In a dominating showing on both sides of the ball, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees beat the Saint Francis Xavier University X-Women (STFX) 55–3 on Friday at Thunderbird Stadium.
After both teams lost on Wednesday, with Ottawa falling to Victoria and STFX losing to Guelph, day two of the U SPORTS Women’s Rugby Championship started off with the consolation semifinal matches. Although it was not a game for glory — Ottawa put on quite a show. With their high-scoring play and impressive offensive push — they extended their season as the eighth seed, sending the fourth-seeded X-Women home.
“We just need to stick to who we are and I think we showed that today,” said fourth-year front row Sophie McDonald.
Both of these teams had strong regular seasons, being part of the top eight teams in Canada. STFX won their conference championship, beating the Acadia Axewomen to earn their higher seed in the tournament after a strong 5–0–1 regular season. Ottawa had an almost equally strong season. Although they came second in their conference, losing to the Laval Rouge et Or, they still ended the regular season with a solid 5–1 record.
That regular season success didn’t translate in both teams’ first game, however. The Gee-Gees and the X-Women both lost their respective quarterfinals games by a decent margin. Ottawa had a tough draw in their opening game, as they played the top-seeded team, the University of Victoria Vikes. Going against a championship-calibre team, they fell 41–8 despite a strong first half.
“We [had a] really good 30-35 minutes against UVic, but we didn't put in a full 70. I thought today we put in a really good 70 minutes,” said Ottawa’s head coach Jack Hanratty.
On the other hand, STFX lost to the University of Guelph Gryphons in a somewhat closer matchup, 45–21, after a strong first-half attack from the Gryphons left them unable to come back.
The Gee-Gees got off to quite the start, as they immediately applied strong pressure on offence, gaining momentum down the field early. In the first minute of the game, Ottawa’s fullback Sydney Noseworthy broke away on a run to score the first try of the game, setting the tone for the rest of the match. The Gee-Gee’s fly-half Claire Bennett made the conversion to put them up 7–0 immediately — the fastest score in the tournament thus far.
Initially, it seemed like it could have been a close match, as STFX earned their first points early in the game as well. In the 11th minute, the X-Women earned a penalty kick, with Katie Murphy stepping up to take it — nailing it right through the uprights to cut STFX’s deficit to four.
This would be their only points of the game. Ottawa not only went on to score 48 consecutive points, but they also shut out the X-Women on defence for the remaining 59 minutes.
“We’re happy to score so many points, but I think what's way bigger is that we didn't concede a try,” said Hanratty. “We were pretty disappointed with our defence the other day, so to be able to come out of that, it's a really nice feeling for the group.”
After the penalty kick, Ottawa immediately switched the game in their favour, dominating possession. They made their way up the field, eventually getting all the way to the try line, and off a nice offload, McDonald was able to get the ball down in the try-zone to score her first try of the night. For her role in sparking the Gee-Gees scoring run, McDonald earned the player of the game for Ottawa — a strong part of the team’s offensive success in the game. While the final 15 minutes of the half was quiet, the Gee-Gees earned one more try to put them up at the break 19–3.
After an already impressive half for the Gee-Gees, they sealed the win in the second half, leaving the X-Women with no way to come back. Their offensive performance somehow improved from the first, as Ottawa scored six tries in a row, with all six being scored by different players.
“We knew we had to be direct and we wanted to play physical and fast,” said Hanratty. “I think they did that today in a really good way, and didn't let the conditions affect what we were trying to do.”
To start this impressive scoring run, Ottawa had another early try right after the whistle blew, just like in the first half. It was again McDonald who found paydirt, earning her second try of the game, after the Gee-Gees found themselves right up to the try line, holding possession well as they moved up the field. The conversion was good and Ottawa was up 26–3.
Only six minutes later, STFX earned a scrum deep in their own zone, and in trying to clear the ball, they booted it out of bounds. Off the Ottawa lineout, STFX won the ball, but then immediately lost it to Ottawa on a not-releasing call. As they were already around the STFX 22-metre line the Gee-Gees wasted no time making their way to another try, quick tapping the ball back in play, with Alysia Comtois scoring.
Nearing the end of the game, Ottawa’s Grace Dingwall — the U Sports rookie of the year — got the ball off a scrum and immediately turned on the jets to push to the try zone. She got the edge around STFX’s defence and ran past the try-line to score another Gee-Gees try. After putting up one more try before the end of the game, Ottawa walked away with a dominant 55–3 win.
“We were much better on defence [in] this game and that's what we went into it trying to do,” said McDonald. “Again, [we] play our game … and just do what we can, knowing that the conditions aren't great and having to adjust both ways on defense and on attack, and it worked out for us today.”
With their win in this consolation semifinal, the Gee-Gees extended their time playing at the U SPORTS national championships — putting an end to the X-Women’s season. Ottawa will now play in the consolation final, facing off against their own conference foes, L’Université Laval Rouge et Or, who they previously lost to in the RSEQ conference final. It will be a conference rematch battle for fifth place this Sunday at 11:00 a.m.
“When you come to Nationals, you don't want to come all the way here and not get the opportunity to play in three games. We get to do that now,” said Hanratty. “Because the where we're at in our cycle, we want to make sure we're playing against the best teams in the country, and to play three games is really important.”
“We go into the tournament looking for three games, and that's what we got this year,” said McDonald. “It may not be the game that we wanted on the last day, but we're still playing until the season's over, and that's what we want.”
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