April 04, 2010
Burnaby 2nds celebrate the long weekend with a win in Maple Ridge.
By Katie Larson
The Burnaby 2nd Division women’s team traveled to Maple Ridge on a blustery Saturday morning to take on a younger, eager Ridge Meadows side
Though the stormy weather from Friday night seamed to cease just in time for the game, Burnaby unleashed a whirlwind of hardnosed rugby on the Maple Ridge Secondary School field.
Burnaby started the game looking a bit panicked, not expecting the strong defense and quickness to the ball that Ridge Meadows presented. There were many dropped balls, possibly due to the Friday night queasiness hanging over many of the Burnaby players. But veteran players Sue-Lyn Wirth, Dammian Skelton and Jody Dobush soon took charge with Dobush providing many solid territory gaining drives up the field and Wirth and Skelton connecting for beautiful back line work. With fly half Devon Luca in the sin-bin, Burnaby found themselves short handed due to another yellow card for high tackling, the second in three games. Standing in at fly half, Wirth was able to break the tenacious Ridge Meadows defence to open the Burnaby scoring of the game.
From there things started to click for Burnaby. Half time allowed the team to gather itself with some sobering words of encouragement from Dobush. The second half saw some substantial positional changes in the line up as Lauren Tagg assumed a spot in the front row, Becky Querido moved up from full back to scrum half, and Sue-Lyn resumed the fly-half position before passing those reigns to Heather Weldon.
Burnaby continued to show their experience and solid skills on the pitch as the forwards continuously drove the ball up the field before swinging it out to the backs to exploit the defensive gaps. Numerous tries were scored in the second half by Dobush, Tagg, Wirth, Skelton, and Tanya Hamilton to name a few. But Ridge Meadows was able to score one try on Burnaby as a player danced and darted her way 60 meters down field through a series of missed tackles by the Burnaby defence, making the final score 39- 7.
Special mentions go out to Jody Dobush and Allice Shandler who continuously drove the ball upfield causing havoc in the opponents defence, as well to Heather Weldon who’s quick movement of the ball at both inside center and fly half allowed her backline teammates to score throughout the game.
Scorers:
Tries:
Sue-Lyn Wirth (3)
Jody Dobush
Tanya Hamilton
Lauren Tagg
Daamiann Skelton
Conversions:
Becky Querido (2)
