Gee-Gees 38, Stingers 10: Stingers’ mistakes prove costly
Ottawa victorious in battle against Concordia
September 30 saw a battle between two top-ten women’s rugby teams—the Concordia Stingers and the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees. The Garnet and Grey proved to be the mightier of the two, defeating their opponents by a score of 38-10.
“I feel as though the last two games we did not start well,” said Stingers interim head coach Craig Beemer. “[We] had a lot of individual mistakes from players that don’t normally make those mistakes.”
In the opening half, the Gee-Gees took control of the game early on. The forwards' play—specifically during scrums—proved advantageous for Ottawa. Not two minutes into the game, Gee-Gees forward Ketsia Kamba punched home the opening try. With the conversion, her team shot out front 7-0.
Ottawa did not stop at one score. Despite heroic tackling efforts from Stingers forward Roxanne Galarneau chasing down the streaking Gee-Gees backs, Ottawa capitalized on good field position. By halftime, Ottawa put up an additional 12 points, extending their lead to 19-0. Gee-Gees inside-centre Taelor Hendricks and number eight Tylo Borsboom found the try zone for their team.
“I think we came out trying to prove a point, trying to have dominant performance,” said Borsboom. Borsboom added that the Gee-Gees struggled to keep a consistent pace at times, but that winning secured a valuable home playoff game for the team.
Once the action resumed, both teams fought to gain momentum, but Ottawa once again prevailed. The visiting team strung small bursts of acceleration together while in possession of the ball, finding holes to break through Concordia’s defensive line. Gee-Gees forward Leigha Styles capped off the drive, extending her team’s lead to 24-0.
Stingers captain and fly-half Mahalia Robinson converted a drop-kick to score three points for her team, but Ottawa responded with another try from Kamba. Ottawa held a firm 31-3 lead by the 20-minute mark.
The final portion of gameplay reflected the overall outcome of the match. Despite Stingers prop Kendra Harrison having punched in Concordia’s sole try at the 28-minute mark, Ottawa wrapped up the game perfectly when Kamba completed a hat-trick with under three minutes left to play. When the final whistle blew, the scoreboard read 38-10 for Ottawa.
“We didn’t play to the level that we could play,” said Galarneau, who was awarded MVP of the match for Concordia. “Last week we had a great 55 minutes of play against Laval where they didn’t score. I feel like we didn’t have that today.”
The Stingers will lick their wounds and turn their attention to the matchup when they head to the Université de Montreal Carabins’ field on Saturday, Oct. 7. The game kicks off at 1 p.m.
