The Western Mustangs men’s rugby team hit the road Saturday heading to Kingston for a contest with the Queen’s Gaels. In a hard-fought contest the Mustangs pulled out a 22-20 victory on the strength of two tries from Eric Selvaggi and a last second penalty goal from Mike Turnbull.
Selvaggi opened the scoring 22 minutes into the game with his first try, following which Mike Turnbull hit the convert to give Western a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter. Queen’s would fire back on a Doug Davidson try ten minutes later to make it 7-5 for Western at the half.
The Mustangs came out strong in the second half with two quick tries from Conor Trainor and Selvaggi combining with a conversion from Turnbull to put Western up 19-5 early in the final half.
Queen’s would then take control themselves, with Matt Kelly and Tim Richardson scoring tries, with Adam McQueen providing a conversion to pull the Gaels within two points late in the game.
The Gaels would then take the lead with only three minutes remaining off of a penalty goal from McQueen.
Western quickly went to work attempting to break Queen’s lead, and in the dying moments of the game the Mustangs would get their chance. A penalty was awarded to Western from the restart for obstruction and despite the hostile Queen’s crowd chanting his name Turnbull slotted the kick over from 40 meters.The final whistle was blown straight after making it a 22-20 win for the Mustangs.
“We were missing three players with the Ontario Blues and injuries to Spencer Barrett, Mike Penzac and Darren Neziol, so a great performance by those who stepped up,” said head coach Steve Thomas.
The Mustangs are back in action on Sunday, September 30, hosting the Toronto Varsity Blues at 3:00 p.m. as part of Western’s Homecoming Weekend.