Madill rugby team triumphs in annual Matthew Dinning memorial tournament

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

F.E. Madill Secondary School played host to the 16th annual Matthew Dinning Memorial Rugby Tournament in Wingham on Wednesday, April 24. The field endured a great deal of spirited play from the eight participating teams. 

The weather was perhaps a little more forgiving than that of the previous year’s tournament, but it was still no walk in the park. If any of the rugby players felt the chill in the air, they remained stalwart competitors, staying focussed on the scrum, the ellipsoidal ball and the position of their teammates. In previous years, the players have battled it out in the snow, but on this frigid occasion only a few flakes flew.

It was a good day for the host team, which captured a championship victory over their rivals from Stratford by a score of 7-5 in the final.

This year’s coveted Most Valuable Player plaque went to F.E. Madill’s own Grade 9 student Joel Ireland, who played an instrumental part in bringing his team to victory. Ireland had never played rugby before the tournament, but that didn’t stop him from being declared a top class workhorse who made all the difference between victory and defeat. The young player isn’t letting it go to his head, though. “It’s pretty fun, and it’s a bit confusing at first, but it gets easier once you start playing... today went pretty well. We all played as a team, and did good. I’m feeling pretty proud of the team,” said the MVP.

Besides a two-year hiatus brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Matthew Dinning Memorial Rugby Tournament has been held every year since 2007. Corporal Dinning was a young soldier from Wingham who attended F.E. Madill. He was killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar, Afghanistan in the spring of 2006. Dinning’s father, Lincoln, always attends the event and says a few words about his son, who used to love playing rugby at the school, before he became a soldier. “Matthew used to run up and down these fields,” Lincoln remembered, just as he does at this time every year.