Lady Spartans lose at rugby zones

By Adelle Ellis, Times Reporter

The Strathmore High School (SHS) Spartans girls’ rugby team fought back point for point during the zone finals against Foothills Composite High School Falcons on May 30 at the Calgary Rugby Union.
Ending their season with a 26-15 defeat, the girls made sure the game was hard won for the Falcons by continuing to defend even when their loss was imminent, such as when they had two minutes of play left and they stopped all attempted goals by the Falcons.
“They played really well as a team and they just defended,” said head coach Jerry Flaws. “It wasn’t just one person trying to defend, it was everybody all the time. If they needed help on a tackle a secondary person came in to help finish the tackle; our forwards maintained the ball for us and very few times did they actually steal it from us when we had control.”
The Falcons took an early lead and scored five minutes into the game. The Spartans, who had previously lost to the team by five points a month earlier, didn’t scare and they met the challenge face to face and scored their own starting goal less than two minutes later.
Along with battling extremely smoky conditions, Flaws said the girls went into the game with a goal to shut down a national-level player with the Falcons, which they accomplished, never allowing that player to get her name on the score sheet.
Unfortunately, with two or three girls covering the one national calibre player, it left gaps elsewhere in their defence which the Falcons utilized and exploited.
“The girls truly played with passion and they never gave up throughout the whole game, it was awesome,” said Flaws.
The loss at zone finals put an end to the provincials dream for this year, but Flaws is optimistic about what next year will bring. Although 12 of the 28 current players will be lost to graduation this year, he’s looking forward to getting some new recruits graduating from the junior high level.
He said a solid base of players took the game seriously, showed up to every practice and responded well to the coaching and played very well in the end, something he hopes will continue next year.
“I don’t think we were outmatched by any means, we really matched up well and we matched their skill. Yeah, we lost, but it’s nothing to be disappointed in,” said Flaws. “They truly played the best game they could… it’s not a bad way to end the season.”