VANCOUVER, BC – A dramatic try by Jack Tucker of Toronto with less than five minutes remaining, proved to be the game-winning tally as fifth-seeded McGill came from behind for an emotional 17-11 victory over No. 8 Trinity Western in a national semifinal at the Canadian University Men's Rugby Championship, Friday,  at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium.

McGill improved to 2-0 at the tourney and punched its ticket to Sunday's gold medal game. The Redbirds will confront No. 2 seeded UBC (2-0) which advanced earlier with  a 37-17 semifinal victory over Guelph. The Redbirds are 10-1 overall, while UBC is 9-3.
 
Both McGill and the Spartans had upset higher seeds in the quarter-final round and their semifinal clash was an entertaining matchup where penalty kicks and misses played a role and heavy-duty tackles were in plentiful supply.

"We established our game plan and executed it really well," said Ian Baillie, in his 10th year and ninth season as head coach at McGill. "We wanted to play more of a possession game this time round (compared to a kicking game in the tourney opener), because we knew that they had an electric back three. I thought that we did a really good job at that, especially in the last four minutes when they boys were phenomenal, staying on their feet, working hard to advance the ball and doing all the grunt work to kick the ball into touch and get the win."

Trinity Western was the first side to put points on the board when left-footed flyhalf Matthew Willemse made two penalty kicks – from distances of 17 and 25 yards – within the opening 12 minutes.

His initial two penalty kicks were sandwiched around a converted McGill try, when Alexander Armstrong received the ball at the 30-yard marker and powered his way through the middle of the Trinity Western defence to go over for the first major of the game. Team captain Monty Weatherall converted to give the Redbirds a 7-3 lead.

"Alex really came to play and was a beast carrying the ball," Baillie said. "He bumped guys off, left and right. He took a couple of good shots but dished out as much as he took. As a ball carrier, he's a young, skilled, hard-nosed kid and it was good to see him successful today."

Willemse missed his next penalty kick, a 35-yard attempt in the 16th minute, for the Spartans. He also missed a 28-yarder in the dying seconds of the half and later failed on a 26-yard effort in the second stanza when his kick rattled off the left upright.

Weatherall, who has missed only one kick attempt all season, made no mistake from 44 yards to extend the Redbirds lead to 10-6 with six minutes remaining before the intermission.

The second half started as a cagey affair, as a series of stoppages disrupted the flow for both teams. But nine minutes into the period, Trinity Western was dealt a major blow when Nate Schroeder was red-carded for a high, hard tackle that left Armstrong shaken up on the play.

Despite being shorthanded for the remainder of the contest, the Spartans took advantage of some territorial dominance when Favour Olaniyan carried the ball two yards over the try-line in the 41st minute after a series of pick-and-goes. However, Willemse conversion attempt bounced off the upright and the Spartans had to be content with a slender 11-10 lead and 19 minutes left to play.

As the clock ticked down, McGill upped the pressure and Weatherall attempted a rare drop-kick that went deep into the endzone. A failed clearance allowed McGill to scrimmage near the five-yard line. Owen Cumming gained possession from the scrum and pitched to Tucker who scooped up the loose ball at the 13-yard marker and powered over for a try to put the RSEQ champions ahead 15-11 with just four minutes remaining.

"Jack played really well all game long and had a real good run on that try," Baillie said. "He was great defensively and positionally and when he got his opportunities he did very well, both with the ball in hand and also kicking it away to get us out of trouble."

Weatherall made the conversion to finish his day with seven points and has now tallied 20 points in two tourney games. That left Trinity Western needing a converted try to win, but McGill comfortably controlled the remainder of the contest to book their berth in the final.

Armstrong was named player of the game for the Redbirds, with Olaniyan meriting the honour for the Spartans.

"Heading into today's game, we knew that we had 120 minutes left to play over the next three days, so we made the decision to use all 26 players that we came with," noted Baillie, who started eight different forwards from Wednesday's quarter-final win over Laurier. "Being able to play all of them allowed us to compete, work hard and accomplish our goals. That's what we needed to do. We weren't going to win all three games playing with just our first 15 or 20 guys. We needed a real team effort from everybody and that's what we got. We got pushed around a little bit by the bigger boys but our defending was ferocious and so was our relentless work rate, which is our identity. We knew it would be a physical game and we rose to the challenge."

The McGill club, which is celebrating its 150th year of existence, will now look to claim the program's first national rugby championship against No.2 seeded UBC on Sunday at Thunderbird Stadium.

Trinity Western (1-1) will battle for bronze against the OUA champion Guelph Gryphons (1-1) on Sunday at 4 p.m. (Eastern).

REDBIRDS RAP:  In 2019, McGill only other trip to Nationals, the team went 1-2, losing the quarter-final 36-10 to Queen's, then defeating UNB 50-5 in the consolation round and and losing 26-14 to Brock... Two McGill rugby products broadcasted the historic win for the Redbirds on The Rugby Network, which is streaming all 12 tournament games for free. The play-by-play duties were handled by Maria (Jaworski) Samson, an all-star fly-half for the McGill Martlets from 2005 to 2008, who was both the captain and Team MVP, then went on to play for Canada at the Nations Cup in 2011.  Currently head coach of the Mount Royal University men's team in Calgary, she also serves as vice-chair on the board of directors at Rugby Canada... The colour analyst was Philippe Haddad, a second-year law transfer from Queen's, who missed McGill's entire 2022 season with an injury suffered in training camp. Haddad also conducted solo play-by-play for Redbirds home games this season on the McGill Streaming Network.
 
SCORING SUMMARY
(CUMRC Championship Semi Final 2; at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium))

McGILL  17, TRINITY WESTERN  11 

First Half
1. TWU - PENALTY KICK  (17 yards) by Matthew Willemse,   6'  (TWU 3-0)
2. MCG - TRY (30-yard run) by Alexander Armstrong  (convert by Monty Weatherall),   8'  (McG 7-3)
3. TWU - PENALTY KICK (25 yards) by Matthew Willemse,  12'   (McG 7-6)
4. MCG - PENALTY KICK (45 yards) by Monty Weatherall,   24'  (McG 10-6)
 
Second Half
5. TWU - TRY (two-yard run) by Favour Olaniyan  (convert missed by Matthew Willemse),  41'   (TWU 11-10)
6. MCG - TRY (13-yard run) by Jack Tucker  (convert by Monty Weatherall)  56'  (McG 17-11)


TOURNAMENT PROGRAM:
The official program of the 2022 CUMRC including all team rosters (PDF)

TOURNAMENT WEBSITE:
https://gothunderbirds.ca/sports/2022/9/14/2022-canadian-university-mens-rugby-championships.aspx

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE & RESULTS:

Wednesday, Nov. 30
Quarter-final 1 - Trinity Western 23, Victoria 22 - Game Recap/Scoring Summary 
Quarter-final 2 - Guelph 28, Memorial 22 - Game Recap/Scoring Summary 
Quarter-final 3 - UBC 53, Calgary 0 - Game Recap/Scoring Summary
Quarter-final 4 - McGill 23, Laurier 22  - Game Recap/Scoring Summary

Friday, Dec. 2
Consolation Semifinal 1: Victoria 36, Laurier 12 - Game Recap/Scoring Summary 
Consolation Semifinal 2: Memorial 29, Calgary 14 - Game Recap/Scoring Summary
Championship Semifinal 1: UBC 37, Guelph 17  - Game Recap/Scoring Summary
Championship Semifinal 2: McGill 17, Trinity Western 11 - Game Recap/Scoring Summary

Sunday, Dec. 4 (EASTERN TIME )
12 noon Consolation Final (7&8)
2 pm Consolation Final (5&6)
4 pm Bronze Medal Game - Awards Ceremony (Following the game)
6:30 pm Gold Medal Game - Awards Ceremony (Following the game)


SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman, McGill Sports Info Office
Michael McColl, UBC Sports info Office

SOURCE: