Women’s rugby loses on road

Marauders take advantage of Queen’s mistakes

Gaels Jocelyn Poirier (left) and Emily Stern track down Varsity Blues’ inside centre Jenny So Sept. 20. Queen’s won that game
Image supplied by: Journal File Photo
Gaels Jocelyn Poirier (left) and Emily Stern track down Varsity Blues’ inside centre Jenny So Sept. 20. Queen’s won that game

The women’s rugby team travelled to Hamilton on Saturday to take on the McMaster Marauders, and though they scored the first try of the game, they gave up 31 points and the game, keeping them tied for second place in the OUA Russell Division.

The Gaels opened the game with a try by co-captain and fullback Jocelyn Poirier and Emily Stern completing the conversion to gain a 7-0 advantage. It was downhill from there though, with McMaster’s Paige Churchill, Jacqueline Elfiki and Kirsten Shedden combining for five tries and three conversions.

Injured Gaels’ centre Peggy-Rae Carswell said that the team employed their new pod-system, which breaks the team up into groups of five rather than the conventional fronts and backs make-up, effectively, but made too many mistakes.

“We started off really well, really strong,” she said. “We utilized our new style of offense really well. The whole team tried and Poirer scored. McMaster capitalized on a bunch of our mistakes really well, though.”

In terms of why the mistakes were made, Carswell said it was a mental issue.

“We let their stars get into our heads, so we waited to see what they’d do instead of getting in their faces and playing hard defence.”

The situation the Gaels now find themselves in as they head into their last game of the season is interesting. The first four teams in each division get into the playoffs, which means the Gaels are guaranteed a playoff spot. Although they are tied with Trent for second place in the division at the moment, Trent is going to play second-last ranked Toronto while the Gaels head into this weekend against top-ranked Guelph.

To keep their second seed in the playoffs, Carswell said, the Gaels will have to play hard.

“We expect Trent to win this weekend because they’ll be playing U of T,” she said. “We need to play the game that we can. Against McMaster we played better than any other game this season. The flashes I saw against McMaster, to me, show that we can play with any team in the league for 80 minutes.”

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