The St. Thomas University men’s and women’s rugby teams ended the final season on a hard-fought note on Oct. 28.
The women came out strong against Mount Allison University with Olivia Rickets scoring just five minutes in, and Jessica Sauter five minutes later.
Rickets was able to score again and Bailey Andrews was able to score the conversion kick. However, the Mounties answered with a three-point kick.
Minutes later, Emily Donnell scored another try and Andrews kicked in another successful conversion.
Within 10 minutes, the Mounties were able to sneak in a try and a successful conversion. Rickets answered with another one for STU making the score 29-8 for the Tommies at half.
The second half saw arguments and anger as the Mounties held STU until Sauter was able to score five minutes in.
The Mounties were able to score minutes later on a breakaway. They were then able to hold the Tommies until Sauter scored again with 10 minutes left in the game, making the final score 44-13.
The women’s head coach Meghan Morrison was very happy with the team work the girls showed.
“The big thing with rugby, a lot of times we’ve got great scorers and people with dynamic stuff but we do a lot of work to get there. Our scrumhalf worked really hard today.”
The women will go on to face the University of New Brunswick in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association finals for the third year in a row.
The men’s team played hard against the UNB Ironmen.
The first half was played mostly in the Tommie’s end, but they made some good stops keeping the Ironmen from scoring until eight minutes in and then again five minutes later along with a successful conversion.
Tommies’ Johnathan Ginnish was able to answer with a try 20 minutes into the first half. However, UNB scored two more tries and conversion kicks minutes later.
UNB was able to score again thanks to its hard runs.
The game began to get rougher as more Tommies had to leave the game due to injuries.
The second half was just as rough as UNB scored seven minutes in. They were able to score again 10 minutes later off a rouge kick.
The Tommies were able to hold them back until five minutes left in the game, when UNB scored again.
Zack Lakes was able to score on a breakaway with less than two minutes left in the game and Cameron Gillis was able to score the conversion.
With seconds left in the game, UNB scored a kick, and then Lyndon Pugh was able to score afterwards. Gillis made a successful conversion, making the final score 56-12.
Following the game, the men’s team honored its seven graduating players: Nick Foot, Zack Lakes, Will Leek, Kyle Legresley, Mitchell Peardon, Brad Sears and Mike Thurber.
