A dynamic season of rugby that saw the Irish go 15-4-1 in competitive play, and win 10 in a row down the stretch, went up in a puff of smoke within 20 minutes at Fletchers Field Stadium on Saturday. 

A mere quarter of the way into the Ontario semi-final, York led 27-3, with the greens compacting a seasons' worth of errors into that time frame.

York's first touch of the ball resulted in a penalty that was kicked into the corner, then converted into a five yard maul try; the Irish gave a penalty and sin bin away on the ensuing kickoff; another York kick into the corner was fumbled and converted into a try-and just like that, eight months of hard work was virtually undone.

Despite an overall tally margin of only five tries to four, York wound up on the long end of a 41-25 scoreline that never closed to less than two majors despite almost constant Irish pressure in the last 50 minutes of the match.  York's Joe Pagano made five converts and two goals in seven attempts; the normally reliable Ed Gardner could only hit two from six.

The first half concluded with a charge down try from Yeomen to increase the lead to 27-3 after 20 minutes-, then, Irish pressure got them to within a meter of the York line before referee David Steele blew for halftime. 

Chris Gallimore scored after six minutes of the second half to cut the deficit to 27-8; but yet another partially charged down kick was converted into a try by York on one of their rare forays into the Irish end in the second half.  Dave Bergeron got the Irish back to 34-13, then Jadon Schmidt crashed over to make it 34-20 with 15 to go, increasing heart rates around the stadium. 

The now familiar theme of the charged down kick then sounded to ice the game for York at 41-20; Kyler Petrie made it 41-25, but it was too little too late for the Irish season.

"Considering that York scored four of their five tries on plays that began with the ball in our hands, I am stunned at what happened," said Irish coach Mark Winokur.  "While I congratulate York on their win and hard effort, we know that we virtually handed them the game in the first 20 minutes. Yes, they took correct pressure options-but our inept response to these options was shocking."

Generally speaking, the Irish forwards did provide a solid platform; scrums and lines were very well executed, defense was solid when York did have the ball and there were some hard tackles on both sides; but as they say in the NFL, turnovers killed any chance the Irish had on the day.

"I don't think we can be judged on this one day, or even on that one half," said Winokur.  "In fact, the last four months have seen us play some fantastic rugby-winning 10 in a row in the Ontario senior league is a rare accomplishment, and in many ways shows that we are a better overall team now than when we went home happy 2 years ago.  We will be back, and we will be better-the feeling in the room after was unbelievably positive."

The development side suffered an even more heart breaking defeat to York, surrendering an injury time try to go down by 17-13.  Click here for the game report!

Following the first team game, the players and coaches held an hour long closed-door meeting, and in a very positive and emotional session, agreed that any conversation about the strengths of Ontario rugby must include the Irish-"this is still the best pure rugby club around," was the consensus. The last time such a positive session was held was 1998-the Irish went on to sweep the league and Cup in '99. 

Next up for the greens is the Challenge match with Belmont Shore Sharks of the US Super League, to be held at Cal State Long Beach, California, on December 1 at 1 pm.

Squad: 1ST XV - Brett Domenchuk (Dean MacLean - 40 minutes), Dale Burleigh, Jon Ashley, Dave Laing, Chris Gallimore, George Azar (Captain), Mark Thompson (Ramzi Azar - 30 minutes), Peter Crocker, Rob Forbrigger, Ed Gardner, Istvan Mozes, Jadon Schmidt, Kyler Petrie, Dave Bergeron, JD Wheeler (Tom Madden - 65 minutes)

Development XV - Vince Mendes de Franca (Ramzi Azar - 70 minutes), Darcy Longpre, Ryan Carr, Chris McCannell, Rob Steinhoff, Simon Jackson, James Berry, Angus Miers, Jim  , John Jenkins, John Horne (Mark Robinson - 20 minutes, Oren Smith - 35 minutes), Meryan , Henry Miers, Mark Power, Jakes Denes