Nor’Westers Field – A second half comeback charge propelled the St. Albert Rugby Football Club to victory in the division one women’s opener Saturday.
SARFC battled back from deficits of 15-12 at halftime and 20-19 in the third quarter to defeat Crude/West 29-25.
“We were killing it out there,” said Maddy Doyle, a physical presence at prop. “In the second half we were definitely more offensive, moving the ball out to the backs and working on the crash balls.
“It was a great game. Both teams played well. We just came out with the win at the end of the day.”
Crude/West opened the scoring in the fourth minute after a sketchy St. Albert lineout ball around its 22-metre line was converted into a try.
The first quarter ended with a Crude/West try to cap off a drive.
“We started off not as strong as we would’ve liked,” Doyle said. “We definitely felt like we were on the defensive back end of things.”
Crude/West continued to press but St. Albert buckled down defensively and a try was held up seven minutes into the second quarter.
St. Albert got rolling with a run by scrumhalf by Emily Orr through the defensive line and the try was smartly converted by Kiera Arndt.
“We came right back and answered quickly but it took us a while to get into the game,” Doyle said. “We struggled with our rucking at first and then after that our rucking got a whole lot better.”
Four minutes later, Crude/West capped off a forward-driven push with a quick penalty play from the five-metre line.
Before the end of the first half, Mackenzie Doughty sprinted down the touchline and offloaded the ball to Nichole Schlemko for a try in her first senior women’s match.
“When we did have the ball we were making good ground,” Doyle said.
Two minutes into the second half, Brie Grey busted several moves en route to the try line and Arndt converted the score to give St. Albert its first lead of the afternoon at 19-15.
A couple of penalties back-to-back to the rambunctious Doyle for misbehaving paved the way for a Crude/West try.
“There were a few things I did,” Doyle said with a mischievous smile.
With five minutes left until quarter time, a burst of energy by fullback Michelle Marler resulted in captain Sabina Kelly, the team’s eight-man and MVP last year, scoring off a run from inside the 22-metre line.
The fourth quarter started with a St. Albert lineout ball at the Crude/West five-metre line and Doyle plowed her way over the try line off a designed play on the throw to make it 29-20.
“We just decided that at quarter time we would mix it up. We thought it would be a safer bet than maybe losing the ball in the lineout and it ended up working,” Doyle said.
Crude/West pulled to within four with three minutes to play, but after the kick-off St. Albert battled to win the ball back and a penetrating run by Grey allowed the visitors to set up shop past the halfway line until the whistle blew.
Crude/West is a team St. Albert must beat in order to finish top four in the Edmonton Rugby Union’s new division one table to make the playoffs.
“They have a very good scrum so it was definitely tough for us forwards,” Doyle said. “We mixed well as a team, both forwards and backs, and we went out there and got the win.”
This is the first full season on the senior team for Doyle, a high school rugby product of the Paul Kane Blues who played for the SARFC U19 finalists in the ERU last summer while breaking into the women’s ranks.
Last year SARFC finished 9-6 overall after going 7-2 in the ERU spring league to determine the Alberta first division and ERU second division teams for the rest of the fixtures. SARFC won two and lost four as the Alberta division one semifinalists.
“It’s super exciting to win the first game of the year. Hopefully there is more to come,” said Doyle, who gave Crude/West a gigantic headache grinding out the yards when she wasn’t burying players into the field with devastating tackles.
The next match is June 4 at the home of the Pirates at 1 p.m.
