Saint Mary's Defeats Trinity Western in 2023 Opener
Saint Mary's Defeats Trinity Western in 2023 Opener
Saint Mary's opened the New Year for pretty much everyone in US college rugby with a 45-10 defeat of Trinity Western.
The British Columbia-based Spartans made the most of their trip to California, even holding their jersey presentation at Alcatraz.
Trinity Western got a try from captain Caleb Gerth. Director of Rugby Andrew Evans said the trip was a good lesson against a very strong Gaels side.
"There's a good sense of disappointment in this group, but at the same time we dealt with more adversity and certain guys stepped up," said Evans, who sees two players leaving after this game to join Rugby Canada's Pacific Pride development program. "Our set piece was a little shaky and we weren't accurate in our passing, but we've had a lot of curve balls thrown at us over the last few games, so these games have given us an opportunity to mature and deal with those challenges."
A canceled flight kept one prop at home and another front-rower went down injured within a few minutes, but the Spartans battled on in difficult situations in the scrum.
For Saint Mary's this is the latest in a long list of warmup games, but everything gets a little hotter now as they will face University of British Columbia in Moraga, Calif. next week.
Gaels Head Coach Tim O'Brien was pleased with the game and the matchup overall.
"Such a nice game," he said. "Both teams displaying a few ‘post holiday shortcomings.’ TWU had a few lineout struggles while SMC had more than a few connectivity issues between the midfield and outside backs. But it was a really enjoyable day of rugby where both teams will learn volumes after playing and studying film afterwards.
No. 8 King Matu had a big day for Saint Mary's and flanker Lleyton Delzell was also very good. Gonzaga HS product Nate Deegan came off the bench at hooker and, said O'Brien, "brought some brilliant energy."
Next up for Saint Mary's is UBC and also UC Davis next weekend. The latter game is a California Conference matchup. Trinity Western starts their BC D1 season agaisnt Port Alberni and in three weeks will host Central Washington in Langley, BC.
