By Chris Whan
A late-game yellow card assessed to Algonquin turned the tides and allowed Seneca to score 10 points and pull ahead for the win in the last rugby game of the weekend on Oct. 5.
The Algonquin Thunder men’s rugby team played passionately but inevitably lost to the Seneca Sting 35-30 on Sunday Oct. 5 making it their third straight loss and dropping their record to 1-3 on the season.
“We didn’t retain the ball in the second half,” said Head Coach Goeff Tomlinson. “Basically there was a lack of discipline.”
Penalties in the second half led to the Thunder maintaining little possession and allowed Seneca to march down the field and score. As for the next game, Tomlinson says they only need to keep their emotions in check.
“We’ve got to play the same way but we’ve got to be more disciplined.”
The Thunder led the first half of the game and a great interception run by Mike Korecky was the best play on Algonquin’s side but a lot of rucks went to Seneca.
“We had a lot of penalties towards us,” said Team Captain Brian Hue. “It’s always been a problem with our team.”
Not all of the game was negative though. Lack of possession led to the Thunder playing defense and they held up well.
“I was pretty happy with our defense to be honest,” said Tomlinson. “All things considered we probably retained the ball for maybe 15 minutes out of 80. For 65 minutes we had a pretty good defense.”
Hue had a similar sentiment and regardless of what the results were, they played as a team.
“We played as a team, we always play as a team and that’s all you can really ask for,” said Hue. “Play for each other and to play for the person next to you.”
The men’s rugby team head to Kingston on Thursday to play St. Lawrence College and then are back at East Nepean Rugby field to take on Loyalist College on Oct. 19.