After starting their season 2-0 and outscoring opponents 143-9, the Head Coach of the Women’s Rugby team sat down with The Journal to discuss his expectations for the season and reflect on the season thus far.
On Sept. 8, the Gaels defeated the Waterloo Warriors 95-3 in a game showcasing the depth of the Women’s Rugby program, highlighting the youthful talent that’ll eventually carry the program for years to come.
While a young roster might typically be cause for concern for some coaches, Head Coach Dan Valley feels differently about the Gaels’ situation.
“I’d say we’re a little bit on the younger side of things, but I don’t want that to sound like a negative thing in any way. I think there’s some really, really positive things that come with that,” Valley said in an interview with The Journal.
It’s pretty clear the young talent of the Gaels roster hasn’t had any negative impacts on the success of the program, as the Gaels are ranked number one nationally by the U SPORTS weekly power rankings.
Valley’s aware of the cyclical nature inherent to collegiate sport but is also aware of the rare position the Gaels’ rugby program is in, adopting a “next person up” mentality when it comes to replacing impactful players like Maggie Banks, Nurs ’24, and Jaden Walker, ArtSci ’24.
“People come to Queen’s University to be a part of this rugby program because of the training environment that they’re in Monday to Friday, not so much the games that they get to play on Saturday. Because of that, it’s very much a next person up sort of mentality,” Valley said.
While it may be hard to pinpoint areas for improvement for the Women’s Rugby team right now, Valley is largely focused on fostering comfort within whichever 15 women are on the field at any given time. There’s a way to divide the problems they must confront from the issues they’ll eventually have to address, he added.
“Now, our job is to spend a little bit less time making sure that we get into the right spots and a little bit more time on dialing in on how we can be as impactful as possible in those sorts of one-on-one, two-on-two sort of pictures,” he added.
The Gaels’ roster is quite gifted. Chloe Daniels Comm ’25, who recently won silver with the Canadian sevens National team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, provides the rest of her roster with a strong role model for some of the younger players on the Gaels’ roster to look up to.
“That sort of Monday to Friday and why people come to Queen’s, that’s part of it is the opportunity to learn from these people that have gone to these super cool levels of the sport and are continuing to come back to this environment and sort of it on,” Valley said.
Regardless of how the season ends for the Women’s Rugby team, this year’s campaign offers a truly exciting storyline, where fans will get to watch the next generation of Gael stars grow and shine.
“You can look up and down the roster and it’s not hard to find players that we’re excited about seeing, right?”
“Izzy Paige, ArtSci ’25, is a player who, although an upper-year, made a move to New Zealand and was in a full-time environment for four months. So, it’s great to have her back and it’ll be cool to see the impact she has on how we go about things on the field. Tattyannah Jackson, ArtSci ’25, had a meteoric rise last year and was one of the best props in the country, if not the best prop in the country on any given day. And so, I’m very excited to see what she’s able to do this season.”
Valley continued to name a plethora of players who have already been showing promising growth and development over the past few seasons, conveying this year offers a truly unique and exciting experience for both the players and fans of Queen’s Rugby.
“We love the , we think we’re a part of something really cool, and we want everyone in the Queen’s and Kingston communities to be a part of that as well and feel like they’re a part of it too,” Valley said.
The Gaels’ next game is on Sept. 14 at Nixon Field against the Toronto Varsity Blues, be sure to come out and the most dominant rugby team in the nation.
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