Men's rugby rolls into final week
In front of a sizeable Homecoming crowd, men’s rugby eased to an 83-5 victory on Saturday over the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.
“The bench was strong coming on, and we just kept it going for 80 minutes,” head coach Gary Gilks said. “That’s definitely the best U of T team we’ve seen, and they did not give up. They tested us straight to the end.”
Up 38-5 at halftime, Gilks told his players he wanted to keep the performance going for the remainder of the game. The previous week, the Gaels saw themselves up 50-5 over Laurier, yet stumbled in the second half, getting outscored 15-10, for a final score of 60-20.
“It’s not quite night and day from last week,” Gilks said. “But [we] definitely improved in the second half. We talked about it in the dressing room; we talked about it all week that the second 40 had to be strong, and it was.”
Gilks drew attention to a pair of performers on his team who stood out on the high scoring day.
“Kai Lloyd put on a clinic on the wing there for the fans. It’s great because that’s going to build his confidence,” he said about Lloyd leading the Gaels with five tries.
“Alex Colborne had a great game not just kicking converts but getting around the field, making tackles and executing open plays,” he said, as Colborne added a try of his own.
Gilks thought the team prepared well during the days leading up to the game.
“[Watching film] on Monday nights, we set the tempo for the rest of the week,” he said. “We had a great week of training. They’re great athletes, they know what they wanted to achieve and they went out and did it. It’s
probably the best game they’ve put together in a while.”
The Gaels host their final regular season game of the year this Saturday at 1 p.m. at Nixon Field against the McMaster Marauders.
“We don’t necessarily look at the team we’re playing, we just look at what we’ve got to do,” Gilks said. “We’ve got to stick to our structure, try to get the guys on the same page all week. But honestly, we just need to stay focused and have a great week of training and we’ll be ready for Mac.”
