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The Ontario Blues had just enough gas in the tank to get the job done, defeating the Atlantic Rock 22-17 at Calgary Rugby Park to finish tops in the Canadian Rugby Championship and lift their 6th MacTier Cup. It’s the finish they wanted after losing the title to the Bears in 2017.
Four tries to two was the final tally with the speed of the Ontario backs proving the difference. Up front it was a different story where the Rock forwards dominated the scrum and got the better of the collisions.
It was the scrum that yielded the first score, a penalty try after repeat resets. As they had done in the Semi Final against the Wolf Pack, the Rock front row smashed drove their opposites backwards at nearly every engagement.
When Ontario finally got quick ball they were a problem. Andrew Ferguson kept the tempo high and Kainoa Lloyd went over within seconds of the restart. Another try came from Marcello Wainwright, the flanker piling over from a lineout drive. Cooper Coats would land a penalty just ahead of the break to make it even at halftime.
Neither team could get the ascension until the final quarter. With legs tiring the space opened up for Lucas Hammond and the fullback danced past three defenders to make the line. His Canada Sevens teammate Andrew Coe would follow suit, stepping past across the grain and in under the posts soon after.
The Rock would claw back with a late try to Jordan Wilson-Ross after Matt Heaton had been hauled down desperately short by Eric Howard. One last assault took the Rock beyond halfway but their hands let them down and the final whistle sounded.
SCORING
ROCK 17
Tries – Penalty try (10’), J. Wilson-Ross (77’)
Cons – C. Coats 1/1 (78’)
Pens – C. Coats 1/3 (36’)
BLUES 22
Tries – K. Lloyd (12’), M. Wainwright (28’), L. Hammond (65’), A. Coe (71’)
Cons – A. Ferguson 1/4 (72’)
TEAMS
ATLANTIC ROCK
1 Alex Forrest (18 Frank Walsh 50’), 2 Martial Lagain (capt.) (16 Owen Parfrey 61’), 3 Cole Keith (17 Jordon Power 52’), 4 Liam Carter, 5 Brad Lester, 6 Moe Abdelmonem (19 Lucas Hotton 64’), 7 Matt Heaton, 8 Kyle Baillie (20 Zac Coughlan 64’), 9 Graham Barry, 10 Patrick Parfrey, 11 Aidan McMullan (23 Maxime Perreault-Brière 59’), 12 Jordan Wilson-Ross, 13 Josh Campbell, 14 Paddy McNicholas, 15 Cooper Coats
Not used: 21 Mark O’Reilly, 22 Tony Pomroy
ONTARIO BLUES
1 Djustice Sears-Duru (17 Doug Wooldridge 58’), 2 AJ Quattrin (16 Eric Howard HT), 3 Rob Brouwer (capt.), 4 Paul Ciulini, 5 Mike Sheppard (19 Kolby Francis 54’), 6 Peter Milazzo, 7 Marcello Wainwright, 8 Lucas Rumball (20 Josh van Horne 75’), 9 Andrew Ferguson (21 Riley DiNardo 72’), 10 Shawn Windsor (23 Kieron Martin 72’), 11 Kainoa Lloyd, 12 Jamie Leveridge (22 Mitch Richardson 69’), 13 Andrew Coe, 14 Johnny Sheridan, 15 Lucas Hammond
Not used: 18 Roman Cao-Riquelme
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Chris Assmus (RC)
Assistants: David Smortchevsky (RC) & Cole Pedrick (RC)
