Irish Canadian Rugby Club 12 - Ottawa Irish 22
21 / 08 / 04
Cup Semi-Finals

The Irish Women 1^st XV’s season came to a disappointing end this past weekend with a 22-12 loss to the Ottawa Irish in the OWL Cup semi-final.  The young Irish team fell victim to the long travel to Ottawa and a very good team, but it does not diminish the excellent achievements they had from the inaugural season in the green jersey.  This young and very talented team will undoubtedly be one of the teams to beat next season.

Trys were scored by Jackie Scott and Karen Ferguson, while Sarah Deleeuw added a conversion for the Irish Women.  Unfortunately the Irish committed far too many mistakes and allowed the Ottawa Irish to capitalize on the mistakes and build a lead that the women in green were unable to overcome.  “We have a very young team and they panicked a little when they were put under pressure and realized their season was on the line” commented head coach Rodin “Koko” Lozada, “Unfortunately sometimes teams need to learn the pain of losing before they understand what it takes to win.”

The Irish 2^nd XV helped ease the pain of the 1^st XV’s sudden exit with a gritty 22-10 win in a TRU 2nds Division semi-final earlier in the day.  Trys by Mary Velpel, Jess Panzer, Ashley Scott and Jackie Ritchie, combined with a Cheryl Morris conversion propelled the league champions into next week’s championship final against the Toronto Scottish 2.  Despite playing shorthanded for parts of the game, the Irish development side showed all sorts of guts and determination in holding off a surging Toronto Saracen team.  “It wasn’t pretty and it was not easy with the 1^st XV in Ottawa with some of our players as subs, but we got the job done” said impressive No. 8 Sonia Sennik after the game. 

“Overall I am very happy with the way the season has unfolded.  It is very disappointing that the 1^st Xv were unable to get to the Cup Final but we accomplished way too much for that one result to ruin what we have done this season.  The 2^nd team’s play this season and their shot at a championship next weekend gives me reason to believe that there are some very special things awaiting this group of players” surmised Lozada.  “I’ll be back to make sure that we reach our potential and we all have some unfinished business to deal with next summer.”

The successful and historic first ever season for the Irish Women comes to an end next weekend on Saturday August 28^th as the 2^nd XV look to add to their league championship with a play-off title.  Game time is 12:00pm at Fletcher’s Fields.