Antigonish, NS – It's been 788 days since the defending AUS champion X-Women rugby team have played an interuniversity game, but they dusted off the cobwebs and picked up a pair of pre-season exhibition wins Saturday afternoon at STFX Stadium.
Playing with a split squad, the STFX white team defeated Saint Mary's 15-5, followed by the STFX blue team clipping Acadia 29-26 in a closely contested match.
The first game featured a youthful StFX 'white' team against the Huskies that saw the game begin with a number of handling errors - one might expect with some players not involved in a competitive hit-out for over two years - but the tackling effort was excellent. SMU played in the ascendency for much of the first half and deserved the opening try of the match scored by scrum half Catherine Fairbrother. After StFX were penalized on their own goal line, SMU took a five-metre scrum. The Huskies controlled the ball out of the scrum and Fairbrother made a fine sniping run to touch the ball down.
While the Huskies continued their good play, the X-Women eventually found their feet and began to show their ability with ball in hand. X-Women forward Kenadi Verge made a number of rampaging runs, and the one that she will remember the most was her first try in an X uniform to tie the score at five apiece. The X-Women took the lead at the stroke of half-time when Madison Arnott used her great pace and quick feet to score to give the home squad a 10-5 lead.
The second half left the scorekeeper with little to do with only one try scored. Off a line-out inside Acadia's 22-metre line, STFX began a driving maul which Saint Mary's were unable to stop and with the ball in the hands of Victoria VanNiekerk, she crossed over the line to give X a 10-point cushion.
Unfortunately for the Huskies, the fine efforts of Brianna Willis, who made some great runs and nice offloads and the dynamic lock partnership of Claire Avery and Queenelle Lubamba did not result in more points.
STFX head coach Mike Cavanagh noted that they played a lot of their younger players and despite being a bit rusty, were able to "knock the rust off and got the job done. We were down one try and came back to score the next three tries to win so I was very happy with that."
The second match of the day featured the Acadia Axewomen countering a seasoned StFX 'blue' team. From watching Acadia in the opening minutes of the half, there was little evidence of a year's worth of rust as they stormed to a 19-0 lead against a StFX squad that is used to lightning against the opposition.
The Axewomen backs found the space in the X defence and ran the right lines to avoid the usually assured X-Women tacklers. Acadia's first try by winger, Grace Pirch, was worthy of a YouTube highlight as she flew down the field and left the X defenders chasing her shadow.
The second Acadia try was another fantastic run by veteran centre Emilie Merialainen who gracefully flew down the field. The third for the Axewomen was the result of a great effort by the forwards who turned over STFX possession and led to a try by the impressive Juiliette Matsukubo. Laura Pfleiderer converted the two-point conversion.
Down by 19 points, the X-Women finally began to make their mark when veteran fly-half Hannah Ellis and fullback Dani Franada asserted themselves on the proceedings. Their good work soon led to the dynamic X prop Maddie Harroun to score STFX's first try. The X-Women made the half-time a respectable 19-10 score when winger Courtney Maines scored as the end result of a well-executed X line-out.
The second half saw STFX continue their dominance at set piece play, which set the platform for their three tries. Early in the half the Acadia scrum creaked and the X-Women won an early scrum against the head which led to some crisp passes and to the hands of the all-star centre, Sara Hoerig, who used her quick feet to make her way under the posts. Franada provided the conversion to make the score 19-17.
Shaken, but not stirred, Acadia reasserted themselves on proceedings and it was the turn of Keirsten Kane, the powerful #8, who forced her way over the line after a solid passage of play for the Axewomen. Once again, Pfleiderer provided the conversion to extend the lead to 26-17.
The X-Women's continued control by their forwards in the scrum and well-executed lineouts gave them the go-forward ball for which their backs to full advantage. STFX's third try of the game came as a result of a stolen scrum after which the X backs made a number of masterful passes to which winger Katherine Brennan provided an assured finish. Inside centre Madison MacInnis eluded a number of Acadia defenders as she provided the winning try for the X-Women to make the final score 29-26.
Following the match, Coach Cavanagh noted that it was a very good game. "We were down 19-0 after about 10 minutes and we came back. We showed that we can regroup and we played well. Once we settled in and starting tackling we did well."
Cavanagh also said looking ahead to the completion of training camp and focusing on the upcoming AUS season, "We need to work on our defense. It's been a long time since these girls had contact and played any real rugby so these games will help us out in the long run and has opened our eyes to what we need to work on so we should be ready for PEI next week."
The X-Women will open up AUS regular season play on the road in Charlottetown with a game on Sept. 11th against the Panthers.
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Courtesy Bart Sears/Krista McKenna, STFX Sports Information