Ben Orr

Silhouette Staff

The McMaster Marauders are off the to OUA semifinals in spectacular fashion.

The women's rugby squad dominated in cold and rainy conditions Back Ten Field on Oct. 15, crushing the Toronto Varsity Blues 48-0.  The victory marks the team’s first shutout of the season, and earns them a spot in the provincial semifinals against the Brock Badgers.

Natasha Turner opened the scoring for the Marauders, with Maggie Cogger-Orr taking charge with two tries of her own to push to lead to 19-0.  Kim Ngai capped off the half with a score of her own, and the Maroon and Grey took a 24-0 lead into halftime.

The second half began with 20 minutes of back-and-forth play, as both teams were handicapped by high winds and rain. The Marauders would finally break through as Turner ran for two tries in ten minutes.

Ngai and Emily Ricketts added insurance as Turner converted on a kick for the first time on the day, much to the delight of the McMaster sideline.  The convert was to be the last play of the game, as a relieved Turner raised her hands with the referee’s whistle, mercifully ending a dominating performance by the Marauders.

Following his team’s win, Cam Mitchell spoke about how it felt to claim his first playoff victory as a rookie head coach.

“It was a bit of a relief,” said Mitchell. “I knew that Toronto wouldn't be the same team we played before and I think they came out with a bit more flash out wide, but the conditions really helped us and we were able to handle it.

“I'm very happy. This is the first game of the year in which we haven't allowed any points, so that was very big for us.”

The defensive performance was clearly important to a team that has dominated on offence all season long, but had yet to earn a shut out.

“Going forward we want to keep doing this,” Mitchell remarked. “We know we're going to have a lot better opposition to face. So it's about doing the same things we've been doing, just a little sharper because the opposition is going to be better.”

The coach praised the performance of two defenders in particular.

“We played tons of defence and Lindsay Turner made some very big tackles, as well as Stephanie Baron, who came in as a substitute for us.”

Mitchell also spoke about the consistency he has instilled in his team.

“We've basically done the same thing we've done all year. For defence we didn't have any little mistakes, so we didn't give away any points, so that was the biggest thing we can take away from this game.”

The Marauders defeated the Varsity Blues 68-7 during the regular season. When asked if it was difficult to keep in team playing at a high intensity, knowing they had won so easily just weeks previously, Mitchell praised his squad's focus.

“Once the game started, I didn't worry at all. In practice this week I was worried we wouldn't be quite as intense coming in but I think the women proved me wrong with that,” said Mitchell.

Adding to the playoff atmosphere, the match was played in harsh conditions, which lead to difficulty moving the ball and offensive errors.

“I think if anything [the weather] favoured us because we're definitely stronger in the forwards. They tried to run some stuff out wide that may have been a little easier if it had been better weather but overall it wasn't a huge factor for either of these teams.”

Mitchell's post-game message to his team was simple.

“I just told them that I was very happy with their game, happy we did not allow any points and that we still had a lot of work to do to prepare for the next two weeks,” said Mitchell.

Next, the Marauders will take on the Brock Badgers, who scraped by the Waterloo Warriors 13-0 in triple-overtime.

After two overtime periods solved nothing, the third overtime was played in the form of penalty kicks, with the Badgers converting on their final kick for the victory.

Coach Mitchell and the Marauders will not change anything in preparation for what is a relatively unknown opponent.

“We haven't seen them in a couple years because they're in the other division, but we expect them to be similar to most of the teams we've played,” said Mitchell.

“We're not going to change anything specifically, we'll just play our system and we'll attack where ever we see them being vulnerable on the field.”

That OUA semifinal will be played on Oct. 22 at 12 p.m. on Mac's Back Ten Field.

Maggie Cogger-Orr

Silhouette Staff

On a grey dreary day and muddy and slick field, the Marauders could not weather the Mustang storm.

The McMaster men’s rugby team fell to a hearty Western Mustangs team 19-3 on Oct. 15.

Western, aiming to avenge their last lost to McMaster in the 2010 OUA Finals, came out hard and immediately pinned the maroon and grey inside their 22-metre line. Some staunch tackling and defensive pressure would see the Marauders force the Mustangs out to the centre of the pitch following some hard work by the forward pack.

Western would keep on coming in the opening half and the Marauders would continue to defend their line with impressive vigour and aggression. Craig Leveridge, in just his second game at flyhalf with the team, would use his boot to clear the end a few times and relieve some of the pressure.

When they did have the ball in hand, McMaster’s quick ‘go forward’ attack with their powerful pack would wreak havoc amongst the Mustang defence, causing them to take numerous penalties on the day. One of said penalties would lead to Andrew Ferguson’s penalty kick which would stand as the Marauders’ only points on the day and give them a 3-0 lead.

Slippery conditions favoured the Marauders throughout the first 40 minutes, as the lethal Mustang backline would be forced into handling errors. The tight game plan that both teams would turn to as a result of the pouring rain would show the dominance of the McMaster pack, including Man of the Match Cam Stones.

The consistent pressure their 22-metre line would cause the Marauders to take penalties and after several calls going against them within a few minutes, senior player Will Long was given a yellow card. Led by the fearless Mike Sheppard, the maroon and grey would work even harder to hold up the Western offence and would put enough pressure on them at scrum time to get out of their immediate red zone.

The Mustangs would look to the foot many times throughout the day but the McMaster back three of Grant Schneider, Mike Paris and Chris Gordon would be up for the challenge. Paris in particular had several great counters to get the Marauders out of trouble.

Unfortunately for the Marauders, their opponents would finally break through to open the second half with Conor Trainor, who recently returned from representing Canada at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, touching down. Western would convert to take a 7-3 lead.

The try would take the wind out of McMaster’s sails as Western used the momentum shift and immediately broke the line off the ensuing kickoff. The resulting lineout would see some skilled play by the Mustang back line eventually result in a try after a lengthy injury delay, putting Western up 12-3.

As the game wore on, emotions would come to a boil with one of the Marauders being penalized following a skirmish after a whistle. Western would capitalize after freshman Lucas Balkovic picked off a McMaster pass for a try of his own.

In spite of the disappointing result, there were some huge positives for McMaster. Their area of weakness thus far this year, their defensive structure and individual tackling, was far improved on the day.

If the Maroon and Grey can keep this up, they have the potential to challenge first and second place teams Western and Queens come playoff time.

The team’s next challenge comes on Oct. 21, as they travel to Guelph to take on the Gryphons.

Ben Orr

Silhouette Staff

With an emphatic weekend win the Maroon and Grey have clinched the OUA's Russell Division crown.

By beating the Trent Excalibur 48-12 on Oct. 7, the McMaster women's rugby team earned a 5-0 record.  With 24 regular season points, the Marauders have won home field advantage for next week’s playoff game against the Toronto Varsity Blues.

Rookie Cindy Nelles continued to impress, leading her team with 16 points in the form of two tries and three converts. Adding two tries each were Claire Lockhart and Hannah Braithwaite.

Victoria Sawatsky and Sarah Berry also scored, with Maggie Cogger-Orr adding a convert on a day that saw a very balanced scoring attack on the part of the Marauders.

Despite the undefeated record, coach Cam Mitchell made it clear that this was not his team’s ultimate goal.

“We're happy with it, going undefeated in the regular season, but we just have to think that we haven't won anything yet and keep reminding ourselves of that, because there's no trophy or medal for winning the regular season.”

When asked if the impressive record relieved the stress any rookie coach inevitably feels, Mitchell stayed on point, praising his team and reiterating their goal.

“I think that we had to go 5-0 as a team. I'm very happy with it, but we haven't won anything yet.”

It was an impressive regular season nonetheless, one that saw the Marauders outscore their opponents 232 to 54.  That offensive output was tops in McMaster’s division, and second only to OUA powerhouse Guelph.

McMaster now takes on a Toronto team which they trashed 69-7 on Sept. 24 in Scarborough.  Coach Mitchell outlined his approach to playing a playoff game against a team that was handled so easily by his squad just three weeks ago.

“We're going in with the thought that it's a completely different team we're playing. They beat Waterloo who we thought would be one of our biggest competitors and they put up over 20 points against Queen's, who we were very close with, so we think that they're peaking at the exactly right time and they're going to give us a very good game.”

Despite a grueling regular season of rugby coming to an end, Mitchell has no plans to change his team’s habits this week as they prepare to take on the Varsity Blues. The coach plans to run his team as hard as ever.

“I think we got here by working hard in practice, playing a lot of games, doing contact, so the hard work we do in practice carries over to the games. So I don't want to scale back the intensity too much because I think that might scale back our intensity in the game.”

Trent will take on the second-place Queen's Gaels in the other Russell Division quarterfinal, with Brock squaring off against Waterloo and Guelph taking on the Western Mustangs in the Shiels Division quarterfinal games.

Guelph also ran the table this year in the OUA, with an astonishing plus-445 point differential through five games. They are ranked second in the nation and have faced virtually no real opposition this season. Many are looking towards a potential match up between the Marauders and the Gryphons in the OUA Championship game. Coach Mitchell explained his game plan for Guelph in one word.

“Pressure. Basically their games so far have been semi-contested training runs. No one's put them under pressure. They've scored at will, so I think if we can work hard against them, work hard and put them under pressure, they won't have experienced that before and we can probably give them a game.”

The Marauders will start their journey through the OUA playoffs on Oct. 15 at Back Ten Field. Game time for the quarterfinal matchup is 12 p.m.