Hawks men’s rugby advances to championship game

Nov 12, 2012 | Sports

By Matt Creed

Humber Hawks Ed Donnelly (with ball) in regular season action. The Hawks won their semi-final game against Seneca 41-7, and will face off against Trent on Nov. 18, for the OCAA men’s rugby championship. PHOTO BY JESS RAYMOND

With a perfect 6-0 season, numerous scoring records broken, and a win in Saturday’s semi-final game, the Humber Hawks men’s rugby team will try for a third straight championship on Sunday versus Trent.

“For us to win in the finals it’s all about sticking to our standards. We have a standard of play that we’re use to playing at and we can’t drop below that,” Ethan Belchos, Humber Hawks outside center, told Humber News.

The Hawks met their toughest competition on Saturday with a 41-7 win over Seneca whom they faced in the OCAA semi-finals.

“The difference in this game was the caliber of players we were playing against,” he said.

“We’re in the playoffs now and we’re playing some of the better teams in the league and that’s why the score was different.”

However, starting prop, Jason Rice said the team has some things they need to work on ahead of the finals.

“We played really tough against Seneca, especially seeing as they were one of the first times where our defense was really challenged, but a lot of little mistakes and penalties occurred that we will be trying really hard to clean up for next week’s game,” Rice told Humber News.

The men’s rugby team has had an impressive season.

In their first game of the year, it set a new scoring record against Sheridan, beating them 104-0, and went on to break that record 4 consecutive games in a row – including not having a point scored against them in any of those games.

Their domination in the league has raised questions about whether the Hawks should be moved to a higher caliber level of play next year.

However, head coach Fabian Rayne told Humber News he prefers not to worry about next season until after Sunday’s game.

“All my focus right now is making sure that these guys are ready to play in a game on Sunday, and that we show up and do the best we can,” said Rayne.

The championship game versus Trent will take place November 18th at Trent starting at 1 p.m.