News

Balloch's boot bags victory for McGill in Eastern Canadian final

Published: 14 November 2009

HALIFAX - Alastair Crow of Victoria, B.C., scored a try with four minutes remaining and the subsequent conversion by Gideon Balloch of Ottawa gave visiting McGill University a come-from-behind 19-17 victory over the Dalhousie Tigers to capture an unofficial Eastern Canadian men's rugby title in Halifax, Saturday.

It avenged McGill's 14-12 loss to Dalhousie last year on a final play penalty-kick by Ellis Gray in the inaugural challenge match for Eastern Canadian bragging rights played at Molson Stadium.

Balloch's game-winning conversion, his second of the day, came from about 40 yards out on a sharp angle near the sideline in windy conditions.

"He came through with two huge kicks in extremely difficult conditions," said Craig Beemer, associate co-coach of the Redmen. "It was nice to see the whole team come together to face adversity and there's no better feeling than winning a hard-fought, tooth and nail game like this."

The lead changed hands six times.

Dalhousie jumped into an early 5-0 advantage on Ewan Wilson's first of two tries but McGill went ahead 7-5 on a try by fly-half Kyle Buckley of Ajax, Ont., and a sensational Balloch conversion lofted into the teeth of a howling wind.

Wilson replied again followed by an Ellis Gray conversion to give the Tigers a 12-7 edge at halftime.

With the wind at their back in the second stanza, McGill evened the score at 12-12 on an unconverted try by Keelan Chapman, a 19-year-old freshman from Winnipeg.

However, scrum-half Tim Loney regained the lead for Dalhousie again which gave the Tigers a 17-12 lead with about 10 minutes remaining in regulation time to set up the late Redmen rally.

"It was a momentous win for our program," said graduating team captain James Stellick, a stocky, 5-foot-10, 230-pound prop from Mississauga. "Dalhousie had a very physical side and the key for us was to match their physicality and maintain an air of confidence. We came out very confident in the second half with the wind in our favour and kept it simple. We believed in our systems and it paid off. We elevated our play to a greater level and it was a fantastic effort by the team."

The Redmen are 9-0 against Canadian opponents and hoping that they can add one more fixture to their schedule - a challenge match against Queen's, who also went undefeated (9-0) and captured the Ontario championship with a 23-19 decision over Western on Saturday.

SCORING SUMMARY (note: official times are unavailable):

FIRST HALF:

1. DALHOUSIE: Ewan Wilson TRY (conversion missed by Ellis Gray), DAL: 5-0

2. McGILL: Kyle Buckley TRY (conversion by Gideon Balloch), McG: 7-5

3. DALHOUSIE: Ewan Wilson TRY (conversion by Ellis Gray), DAL: 12-7

SECOND HALF:

4. McGILL: Keelan Chapman TRY (conversion missed by Gideon Balloch), TIED 12-12

5. DALHOUSIE: Tim Loney TRY (conversion missed by Ellis Gray), DAL: 17-12

6. McGILL: Alastair Crow TRY (conversion by Gideon Balloch), McG: 19-17

McGill Scoring

Kyle Buckley (5 pts; 1 try)

Keelan Chapman (5 pts; 1 try)