The men’s rugby team continued their dominant start to the season with a convincing win over crosstown rivals RMC Paladins.
With the stands packed prior to kick off, the Gaels made sure not to disappoint in their home opener, as seven different players touched the ball down across the try line as part of the 62-0 victory.
This was the third straight game — of three played this season — in which the team managed a total of at least 60 points.
Not just an offensive powerhouse, the Gaels boast the top defense in the OUA with just seven points allowed. Saturday’s game was their second shutout of the season.
Following the game, winger Kainoa Lloyd highlighted the team’s stellar defensive play throughout their first three matches.
“No matter how many points we score, if we keep them at zero all we need is one to win,” he said.
Against RMC in particular — in which the Gaels improved their already overwhelming point differential to +187 — Lloyd spoke about the team’s well-organized and structured play without the ball.
“We worked on having a lot of line speed to shut them down early, we wanted to pressure them so that they’d make mistakes,” he said.
By half time, the score was already fairly lopsided with Queen’s leading 40-0. Although down, the Paladins maintained their composure in the second half and pushed their way deep into the Gaels end on multiple occasions.
But the home side’s disciplined positioning and play at the breakdown were too strong for their opponents. Ultimately, the Gaels would punch in four more tries before the referee’s final whistle.
Now with these three games behind them, the Gaels can focus on their upcoming fixtures. Next weekend the Gaels host Western before matching up with Guelph on September 30, who defeated Queen’s last season in the OUA finals.
Although Lloyd did acknowledge the strength of their upcoming opponents, he feels the Gaels still have a lot to improve on during their week of practice.
“There were definitely a lot of points left on the board […] a lot of dropped balls that could have been tries,” he said.
Specifically, Lloyd added that the team is “going to try to finish more, make sure that we don’t make 50-50 passes, and make sure we consolidate and score more points.”
Even with the aforementioned list of improvements the Gaels could make, it certainly seems the team looks poised to recapture the Turner Trophy for the fifth time in six years.
Tags
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.
