Ellerslie Rugby Park – Strength in numbers is pushing last year’s semifinalists in the right direction in women’s rugby.
“We’re really moving towards something very special,” said George Harding, head coach of the Alberta premier and Edmonton Rugby Union division two teams at St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
“This year is similar in that we have two teams, but it’s also very different in that we actually don’t really have premier players doubling up playing on both teams like last year. To make a full 15 some girls would have to play both and this year so far we’ve had three div two games and two of them have been purely div two starting teams and then a couple of girls had to bench.”
Saturday the premier team whipped the Nor’Westers 105-0 and the division two match against the Rockers (2-0) ended with the 56-37 loss after SARFC (1-2) battled back from a first-half deficit with a strong showing in the third quarter.
“That was an exciting game,” Harding said of SARFC scoring seven tries, compared to 10 for the Rockers. “The thing we talked about is just making sure today's performance is better than our last (48-5 loss to the Nor’Westers) and it absolutely was. The girls worked really hard for each other and got some of the technical details right that we were working on in training.
“The Rockers had a couple of athletes that really kind of made a difference at that level. They go run in tries from 60 metres without much phase play whereas our girls are putting together really good phase play and scored some great team tries,” Harding said. “Hopefully, the girls kind of recognize that we're moving towards something rather than worrying too much about the result. We talk a lot about the process rather than the outcome.”
Last year SARFC finished 4-5-1 in premier and 8-2 in division two and the playoff results were losses of 52-7 against the Lep/Tigers (11-0), the provincial premier champions, and 31-0 to the LA Crude (9-2) as the division two team had 13 players dressed, two short of 15 starters, against a full Crude lineup. The match was called with 10 minutes remaining because of the snow and cold.
Players in the premier playoffs were ineligible for the division two playoffs and SARFC had 17 eligible for the division two semifinal but four were unavailable at game time.
“We had a solid div two team last year with a lot of younger people coming up and older people coming back to play so that was really nice. This year we have a lot of them staying so we have that solid div two lineup as well as a solid premier lineup which gives us a lot of diversity at practice to be able to work with our structures with who we will be playing with,” said Kendall Dewitt, who split time with both teams and played in the premier semifinal.
“We’re always looking at progress so we’re making sure we do our structures accurately and it's not necessarily getting that win but leaving a game feeling fulfilled,” Dewitt said. “But obviously, placing in the top four to get into semis again is what we want to do.”
Two years ago, SARFC was 6-6 as the second division semifinalist and 2-8-1 for seventh out of eight teams in its inaugural premier campaign.
Last year’s premier team finished in a three-way tie for fifth place with 27 points in the 10-team table.
The four Calgary Rugby Union teams in premier played 12 matches and the six ERU teams had nine matches so the semifinalists were determined on percentages involving point totals and total possible points. The Lep/Tigers, second with 45 points, scored 100 per cent, followed by the Calgary Hornets (9-3), first with 48 points, at 80 per cent, Pirates (5-4) at 62.22 per cent and SARFC at 60 per cent. The Calgary Rams (7-5) were third in premier table and fifth in the playoff rankings at 58.33 per cent.
“Our premier season started off quite strong last year (at 4-2) and then we had a bit of dip,” said Dewitt of SARFC losing three of its last four matches, starting with the 72-10 setback to the Lep/Tigers, winners of the 2017 provincial final.
“It was a big jump, a lot of getting used to like the new intensity in play, but we handled it really nicely and now we have that footing from last season so we're really building off the intensity,” Dewitt added. “It’s looking like a really good season again.”
This year’s premier squad overcame a 29-22 hiccup against the Pirates (3-0), last year’s semifinalists, in the May 2 season opener with the lopsided 74-0 victory against the Crude (1-2) on the strength of 12 tries before piling up 17 scores against the Nor’Westers (0-3).
“We had only I think one outdoor practice before our first game so it was really just getting used to each other again and once we kind of got acquainted we meshed so well as a team,” Dewitt said.
So far, SARFC is racking up the points at will in premier.
"Our strength at the moment is our attack. We got the bonus point (by scoring four tries) in the first half of every game so we move the ball really well. We’ve got some very fast outside backs and our forwards set a really good platform and our breakdown work has really improved,” said Harding, noting, “Defence wins championships and we leaked a few too many points but the last two games we’ve sealed the seams.”
As for the loss to the Pirates, “We were always in the play, but made an error and it would've been a draw otherwise,” said Harding of the 29-22 halftime lead that slipped away from SARFC. “I’m excited to play the Pirates again. It would be nice to get that one back.”
This year’s league format is similar to the Alberta Cup premier men as teams will now play a round robin within their rugby unions and the top four in both Edmonton and Calgary qualify for the interlock fixtures to determine the provincial finalists.
“It’s an entirely different league structure this year but the girls are playing really well so far,” said Harding, 27, who arrived at SARFC two years ago as an import standoff from Saint Albans, a city in Hertfordshire, England, and last year took over the head coaching role for the women’s teams after Byron Elliott stepped aside. Elliott played a huge role in resurrecting the women’s program when it was on the verge of folding.
The premier team rolls into Friday’s match against the Strathcona Druids (1-2), kickoff is at Lynn Davies Rugby Park, after shredding the Nor’Westers for 53 points in the first half as captain Brie Gray ran wild for four tries in the opening 40 minutes, including the first three scores by last year’s team MVP before the 12-minute mark.
Keely Mazzolini-Flynn led all players with five tries and Dewitt crossed the try line three times.
Charlotte Faux, Kolby Krueger, Taz Bricknell, Payton McNeill and Emily Dewitt, Kendall’s twin sister, also contributed one try apiece.
Three tries were scored with Bricknell in the sin-bin early in the second half.
Bricknell, a scrumhalf, and Faux, an eight-man, are imports from the Gloucester-Hartpury Rugby Football Club in England.
Another facet with the premier team’s makeup is different positions for some of the returnees.
“It’s going over really well for all of us. For instance, it’s my sister's first year playing 10 (standoff) and it’s my first year trying to play at 15 (fullback) and we’re getting kind of used to it,” said Kendall, 20, a Paul Kane High School rugby product who converted 10 tries in the blowout.
SCRUM BALLS: Saturday’s division two match against the host Lep/Tigers (2-0) starts at 12:30 p.m.
