CONESTOGA 43, SHERIDAN 5

CAMBRIDGE, Ont. - Although the game is an 80 minute one, seeing your opponents rack up early points - as Conestoga did, jumping out to a 10-point cushion three minutes in – can often make a team think there is less time available than there really is.

That seemed to be the case with the Sheridan Bruins men's rugby team (1-2 OCAA), as they never got the engine revved up in a 43-5 loss to Conestoga.

"It was just really disappointing, right from the first kickoff that we mis-handled, we just did not play well at all," Sheridan head coach Carlos Moniz said. "I'm not quite sure why, but we just didn't get on track. It's a young team - we have a lot of first year guys - and they just kinda lost their confidence very early, and they're just not experienced enough to get it back."

A mishandling of the opening kickoff ended up leading to a penalty, with Conestoga electing to kick from 25 yards away, which they converted.

On the ensuing Sheridan kickoff, a couple of missed tackles gave Conestoga the lane they needed to burst towards the endzone and less than 200 seconds from the start of the game, they led 10-0.

Sheridan scored a try midway through the half, trimming Conestoga's edge to 17-5, but they would draw no closer.

They will get a re-match with Conestoga on home turf on Oct. 11 (4:30 p.m.) and Moniz says the team's first step in preparation will be to move on from this result.

"We're going to get back to what got us here - hard practices, big efforts and we just need to really put this behind us," he said. "This is not who we are as a team, so we'll just put this behind us and get back to playing like we have been prior to this game for the rest of the year."

Source: Sheridan College