LANGFORD, BC - The men and women of the Western Mustangs’ rugby sevens national championship contenders return home from Langford, British Columbia with their hopes of victory dashed but their heads held high, having represented their school with class and sportsmanship this past weekend. The men’s team fell just short of capturing their second straight championship, finishing second to the home-province University of Victoria Vikes, while the women’s team finished fourth in their first appearance at the newly created tournament.

Last year established Western as one of the top sevens programs in the country, as the purple and white men’s squad captured the championship title over the defending-champion Vikes at the National University Sevens Invitational Tournament. With the women’s sevens team along for the competition this year, both squads looked to continue the tradition of Mustang dominance on the sport’s biggest collegiate stage.

Despite boasting several of Canada’s top collegiate and club players, including captain and B.C.-native, Conor Trainor, the men’s side was unable to overcome injuries and fatigue for their second title in as many years.

Having swept through Okanagan College, Waterloo, University of Victoria’s B team and RMC in the round robin stage on day one, the men’s team looked to be hitting their stride. A quarter-final win over Ontario-rival Queen’s and a close semi-final victory over the UBC Thunderbirds brought the Mustangs’ tournament win-streak to six before a 35-5 loss to the Vikes in the tournament finals.

Despite missing out on top honours, Trainor sees plenty of reasons to be optimistic towards Western’s future at the tournament.

“We can take pride in knowing that we beat Queens and UBC in knockout games, and they are both very good teams,” said Trainor.

“The final against UVIC was a fairly one-sided game, but we kept fighting as a team and managed to score a couple points.”

Trainor scored Western’s lone try in the finals after leading the team through the first six games of the tournament.

“Personally,” said Trainor in reflection, “I thought I played well throughout the tournament and simply guided our talented team.”

The women’s team hit the pitch day one with flashy, lop-sided wins over Regina and Humber by a combined 87 – 0 and also defeated UBC, yet came up short against Calgary for a round robin record of 3-1.

Hilary Dingman anchored the Mustangs’ scoring with six tries, with Arielle Dubissette-Borrice adding five tries, and Lori Josephson adding 24 points from four tries and two conversions.

After losing a tough match-up against the Calgary Dinos to kick-off elimination play on day two, the women righted the ship with a win over the UBC Thunderbirds, allowing them the opportunity to play for third-place at the tournament and the Women’s Plate Championship versus the University of Alberta Pandas.

Josephson converted a Ashley Snider try to put seven points on the board for Western, but the Pandas’ strong attack responded with 19 points of their own, knocking the Mustangs from a podium finish in their debut at the National University Sevens Invitational Tournament.

"We worked really well together for a team that is just learning sevens. It's a physically demanding couple of days of rugby and we worked our hardest everyday,” said Josephson. “We have a lot of skill in our team and with more time playing sevens we will be great."
 
"We are so happy with how we played. Of course we have a lot to work on, but for our first university sevens tournament we were really happy with how we did."

"We are so excited to learn more and practice our 7s skills to become better rugby players all around."
 
With the collective results in the books for both teams, Trainor looks ahead to the future of the program at Western.

“We have one of the most talented teams in the country, so any year where we don’t bring home an OUA title and a national championship can be considered a missed opportunity,” said Trainor.

“For Western to stay as a top sevens team in the country, we will need to focus more on the game. With only one tournament a year and very little practice time on a full field, it’s hard to compete with teams who practice and play year-round.”

Trainor, a member of Canada’s sevens national team, is still just as happy that the sport seems to be heading in the right direction.
 
“The sport is one of the fastest growing in Canada and the increased exposure will help all teams improve and become more competitive.