In their season opener on September 6, The Varsity Blues men’s rugby team showed no signs of rust despite a lengthy off-season — in fact, it was the opposite.
At Varsity Stadium, the York Lions proved no match for the men’s rugby team, as the Blues overwhelmed them from start to finish and won their season debut, 62–5.
A well-oiled machine perfectly encapsulates the Blues’ 15-man squad as they seemingly put up points at will, while coming up with crucial stops on the defensive end.
The Blues started the season with a victory and have now won three straight matches against the Lions by large margins.
What happened?
U of T’s tenacious defence and surging offence set the tone of the match. After forcing a scrum off a York turnover, the Blues immediately found themselves in the scoresheet after back three Jackey Kuang burst for a try in the first minute, taking the score to 5–0.
Seven minutes later, the Blues forced their way into another try after a maul, and kicked a successful conversion to extend their lead to double digits, 12–0. York tried to gain some offensive ground and came within inches of the end zone, but U of T made some timely tackles to stop the Lions.
The Blues then capitalized on a line-out play stoppage, overpowering York with their physicality on another maul to tally their third try of the night, furthering the gap to 17–0. The Lions responded by stealing possession and earning a penalty opportunity, which U of T thwarted after York chose to run the ball to end the half.
“Credit to York, they came out firing, they had some big boys, they had some hard lines. They came at us. But at the end of the day, it’s you and your team versus the other team. You have to get your shoulder down and make a hit,” said team captain Eric Vann in a post-game interview with The Varsity, when asked about stopping York’s scoring chances postgame.
Despite blanking the Lions in the first half, the Blues left no room for any comeback after executing seamless plays through crisp passes and tactically-timed kicks in the second half.
When asked about the team’s mindset going into the second half, Vann said, “Our coach said that we all knew they were gonna come up firing. It was a close game, with a couple of scores. But we knew if we came out hard and put a couple of points early, that would set us up and finish out the game.”
In the 43rd minute, U of T once again found themselves on the cusp of scoring. After weaving passes, back three Ruaidhri Neville nailed a forward kick to the striding Kuang for another try, followed by a conversion, widening the lead to 24–0. York retaliated after finally scoring a try into the end zone after a catching error from the Blues, to cut the lead to 24–5.
From then on, the Blues went on a rampage, burying tries one after the other using well-placed criss-cross passes and spinning manoeuvres to finish out the game, cruising to a 62–5 domination.
What’s next?
The Blues travelled east to face the Royal Military College on September 13, where they fell 22–31. Vann, looking forward to the match, said, “That is a big one, a really big week for us. Some big military boys over there. So we gotta make sure we’re ready to put in some hits, and do all the stuff that isn’t fun.” The Blues will play the University of Guelph next, on September 20.
No comments to display.