Clash of the Titans

Women’s Rugby Nearly Drop Semi-Final in Dying Minutes

SportsDavid Kaufmann — Published October 22, 2012

The game seemed like a constant battle. At times it appeared as though the McGill Martlets were going to take this one. But the Concordia Stingers women’s rugby team prevailed, and will be heading to Quebec City next weekend to take on the Laval Rouge et Or in the RSEQ final following Friday’s 12-3 victory.

“We left a lot of points out there, and in the end McGill almost came back and stole it,” said Stingers head coach Graeme McGravie on his team’s performance.

From the early moments of the game it seemed like it was going to be a barn burner when Stingers center Frederique Rajotte barged the McGill goal line two minutes into the game to take a 7-0 lead. But then midway through the half, the Martlets started making some ground that eventually translated into points on the board with a field goal from Briana Miller.

The rest of the game can be summed up as a defensive battle, neither team able to make significant ground until the game was in its dying minutes. The Stingers managed to find the goal line multiple times in the game, but failed to touch it onto the field, a problem they’ve faced in their last two games.

“I think we all get near the line and we get white line fever, and we all think we can score instead of working together,” said McGravie.

The contest would prove to be a seesaw battle until the game’s 77th minute when Stingers prop Jayme McClintock scored an insurance try. Yet the Martlets weren’t dead yet as they nearly sent the game into extra time.

Fortunately, the Stingers stopped them before they could do anymore damage.

“I think their defense was just more resilient,” said Martlets head coach John Lavery. “We got into scoring positions and didn’t score tries, and they did and they came out with points.”

Meanwhile, the Stingers believe they’ll have to compete harder in next Saturday’s contest over Laval if they want to make it to the nationals.

“We need to play a little more disciplined, because today we gave away too many penalties,” said fly half Jackie Tittley.

“With the same effort and better execution I think we go to nationals,” added McGravie.

The Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec final gets underway at the Telus Stadium in Quebec City at 1:00 p.m. Should the Stingers win, they’ll advance to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport nationals which takes place Nov. 1-4 at St. Francis-Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.