Never before in the history of U of T has the women’s rugby team competed in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Championship game. That all changed last week, as the women took on the Western Mustangs for the Canadian crown in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
After a long, hard-fought battle, Western emerged victorious, winning 12-8. There was a silver lining to this match, however, as the Blues still took home silver medals for their effort.
“It was a big step for our team,” said third-year Blues winger Lee-Anne Corrigan. “We have never had this much talent on a team before. It was hard for a while, but eventually we got it going.”
Western also defeated the Blues in the OUA final. The score in that match was 28-7.
Other highlights for the team were victories over McGill and St. Francis Xavier, as well as a scoreless tie against the Alberta Pandas. The Pandas had come into the tournament as the resounding favourites to win, having won the last five championships. The Pandas only managed to bring home a bronze in the tournament.
“We knew that Alberta would have a good team coming in,” added Corrigan. “They have won five championships.”
Women’s rugby was officially made a CIS sport in 1998. Since then, only the Guelph Gryphons, Alberta Pandas, and Western Mustangs have won the championship and the Molinex Cup that goes to the winner each year.
Western broke out to a 5-0 lead in the first half of the game, until Shannon Smith scored three points on a penalty goal to make the score 5-3. Soon after, Cassandra Emmet scored a try for the Mustangs, giving them a 12-3 lead after 40 minutes.
The only other score came in the second half. Fullback Lindsay Bernrot was able to put five more points on the board for the Blues to make the game closer, but 12-8 was as close as they got.
“We were really excited just to be in the final game,” said fourth-year captain Shannon Smith. “We were all disappointed to lose the game, but we were all very happy to win the silver. This was the first time that the U of T women’s team has ever earned a spot at nationals.”
“We went in to the tournament very confident and positive,” added Smith. “We set a goal the night before it started that we would medal. We wanted to start with a win on Friday [in their first game] and play it by ear after that.”
The Blues outscored opponents by a margin of 55-20 over the three days of play at the CIS Championship, a tallied shutouts against Alberta and McGill. The Blues did not give up a single point in the round-robin portion of the competition.
We really peaked at nationals,” said Smith. “[In] every game we improved. The most important game psychologically was the one against Alberta. We knew coming in that they were the favourites.”
Smith also admitted that the team came together and bonded over the season and at the national finals: “Rugby is a very social sport. We see the team five days a week and we spend a lot of time together outside rugby. To go through a season like we did and then to finish it off with a trip, it was impossible not to gel. We really came together.”
Next year the team will have to do without such veterans as Shannon Smith, but will hope to return to CIS play with returning stars and new recruits. Players like Heather Moyse and Robyn Waher represent a bright future for an excellent team on the verge of greatness.
