McGill 19 vs US Army 19
August 30, 2008
KINGSTON, ON
Coming together for their first match following a long off-season, McGill's Varsity side pulled together an impressive effort against the U.S. Military Academy (Army).
U.S. Army proved to be tough opponents, fielding a characteristically fit and brawny first XV that got onto the board first with an unconverted try early in the first half. McGill soon tied it up with an unconverted try by centre Tyler Staton. With an amazing intercept and run, Akira Gillingham scored, and flyhalf Ian Turner converted to put McGill ahead 12-5. Leading up to the intermission, however, Army managed to tie the game back up at 12-12.
After the half the quality of McGill's defense and tackling picked up, but Army put seven more up on the board after a mistaken call by the referee that McGill's scrumhalf Josh Reznick had failed to ground the ball in McGill's tryzone and force a stoppage of play.
Army managed to convert their try, and leading up to the final minutes McGill still trailed 19-12 until an impressive run by Mike Davis led to a fifteen yard gain. Davis then offloaded to the hands of Brendan O'Sullivan, who connected to Adam Sommers for the try. With only minutes left until fulltime McGill's hopes fell on O'Sullivan's kicking, who converted the try to draw the match 19 - 19.
Halftime: 12 - 12
Fulltime: 19 - 19
Man of the Match: Mike Davis
Points (McGill): Tyler Staton (1t), Akira Gillingham (1t), Adam Sommers (1t), Ian Turner (1c), Brendan O'Sullivan (1c)
Points (Army): Joe Gardner (1t), Mike Sheehan (1t), Andrew Brigman (1t), Dave Geib (2c)
Game Review by Josh Balloch