Women's Rugby Football Club 2006april

By Jennifer Ho, Issue 21, 04/05/2006

Perhaps the New England weather was playing its own April Fools joke. The Amherst women's rugby team played their first game of the season at home on Saturday, during what proved to be the only foul-weather day of an unusually sunny week. The Jeffs faced Boston University, a team that tends to favor a very physical and aggressive style of play. "It was our first game and it's always tough going into contact against a team that sometimes plays dirty like BU, especially after only playing against our own teammates in practice," said Mira Serrill-Robins '06. "But we came out strong."

Indeed, the day was a success, with Amherst trampling BU 15-5. The team made a good start on the field, with at least two or three players getting to each ruck on time to clean up the ball and move the game into enemy territory. When the ball went into touch, Amherst took most of their lineouts, thanks to their two veteran jumpers, Danielle Lewis '07E and Kate Raddock '06, and even managed to steal a lineout from their opponents in each half. Junior Ellen Ferrin, who was formerly the eight-man, functioned well as the team's new prop, and the scrum won all but one of the balls throughout the game. The backs held up their end of the game as well, with flyhalf Marcie Rome '07 serving up a remarkable performance.

Senior Nandana Thomas clocked the first try, catching the ball off a pass from backs captain Tes Siarnacki '07. The team missed their kick for an additional two points, leaving the score 5-0 in Amherst's favor. Later in the first half, Rome delivered a beautiful kick that resulted in a lineout to Amherst. Junior co-captain Jen Cotton called the lineout to Tachira Tavarez '07, who took advantage of the opportunity to notch Amherst's second try.

With the Jeffs comfortably ahead in the second half, Head Coach Callum J. Hetherington began substituting less experienced players into the game. Early on, Amherst was able to exploit a fumble by a BU player tackled by Serrill-Robins. Veteran back Kathryn Fitzgerald '06 dove on the ball to score Amherst's third straight try. BU replied with a try late in the second half to leave the score 15-5, but by then Amherst's victory was sealed.

As the game progressed, BU began to fall victim to the frustration of seeing the Jeffs dominate the field. "The game got a little ugly in the end," remarked Serill-Robbins. With five minutes left on the clock, the BU scrum-half began yelling and hitting Cotton on the face when Cotton tackled her, and would not calm down and stop arguing even when the referee intervened. The belligerent BU player eventually earned a yellow card and forced the referee to end the game a few minutes early.

Despite the victory, Hetherington noted that the team still had much work to do, especially with regards to stamina. "We did lack total penetration, as, with a few exceptions, the forwards were not making the hard yards around the fringes and sucking people into the contact zone, which resulted in a cluttered mid-field with fewer and smaller gaps and opportunities to exploit the weak defense," he said. "And as the game wore on, and people began to tire, we began to lose defensive form. We became very lopsided with players being dragged towards the action or loitering around behind it. However, overall it was an excellent all-round team performance from everybody on Saturday afternoon."

Overall, the Jeffs were pleased with the results of their first outing on the field. "The game last Saturday was a good competitive game and a great way to start our season," said Cotton. "We dominated most of the game, playing most of it on BU's side. We are lucky to have a lot of returning veterans this season who really led us on Saturday and will hopefully lead us to a winning season, and we also depended a lot on girls who really stepped up as they played the first game of their rugby careers. The win on Saturday was a complete team effort." The Jeffs return to action this Saturday at 10 a.m. against their backyard rival UMass.