Girls Rugby Tackles Cowichan

19 March 2013Lauren A, Allard ‘13

The Girl’s Rugby team got a chance for redemption on Friday, March 8th against Cowichan High School. All players showed their dedication and drive to improve their results after the last Cowichan game, a close loss. In the rematch, we managed to come up quickly together and cut down our opponent’s space putting them under pressure. Still, a number of mistakes were made with rushed offloading and panicked passing, but, for the most part, the team ran and drove hard for the entirety of the game.

The sun came out and the weather was much more cooperative on Friday than the weekend before which kept the home crowd smiling. Thirty-five minute halves demanded lasting endurance, which was another advantage to Brentwood since our coaches say, “Our team is more fit.”

Cowichan brought a larger pack with them but the Brentwood girls showed no signs of fear and took on the challenge with determination. The forwards drove all their energies into the scrums giving the backs good space to attack.  At the beginning of the game, Cowichan tried to throw the ball wide but our faster players including Karly D, Mckenna H, and Mack S shut them down quickly and effectively by running up and tackling hard. Later on, the back row including Jessie M, Mikayla J, and Georgia W helped the centers pressure their opponents into many handling errors. At times the forwards drove the ball ahead well and supported one another by rucking hard and consistently.  If the offloading was carried out cleanly we could have kept the offensive attack alive longer but the quality of their tackling made it quite difficult.

Early in the first half the Cowichan #10 kicked ahead under pressure and the ball fell between two of our players and then took a huge bounce on the firm ground into the arms of their centre who scored.

Our girls responded well and took the game to Cowichan again. Ashley C picked up a loose ball and almost broke through in the middle; a try looked possible until two quicker Cowichan backs caught up. Soon after, one of our backs passed poorly under pressure and was intercepted. Karly D managed to chase down the thief and make an excellent tackle, but unfortunately they scored from the ruck.

In the second half the girls played with even more passion. Jenn L, Christa B, and Nambi M made some courageous attacking runs and almost scored in the corner. They also tackled their big forwards well on penalty plays. Late in the game, the forwards hammered the ball up field resulting in five successive phases won. This led to Shannyn C passing crisply to Lauren who ran a fake switch and managed to score a try under the posts. She converted her try to cap off a grand game, her first as Captain.

The game ended with the score 10-7 for Cowichan; however the loss did not show on Brentwood faces as they beamed with pride. Mr. Cowie supported this by saying, “You would think by the two team’s reactions that we had won.” Mr. Burrows added, “We were delighted with the game the girls played against a strong AAA team, particularly their positive reaction to challenge and adversity.”

Poor Mr. Felix did not get the opportunity to enjoy the promising first real game of the season due to his coaching at the Senior Boys Basketball Provincials. He sent his congratulations via email to the team though, and can’t wait to watch us play against Ladysmith on Tuesday!

Lauren A, Allard ‘13

Editor’s Note: The girls scored a convincing win against Ladysmith before breaking for the holiday.