Irish Canadian Rugby Club 10 - Caledon RFC 5
20 / 07 / 05
League

On Wed., July 13 our U-19 Girls won by default over the Toronto Scottish. With the Scots showing up to Fletchers with only 11 players, we donated a winger and dropped our flankers and played a 12 on 12 match that saw the Irish winning 12-10 in the “friendly”. Daisy Miers set up a try for the Scots with a long run down the wing in the second half.  Panzer & Dillaine were try scorers for the Irish.

The Irish U-19 team showed their toughness in sweaty battle in Caledon last night winning 10-5 over a big and physical team. The game started with a kick off reception to the backs and Inside Centre, Jess Panzer, went on a solo mission deaking-out and fending off 3 of the Caledon forward tacklers to score within the first 20 seconds of the game.  The next 20 minutes of play were more evenly matched than was expected as the Irish tended to look a little panicky at times instead of having the calm and organized offence that was in the plans.  A few dropped balls and a missed tackle found us behind our posts watching the Caledon kicker miss the conversion from between the posts. Game tied at 5 at half time.

With Ontario U-17 backrower, Jessica Belchos coming off with a hamstring pull, Larissa Chomyc moved into the 8-man spot and Keira Constable came into the game at second row. Chomyc didn’t disappoint the supportive crowd of parents and fans on hand for the game and early into the second half took a trail ball hard and gained several yards into Caledon’s end. The forwards did an excellent job of quickly rucking over the ball and moving the bodies away.  This set up a perfect platform for Jen Cufino to get the ball quickly out to Tanya Thompson allowing her backline to move the ball wide with Karen Dillaine running around the outside backs to touch down the second Irish try of the game.  Unfortunately, the conversion wasn’t made so we were in a closely contested game for the rest of the half. Rookie Flanker, Natasha Stefanovska, went on a threatening run up the blind side but was squashed by a team tackler inside their 22m line at the tail end of a 5 min advantage play that had our girls praying for a whistle.  The final whistle came and we celebrated the 4^th win of the season with a trip to Dairy Queen!!

“The referee made it hard work for our girls to get any kind of flow going, but you’ve got to give them credit for biting their tongues and just playing tough defense,” expressed a somewhat frustrated co-coach, Mary Velpel, after several questionable penalties going Caledon’s way.  “Credit needs to go out to Tanya Thompson and Karen Dillaine for making some key tackles that helped protect the lead.  The pack was great in the scrums. All that hard work is paying off,” stated a satisfied co-coach Karen (Ferg) Lozada.

Thanks to all the girls and parents for making the trip out to Bolton. Next week’s game, Wed., July 27^th, is at Sunnybrook Park at 7:30 against the Saracens (near Eglinton & Leslie in Toronto).  That will be the last regular season game for the juniors.  The playoffs start on Wed., August 3^rd and hopefully lasting until Aug. 24^th.