![\"\"](\"http:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/rugby\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/uni_champs.jpg\")
<\/a> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/rugby\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/uni_champs4.jpg\")
<\/a> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/rugby\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/uni_champs3.jpg\")
<\/a> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/rugby\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/uni_champs2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nfrom Rugby Canada<\/span><\/p>\n GUELPH, ON \u2013 The first ever national champion of men\u2019s university rugby has been crowned. The UBC Thunderbirds defeated their provincial rival Victoria Vikes 37-12 in the inaugural gold medal game at the Canadian University Men\u2019s Rugby Championship on a cold, snowy afternoon Sunday afternoon at the University of Guelph\u2019s Alumni Stadium.<\/p>\n The Thunderbirds hoisted the new Spencer McTavish Trophy, named after the player and coaching legend who spent 30 years with the UBC program.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very special moment,\u201d said Thunderbirds\u2019 head coach Rameses Langston. \u201cThe trophy being named after a good friend and mentor Spence McTavish makes it mean even more. This was in our sights. We were excited when the tournament came up and we knew it would be a lot of hard wors with great teams challenging for this. It\u2019s nice to be recognized throughout the country as the number one university for rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n The champions, who compete with Victoria in the B.C. Premiership, showed their dominance immediately and went up 32-0 after the first half. Wing Cole Keffer, centre Nico Cironomos, eight man Nick Allen, and Man of the Match lock James Carson, scored four consecutive tries in a 13-minute span of the opening half to seize control over their provincial rival. Outside half Theo Sauder, who led the inaugural tournament in scoring with 41 points, added a penalty kick in the 35th minute, followed by a try from tighthead Clint Lemkus, for a commanding 32-0 lead.<\/p>\n Flanker James O\u2019Neill finally broke through for Victoria in the 68th minute, scoring the Vikes\u2019 first try. After UBC\u2019s Carson touched down for the second time in the match two minutes later, Victoria was given a penalty try in the 75th minute to close the scoring.<\/p>\n \u201cTeam is the best description,\u201d Langston said regarding UBC\u2019s effort on Sunday. \u201cEverybody did their jobs. Different guys took it upon themselves to score points and play great defence. I\u2019m just really proud of the way they played as a unit. All 26 guys got to contribute, which is a special thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Victoria head coach Doug Tate was well aware of what UBC could do on the pitch. The Vikes lost to the Thunderbirds 44-24 in league play earlier this season and following an epic 11-11 draw with the host Guelph Gryphons on Saturday that sent Victoria to the final, there wasn\u2019t much left against their strong neighbour.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re a good team,\u201d said Tate. \u201cThey outplayed us in the first half and used the wind to their advantage. Both teams had to play in their own end and fight against the wind. It was a fair result. We came back a little bit and it was nice to not get shutout. That\u2019s a pretty powerful team.<\/p>\n \u201cFor our guys, they really enjoyed playing against their contemporaries. A lot of these guys competed on rep teams together, provincial teams, so they\u2019re used to playing against each other. And they take a lot of pride in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Tate was impressed with the first ever men\u2019s national championship, acknowledging that the event can be fine-tuned in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cGuelph did an outstanding job,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the field staff to the concessions to the bus service, everything was top notch.\u201d<\/p>\n Langston was pleased his team was recognized as the best men\u2019s university side in Canada but suggested that winning the title was a beginning, and not an end.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow we have to work even harder to maintain that status,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n University All Star Team<\/p>\n School \/ Player The inaugural Canadian Men’s University XVs Championship took place November 16-19, 2017 at the University of Guelph. The Canadian Rugby Foundation provided a grant to finance the tournament as part of its platform for developing Canadian grassroots rugby. The tournament included six teams, two from BC (UVic and UBC), two from Ontario (Guelph and McMaster), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1759"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1914,"href":"https:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions\/1914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianrugbyfoundation.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n1 McMaster Mike Smith
\n2 McMaster Jack McRogers
\n3 UBC Clint Lemkus
\n4 UBC James Carson
\n5 Guelph Blake Aram
\n6 UVIC James O’Neill
\n7 UBC Jake Ikeda
\n8 Guelph Kolby Francis
\n9 UBC Will Percellier
\n10 UBC Theo Sauder
\n11 UVIC Aiden McMullan
\n12 UBC Nathan Rees
\n13 McMaster Mitch Richardson
\n14 UBC Cole Keffer
\n15 UBC Fraser Hurst<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"