Irish Canadian Rugby Club 12 - Toronto Nomads 7
23 / 04 / 05
Friendly

The Irish Women met the Toronto Nomads this past weekend as they continued with their pre-season schedule in preparation for the league opener in three weeks time.  The match was marred by the miserable weather that plagued the city over the weekend as both teams had to fight through driving rain, a muddy field, a howling wind and bitter cold.  The women in green managed a tough fought 12 – 7 victory as they overcame the elements and a vastly improved Toronto Nomads squad.

The match kicked off with the rain pouring down and the field conditions deteriorating by the minute.  Despite the horrible conditions, the Irish chose to pay an ambitious, if somewhat inappropriate, running and passing game.  The results were predictable as many dropped balls, missed passes and unforced errors plagued the first half.  Combined with two trys called back by the referee, all the Irish could put on the board was a try by Jackie Scott with only a few minutes left in the half.  “I was disappointed at our choice of tactics in the first half.  The players needed to play a safer, simpler game, but for whatever reason decided that they would try and play the game like the weather was in the middle of July and the pitch was bone dry” concluded Head Coach Rodin “Koko” Lozada when asked to comment on the first half performance.

The early part of the second half was played to a standstill as the strong wind prevented the Irish from gaining field position and resolute Nomad defence was not giving an inch.  The Nomads then struck with the go-ahead try as Canada U19 member Kelly Russell broke on the blind side of a wheeled scrum and 3 missed tackles later touched down under the posts and the following convert put them up 7 – 5 with 20 minutes to go.  The Nomads score seemed to wake up the Irish who resorted to the forward pounding game in the last 20 minutes of the match.  The pressure eventually paid off as the forwards retained the ball through several phases before fullback Lindsey Bernrot found a gap in the mid-field and finished off the movement with a brilliant chip and chase for the winning try.  Jane Segal converted to make the final score 12 – 7.

“We have lots of work to do before the season starts in three weeks.  That sort of performance will not cut it once the games start to mean something.” Lozada said.  The Irish continue their pre-season with a match with another newly promoted team, the Peterborough Pagans at Newtonbrook Secondary School next Saturday April 30.  Kick-off is at 11:00am.

The Irish Canadian Rugby Club would also like to wish the best of luck to Sarah DeLeeuw, Meagan Gibbs, Kristin Konieczny, Kirsten Sample, Jen Kryszak and Kendra Kryszak as they will be taking part in the National Senior Women’s Team training camp in London, ON April 29^th – May 1^st.  Good luck and we are sure you will do us proud.