Four years of hard work and dedication paid off for the senior members of Brentwood College School’s girls rugby team last Friday as they defeated Shawnigan Lake School 38-5 in the Island AA championship game at Brentwood, likely locking themselves in as the top seed at the provincial championships.
"I think we’re pretty blessed with some seasoned and talented players," coach Marius Felix said, noting that many of those players have been with the Brentwood program for four years and are homegrown B.C. products. "The bottom line is that I think these kids love to play rugby. They work hard, and that makes it pretty easy for us as coaches to get results."
Both teams were missing players when they met at Shawnigan a week earlier, including Brentwood’s entire front row and kicker. Having those players back, Brentwood was firing on all cylinders last Friday. The game plan revolved around shutting down Shawnigan’s top players, something Brentwood was successful at.
"We had to try to find a way to cancel out their best players, and they have some very, very good players," Felix said. "Our defensive strategy was a team effort: not to allow them any time and space, and it worked."
On offence, the Brentwood players capitalized on the opportunities they were given.
"We have some quick players in our backfield," Felix said. "When they get time and space, quick players are deadly, and ours were very good on Friday."
One of those quick players, Denise Roy, scored three tries. Mckenna Haz added a try and four conversions, and Hannah Colbourne and Brooklyn Navarette scored single tries. Another player who didn’t get on the scoresheet, may have had the best outing for Brentwood, however.
"On balance, probably our best player was Ciel Arbour-Boehme," Felix said. "She is very, very good, and she does a lot of things for us. She responded really well to the coaches, and it was a pretty good result for her."
Felix believes Brentwood has set itself up well for a successful run at the provincial tournament in North Vancouver on May 21-23, but he knows it won’t be easy.
"The playoffs are a completely different story," he said. "We’ve got to stand and deliver when we take the field. There are eight really good teams in the competition, and Shawnigan is one of them."
The Shawnigan coaches had hoped to turn the tables on Brentwood after the teams’ previous meeting, won 29-10 by Brentwood. With the Island final now in their rearview mirror, Shawnigan is refocusing on provincials.
"The result was not what we were hoping for at the Island finals," coach Tanja Ness said. "But we are very proud of our girls’ effort and heart. The girls played hard until the final whistle and ended up scoring in the final minutes of the game. As coaches we feel that this shows the character of our team. Brentwood is a strong team. We hope that we will be able to meet them again at provincials."
Cowichan Secondary school lost to Vanier in the AAA girls Island final, but will also be looking to get back at them at provincials.
"Our team has had a lot of injures this season," coach Daryl Griffith said. "Hopefully we will have everyone back for the B.C.’s. Vanier are the defending B.C. champions and will be hard to beat, but anything can happen in tournament play."
