STE-ANNE'S WOMEN AT THE ORMSTOWN SEVENS TOURNAMENT  1st May 2009

 

 As the final whistle blew at the Ormstown Sevens, we knew that although the tournament was over, the 2009 Rugby season is only just kicking off; there will be many more Rugby days to come. 

 

 

Is there a better way to spend a sunny, hot day (yes, I am talking about April) than hanging out with friends and playing Rugby?  Well, technically I wasn’t playing, but eight of Ste-Anne’s women sure were. 

 

Last week, we entered a Ste-Anne's 7s team at the Ormstown 2009 season opener tournament.  With over 20 teams participating, including juvenile girls and boys, women’s 7s and men’s 15's, the tournament was a huge operation and a big success.  And the weather was perfect.

 

Three cars left Montreal early on Saturday morning, and headed down to Ormstown.  In one, was our team rookie, Brazilian Adriana Davies, who would be playing her first ever Ste-Anne’s game. Travelling with her was McGill’s talented fullback Briana Yerbury.  In the other car were hard-hitting "twins" Kate and Taryn Gauley.  With them were recently qualified Senior player and beer-pong champ, Lindsay Sauchuk and John Abbott’s lovely Swede Tanja Andersson.  In the final car were the vets of the team:  Wonder woman Anita Boray, superstar Sommer Christie and coach/manager for the day, Jessie Matiaszuk. 

 

Of course, I have omitted an important team member: Our ever-faithful supporter, "Howling Lucky."

 

Thankfully, the tournament schedule allowed for some delays in start times as three of our cars became temporarily disoriented. Two of them arrived just before kick-off, but our match was fortunately delayed until twenty minutes later, and that was when our third car pulled in.

 

In this first match, we faced Ormstown Saracens.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the run from the parking lot to the pitch was insufficient preparation to allow us to defeat a well-organized side.  We lost this first game, but not without making significant improvement by the second half.

 

 

In the next game, against the Sherbrooke Abenakis, this Ste-Anne’s side was a completely different team.  With a proper warm-up and some, as opposed to none, organization, we quickly got into the swing of the game and tries were scored by many Ste-Anne’s girls in red jerseys.  "Why the red jerseys?" as many players, coaches and refs kept asking throughout the day.  Well, let’s just thank the Lindsay Place High School bantam boys’ team and their coach (Anita) for the use of them!  Maybe in her concern about car lifts, our coach/manager forgot to arrange for a kit. Anyway you look at it, the girls looked hot and won the game against the Abenakis easily.

 

Our final game, which was played for the Women’s Plate, set us up against a talented TMR side.  It was an exciting game as we were the first to score, thanks to a lovely dummy from scrum-half Anita.  However, in the second half, TMR came out strong and with threatening runs by Julianne Zussman, they proved to be the better side on the day.  Again, the level of play from our girls kept improving throughout. The real  Rugby season is just kicking off. There will be many more Rugby days to come.