Tag: wrugby

“It wasn’t our day,” said captain Hughanna Gaw after the Stingers women’s rugby team lost the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) finals against the McGill Martlets 41-34 last Friday night.

The first half proved hard for the Stingers. McGill scored their first try two minutes into the game with no conversion. Concordia only answered back to it six minutes later with a try scored by Jenna Giuliani after an impressive run to the try line.

The McGill forwards dominated the Stingers in rucks, pushing them over like they weren’t a team that ended their regular season with a 7-0 sweep. Concordia’s lineouts in the first half were unbalanced but they made it work. Their saving grace was their scrums; their force and power had nothing on McGill’s forward pack.

However, they seemed to know McGill’s defensive line would knock their backs further down the field so they made the choice to end many of their scrums with quick pick-and-go’s by Gaw.

Meanwhile, McGill’s true strength lied with their backs. They lined up perfectly on defense, eliminating gaps and making sure they took the wind out of the maroon-and-gold. They never gave up on a tackle, proving in the first half that it takes more than one girl to bring down Alexandra Tessier, a powerhouse centre in the Stingers backline.

After a missed opportunity for a penalty kick, McGill came back with a vengeance, scoring two tries and, subsequently, two conversions within a minute and a half of each other, bringing the score to 19-5 for McGill.

With three minutes left to the half, Concordia brought the ball ten meters from the McGill try line, pushing it even closer with a driving scrum. Darcie Largan, one of the Stingers backs, got her hands on it and bolted to the try line. The try was eventually scored by prop Solange De Blois and converted by Alexandra Ste. Marie, bringing the score up by seven points to 19-12.

With one minute left of the half, McGill scored and converted, making the score 24-12.

By halftime, it was clear that changes needed to be made on the Stingers end of the field. After a couple of player positions were switched around, Concordia came back with a newfound determination.

“The first three-quarters of the game we simply made too many mistakes, be it dropped balls or missed tackles. They were mistakes that we couldn’t afford to make in the finals,” said Gaw, who was moved from No. 8 to centre in the second half. “We came back in the second half, cleaned up our mistakes and got back to our game plan.”

Six minutes into the second half, Ste. Marie scored a three-point penalty kick, making the score 24-15. Right after that, McGill scored and converted another two times, which left the score at 38-15.

The two tries were answered by Stingers lock Samantha Ewing and Gaw. Both conversions were made, making the score 38-29. McGill scored a penalty kick quickly after, leaving Gaw to bring the final score—with an unconverted try—to 41-34.

Concordia fought hard for the last 20 minutes of the game, never giving up and hitting back when McGill knocked them down.

Gaw, the lead try-scorer for her final game with Concordia, put it best, “It isn’t the way that you ever want it to end, but we definitely didn’t go down without a fight.”

“I thought we played very poorly in the first 30 minutes and that was the difference in the game as we did not have enough time to come back all the way,” head coach Graeme McGravie said. “[It’s] hard to win a game when only play half of it.”

“It is a disappointing end to an otherwise very good season,” McGravie continued. “We saw a lot of people come of age on the field this year and I am excited that most of them are eligible to return back for the 2014 season. Our tackling needs to improve across the board if we are to be considered challengers for next year.”

This past Friday night, the Concordia women’s rugby team secured themselves a spot in the finals against McGill by pummeling the Laval Rouge et Or 38-3 at home.

The game started off slow. Three-quarters into the first half and Concordia only had two tries and one conversion up on the board, leaving them with a score of 12-0. Then, at 29:41 of the half, the lights went off at the Loyola field.

It took 12 minutes to get the stadium lights back up and running, but Concordia could be seen through the dark running laps and working on their ball handling. The game resumed and Concordia came out with a vengeance.

Laval put their only three points on the board with three minutes left in the first half, bringing the score to 12-3.

Less than five minutes into the second half, the ball was kicked towards the Laval try line and chased furiously by both teams. Unfortunately, Laval touched the ball down in their own zone, making the potential points null and stopping play. This gave the Stingers the motivation they needed.

A minute later, the Stingers scored their first try that half. Alexandra Ste. Marie, the team’s kicker, lined up to take the conversion kick and the whole stadium went quiet. The silence was still there when the ball sailed through the posts and landed on the other side. When the flag was raised to show the conversion was made, the bleachers went crazy.

Twelve minutes into the second half, another try was scored, this time by captain Hughanna Gaw, off of an impressive scrum that drove itself over the try line. There was no conversion, but the score was now 24-3 in favour of the maroon-and-gold.

Only five minutes later, another try by Stingers’ lock Jasmine Akkermans and an impressive conversion by Ste. Marie brought the score to 31-3. Shortly after, Laval was given a yellow card and the Stingers had a chance to add three points to the board with a penalty kick. Although the kick was not made, a try by flanker Cara Stuckey and a successful convert brought the final score to 38-3.

“I was really proud of how we played [Friday] night, both offensively and defensively. Everything flowed really well, the communication was great and I think everyone could see that from the stands,” said Ste. Marie.

She couldn’t have put it better; their scrums and lineouts dominated those of Laval, they pushed hard on defense and they hit gaps on offense that the untrained eye could never pick up.

Head coach Graeme McGravie couldn’t agree more.

“We looked and played like a team that was playing to its potential.”

Concordia’s win against Laval means one thing, they’re going to the finals after a completely undefeated season and a strong win at semis.

“Our expectation is to win, I expect a very tough game from [McGill] and we are preparing this week for that encounter,” said McGravie.

“Now that we’ve secured our spot in the finals we have to focus on perfecting every aspect of our game to prepare for our big game against McGill,” said Ste. Marie about their ticket to finals. “It always feels amazing to win a playoff game because you know your team is one step closer to the championship.”

Concordia will play McGill on Friday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. at Loyola. Tickets are $5.

 

After defeating the Laval Rouge et Or to become Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec champions, the Concordia Stingers travelled to Antigonish, Nova Scotia to participate in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship. Along with the Stingers, the six team tournament included the hosts St. Francis Xavier X-Women, Alberta Pandas, Guelph Gryphons, Acadia Axewomen and Queen’s Golden Gaels.

The six teams were placed in two equal groups consisting of three teams. Each team played against the other two teams of the group. Concordia was in Group B which included St. Francis Xavier and Queen’s.

Concordia’s first game of the tournament was on Friday against the Golden Gaels. The Stingers overpowered their opponents and won the game 29-0. By the end of the first half, Concordia was only up 7-0 from a try by Erika Ikonomopoulos. In the second half, Liza

Myers scored an early try for the maroon and gold. Bianca Farella added two more tries to end the game. Jackie Tittley successfully converted three of the four tries and added a penalty goal in the second half. Farella was named Concordia’s Most Valuable Player.

The next day, Concordia faced the X-Women for a spot in the finals. St. Francis Xavier also defeated Queen’s and therefore top spot in the group was up for grabs. Both Concordia and St. FX played each other in non-conference games earlier in the season. The X-Women won every game. They were the number one ranked team in the country.

In this game, St. Francis Xavier shut out the Stingers 40-0. The home side was up by 23 at halftime and added 17 points in the second half. Despite the loss, Farella was again named MVP for Concordia.

With a record of one win and one loss, the Stingers qualified for the bronze medal game. Concordia went up against the Alberta Pandas, who finished Group A with the same record.

The game was played on Sunday right before the gold-medal game. Both Alberta and Concordia each converted a penalty attempt early on in the first half. The Pandas scored a late try before the break to go up seven points. With 20 minutes to play in the second half, the Stingers were within two points. Alberta scored 17 straight points to win the game 34-15 and claim the bronze medal. Farella, Tittley and Chelsea Guthrie ended the game with five points each for the Stingers. Tittley was named MVP.

Concordia head coach Graeme McGravie set up objectives for his team coming into the weekend. The team’s goal was to capture at least the bronze medal. In terms of the weekend, McGravie acknowledged how hard it was to win the tournament given the demanding schedule.

“We had the best schedule with day one off,” he said. “You get to see everyone play and let the big occasion sink in, plus you play a team on day two that has already lost a game so psychologically it is an advantage. Rest and hydration are key though.”

After an opening day win, McGravie approached the St. F-X game with caution.

“We felt really good and confident that we could win,” he said. “We would have to be perfect against the number one ranked team. Even after the loss we felt confident going up against U of A after what we had seen of them.”

This was Concordia’s first time back in nationals since 2010. In that year, the Stingers made it all the way to the finals and lost to St. FX by one try. In 2009, Concordia also finished fourth place.

“We played like it was the last 80 minutes of our lives. If that doesn’t sum it up, I don’t know what does.” After defeating Laval 35-34 on Saturday in a heart-racing game, Bianca Farella sums it up pretty nicely.

Concordia knocked the McGill Martlets out of the semi-finals last week as Laval defeated Ottawa, giving the Stingers a second chance against one of their biggest competitors.

“It feels amazing to win and beat a good team like Laval,” said head coach Graeme McGravie. “I thought our coaching staff did a tremendous job of getting this team ready every week and [Saturday] was the pinnacle of that.”

The game started off strong in favour of Concordia; two of their first attempts at tries were held up in the try zone by Laval. Halfway through the first, Laval scored the first try but did not score their conversion kick.

The Stingers came back and scored a penalty kick, a try and a conversion, bringing the score to 8-5 with less than 10 minutes to go. Farella then scored once more before the end of the first half and two consecutive times in the beginning of the second, bringing the score to an impressive 27-12 for the maroon and gold.

In the nail-biting second half, the scores got closer and closer to each other, eventually reaching 34-30 for the Rouge et Or. With less than five minutes left, Concordia scored the final try bringing the final score to 35-34.

Concordia showed off their strength and determination the whole length of Saturday’s match. No matter how close the score got, they kept their head in the game.

“All in all, we knew what was at stake and we weren’t ready to give that up without a fight,” said Farella.

The first half was seemingly in the hands of the forwards, who capitalized on their strength in the rucks and scrums. Compared to their last game against Laval, the Stingers stepped up and hit them a lot harder. The second half was dominated by the backs who executed skillful offensive plays and took advantage of the gaps in Laval’s usually solid defence. Line-outs were strong for both teams but Concordia shone when they attempted to throw the ball to the jumper, back to the thrower and then out to the wing. Even though it is late in the season, they aren’t afraid to diversify their plays.

As for next season, coach McGravie said he’ll start worrying about that next week. He looks forward to next season but made it clear that this was a year to remember in women’s rugby.

“I thought our real strong point this year was that we played as a team, no one individual had to carry the load for the team this year,” he said. “When we needed someone to step up, multiple players did.”

The Stingers will now head to St. Francis Xavier University as the RSEQ champions to take part in the national CIS championships. Five other teams will join Concordia in the tournament that runs from Nov. 1- 4.