By Douglas Long
The Dinos men’s rugby club prevailed as Canada West champions this past weekend in a two day tournament featuring the University of Lethbridge Trolls, Mount Royal University Cougars and University of Alberta Golden Bears.
They beat the Trolls 103-0 on a snow covered field on Friday afternoon and the hibernating Bears 55-3 on Saturday. The Dinos have won four consecutive championships.
The men’s club is not a varsity team, yet they have dominated for years. The Dinos’ Black Squad went undefeated this year in season and exhibition play.
“I’m extremely proud of the boys, we worked hard all season and we proved it this weekend that we are the top contenders in Alberta,” says head coach Simon Chi.
Third year Captain Trevor McAllister lead from the front of the pack at the prop position.
“Saturday was a perfect end to a great season,” McAllister says. “U of A came out strong at the start, but we swiftly came to our feet to define why we were three time champs heading into the game. A couple of our young players stepped up to the plate and proved to be instrumental in the games all weekend.”
Second-year outside centre Elliot Clease was awarded the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, crashing his way to five tries.
“We came out focused and well aware of what we needed to do to come out victorious,” says Clease.
The team’s season has come to an end, but the Dinos will continue to train throughout the winter as the club is preparing for a tour down to sin city in February.
“Even though we came out of the season celebrating our fourth championship, the boys are still focused on the tour down to Las Vegas, which will include an exhibition game against some highly ranked div. 1 schools that the boys are extremely excited to compete against,” McAllister says.