Irish Canadian Rugby Club 24 - Yeomen / Lions 5
03 / 08 / 05
Playoff Game # 1

The first round of the playoffs started with our #1 ranked Irish Jr. Girls pitted against the 16^th placed team Yeomen/Lions.  The girls came out hungry and put pressure on their opposition immediately and the scoring opened around the 8 minute mark with an 8-man pick after hooker Annie Mele won a strike against the head.  Larissa Chomyc powered her way over the line and forced the ball down with several red and white striped jerseys clinging to her back.

About 3 minutes later, the ball was moved wide from Flyhalf Tanya Thompson out through the hands to Captain, Jessica Panzer. She went on a little break, then found her speedy ONT U-19 winger, Karen Dillane. KD easily blew by any defence that was left and put the ball down near the posts.  The convert was made by fellow U-19 back, Linsdsey Bradbury. The half drew to a close with the Irish up 12-0.

Captain Panzer went on another break about 9 minutes into the second half but this time finished it off by herself. The kick was missed, but she’d give Bradbury another chance to make a kick a few minutes later when she scored another try! This time Bradbury slotted it. 24 – 0 with 3 minutes left.  It looked like the scoring would close out that way, but the accommodating referee just couldn’t stand to see a junior game end without both teams putting points up.  Seven whistles later the Irish girls found themselves camped out on their goal line receiving another penalty, and the Yeomen-Lions we able to take a quick tap and score just before the final whistle blew.

ONT U-19 back and Irish Fly Half, Tanya Thompson, had these remarks after the game “we really came out strong and the hard work done in practice definitely is showing, this team has come a long way and we've all became really close which you can see as soon as we step on the pitch.  We look dangerous every time we touch the ball, and that is definitely a big threat to other teams.  Although the ref made it kind of hard to get things going, we kept digging deep and playing our game which really shows the depth and heart of this team."

“A big step up in the level of play by several of our forwards in this game might have played a huge factor in the outcome of this game,” noted Head Coach of the Irish Women’s Program, Rodin (Koko) Lozada.  “Nofa Khadduri battled it out in every line out, our front rowers, Natalie Zeldin, Annie Mele and Kim Dorval really raised their intensity in this game.  Kizil Reder and Natasha Stefanovska looked like hunters after their prey in the loose.”

The next rounds of playoffs will have the Irish facing off against the Scottish Juniors at Fletchers next Wed., Aug. 12^th.