Ellerslie Rugby Park – Last year’s provincial second division women’s champions took their first step toward first division status in Saturday’s season debut.
Michelle Marler ran wild for three tries and Brie Gray busted loose for a pair of scores as the St. Albert Rugby Football Club ladies demolished the Strathcona Druids 51-7 in the Edmonton Rugby Union spring league.
The top finishers in the 10-team spring league round robin move up into the Alberta first division for the remainder of the season and the rest of the teams compete in the ERU second division.
“We want to play first division and we want to play competitively so it’s definitely going to be a huge step from last year,” Marler said. “We performed well today but it’s going to be another big step Wednesday when we play the Clan because they’re first div provincial champions.”
SARFC and the Clan (1-0) scrum down tonight at 7 p.m. at Airway Field.
Last year, SARFC finished 11-4 overall as winners of the fifth provincial women’s championship in club history and the first since the 13-1 second division Blues in 2009.
“We have some new people and we lost some people but I’m happy with today’s game,” Marler said. “We still have to work to be where we were at the provincial final but it’s looking good.”
The Druids, who are also represented in the Alberta premier division, struggled to match the speed, strength and teamwork of their opponent.
“The backs were really working on getting it wide and we were able to do that,” said Marler, a fullback with prolific speed. “I’m not much of an expert as to what was going on with the forwards but one thing people were really concerned about was the scrums. We didn’t really have experienced props but we were winning a lot of the scrums so the scrums were awesome.”
Cassie Peterson, a newcomer from the Rockers at scrumhalf, bolted down the try line to kick-start the scoring in the fourth minute.
Four minutes later, the Druids broke through the defensive line for a converted try after repeated attempts were denied by SARFC.
A pair of long runs eight minutes apart by Marler left the Druids trailing 15-7 with 22 minutes left in the first half.
Gray’s first try, a lengthy dash capped off by a wicked move past a defender around the 22-metre line, was followed four minutes later by Krysta Florence’s score as she dragged a tackler over the try line in the 39th minute.
Katie Davis rattled the goal post on the conversion attempt after Gray’s try but split the uprights to convert Florence’s effort to make it 27-7.
In the opening minute of the second half, Gray motored past several defenders for a try under the posts and Davis kicked the conversion.
Gray would later set up captain Sabrina Kelly’s try with a pass in front of the five-metre line
Tries by Marler and Florence in the late stages and one conversion by Davis tied the bow on the season-opening victory.
“We all had high nerves at the start. It almost felt like we were as nervous as we were before the provincial final (29-12 against the Calgary Saints),” said Marler, an alumna of the St. Albert Skyhawks.
It’s been a dramatic turnaround from the brink of disbandment after a miserable 1-12 campaign in 2013 to ERU and provincial champions last year to first division contenders this year.
The coaching tandem of Byron Elliott and Ashley Hanson also helped restore pride to the women’s team.
“The thing that has brought us this far is our commitment. We had 12 players just two years ago and it was a rough time so we want it more than other teams,” said Marler, 27, the recipient of the SARFC women’s player’s player award last year.
