The Redmen rugby team was in for a challenge on Wednesday night against the Concordia Stingers. First, an ineligibilty issue had retroactively voided their first four regular season games, sending McGill from the top to the bottom of the RSEQ standings. Second, the Redmen were facing a revamped Stingers’ side, reinforced with newly added club players, which improved the team’s ability. Nevertheless, the Redmen persevered for a 13-6 victory.

While McGill (1-4) outplayed Concordia (3-2) in the first half, its halftime lead was marginal at 5-3. McGill’s Head Coach Craig Beemer was less than impressed.

“Offensively, we squandered way too many opportunities … we dropped at least six or seven balls near their try line when we had good scoring opportunities,” Beemer said. ”If we hadn’t dropped so many balls going into contact, we probably could have put four or five more tries on the scoreboard.”

The first try was tallied after fourth-year hooker Keelan Chapman bulldozed through three Concordia players, side-stepped another, and dove into the try zone. The Redmen had to fight for their opportunities against a particularly effective Concordia defence. However, Chapman enjoyed the competition.

“It’s always fun to run up against your rivals and smash some of the boys, especially at Molson stadium with the home fans. It’s a sensation you can’t get anywhere else in the world,” he said.

McGill generated offence by running through phases well, and thrived when they rucked the ball over and made use of the whole field. At times, Concordia was able to execute some big hits, but this was to be expected given McGill’s constant ball possession.

“What [fans] notice is that we had the ball 70 per cent of the time. If we have the ball, we’re the only ones going to be tackled,” Beemer added.

Even when Concordia earned possession, the Redmen ploughed through their well-formed rucks to put pressure on the scrum-half, and quickly stole the ball back. McGill’s defensive tactics frustrated Concordia, and the Stingers gained their points only through penalty kicks. Coach Beemer was quite pleased with his team’s defence.

“Our defence was the big winner in the sense that every time they got the ball we got it right back,” Beemer said. “We played well the whole game defensively, [had] a lot of big hits where [the Stingers] ended up on their backs or ended up moving backwards.”

McGill continued to stymie Concordia in the second half. The Redmen slowly and methodically marched towards Concordia’s try zone, where Chapman converted another try, making the score 10-3. Concordia answered a few minutes later with a penalty kick, momentarily cutting the Redmen lead to four.

Soon enough though, Quentin Pradere, who missed two penalty kicks earlier in the half, successfully converted one to make the score 13-6. Needing only a try and a conversion, Concordia had a few chances to tie the score as the match wound down. In the last 15 seconds, the Stingers had an opening to run the whole field for a try, but as the wing received a pass from the outside-centre, he fumbled it, causing a knock-on call. The match ended, with McGill victorious, 13-6.

The victory demonstrates the team’s strong spirit in the aftermath of the ineligibility news. Looking forward to their last three regular season games, McGill’s strong-hitting flanker Liam O’Briain is determined that the team can still win a division title, despite being stuck in a 1-4 hole after previously being undefeated.

“Our goal is to win them, win them handily, and win a championship,” he said.

McGill hits the pitch again on Oct. 13 against the Montreal Carabins at McEwan Field on MacDonald Campus.

On Saturday night, the McGill Redmen opened their 2012-2013 home schedule against the visiting UQTR Patriotes. The pre-game ceremonies began with the raising of last year’s CIS Championship banner, in which the Redmen emerged victorious over the University of Western Ontario Mustangs. Once the game began however, the atmosphere was less  celebratory, as the Redmen fell by a score of 5-2.

The season started on a disappointing note for McGill (0-2), who had fallen in its season-opener on Friday to Concordia as well.

The team’s rocky start can almost exclusively be attributed to the inexperienced roster. The team has lost many key pieces from last year’s championship team an is facing a tough time integrating new faces on the ice.

Head Coach Kelly Nobes acknowledged this fact, agreeing that the team was experiencing a transitional period.

“We’ve got a young group with a lot of young guys and it’s going to take time for our chemistry to come together and to have everybody sort themselves out,” Nobes said.

The Redmen started out the contest strong defensively, as there were only a few clear scoring opportunities in the first period. The play was gritty and physical—a theme that persisted in all three periods.

“Guys need to learn to play in this league; it’s a different league. It’s intense and you need to play with a sense of urgency for 60 minutes,” Nobes added.

In addition to a strong physical defence, netminder Andrew Flemming came up big on a few occasions in order to halt the Patriotes’ (2-0) attack en route to 36 saves.

The second period was a stark contrast in the style of play, as both teams played a more offensively oriented style of hockey. McGill, however, was not able to capitalize.

“In the first couple of periods we had some good transitional play and some good entries … [and] some good offensive zone play,” Nobes said.

Unfortunately, penalties hurt the Redmen, and the Patriotes pounced on a 5-on-3 opportunity to open the scoring with a barrage of shots. UQTR finally breached Flemming’s stiff resistance, as Antoine Quevillon slotted one past the Redmen to put the visitors up 1-0. Two minutes later, the Patriotes capitalized on a poor McGill giveaway to bring the score to 2-0.

This ignited a spark in the Redmen, who mounted a frenetic comeback in the latter half of the second period. Patrick Delisle-Houde was instrumental, scoring McGill’s first goal off a cross-ice pass reception from Maximillien Le Sieur and firing it into the top right corner. Delisle-Houde then assisted on Guillaume Monast’s powerplay goal minutes later to tie things up at 2-2.

Both scorers are rookies on the team and will likely play key roles in determining McGill’s fate this season.

“We’re bringing in a good crew of guys and they’re [both] very good players,” fourth-year forward Patrick Belzile said.

However, the comeback was short-lived, as the Patriotes used an aggressive forecheck to slip the puck back in front of the McGill net before taking the lead, courtesy of Olivier Hotte. The second period ended with 3-2 scoreline in favour of UQTR.

The final frame was just as physical, as both sides searched for vicious hits and sent numerous helmets to the ice. McGill, however, struggled to generate much offensively and looked worn down as the period progressed. The Patriotes added their fourth tally on the powerplay with about 10 minutes to go, and sealed the game with an empty netter.

The Redmen will look to bounce back and earn their first victory of the season when they welcome Ottawa and Carleton to McConnell Arena as part of Homecoming weekend on Oct. 12 and 13, respectively.