Barbarians open season with double header

May 14, 2013 · 0 Comments

By Jeff Doner

The Aurora Barbarians senior women’s rugby team kicked off the 2013 season in spectacular fashion, defeating the Yeomen Lions 34 – 22 at home Saturday.

“It was our first game and we won, which was a positive start to the season,” said Gill Hall, team director and player on the Barbarians. “It was kind of a scrappy game, the first game of the season, we were taking some rust off from the offseason and we get some new girls every year, so it was a little bit of a messy game. There are definitely some things to work and improve on.”

With their first win of the season under their belts, Hall said the team is looking to keep up their winning ways, dating back to last season.

“We won the OWL [Ontario Women’s League] final last year, so we were the league champions and then we went on to win the playoffs and the final there, so we’re coming off an undefeated season. Now that it’s the beginning of the season again…we wanted to come out and keep that streak alive.”
With the self-imposed pressure of trying to continue a perfect record, Hall said there are some glaring things that will need to be ironed out as the season continues.

“Our team is a relatively young team, so a lot of our girls have been away at school for most of the year.”

However, most of last season’s championship squad has returned this season, giving them an important level of leadership and experience.
With no games scheduled for the long weekend, the next game for the women will be against the Toronto Scottish at 2.30 on May 25 at the Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute.

The senior men’s team, however, did not fare as well as the women in their season opener on Saturday.

Sending two sides to Stoney Creek to kick off the Marshall Premiership season, the men came back with split results.

“The first team was strong in the first half leading the Creek, but eventually fell 41 – 17,” said Leighton Chong, senior men’s director.
Tries were scored by Jon West, Mike Neely and Nolan Ott. West converted one try.

The seconds, filled with many of our graduating under 18’s, came away with the win, outscoring the Creek 21 – 12. Tries were scored by Connor Libby, Mike Griffiths and Ciaran McSwiggan, with James Hulbert converting the three.

Despite some mixed results, Leighton was happy with the way his squad played.

“It was a great start to the season and the coaches are seeing great promise in the team,” he said, adding that the team has practices on Tuesday and Thursday to sort things out before their next game against the Ajax Wanderers on May 25.