BRAMPTON WOMEN WIN TRU "A" DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP        24th August 2008
 

The culmination of an amazing season took place on Saturday August 23 with the Brampton Rugby Club’s Senior Women’s Team winning the Toronto Rugby Union (TRU) ‘A’ division championship against Oshawa. Going into the game, Brampton was sporting an 11 and 1 record with the single loss at the hands of Saturday’s opponent.

 

 

A week previous to this game saw the Senior Women’s team win a promotion match to qualify for entry into the Ontario Women’s League (OWL), the premier level of rugby in the province. With all due respect to the Toronto Rugby Union and their opponents in the Championship game, promotion to the OWL was the major goal of the program for this year. Having accomplished this goal, Brampton was still only declared TRU league champs and had something to prove to Oshawa in the rubber match.

 

 

As has been the case in several matches this year, Brampton allowed the opposition to put points on the board first.  A combination of ball handling errors, penalties and the wind in Brampton's faces, resulted in Oshawa crossing the try line first. The first half was characterized by back and forth plays, as each team seemed to gain small pieces of real estate through several phases before turning the ball over. Brampton did manage a penalty kick by Paige Gregson and were trailing at the half 5-3.

 

 

After a colourful calling out of purpose from the spiritual leader on the team, Brampton seemed to come out in the second half with more intensity, and they committed fewer errors. The wind at their backs also assisted the kicking game and allowed large progress up the pitch to be won quickly. Having to retreat often, Oshawa often gave up ball possession and led to a momentum shift that allowed Brampton to put 3 tries on the board to Oshawa’s one.

 

 

The final 20 minutes of the match was all Brampton, as they were able to simply maintain ball possession in both the forwards and the backs. Oshawa put up a valiant defence at times, but without sustained possession, the outcome became more and more obvious. Second half scoring was supplied by Paige Gregson once again with a try and a convert; Sarah Jess with an unconverted try and the final tally, an unconverted try by Jules McGann. Final score 20 - 10

 

 

The winning of the TRU championship, as well as the promotion to the Ontario Women’s League, has been a long time coming for a Club that at one time was a formidable opponent in the OWL. Along with the rapidly improving Senior Women’s Team is an equally impressive under-19 age category women’s team. This version of Brampton’s Junior Women’s team amassed an impressive 5 and 1 record and returned to the play-offs for the first time in several years. A very competitive division saw only half the teams advance into the playoff rounds with all second place finishers having to travel.

 

 

So it was, that on the first Wednesday in August, Brampton made the trek up to Orillia to play the North division champions. On paper, the home team seemed to present a huge obstacle for Brampton to advance to the next round. Orillia had allowed just 5 point in 6 league games.

 

 

Nevertheless, Brampton had its share of quality players who were not the least bit intimidated by the opposition’s record. As is often the case with teams that are physically larger than their opposition, they are able to dominate games early. It was up to Brampton’s defence to withhold the larger Orillia squad until they tired. A faster and fitter Brampton team would eventually mount an attack. Unfortunately, the visitors gave up too much to Orillia in the first half and could not mount a comeback to achieve victory. Brampton did manage to double the points scored on Orillia throughout the regular season, but eventually lost by a score of 20 -10.

 

 

At this point we would like to acknowledge Brampton’s representative players who have played in all three levels of select teams.

 

Jessica Jacobs and Jessica Harvey represented The Toronto Rugby Union at the recent Ontario Summer Games on the under 17 team.

 

Jessica Jacobs and Elizabeth Monkman have played on the Ontario under-17 team on two occasions this year.

 

Miranda Smith and Jane Kirby have played on the Ontario under-19 team this summer.

 

Jane Kirby and Jenna Livingston were selected to play for the Canadian sides at the Nations Cup Tournament in July.

 

Jenna Livingston and Sonya Kuziw were invited to, and participated in, the pre-selection camp in San Diego in March of this year.

 

 

Congratulations to these up and coming players and all the members of the extremely successful Brampton Women’s Rugby Program 2008.