OXFORD, England – The UBC Thunderbirds started their World University Rugby Cup pool with a game against New Zealand Universities and fell behind to an early penalty goal for not releasing at the tackle. Brock Staller (Vancouver) equalized with his own penalty kick within a minute to tie the scores at 3-3. New Zealand went ahead midway through the half when a succession of forward drives culminated in a converted try at the posts. From 3-10 down UBC would score seventeen unanswered second half points to win the game.

Andrew Coe (Markham, Ont.) intercepted a pass right from the restart to sore under the posts. Staller converted to tie the scores at 10-10. A missed penalty goal stopped UBC from increasing its lead only for the Birds to put together a series of drives before Jorden Sandover-Best (Abbotsford, B.C.) broke the line to score. Staller again converted to push UBC in front 17-10. A further penalty right at the whistle by Staller saw the Birds win the game 20-10.

In the second game of the day, UBC used all its remaining players during the match and fell 8-0 to Trinity College Dublin. Trinity scored a try right at half-time to take a 5-0 lead. A penalty in the second half pushed the margin to eight points. UBC continued to compete but fell short of getting a result.

With New Zealand Universities beating the Siberian Federal University in its second game, Trinity now stands at 2-0 with UBC and New Zealand at 1-1. UBC takes on Siberian Federal to try and book a spot in the top two places in the pool.

More updates from Oxford to follow.