Win over Bishop's gives McGill third-straight rugby championship

Matt Chesser

For the third consecutive year, the McGill Redmen are Quebec University Rugby League champions.

Three different Redmen scored tries as McGill cruised to a 21-0 victory over the Bishop's Gatiers in the QURL final on Saturday afternoon at Molson Stadium. The Redmen were heavily favoured prior to kickoff after posting a 5-1 regular season record, during which they outscored their opponents by an average of 37 points per game. The predictions proved to be accurate as McGill dominated Bishop's throughout the contest.

"We were fitter, a bit more talented, and we wanted it more than Bishop's today," said McGill Co-Coach Craig Beemer. "Everyone only sees our varsity team: we have a club side that I honestly think would finish second in this league if they were allowed to play. … [Administrative Coach] Sean McCaffrey has created a program where anything less than the [QUSL championship] would be a disappointment, and we lived up to those expectations."

After what had been an uneventful first half, McGill scrum-half Josh Reznick opened the scoring with just two minutes remaining in the half, taking the ball off a scrum at the five-metre line and plowing the Bishop's defence backwards for the try. Reznick's try came after almost 10 minutes of sustained pressure in the Gaiters' end.

"I think this year we really came together as a team," said Reznick. "In past years we've had a bunch of All-Stars-some great players-but I think this season it was more of a complete team effort to win the title."

Third-year prop Matt Edwards scored on a bruising 10-metre run early in the second half to double the McGill lead. Anthony Nestel completed the scoring with an insurance try in the last two minutes of the contest. Rookie Sam Skulsky successfully converted all three tries.

The QURL championship was the fourth in five years for the Redmen, who were making their eighth consecutive appearance in the conference final. In that time they have played the Gaiters four times, winning three of those games.

"We had the burden of high expectations on our shoulders from the start of the season," said team captain Adam Sommer. "But I think, considering how young our squad is, that we handled it really well."

Sommer and Reznick both cited a 25-17 loss in the last game of the regular season to the third-place Sherbrooke Vert et Or as an important wake-up call before the playoffs.

"After the first few wins this season we began getting pretty complacent," said Reznick. "You can somewhat expect [that] from a team like ours that's beating some teams by 50 points. That loss to Sherbrooke was something we really needed in order to get our focus back, so we could be ready for the playoffs."

Six Redmen were honoured in a postgame ceremony for earning spots on the QURL All-Star squad. Flankers Cayse Ruiter and Peter Klestov, prop Dave Tontini, lock John Phelan, fly-half Ian Turner, and Reznick all captured places on the conference team.

For many McGill players, Saturday's final was their last QURL game in front of a Red 'n' White crowd. Edwards, Sommer, Phelan, Jacob Chai, Jonathan Glancy, and Jesse Myers will all be lost to graduation, while Turner and Klestov will return to Queensland University in Australia after spending a year on exchange. However, the team will regain the services of star fly-half Alastair Crow, who missed the entire season after having shoulder surgery in the summer.

The graduating players will have two more chances to represent McGill as the Redmen will host the top two teams in Atlantic University Sport this Saturday. McGill will face the University of New Brunswick Ironmen at 1:00 p.m., and the Maritime Champion Dalhousie Tigers at 2:30 in an "Eastern Canada Championship".

"We honestly don't know much about the Maritime teams," said Beemer. "With the exception of perhaps some of the squads from B.C., I don't see too many teams that could have more talent on the field than we possibly could. We can only field 15 players, but we have at least 25 or 26 that would be starting on any other Quebec side. So I'm fairly confident we'll do well against Dalhousie."