Lady ruggers capture first win

The Concordia Stingers women’s rugby team avenged their Kelly-Anne Drummond Cup loss with a hard-earned 22-0 win against the Ottawa Gee-Gees on Sunday afternoon at Concordia Field.
The Stingers first league win of the year evens their record to 1-1 and moves Concordia up to third place in the division behind McGill and Laval.
“Winning is always great,” said Stingers head coach Graeme McGravie.
“But we didn’t execute as well as we could have. There were missed chances for trys.”
Five minutes into the game, the Stingers jumped ahead 7-0. Winger Virginia Klinkhoff took the ball on a 60-yard run past the flat footed and dumbfounded Gee-Gees to score. Concordia athletics’ female athlete of the week Jackie Tittley added a kick through the posts for the extra points.
Within five minutes of the Stingers try, Ottawa was at Concordia’s doorstep. Attempt after attempt failed to drive the ball in as the Stingers gave a lesson in proper defence. Forwards Sarah Nesbitt and Vanessa Ng were outstanding and proved vital in forcing the Gee-Gees back.
The Stingers slowly marched back up the field by alternating between the back line’s running plays and the forwards’ short but physical gains.
Tittley and fullback Jenny Rosenbaum traded the ball back and forth while being tackled to let Rosenbaum score Concordia’s second try. Rookie Tittley then went on to add the extra points to put the Stingers ahead 14-0 at halftime.
“When watching Rosenbaum’s first try – if you can’t jump out of your seat watching that, then you shouldn’t be coming to rugby games,” said McGravie of the daring play.
The game seemed to come apart in the second half for the Stingers. Concordia stood still on defence letting the Gee-Gee’s gain valuable yards and build momentum.
“We knew we were winning, which is not a good frame of mind to be in because really that’s when the other team will pounce on you,” said Tittley.
Penalty after penalty plagued the Stingers and pushed them deep into their own territory.
“We lost a little bit of momentum, we were on our heels. It’s kind of a vicious cycle. You keep getting penalties so you keep trying to get the ball back and you keep doing things wrong so you get more penalties. It really was a lack of discipline on our part,” Tittley said.
Concordia’s mistakes led to their prop Ashley Csenar being penalized, meaning a 10-minute period where the player must leave the game and the team plays a woman short.
“We were lucky to still have all 15 people on the field at the end,” McGravie said, explaining that when missing a player, the team tends to become desperate, thus making more mistakes.
However, Concordia showed some grit and regrouped. Tittley added a three-point kick to widen the lead to 17-0 before scoring a try by dragging an Ottawa defender who was trying to tackle her for five yards into the end zone to make the 22-0 final.
Friday night, Concordia hosts the Sherbrooke Vert et Or at 6:00 p.m.