The worst loss of the season wasn’t too bad for the premier women’s team at St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
The Calgary Hornets out-scored the host SARFC side eight tries to five in the 46-25 decision Saturday.
“Maybe the score didn’t reflect it, but the whole game we didn’t feel as if we were ever out of it,” said forward Sydney De La Mare, who racked up three tries in a losing cause. “The Hornets have been one of the top teams in Alberta for the past couple of years and for us to come and play a hard fought match like that is really impressive.
“Even though it was a loss, and we’re obviously upset, we’re going to hold our heads high because we’ve grown so much over these past couple of years to get to this point.”
SARFC, last year’s premier semifinalist, was 3-1 (257 PF/44 PA) in the north leg of the premier fixtures and the Hornets were 2-2 (112 PF/84PA) in the south.
Four teams in the north and south qualified for the eight-team interlock fixtures to determine the Aug.10 semifinalists.
It’s hard to believe the Hornets actually lost any matches while rolling up a comfortable 31-10 halftime advantage and led 46-15 with about 10 minutes to play.
“It just means that women’s rugby all over the province is just stepping up, which is awesome. That’s why we were 2-2,” said fullback Karina Stevenson of the Hornets falling short 40-32 to the Calgary Irish (4-0, 235 PF/45 PA) May 11 and 39-29 to the Red Deer Titans (2-2, 136 PF/104 PA) June 4 to open and close the south fixtures.
“They just brought it and we didn’t,” Stevenson said the loss to the Irish. “You can’t win them all. You win some and you learn from some.”
The first letdown after three wins for SARFC following the May 2 season-opening 29-22 setback to the Pirates (3-1, 257 PF/44 PA) that was decided late in the match was an eye-opener for a team that showed tremendous offensive affair against the LA Crude 74-0, Nor’Westers 105-0 and the Strathcona Druids 65-15, albeit against clubs that failed to make the interlock fixtures with identical 1-3 records.
“The biggest thing for us to work on is our defence. We really haven’t had to play a team where we’ve been on a lot of defence. In the first leg of the series, it was a seeding round so we did play a few teams that were not quite at the level of play we were at so we were playing a ton of offence,” De La Mare said. “For us, it’s just getting back into that defensive stuff and being able to come up the line and spread out and actually make the hits and that’s where our biggest weakness was today.”
Four tries, three converted, in a 17-minute span to make it 31-5 with 14 minutes left in the first half sealed the deal for the Hornets.
“They just capitalized on our mistakes,” De La Mare said. “We got away in the first leg of the series with making mistakes and being able to come back from that or save a try, but against them we make a mistake and they scored every time so we just need to be aware of that and cut down on our mistakes because a team of that caliber will definitely capitalize on that.”
The Hornets approached the match with basic objectives. “We just wanted to work on our defence, which was better than it has been, and then just staying connected because that really wins games,” Stevenson said.
The first and last tries for the Hornets were produced by Stevenson and her opening score in the second minute set the tone for victory.
“It was a team try. We worked it into their end and I think it was one of lock who took it up and then tossed it out and there was a hole and I just took it,” said the third-year Hornet from Rocky Mountain House.
Stevenson, 22, gave SARFC props for a good match.
“St. Albert brought a pretty good fight for us. They have some pretty good runners, strong runners, so it was awesome,” she said. “It’s great to play here and they host quite well.”
The bright spot for SARFC was De La Mare’s ferocious running for a pair of tries in the first half and the hat-trick score by the second-row player closed the gap to 46-20 with six minutes remaining.
All three were thunderous romps, but the best of the bunch was late in the first half as the Hornets tried in vain to reel in the galloping ball carrier.
“We were dipping and we definitely needed that to get back up. It was a really good team try, it wasn’t a me try, so that definitely helped us out a lot,” said De La Mare, who took great glee in knowing her dad Corey, a golden boy in the backs back in the day, never scored three tries in a match during his lengthy SARFC career.
De La Mare, 21, is entering her fourth year with the Lethbridge Pronghorns in Canada West rugby and is working towards playing at the senior level for Canada after previous international experiences with the U18 and U20 national teams.
“I’m just trying to work my way up the ladder,” said the high school rugby product of the Paul Kane Blues.
The premier women are in Calgary on Saturday to play the Rams (2-2) at 12 noon and the next home match is June 27 against the Clan (1-3) at 7 p.m. at SARFC.
