Queen’s had a home semifinal.”
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