The Laval Rouge et Or were able to capitalize on their opportunities in defeating the McMaster Marauders 24-10 in the opening game for both teams at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Women’s Rugby Championship at Trent University Thursday.
McMaster had a chance to open the scoring midway through the first half. The Marauders were driving but were whistled for a knock-on inside the five metre line. Moments later, the OUA runners-up had another opportunity when they were awarded a penalty goal, but Cindy Nelles (Belleville, Ont.) narrowly missed the kick.
Four minutes later, Claudiane Renaud (Trois-Rivieres, Que.) got Laval on the board first with a penalty kick. Laval used the remainder of the first half to pressure the McMaster defence and tacked on two additional penalty goals from Renaud to head into the half leading 9-0.
Less than three minutes into the second half the Rouge et Or extended their lead when Charlotte Vallieres-Villeneuve (Quebec City, Que.) took a pass near the 22-metre mark and blew past the Marauder defence for the game’s first try.
“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 helped us to today’s outcome.”
Renaud would add her fourth penalty goal of the contest before Natasha Turner (Rockcliffe, Ont.) would breathe life into the Marauders. With a Laval player serving time in the sin bin, Turner wasted no time in streaking through the defense for a try.
With time winding down, Nelles also found the score sheet for McMaster. The recently named 2011 CIS Rookie of the Year made a 20 metre run for a try and make the score 17-10 with roughly 13 minutes left.
As the Marauders tried to control the ball and score an equalizing try, their hopes were dashed when CIS All-Canadian Karen Paquin (Quebec City, Que.) was able to get around the corner of the McMaster defenders an over the try line to make the score 24-10.
The Marauders team battled through the remaining eight minutes of the contest, but their efforts were denied by the Rouge et Or.
“I’m proud of our players for battling for the full 70 minutes,” said McMaster head coach Cam Mitchell. “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 Laliberte-Martineau (Quebec City, Que.) and McMaster’s Natasha Turner.
The Marauders (0-1) now find themselves in need of a win when they take part in an OUA Championship rematch against the Guelph Gryphons (0-0) in their second and last Pool B game, Friday at 1:30 pm EST. Laval will be rewarded with an off-day Friday as they get set to battle Guelph at 1:30 pm EST on Saturday.
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 Vallieres-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 (Claudiane Renaud convert) 63rd
Players of the game
LAV: Dominique Laliberte-Martineau
MAC: Natasha Turner
Legend:
Try: 5 points
Penalty goal: 3 points
Convert: 2 points
Official championship website:
http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wrugby/index
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)
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Fifty-two universities, 10,000
student-athletes and 550 coaches vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca.
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