The Carleton women’s rugby team suffered a 40-0 loss to the Laval Rouge et Or in their final home game of the regular season.
The Ravens battled with Laval to a 0-0 tie after the first half with the team playing some of their best rugby of the season. Unfortunately they could not stop Laval’s dynamic offence during the second half, as they ran away with the score.
The drastic change in pace of the game was confusing for the Ravens, explained scrum half Roberta Drummond.
“I thought the energy in the team room after the first half was great, so I’m not really sure what happened when we got back on the field during the second.” – Roberta Drummond, fourth-year women’s rugby
“I think we took too many penalties, we lost our footing, and Laval’s the type of team once they gain momentum, they keep rolling. We didn’t really adjust the way we should have against them, and we ended up letting a lot of tries in.”
Head coach Patrick Thompson agreed that it was a “game of two halves.”
“We’re still looking at consistency,” Thompson began. “It was a 0-0 game at half against a tough, well coached Laval team and we’re happy with that. It’s a matter of how we now replicate that.”
It was a shaky start for the Rouge et Or during the first half, as their offence could not get anything going due to the pressure applied by the Ravens defence.
There was also a series of exciting plays that occurred near the Ravens try line during the beginning of the second half. With the Rouge et Or up 7-0 and close to scoring another try, their offence was again contained for a good few minutes by the Ravens defence.
Laval’s Justine Pelletier agreed that her team had trouble against the Ravens during the first half.
“Our main problem was on the rocks, we had trouble staying stable, so once we got that figured out, we could play our original game plan,” she said.
“After the first half, we put the energy we needed to go forward. The score after the second half was definitely more representative of what we can do.”
Despite the score, the crowd was loud and supportive including Anastasia Bourka, who was cheering on the sidelines after suffering a major injury the game prior.
The support the team has is a notable positive for Thompson as he tries to get his team to do better.
“We’re a team that works a lot on our own energy,” Coach Thompson explained. “We got a good support from our fans and we’re thankful for that, it’s just a matter of now doing our job.”
Drummond agreed with her coach’s thoughts on the squad.
“It’s really awesome, it’s an unbelievable feeling playing at home. You run out of the ice house and everyone is cheering for you and everyone here is on your side.” – Roberta Drummond
Carleton will be on the road against Sherbrooke this Sunday, still looking for their regular season win of the season which could be a daunting task with their remaining games to be played away from home.
“We’re a young team, the first half was the best half of rugby we’ve played all season,” Coach Thompson said. “So we’ll learn from that for next week.”
The Ravens return to action on Sept. 28 at 3 p.m. when they take on the Sherbrooke Vert et Or.
Feature image by Tim Austen.
