Top five finish for Marauders

Maggie Cogger-Orr

Silhouette Staff

For the second year in a row the men’s rugby team journeyed westward to British Columbia to compete in the second annual CIS University Sevens Tournament. After losing in the plate final (third place game) to UBC last year 31-0, the Marauders were looking to improve on their previous campaign.

The Maroon and Grey began the tournament under grey and dreary skies in Langford – the new heart of Rugby Canada’s centralized training programs – as they faced off against the University of Saskatchewan. The Marauders – sporting brand new white kit – would open up the scoring with some fancy footwork by second year scrumhalf Andrew Ferguson, who would score and convert his own try two and a half minutes into the first half.

The success would continue from there as some hard work by forwards Sam Roberts and Cam Stones – who were both flying around the field making tackles – would pay dividends for the Marauders. Chris Gordon would speed around the edge for a try of his own to end the half at 12-0.

The second half would open with a great run by Davor Stojanov, who would score a 60m try and dispose of two Saskatchewan players on the way.  The frantic pace would result in missed opportunities from the Marauders, with several dropped balls and penalties keeping them from the in goal. Substitute Trevor Anderson would finally pounce on a loose ball to bring the score to 26-0 after Ferguson added the convert to end the game.

The Marauders next opponent would be the University of Alberta. The Marauders wasted no time in setting the tone with a try from Stones to bring the score to 5-0.  Some pace from the Alberta backline featuring a CIS ranked 200m sprinter would give them momentum to even the score going into the half.  National sevens player Tyler Ardron would be subbed onto the field after half and would make a big impact, leading to Ferguson touching down under the posts to put McMaster up 10-5. In the final minutes, Ferguson would break free from his own goal line and sprint the length of the field to touch down to end the game 15-5.

The final game of the pool stage would see McMaster take on the University of British Columbia. The battle of the undefeated teams would see both teams looking tired after a lengthy day, with passes and hands going awry on both sides of the ball. Still UBC would take a 12-0 lead into half in spite of some hard fought defence from McMaster. The second half would be all Maroon and Grey in terms of offensive pressure but only Chris Gordon would be able to cross the try line, bringing the score to 14-5 when the final whistle blew.

After finishing with a 2-1 record on day one, the fifth ranked Marauders would start day two in the quarter finals against the fourth-ranked University of Calgary. This high scoring affair would not start in favour of McMaster with Calgary quickly jumping to a 7-0 lead. The Maroon and Grey would respond in a big way though – quite literally – with all 6’5” of Ardron collecting the kick off and going 85m for the try through most of the Calgary team. Unfortunately he would miss the easy convert and the Marauders would trail 7-5.

The run seemed to jump start McMaster though with some great teamwork leading to Gordon and then Mike Paris respectively turning the corner on Calgary to make the score 15-7. A last minute converted score from Calgary would make the halftime score 15-14 for McMaster.

The second half would see McMaster play some solid team defence as well as Paris and Gordon link up again. Paris would break free of the pack and use Gordon to beat the last defender as he would touch down under the posts, bringing the score to 22-14. Another try from Ardron would put it out of reach for Calgary and give McMaster the 27-19 win and book their ticket to the semis.

The semi final would see the Marauders face UBC again as both teams looked to improve on their result from last year’s plate final. UBC would jump out to an early 19-0 lead after some miscues in the McMaster defence saw big gaps open up. The Maroon and Grey looked to rebound after half time and managed to outscore their opponents 12-5 in the second half with tries from Ardron and Roberts. It was too little to late though as they would fall 24-12 in the end.

Their final opponents would be the University of Victoria in the plate final (third place), a team stocked with National Team members. The Vikes would draw first blood with a big run by national team member Nathan Hirayama, but Stojanov and Ardron would respond for the Marauders to bring the score to 14-5 going into half.  Victoria would respond early in the second half with three tries to put them up 24-14. A late try from Ardron would be all for not as time would expire with the Marauders losing the match 24-19.

Universally regarded as the biggest and strongest team at the tournament, McMaster competed throughout the two day event admirably and looked right in step with the west coast schools who have been training in sevens throughout the winter.

While most of the team had their trip ended after the loss, three members of the squad (Ardron, Ferguson and Stones) will remain in BC, with Ardron continuing to train with the National Senior Men’s Team and Stones and Ferguson to play with the U20 National fifteens team. Both Stones and Ferguson will start in the team’s first game against Romania on Mar. 7.