Behind a very strong showing by their back row, Gonzaga defeated the Charlotte Cardinals 22-10 to win the Gonzaga Classic.
While pool play was shortened somewhat on Saturday due to lightning, the excellent weather on Sunday made for an excellent day of rugby throughout the 12-team boys premier tournament.
Four teams entered the day set for the semifinals, with British Columbia's Shawnigan Lake against Gonzaga, and South Africa's St. Andrew's pitted against the Charlotte Cardinals.
Gonzaga was 22-12 over Shawnigan Lake. THe Canadian side gave up some size to the tournament hosts but played a smart game with some excellent kicking and well-organized defense. Gonzaga, however, were clinical in close and had several danger men out wide.
The result of the day, however, was the other semifinal. The Cardinals unleashed a very direct, quick-offload attack and scored early while St. Andrew's had a player in the sin bin. Adding a penalty goal the Cardinals led 10-0 and their defense was very powerful in a game that featured plenty of collisions.
St Andrew's had been finding space out wide in their games on tour in the USA, but Charlotte didn't give those gaps up so easily. With a deep three that made several excellent cover tackles, and a forward pack that didn't take a step back, the Cardinals got under St. Andrews' skin a bit. A charged down kick and an interception led to two second-half tries and the Cardinals actually led 27-0 before St. Andrews got on the scoreboard.
27-12 was the final score (we think ... there were some scoreboard issues so we're going with the posted score).
The St. Andrew's team was certainly disappointed in not making the final—their players were being hosted by Gonzaga players and they had hoped to meet their hosts in the championship game. Charlotte, meanwhile, had shown everyone they don't mess around.
St. Andrew's ended up putting Shawnigan Lake to the sword for 3rd. Gonzaga, meanwhile, played fast and with aggression and ran out to an early lead. They ran a nicely-executed weakside move to put Tim Wakefield in at the corner. Charlotte's ill discipline got the better of them as a penalty, then an extra 10 meters for backchat, and then a yellow card for pulling down a maul backed them up to their line. Finally Gonzaga mauled it over with Gavin Kosch doing the honors. Charlotte got a long-range penalty but it was 12-0 at halftime.Quickly Gonzaga was over the line again, and a later blocked kick set them up for their four before Charlotte's big runners finally set them up for a nifty lineout play. Gonzaga, however, looked very good in winning the cup.
