The premier women’s rugby team kicks off its playoff semifinal Aug. 10 in the consolation bracket instead of the championship draw after losing Saturday’s must-win match against the Pirates.
The hotly-contested 34-25 affair left the St. Albert Rugby Football Club stuck in fifth place in round two of the Alberta premier league at 3-4.
A victory would have bumped SARFC up into the top four finishers in the premier table of four northern and four southern teams.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Payton McNeill, a noticeable SARFC performer who split time at prop and second row.
“But we’re a team that is very positive and we have a lot of good things coming for us,” McNeill added. “Brie (Gray), our captain, said at the end of the game, 'We know what we need to work on,' and we do.”
SARFC is 6-5 overall after going 3-1 in round one of the premier fixtures.
In round two, all four losses were against teams ranked higher than SARFC in the premier table: 44-12 to the host Lep/Tigers (7-0), last year’s undefeated provincial premier champions, on July 4, the second-place Pirates (6-1) at SARFC, 49-34 to the Red Deer Titans (4-3) July 13 at Red Deer and 46-24 to the Calgary Hornets (4-3) in the round two premier lid-lifter June 15 at SARFC.
While the loss to the Pirates was a downer, especially with a playoff berth for a shot at the provincial title within reach, head coach George Harding is confident the SARFC first 15 are going in the right direction.
“The girls are still young and they’re headed somewhere special hopefully as one of the most dominating teams in Alberta,” Harding said. “There are a couple of technical details wrong here and there and hopefully we can correct those.”
Harding agreed with the suggestion the premier squad showed marked improvement from last year’s 4-5-1 showing as one of three north teams to qualify for the semifinals and two of the five setbacks were against the Lep/Tigers (11-0) by scores of 72-10 in league play and 52-7 in the playoffs.
“Absolutely, and that’s the main thing. Some of these girls are getting better.”
The second meeting this season between the Pirates and SARFC was a doozy (the Pirates won 29-22 with a late surge in the round one season-opener May 2 at SARFC) as both teams racked up five tries apiece Saturday, but the difference was three conversions and a nifty drop goal by standoff Caitlin Sears from behind the five-metre line to make it 29-20 with about 20 minutes remaining.
“It was a fantastic game. I’m really proud of the girls,” Harding said. “The most impressive thing is we let in three relatively easy tries and we easily could’ve rolled over and we came back and got into the lead. After that when we got into that driving position we just couldn’t quite hammer it home.”
The Pirates rattled off opportunistic tries with blazing speed in the third, 10th and 19th minutes while converting two of the scores, for what looked like a commanding 19-0 advantage.
The third try was a romp covering three-quarters of the field set up by a SARFC turnover following a penalty to the Pirates in front of their five-metre line. Leading up to the penalty was a try-saving tackle by Kendall Dewitt before SARFC reversed its field position with powerful runs by Gray and Emily Dewitt to advance the ball into scoring range.
In the 29th minute, a determined Gray hoofed her way past a number of defenders into the try area after Emily Dewitt gained quality yards past the 22-metre line.
After the try, the Pirates threatened with intense pressure, but a series of penalties stalled their progress and SARFC turned the tide with Kendall Dewitt streaking down the touchline for a lengthy scoring run with only a few minutes left in the half.
A penalty to the Pirates with SARFC on its back foot allowed the home team to work its way out of trouble as the powerful Sydney De La Mare muscled the ball past the 22 before Kendall DeWitt completed the push for points with another try as the first half ended 19-15.
“They tried to capitalize in the first half on us being late to rucks and then we tried to pick it up in the second half and just get there and finish,” McNeill said. “We’ve been working really hard on our defence these last couple of weeks and George has been really pushing us to get to breakdowns quicker and to support each other.”
SARFC continued riding its wave of momentum with Emily Dewitt the finisher three minutes into the second half after Gray broke past the halfway line with a rambunctious run.
“Syd and Brie, our captains, were really motivating us. When we start getting on our roll they kept saying for everybody to be positive and encouraging and that’s what we did,” McNeill said. “We want to be that team that is loud and in your face and giving each other high-fives and just kind of encourage each other to keep building and building when we're doing well.”
The 20-19 SARFC lead lasted nine minutes as the Pirates responded with Sears zipping through the defence on a play originating between the 22- and five-metre lines for a converted try.
After the drop goal by Sears, the Pirates kept attacking and with SARFC wilting defensively, Sears cracked the try line despite a tough tackle by Emily Dewitt that the Pirate took exception to. The try put SARFC behind the eight-ball at 34-20 with under 10 minutes to go.
Earlier in the half, a big stick by Marcia Davis on a Pirate in front of the five-metre line resulted in words being exchanged in a non-friendly way.
SARFC closed out the scoring with a try run down the touchline by Charlotte Faux, who was moved from second row to the wing after Kendall Dewitt suffered an upper body injury 18 minutes into the second half and the Pirates in front 26-20.
SARFC will now turn its attention to wining its last two matches in the consolation playoffs and the semifinal opponent Aug. 10 will be the Clan (3-4), Calgary Rams (1-6) or Calgary Irish (0-7) from round two.
Players on the SARFC roster for the premier playoffs will be ineligible to play for the division two team in the Edmonton Rugby Union.
“Even if the girls were eligible we would still focus on the other girls because it's now their turn,” said Harding, who is in his second year guiding the SARFC women’s program.
“George pushes us really hard to all try and motivate each other to be better players and to be willing to be versatile in playing different positions,” said McNeill, a second-year SARFC senior player who is entering her third season with the UBC Thunderbirds in Canada West rugby.
McNeill, 20, is among the SARFC players who have seen action with both the premier and division two teams this year.
“We’ve had a lot of numbers out so we’re able to field a women’s premiership team and a full second division team so it’s great having everyone at training and wanting to work hard. It’s also great that we have our junior people stepping up too,” said the St. Albert Catholic High School graduate and noted basketball player with the St. Albert Skyhawks who played her high school rugby with the Bellerose Bulldogs.
