Irish Canadian Rugby Club 35 - Aurora Barbarians 0
07 / 08 / 04
Quarter-Final - Playoffs

With the league season finished, the Irish Women turned their attention to the OWL Cup and faced the Aurora Barbarians in a quarter final match-up on Thursday night.  Originally scheduled for the weekend, the game was moved up a couple of days in order to accommodate the provincial team players on both teams as they prepared for the trip to Saranac Lake and the National Championships next week in Hamilton.  After a mistake filled first half, the women in green stepped up their play which resulted in a dominating second half and a 35-0 victory.

Playing on an unusually cool summer evening, the Irish played the first half semi-comatose as the young and talented Aurora side pressured them right from the kick-off and continued to test the Irish defence the entire half.  Despite numerous mistakes the Irish still managed to go into halftime with a 10-0 lead.  Trys by Karen Ferguson and Tracie Allan exposed the Aurora defence out wide and a staunch Irish defence kept the Aurora attack from crossing their line.  The second half was a complete reversal as the Irish dominated for the entire 40 minutes.  With the Aurora forwards beginning to tire, the Irish went to their bench and the substitutes provided the boost the team needed to put the game away.  Allan touched down for her second try of the evening in the 46^th minute and was quickly followed by Sarah Deleeuw in the 49^th minute.  With the forwards dominating possession and the set pieces, the Irish back line took advantage and stretched the Aurora defence until the gaps began to appear.  Allan scored one more try and Deleeuw added 2 more trys to round out the scoring and lead the Irish to their first ever Cup play-off victory.

An obviously pleased head coach Rodin “Koko” Lozada commented, “ Mid-week games have always scared me as it breaks the players’ routines and could lead to a sub-par performance.  Tonight was a good example of that as we needed one half to get our heads into the game.  But once we got going, we played the way we were capable of .”  Asked about  what he thought about the hat trick of trys by Allan and Deleeuw, “ Tracie was determined to redeem herself after her admitted poor play the last time out, and she showed her class as a player today.  I have been very impressed with Sarah as she has shown that she is a classy player who does not make mistakes and her time with the National U23 program has obviously paid dividends.” 

The Irish Women now move onto the Cup semi-final on August 21^st.  They will face the winner of the Yeomen/Ottawa Irish match to be played this Saturday.  The Irish 2^nd XV also gained a victory over the Peterborough Pagans 2 who have defaulted the match scheduled for this weekend.  With the default victory the Irish 2^nd XV have clinched a play-off spot and face the Toronto Scottish 2 on August 14^th in their final league match with a chance to clinch first place.