In one of the highlights of Western’s Homecoming Weekend the men’s rugby team easily handled the Toronto Varsity Blues, earning a 85-0 win. With a number of players away with the Ontario Blues and others suffering from injuries, Western rested the majority of its starters, giving some of the younger players an opportunity to get in-game experience.
“We basically played the first team team guys that are usually on the bench and predominately second team players. We knew it wasn’t going to be a particularly tough game, it’s no good beating a team up,” said Western head coach Steve Thomas.
“We asked [the team] to be really clinical, which we did in phases but not as much as we would like. I thought generally we stepped up, we wanted to see some individuals, and some of them stepped up to the plate and showed what they could do. Good performance all around really.”
The Mustangs started out strong scoring three tries within the game’s opening 20 minutes and never looked back, using strong passing and defence to dominate Toronto throughout the first half. The second half continued much the same as the first, with Western controlling the play and rarely allowing the play to cross midfield into their own territory.
Many Western players had strong performances with Mike Santangeli leading the way with two tries and ten converts in an excellent game. Avron Horwitz led the team in tries with three, while Kevin Catliff and Countney Mendez both added two tries each.
The game was an excellent opportunity for the younger players to step up and show what they can contribute to the squad, and a few players in particular stood out on Sunday.
“I thought [Mark] Denton did well, Catliff is a really good player on the wing, [Connor] Offut who also played on the wing is a great talent for us. There’s some really good kids kicking around, some good long-term prospects,” said Thomas.
Now the Mustangs begin the final stretch of the regular season, and currently sit in fifth place with three games remaining. The win will provide momentum for next week’s game, but Thomas expects a completely different type of game than Sunday’s.
“It’ll be a completely different look on our side,” said Thomas. “We need to get our structure back. We’ve got all of our Blues players back, we’ve still got a few injuries so we’ll rest them. It’ll be a completely different mindset, it’ll be a lot more disciplined and it will be a very clinical game for sure.”
Next up for the Mustangs are the Brock Badgers, who travel to London next Friday for a 4:00 p.m. game.
