The Springfield Women’s Rugby team traveled down to New York City to compete in the New York Seven Tournament, established in 1959, on Saturday November 27th for the second year in a row. It was an unseasonably warm weekend, which made for some good rugby. The Springfield Women went into to the tournament, unsure of what the outcome would be, seeing as they would compete against mostly Canadian teams, and there were a total of 24 teams in their division. Their first game was played early in the morning versus the Ottawa Banished. Still in 15s mode, the Springfield Women quickly went down two scores, but seeing as the Banished did not make their conversion kicks, Springfield new they were still in the game. During the second half both teams picked up the intensity. With the seconds ticking down, the Springfield Women were unable to capitalize on a strong attack, leaving the final score at a close loss 14 – 20.
Going into the second game of pool play, the coach staff took a look at the Springfield Women’s line up and made some small changes, in hopes to improve the game play. These subtle changes turned the game around for the squad, and the Springfield Women topped another Canadian team, the MFF Where’s Waldo, 31 – 12.
With one win and one loss, the Springfield Women were placed in the Plate bracket after pool play, where they entered the playoffs with enthusiasm. Their first playoff match would be against the MI Dumb Blonds. MI Dumb Blonds came off of some close pool play matches, so Springfield was looking for a good game. However, it wasn’t even close, and Springfield came out on top with a score of 34 – 5. Their semi-final game was verses a stronger team named Sherbrooke Social Women. With some questionable calls on the field, the game was close, but Springfield was able to pull ahead, and finalized the game with a 19 – 0 score.
The Springfield Women were set to play the TMR Women’s Social team in the plate finals. Watching one of TMR’s previous games, Springfield knew some of what to expect, but this didn’t make their preparations any easier. They knew TMR had some good key players, and they knew they had to stop them in order to win. Stepping onto the field with some nerves floating around, TMR went up by a score quickly. This snapped Springfield out of their nerves, and the remainder of the first half became a very defensive game. The first half ended with a 7 – 7 tie. After a quick pep talk by the coach and captain, Springfield stepped out onto the field with a little more intensity. Jenna Weinstein started off the barrage of scoring with a try off of the kick off. After this, everyone wanted to get in on the action, and strong offensive roles were played by Taj Brown, Julie Czuprynski, and Jess Shlager. The final whistle blew and cheers rang out. The Springfield Women tasted a sweet victory, the final score was 26 – 7, and they took home the plate.
The amazing weekend was capped off by a fun filled social event at Connolly’s in Manhattan, where the Springfield Women were able to interact with teams from all over the world. A special thanks to Jess Shlager’s parents, who hosted the team again this year. The Springfield Women look forward to training during the off season, and to capitalize on their success with an even more successful spring season. If you would like to join the awesomeness of Springfield Women’s Rugby, please contact the Springfield Rifles Rugby Club.
The World Cup is coming fast and for the first time an US television network has purchased broadcast rights, not just on paper view. This is a huge step for the growth of Rugby in the US, and we should support it. On top of that our pub, JT’s has the channel.
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