Gryphon rugby men fall to UBC in national semifinals

LANGLEY, B.C. – The Guelph Gryphons got off to a quick start with a try in the first 10 minutes of their Canadian University Men’s Rugby Championship tournament semifinal with the UBC Thunderbirds Friday, but that was to be the lone try of the game for the Gryphs as they were tripled 30-10.

With the loss, the Gryphs will play in the bronze-medal match Sunday against the Memorial Sea-Hawks of Newfoundland. The Gryphs won the bronze medal last year.

Kobe Faust scored the try for Guelph and Tomas Dallan booted the convert, but the Thunderbirds responded with a converted try and two penalty kicks to take a 13-7 lead by halftime.

Dallan added a penalty kick early in the second half to cut the gap to 13-10, but UBC connected for three unanswered tries, one of them converted, to complete the scoring.

Sol Jaques had two tries for the Thunderbirds while Jared Andrews Almack and Alastair Marshall had one apiece. Takoda McMullin scored two penalty kicks and two converts.

Top-seed UBC is to play second-seed Victoria Vikes in Sunday’s championship match at 8 p.m. while the fifth-seed Gryphs are to tangle with sixth-seed Memorial in the bronze-medal game at 5 p.m.

Victoria defeated Memorial 47-19 in Friday’s other semifinal.

• Guelph Sports Journal