McGILL C 25 @ DAWSON 0

When a swarm of red tracksuits climbed out of a rumbling blue van in Verdun, many thought they were witnessing a remake of the A-Team: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SukN96byd3w). Instead, it was the McGill Club B-team taking to the trenches against Dawson College, in Verdun, Montreal.

Hooker Nitai Ben Schach, a recent graduate of the inner-city CEGEP, was adamant to make an impression on his former team-mates. Under the phosphorous lights of Crawford Park, the McGill Players rallied around Nitai’s Pétainian pregame speech: “Courage! On les aura!”

The Dawson side was ill-disciplined but not without ferocity. McGill had to work for hard yards, but managed some impressively consistent phase play. Dawson struggled to relieve the pressure as McGill’s little-fullback-that-could Ryan McDowell proved impervious to pressuring kicks and shifty on the counterattack.

Nitai, Jon Minz, Alex Vujicic, Kevin ‘Sherpa’ Thiruchelvam earned hard forward yards off the breakdown to allow indefatigable flyhalf Trevor Clarke and serpentine center Clement Bisserbe to score first half tries.
The Dawson loosehead, a veritable Butterbean, laid the pain on Tim Ruban early in the half. But Prop Allan Leary delivered a Herculean dump tackle on the adipose prop as payback later on.

Tim Ruban, indistinguishable from alumni Matt Ruban in the 13 jersey, had a blinder. He passed up an overlap and burned in for the 3rd try of the contest. Not to be outdone, Clement Bisserbe made a stellar effort to block a kick and chase down the bouncing oval, scoring in the corner.

Lawrence de Pilato, out of the pleather jacket and into his Samurai jersey, continued to establish himself as a dynamic, soft-handed forward. He was instrumental in the attacking phase play that allowed scrumhalf Dan “Bright-Eyes” Levine to scramble in for the final score of the game.

In the last ten minutes, the colossal Jon Minz was moved to open side wing. Jon Minz – the Jewish man’s Jonah Lomu. But an unfortunate knock-on ended his career on the wing as quickly as it had begun.

Trevor Clarke went 0 for 5 on the conversions. Poor guy didn’t have a tee. So McGill ends up with 25 points and five hard fought tries to win over the Dawson Blues.

write up by Adrian Thorogood.