Humber Hawks rout Algonquin Wolves in men’s rugby home opener

The Humber Hawks men’s rugby team defeated a young Algonquin Wolves side in an overwhelming 84-0 victory on Sept. 14 at the Twin Elm Rugby Park.

The Wolves’ season didn’t start as planned after a dominant performance from the Hawks. After an early score from the Hawks, the Wolves looked to keep the game competitive with a methodical drive that brought them within 10 meters of the Hawk try zone, but a costly turnover led to an end-to-end score from the Humber outside centre.

The field-flipping try seemed to suck the life from the young Algonquin side on a hot September day, and the more experienced Humber team kept their foot on the gas for the rest of the match.

“We’ve got good leaders…one of our guys said it best,” said Wolves head coach Geoff Tomlinson. “Remember this feeling. We don’t ever want to feel like this again.”

Tomlinson said he had a lot of faith in the team to make the most of a hard-learning experience.

“A lot of these guys don’t have men’s league experience, getting that contact in the summer makes a big difference. At some point you become a man, in age sure, but on the pitch you become a man through taking those hits, feeling those losses,” added Tomlinson.

On a day where temperatures reached 30 C, and often felt like 35 C with humidity, both teams were required by officials to stop for water twice each half. Despite these measures, both teams felt the exhaustion early on in the match, leading to broken plays, mismatched defensive lines and unforced errors.

When asking Level 1 welding and fabrication student and first-year flanker Dakota Reitsma what the team could do to improve, he was quick to point out their fatigue.

“Cardio,” said Reitsma. “We need to keep our legs under us… we can’t let them bring us down in the mud.”

The Wolves’ side boasted only a few veteran players from last year’s roster, but the Hawks had most of their team returning from 2023’s silver medal run. Their size and experience showed, especially in the forwards, who dominated scrums and rucks all game.

“In college things change a lot, so we weren’t sure what we were in for today,” said Hawks’ coach Darryl Snider. “We knew it would be physical, and it was.”

Snider also said playing summer rugby was a prerequisite to joining the highly competitive Hawks roster, and every single player played some level of club rugby before the season.

“It’s only a 10-week season, you need to be conditioned for contact,” said Snider. “We’ve been on the other side of it before, and to give (Algonquin) credit they never backed down, and when they had the ball they were moving forward.”

The Wolves travel to face the Conestoga Condors on Sept. 21 and look to have more success than they did during their home opener.