The Concordia Stingers men’s rugby team managed to hold on for a narrow 16-10 defeat of the Ecole de Technologie Superieure (ETS) last Sunday to remain undefeated this season.
After the teams exchanged penalties early on, ETS flanker Charles Poderleau powered through a lackadaisical Stinger defence to earn his team an early lead. Afterwards, ETS standoff Christophe Moielle punched the convert over the bar to give his squad took an early 10-3 lead.
At the midway point of the first half, the Stingers fought through some unenthusiastic rucking and mauling as the forwards managed to pitch a ball out wide to bursting winger James Cameron.
Cameron streaked past three ETS defenders to finally touch the ball down in the corner of the try zone. Stingers standoff Simon LeBlanc missed the convert but added another penalty, sending the teams into the lockeroom with an 11-10 Stinger lead.
On the second half’s opening kickoff, ConU’s Nick Bell raced down the sideline and captured the ball in the air. However, Concordia slowed up after this initial attack.
The Stingers played a slow and sluggish game in the second half and at times were in danger of giving up the game as ETS advanced off every missed opportunity.
Towards the end of the game, the Stingers scored again but were nowhere close to putting their lead out of ETS’s reach.
With ten minutes remaining in the game, Concordia flanker Dave McLeod fly-hacked the ball down the field and fullback Ovett Edwards fell across the line. “I got a kick through and that’s when Ovett scored the try,” McLeod said.
The convert was missed and the score remained a 16-10 Concordia lead.
“There’s not a whole lot to say about today’s game that’s printable,” Manager Clive Gibson said after the game. Gibson was visibly unhappy with the result and murmured that the team would need a whole hell of a lot more if they wanted to win any more games.
Along the touchline, Jason Rhee, who played last week but sat this one out to recover from a nagging shoulder injury was also concerned with the team’s overall performance. “We weren’t fast enough or organized enough,” Rhee said. “They [ETS] were contesting our rucks and we didn’t have a clue to look around.”
Stinger winger Etienne Bouchard said the Stingers were not creating much needed plays out in the backs. “Our knock-ons and passing accuracy was horrible, we weren’t able to catch some easy balls,” he added.
The Stingers play Bishop’s on Sunday in Lennoxville and then face McGill the next week in a heated cross-town rivalry.
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