It was a tale of two halfs for the Western Mustangs women’s rugby team Sunday afternoon when they played host to the defending CIS Champion Guelph Gryphons as part of Western’s Homecoming Weekend. Despite strong play in the first half, the Gryphons capitalized on Western’s errors in the second to come away with a 41-0 victory.
“Our first half plus the first five minutes of the second half were fantastic. We kept them to a really close game, and we were really happy we did a lot of great stuff,” said Mustangs head coach Natascha Wesch. “Then mentally we broke down for a 25-minute span, and a team like they are, national champions, they’re going to capitalize on that. We have to work on keeping that mental edge, but focus on the positives heading into our last game against Waterloo and try to capture second place to get into a good playoff position.”
The Mustangs started out strong limiting the Gryphons to only 14 points in the early portion of the game. During the later stages of the first half Western played effective defence, employing a bend but don’t break style that kept the Gryphons from adding to their lead, making it 14-0 at half time.
After half time the game played out similar to the first half, however things soon turned in the Gryphons favour, beginning with a try near the right sideline. Guelph quickly regained possession and added another try and convert, before Caitlin Beaton scored another try for the Gryphons after a long run through the Western defence.
The Mustangs tried to get things back on track, but every time the team would be about to break through the Guelph defence a pass would go slightly off target or be deflected preventing Western from generating any sustained attack. Guelph would capitalize on these errors to eventually build a 41-point lead.
Although the game was out of reach the Mustangs refused to give up, turning things around and returning to the strong defensive play they displayed in the first half. The team made a late push on offence when strong runs from Arielle Dubisette-Borrice and Kaitlin Maddigan put the ball deep in Guelph territory. The final whistle would sound before the Mustangs could score, making it 41-0 for the Gryphons.
Western now heads into its final game of the regular season, with eyes on finishing strong going into the playoffs.
“We’re going to focus on the positives, on the things we did well, because we did a lot of things well and it’s just tidying up a few of the little pieces where the ball got away from us, or losing the ball on contact.,” said Wesch. “Not capitalizing on certain situations and increasing the speed of the game.”
The Mustangs host Waterloo this Friday at 2:00 p.m. in their final game of the regular season.
