UBC women’s rugby took the field this past Friday afternoon to host the Calgary Dinos. Coming out with a strong start, UBC fell short to the Dinos' dominating scrum recording a loss for their season home-opener.
“At the start of the game, we told our girls to just live in the moment and not worry about what’s happening in the next couple of phases so that’s something that they showed today ... They’re super resilient athletes. They believe in themselves and they’re highly motivated so I’m not surprised they didn’t give up,” said Head Coach Maria Gallo moments after the final whistle.
UBC’s Ciara Malone was first to score crossing the try line near the 20 minute mark and Paige Smith secured the additional two point conversion.
Minutes later UBC drew a penalty and they were able to capitalize on the penalty kick making it 10-0 UBC.
The T-Bird’s points didn’t go answered for long as Dinos’ prop DaLeaka Menin scored their first try from a drive off a line-out. The teams retreated to the locker rooms at the half with a score of 12-10 for the Dinos.
The T-Birds continued to persevere in the second half. They had a close call when Dinos’ scrum half Shannon Chisholm broke through tackles narrowing in on the T-Birds try-zone, but UBC’s Malone was there to bring her down.
Early in the second half, the Dinos drew a penalty and kicked it out of bounds for a line-out. The Dinos held possession of the ball off the line-out and drove on the play. But possession was soon turned over as the T-Birds drew a penalty on their five meter line. Paige Smith was able to give the team some breathing room by kicking it down the field and out of play causing a UBC line-out. The T-Birds lost possession on the line-out and the Dinos passed the ball out to their wing as player Elysa Sandron ran it in for a try making it 17-10 Dinos.
The Dinos weren’t done yet. After multiple resets of the scrum, the Dinos gained possession and were able to get it out to player Jade Menin who broke through players for a try.
The T-Birds showed their resilience late in the second half when they held up the ball in the in their try-zone even though they failed to do so a second time making it 31-10 Dinos.
The Thunderbirds didn’t back down though. Before the whistle blew, T-Bird Malone broke through a few tackles getting the last try before the final game whistle blew. The final was 31-17 for the Dinos.