Going into the second half in the first game of the U Sports Women’s Rugby championship, barely even an hour into the tournament, it seemed like there could be a major upset brewing. The No. 1 seed — the University of Victoria Vikes — were within striking distance. While the Vikes held a halftime lead over the eighth-seeded University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, up 14–8, they couldn’t be confident about the way they played in the first half, at least on offence.
For the first 35 minutes of the game, the Vikes were backed up in their own end, holding off the Gee-Gees’ relentless attack, as Ottawa came dangerously close to scoring numerous times. Yes, they held the lead, but was this really play worthy of the No. 1 team in the country? The team that went a perfect 5–0 in the regular season, won the Canada West championship and scored almost 250 more points than their opponents? It turns out, it wasn’t. After the break, Victoria was a different team.
Going on an offensive tear, scoring try after try, Victoria went on a 27–0 run in the second half — eliminating their mistakes earlier, finding more space to push play and redefining their place as the best team in the country.
For the Vikes, really, anything other than a national championship would be a disappointment this year. Not only did they win every game they played this year, but in winning those games, they managed to shed the spectre of the UBC Thunderbirds, who had their number in recent years. These interprovincial rivals had met every year in the Canada West final since 2021, with UBC winning every single time. Except this year. Perhaps more pertinently, UBC also matched up with UVic in the national championship game last year, with the ‘Birds coming out on top, 8–3.
With those experiences in the back of their mind, UVic didn’t just break their streak of losing to the T-Birds in the Canada West final — taking home the title for the first time since 2015 — they beat their rivals every single time they played them: three consecutive times. Led by six Canada West all-stars, including Canada West player of the year, fullback Carissa Norsten, and Canada West coach of the year, Brittany Waters, expectations going into this tournament were sky-high.
Right after the match kicked off, it looked like Victoria was ready to match those expectations — and then some. After Ottawa received the opening kick from the Vikes, Victoria didn’t wait to open the scoring. On an Ottawa lineout in their own end, their first of the day, the throw-in from the sideline came in just a bit too high, sailing over the intended receiver and into the hands of Victoria wing Larah Wright. Catching it in stride, Wright rumbled down the field, breaking two tackles before diving over the try line and scoring the first points of the day, only three minutes into the contest. With a successful conversion, UVic took an early 7–0 lead.
From there, however, things quickly shifted. After the early Victoria try, Ottawa quickly held onto the ball — dominating possession for most of the half. Slowly bringing the ball up the field, the Gee-Gees were able to get within about a metre of the try line in the 12th minute, needing just one more push to try and even the score. After attempting to convert by just pushing it ahead with their forwards, with multiple rucks within a metre, the Gee-Gees then tried to distribute the ball out wide — which quickly went sideways. A pass from Ottawa fly-half Claire Bennett missed its intended target, and while the Gee-Gees retained possession, they had to scramble backwards to chase the loose ball.
While the Gee-Gees would salvage some points from their push up the field, scoring a penalty kick a few minutes later to cut the lead to 7–3, they had to be a bit disappointed that they weren’t able to tie the game. After all, coming into this game, Ottawa boasted the third-highest scoring offence in the country, trailing only Queens and Guelph in terms of overall points scored.
The Gee-Gees, while coming in as the eighth-seed, had an impressive resume prior to this tournament as well. Placing second in the RSEQ, Ottawa was able to ride a 5–1 record in the regular season to the conference final — where they lost 41–19 to the University of Laval Rouge et Or. While Laval was a thorn in their side all year, accounting for their only regular season loss, 17–5, the Gee-Gees handled every other contender with relative ease. While Victoria was clearly their most difficult matchup thus far, they were proving that they were able to hold their own.
Even after the disappointment of only scoring three after almost evening the score, the Gee-Gees didn’t let up. They quickly got into Victoria territory again, when, after a lineout that turned into a successful maul for Ottawa, they were able to quickly distribute the ball to team captain Ngozi Mosindi, who broke through the Victoria defence and scampered nearly 30 metres to the Victoria try line. While Mosindi’s run was just stopped short after a tremendous, out-of-nowhere tackle from Norsten, this time, the Gee-Gees made good on their try line possession, punching it in to score the try and taking the lead nearly 20 minutes in, going up 8–7.
Considering how Ottawa had controlled play, Victoria, as absurd as it may have sounded prior to the game, might have felt lucky to be only down one at this point. The Vikes would have to get it together, and fast. Their defence was saving them — but after a certain point, they wouldn’t be able to rely on just defence anymore.
“Yeah, to be honest, the reason they got into our half was our poor exit, so that's on us,” said Waters. “We can defend anywhere and everywhere. I'm never worried about that, but it's much nicer to defend when it's not on your goal line. So that's on us to get the ball out of our zone and we didn't quite get that right in the first half.”
Thankfully for the Vikes, in the few times they were able to get the ball into Ottawa territory in the first half, they took advantage. After a scrum, UVic wing Eden Kilgour was able to take the ball outside, breaking tackle to get within 15 metres of the try line. Following that big play, the Vikes moved quickly, making up ground and pushing the line ahead to get another try, their second on the day to take a 14–8 lead in the 26th minute.
While Ottawa would again make a push toward the end of the half, the Victoria defence stood strong again, allowing the Vikes to take a slim lead into the locker room. The Vikes had the lead — but they weren’t comfortable. How would they open the second half?
“[The] halftime speech was about sticking to what we know we can do well, keeping things a little simple to get us on the front foot,” said Waters. “Then from there we started to be able to express who we are in the second half.”
Express who they are, indeed. After taking the kickoff from the Gee-Gees, Victoria immediately went to work on offence, pressuring Ottawa in their zone — getting plenty of movement on every single ruck, being precise in their passing and showing an energy that seemed to be absent in the first half. Getting down within a metre of the try line, while it initially looked like Ottawa could mount a defensive stand — getting several tackles right on the try line, similarly to how the Vikes did in the first half — a great pass out wide off a ruck from the Vikes broke through the Ottawa defence, with Wright catching the ball in stride to power over the line for her second try of the day.
That try seemed to spark something in the Vikes, as almost immediately following Wright’s try, UVic started to push into Ottawa’s end again. Finding space up the right sideline, Victoria back Vanessa Chiappetta had good instincts on an off-load pass, flipping the ball behind her back to Olivia Newsome. Newsome, one-upping the pass she just received, threw the ball back blindly over her head, landing perfectly in the hands of Justine Blatt-Janmaat. After that nifty string of passes, UVic again showed their skills with a well-timed off-load, this time into the hands of Wright, who scampered more than 20 metres without being touched into the try zone, scoring yet again, right under the posts, to secure seven more points for the Vikes.
Only about eight minutes into the half, Victoria had turned what was a tenuous six-point lead into an 18-point advantage, leading 26–8 at the 43 minute mark. From there, the Vikes kept piling on. Seven minutes later, a penalty kick would boost Victoria’s advantage to 21. Five minutes after that — with UVic continuing to play extremely fast, with quick, accurate passing — the Vikes scored yet another try to all but put the game away.
While Ottawa would attempt to storm back in the final 10 minutes of the game, again getting down to within a metre of the try line, thanks to a great off-load by RSEQ rookie of the year Grace Dingwall, but as was the case all game, the Gee-Gees couldn’t convert, being called for a knock-on right around the try line. A disappointing series for Ottawa, but for Victoria, it showcased the strength of their team.
“Defence is a big part of who we are and a big part of the heart of this team and we show it time and time again. [I’m] always so proud of the team for stepping up,” said Waters.
With the Vikes adding one more try for good measure, they were able to walk off the field with a 41–8 win. While the score line obscures the Vikes’ first half struggles, it also exemplifies how they can quickly run up the score and pull away from teams, even at the highest level. After the conclusion of the following game, the Vikes will be moving on to the semifinals to face the University of Guelph Gryphons. Going into that game, Waters emphasized, even for a team as successful as Victoria, that they need to stick to the basics.
“I think just once again sticking to what we know we're good at and just being really clinical in some of those areas, especially on our exits,” she said. “It's just being a bit more clinical and holding ourselves accountable to those things. We're always going to show up when we're on the front foot on attack. We're always going to show up defensively, but it's getting some of those other very important pieces of rugby tightened up a bit.”
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