The scene after the game was excruciating. As I arrived on the scene and saw a group of players brandishing ice packs, covered in tensor bandages, it looked more like a battlefi eld than a rugby pitch. I soon realized that rugby is not a game for the faint of heart.For one day at least, the Blues were more like the black and blues. In a game against Royal Military College the result almost seemed apropos. Coming off a 2-6 season the Blues were hoping to start 2007 off strong, but with a tough game coming up this weekend against Queens, Toronto will have to lick their wounds in a hurry following a 33-14 loss to RMC this past weekend.

Luckily for them, Queens will offer a different experience than what the Blues endured this weekend against the Paladins. As Blues head coach Edward Sun says:

“The Golden Gaels have a quality side in terms of just pure talent. They can pretty much do whatever they want on the field with their skilled players, and they play a wide game. They always try to avoid the crash and bang style because it would waste the s they have on their roster.”

Avoiding the crash and bang style will be a key for the Blues who play a pretty wide game themselves. “We always try to play a wider game,” says Sun, “because we have quality backs who’ve got pace to burn. The bottom line is passing the ball more than fi ve meters out, so we always go wide and try to go with the fl ow of the game in terms of the direction of the ball.”

Against RMC, however, that plan was derailed by a number of penalties in the fi rst half , with“general lapses in concentration” as assistant coach Garth Gottfried put it. It wasn’t until the second half that the team fi nally started to fi gure things out, scoring two tries in a span of ten minutes. Outside centre Zack Besner scored one, bringing a great deal of intensity to the entire game. The rest of the scoring came from Onome “Iggy” Igharoro and a two-point conversion from wing Alex Koppel.

In past seasons, Toronto has had diffi culty keeping their opponents off the board with some notable games being a 107-13 loss to Brock as well as a 46-0 whitewash against a Queen’s team that comes in later this week. Nonetheless, team Captain Peter Braun sees hope for the future.

“We started our lines out a bit better in this game. Last year we were just an absolute disaster with that. We’ve also got a backline this year that can pretty much run through or around any team we face. We’re really looking to ship it out wide and let those guys do their magic.”

Magic or not, the Blues could use a change of luck, losing by an average of 30 points per contest in 2006. Given that, you have to consider Saturday’s score a marked improvement. With what coach Sun describes as a very youthful squad, minor gains can be considered baby steps. And with a full rugby season averaging eight games long, every opportunity is crucial, whether for immediate gains or player development.