The women’s rugby team gained a dominating 65-13 victory over the York Lions on Saturday at Kingston Field. The team effort improved the Gaels’ record to 2-0, going into a difficult weekend against the McMaster Marauders.
A 24-0 season-opening victory over the Brock Badgers showed the Gaels’ defensive effort. This week head coach Beth Barz was happy to see her team put more points on the board. This was the most points the Gaels have scored in their history. Their last 60 point effort was against the Trent Excalibur when they beat them 63-0 in 2003.
“[There were] some extra points than we had last weekend,” she said. “I think last weekend we could have probably scored a few more. That’s just where we were at since it was the first game, we weren’t quite there yet. Defensively we played extraordinarily well, which allowed us to go on the offensive a little more often than normal.”
The Gaels have started their season with two dominant performances with their season-opener coming against the Brock Badgers. Although Barz said Queen’s is on the right track, she still believes there’s room for improvement on the squad.
“I don’t think you’d ever get a coach to say that they played a perfect game,” she said. “In fact, I always tell my girls there is no perfect game of rugby.”
Facing the McMaster Marauders on Saturday offers the Gaels their stiffest competition of the regular season. Queen’s lost to McMaster in both the regular season and the playoffs last year in the OUA bronze medal game. Barz wants the team to execute their own game plan without worrying about their opponent.
“I think the focus right now is on us,” she said. “It doesn’t do us any good to look at the opposition because the opposition will do what the opposition will do. We’re going to control what we can control and play our game.”
The Gaels controlled the play of the game and maintained a fast and aggressive pace which left the Lions with little to do but watch.
Scrum-half Susan Heald, who scored 15 points on three tries said the key to winning was their strong defence that led to their control of the play.
“We focused hard on defence and from that we were able to secure a lot of possession in the game which led to such a high score,” Heald said. “We were able to execute which started with hard defence.” With games that have shown both their offensive and defensive prowess, Heald said that the Gaels can improve by bringing the two together for a complete team-effort.
“We just wanted to build on what we’ve created so far,” she said. “Our defence was good against Brock and our offence was good against York so hopefully we can just keep building on that and bring it together, having good defence and good offence.”
The Gaels are currently ranked 10th in the CIS.
The Gaels play the nationally ranked McMaster Marauders in Peterbourough next
Saturday at noon.
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