Irish Canadian Rugby Club 16 - Brantford Harlequins 3
10 / 05 / 03
League

Playing on a rainy, grey Saturday, Irish Canadians defence led the way in a 16-3 win over Brantford in the season opener for both teams.

Irish, who had not won their first game after a Cup win for 25 years, broke open a tense and jittery game after halftime with two quick tries and played tremendous blanket defence thereafter for the win.

Brad Boss penalty opened the second half scoring, with Barclay Luke equalizing for Quin's, who had beaten Irish at their own tournament two weeks ago.

The ensuing kick-off was snared by Irish George Azar, who popped to Peter Crocker storming through.
Crocker's' offload to Chilean international prop Rodrigo Lacassie ended with the former James Bay prop touching down for an 8-3 Irish lead.

Shortly thereafter, Irish capitalized from a five yard line out, with flanker Mark Thompson dotting down.

Boss' penalty ten minutes from full time capped the win as Irish snuffed out all Brantford opportunities.

"Your (Irish) defence was unreal," said Quin's captain and centre Barclay Luke, "there was just nowhere to go out there."

Jason Verstraten, who travelled with Lacassie from Victoria all night to arrive before kick-off, had several great breaks for the greens.

"We were not cohesive offensively," said Irish coach Mark Winokur, "but we did what we had to do defensively, and we will get better on offence down the road. I am very pleased with a win over a very improved Brantford side."

The development side got tries from Chris McCannell, Nabil Azar and Kevin Turlo in a 19-3 win over Quin's, while the thirds dropped a heartbreaker to Brantford 18-16 when Neil Maxwell missed a sitter on the final convert of the game.

All three teams have next week off before travelling to Fergus to face the Highland Rugby Club on May 24