LANGLEY, B.C. – Trinity Western's men's rugby team beat Abbotsford RFC 34-13 in exhibition action Thursday evening at Willoughby Community Park.
The win saw the Spartans tally four tries, with
Favour Olaniyan (Gibsons, B.C.),
Ethan Bernardin (Langley),
Collin Lagat (Dallas) and
Nate Schroeder (West Kelowna, B.C.) all dotting down.
Matthew Willemse (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa) added 14 points from the tee, slotting two penalties and kicking four conversions.
AS IT HAPPENED
After the teams traded penalties in the first four minutes, TWU's Olaniyan earned a try for the Spartans that ultimately gave the home side a lead it wouldn't relinquish. With TWU holding a 10-3 lead at the five-minute mark, scoring was limited the rest of the half, with both teams knocking through a single penalty each to set the score at 13-6 for the Spartans at the break.
Bernardin scored just four minutes into the second half and Lagat added to the Spartans lead two minutes later, as TWU opened a 27-6 advantage in the 46th minute. After Abbotsford scored their lone try of the evening in the 60th minute, Schroeder rounded out the scoring in the 72nd minute with a try converted by Willemse.
QUOTABLE
TWU Head Coach Andrew Evans
"It was good to finish the semester with a win. I'm really proud of how hard the men have worked this semester. We're not at nationals this week and we want to get there in the future, so we know we have a lot of work to do. It would have been easy for the men to switch off after the Coastal Cup, but they continued to put in the work and they got a big win today against a very good Abbotsford side that featured players with international experience like Jorden Sandover-Best and Ryan March. We all know how strong the Abbotsford Rugby Football Club is and it was a battle for the valley and we didn't take this game lightly.
"In many ways, Abbotsford RFC is the heartbeat of rugby in the Fraser Valley. For us, a lot of guys came into the lineup tonight and stepped up. We look forward to much more Fraser Valley rugby between us and Abbotsford. We head into the break now and look forward to the next semester."
NEXT UP
The Spartans will now prepare for the spring semester, which is set to include matches against, amongst others, Central Washington University and Western Washington University.
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.
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