Loyalist men’s rugby team preparing to win third straight championship

By Nick Liard

Jesse Gunter and the rest of the Loyalist Lancers are poised to win their third straight division two championship.

But many players feel that they should be competing in the higher ranks of Division One.

“I felt we could have competed with some of the best teams in division one last year,” said Gunter. “With the recruits we got this year from club, and high school I thought we could have done real well.”

“I would definitely consider moving up, it would be more competitive, said second-year player Luke Shillington. “The last couple years, we haven’t blown out teams, but we haven’t lost, so Division One would be more competitive. I don’t know if we would win but we would be up there for sure.”

Division One consists of bigger schools such as Humber, Seneca and Fleming’s A team, and is the better of the two divisions, where Division Two consists of five teams, Algonquin Fleming (B) Georgian, and St. Lawrence, and is a division that is for smaller schools or school trying to get a foot in the door with their rugby program.

After the offseason last year a few of the players had brought up the idea of moving to Division One. However it wasn’t a formal request so they let it go.

“I didn’t really expect to move up, so I knew what we were walking into,” said Gunter.

But it was still hard for Gunter to accept. He has played at high levels and won’t get to play at the highest with Loyalist.

“I have played university already, I have played Ontario rugby, and fed into Canada Rugby so, I have had a lot of high-level rugby experience. It would have been nice to play at a higher level of rugby in my final year of school,” said Gunter.

Lancer coach Larry Cook knew his players wanted to move up but feels that Division Two is the best place for the rugby team.

“We are in a competitive league right where we are now,” said Cook. “If we didn’t have such a good recruitment, the past two three years, we wouldn’t be in the position we are in now. It can change in a second, we have players who are here only for one or two-year programs, where-as in some of the bigger schools you see players stay for four-year programs.”

Cook said his players could hold their own at the top, but that is just right now.

“We are at a high level now because we have a number of club players,” said Cook. “They did come and talk to me but I just told them to get out there and do what you can this year and see what happens.”

Another factor in staying in Division Two is quality of education. Moving into Division One would mean more travel and possibly not being able to play just weekend games.

“Players in the nursing program, and programs like that, you can’t take labs off, and you can’t miss classes,” said Cook. “School is number one, and rugby is number two hopefully it is a close second, but that is the way it works.”

While there is no rule that says a team can’t move up from division to division every year, Loyalist Athletic Director Jim Buck agrees with Cook. He said that moving up and down if the team goes from good to bad makes the program look bad.

“There is a chance next year there will be a rule put in that a program has to have a two year commitment,” said Buck. “It isn’t good for your program to say, this year we are Division One, and now we are back to Division Two. You want to decide on one or the other, and if you make that leap to Division One, it shouldn’t be for one year because you are good. It should be a long-term commitment from the program.”

The Lancers have won games this year with scores of 32-7,22-3, and 32-7. They also played Trent to a two-point game in exhibition this year. Trent currently sits 2-2 in division one, which gives them a tie for third, putting them ahead of two other teams in the top division.

“If it gets to the point where there is no competition in division two, then we may consider,” said Buck. “We have to remember that the guys that want to be Division One this year aren’t going to be here for next year or the year after.”