Laurier blanked

Western looms as men’s rugby starts undefeated

Michael Van der Westhuizen streamrolls a Laurier defender.
Image by: Nick Lachance
Michael Van der Westhuizen streamrolls a Laurier defender.

With a balanced attack and suffocating defence, the men’s rugby team defeated the Laurier Golden Hawks 38-0 on Sunday.

The Gaels played their second road game in five days, following a 33-12 win in Wednesday’s season opener against McMaster. The weekend’s win secured the team their first shutout of the season.

Head coach Peter Huigenbos said the defensive effort was gratifying after conceding a pair of tries against the Marauders.

“We wanted to have a better defensive outing,” Huigenbos said. “We stepped it up a notch as far as limiting the attacking opportunities for Laurier.”

Queen’s led 12-0 at halftime off tries by Graham Turner and captain Dan Moor. Turner said the Gaels started off slow in the first half, but picked up the intensity later in the game, particularly in the final 20 minutes.

Queen’s continued the shared scoring in the second half, with Colin Greenwood, Tim Richardson, Michael Van der Westhuizen and Marc Van der Wal all scoring tries.

Fullback David Worsley, who scored 18 points in the season opener, added four conversions.

The Gaels looked dominant in their first two games, despite starting the year without star fly-half Liam Underwood, who began the season on a stint with the Ontario Blues. The team is unsure about Underwood’s status going into their Sept. 22 home opener against the Western Mustangs.

The game will be a rematch of the 2011 OUA championship, which Queen’s lost 21-15 at Western. While the team will prepare for the game like any other, Turner understands the significance of facing the Mustangs.

“Western’s a special case for us,” he said. “We’re lucky enough to have a bye week to rest a bit from all the training. [The] guys should be more fired up than usual — we all know this is a special one.”

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men's, rugby

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