Game 1 Pool B CIS women’s rugby championship: Laval, Renaud dominate early in win over McMaster

Photo credit Matt Stetson

PETERBOROUGH, Ont. (CIS) – The Laval Rouge et Or jumped to a 19-0 lead and held on for a 24-10 win over the McMaster Marauders Thursday afternoon in the second match of the CIS women’s rugby championship, at Trent University’s Justin Chiu Stadium.

With the victory, the RSEQ champions take the early lead in pool B and will enjoy a break until Saturday at 1:30 p.m., when they face the OUA champion Guelph Gryphons in their second and final preliminary round match-up.

McMaster, the OUA finalist this season, will try to rebound against Guelph Friday at 1:30 p.m.

Making their first appearance at the CIS tournament since 2008, the Rouge et Or took a 9-0 lead into the halftime break thanks to a trio of penalty goals by Claudiane Renaud, a fourth-year fullback from Trois-Rivières, Que.

The Marauders had two chances to open the scoring midway through the first period. However, they were whistled for a knock-on inside the five-metre line and, a few minutes later, CIS rookie of the year Cindy Nelles of Belleville, Ont., narrowly missed a penalty kick.

Back from the intermission, Laval added 10 points in the first six minutes of play to build a 19-point cushion.

Charlotte Vallières-Villeneuve, a fifth-year fly-half from Quebec City, took a pass near the 22-metre mark and blew past the McMaster defence to score the game’s first try, which Renaud calmly converted. Renaud followed moments later with her fourth penalty goal of the afternoon.

The Marauders didn’t give up and scored a pair of quick tries midway through the half to cut the deficit to 19-10.

All-Canadian number 8 Natasha Turner of Rockcliffe, Ont., found the end zone at the 46th-minute mark while a Laval player was serving a penalty, and Nelles found pay dirt from 20 metres out in the 54th minute.

It was as close as McMaster would get however.

Karen Paquin, an all-Canadian centre from Quebec City, sealed the victory for Laval with seven minutes left in regulation as she was able to get around the corner of the Marauders’ defence and over the try line.

“We took a while to get the machine running today,” said Laval head coach Bill McNeill. “Our team was able to take advantage of the opportunities we had late in the first half and early in the second and that proved the difference.”

Cam Mitchell, in his first season at the helm with McMaster, was proud of his team’s performance despite the disappointing result.

“I’m proud of our players for battling for the full 70 minutes. We did well to put points up and had some things that didn’t break our way, but there’s still lots of rugby left to be played.”

Player of the game honours went to Laval’s Dominique Laliberté-Martineau of Quebec City and Turner for McMaster.

SCORING SUMMARY

LAV 9-15: 24
MAC 0-10: 10

First half
LAV - Claudiane Renaud penalty goal 21st minute
LAV - Claudiane Renaud penalty goal 28th
LAV - Claudiane Renaud penalty goal 35th

Second half
LAV - Charlotte Vallières-Villeneuve try (Claudiane Renaud convert) 38th
LAV - Claudiane Renaud penalty goal 41st
MAC - Natasha Turner try 46th
MAC - Cindy Nelles try 54th
LAV - Karin Paquin try 63rd

Players of the game
LAV: Dominique Laliberté-Martineau
MAC: Natasha Turner

Legend:
Try: 5 points
Penalty goal: 3 points
Convert: 2 points

POOL STANDINGS, SCHEDULE & RESULTS

Pool A

GP W L T PF PA PTS
1. StFX 1 1 0 0 76 3 5
2. Lethbridge 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3. Trent 1 0 1 0 3 76 0

Pool B

GP W L T PF PA PTS
1. Laval 1 1 0 0 24 10 4
2. Guelph 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3. McMaster 1 0 1 0 10 24 0

NOTE 1: A win is worth 4 points and a tie 2 points.
NOTE 2: 1 bonus point is awarded for scoring 4 tries or more in a game.
NOTE 3: 1 bonus point is awarded for a loss by 7 points or less.

Thursday, Nov. 3
10:30 Round-Robin Pool A: StFX 76 Trent 3
13:30 Round-Robin Pool B: Laval 24 McMaster 10

Friday, Nov. 4
10:30 Round-Robin Pool A: Trent vs. Lethbridge (SSN Canada webcast)
13:30 Round-Robin Pool B: McMaster vs. Guelph (SSN Canada webcast)

Saturday, Nov. 5
10:30 Round-Robin Pool A: StFX vs. Lethbridge (SSN Canada webcast)
13:30 Round-Robin Pool B: Laval vs. Guelph (SSN Canada webcast)

Sunday, Nov. 6
10:00 5th place: Third place Pool A vs. third place Pool B (SSN Canada webcast)
12:00 Bronze medal: Second place Pool A vs. second place Pool B (SSN Canada webcast)
14:00 Championship final: First place Pool A vs. first place Pool B (SSN Canada webcast)

-CIS-