Ladysmith Secondary School’s girls’ rugby team played its first home game last week, losing 50-7 to visiting Brentwood College on the school’s rain-soaked pitch Tuesday, March 12.
Looking beyond the loss, LSS 49ers coach Arlene Mcguff said her team played well considering they’re in a “development year.”
“We’re doing great with the pieces we have worked on,” Mcguff added. “Putting all the pieces together is where we’re at now. They know the individual things, now we need to work on making it work together in a game.”
This was the team’s second loss in as many weeks, Mcguff said. The 49ers opened their season with a significant loss to Shawnigan Lake School in a game marred by heckling from the crowd of Shawnigan parents gathered along the sidelines.
“That really brought our girls down,” Mcguff added. “It was a sombre bus ride home. It was hard for the girls to hear that from parents.”
Brentwood co-coach Steve Cowie thought the game at LSS was played in “good spirit.”
Brentwood has fielded a team for eight years running, Cowie added, and placed second in provincial AA rugby last year.
“We’re really lucky this year,” co-coach Marius Felix added. “We have nine or 10 players that have been in the program for a long time, so they have a fair bit of know-how. Which is terrific. And they love to play.”
Brentwood’s coaches came into the game knowing they were fielding a mature team against a relatively inexperienced rival that had been heckled at its previous game.
“We knew that [LSS] had had some unfortunate experiences in their last game where people were taunting them,” Cowie said, “so we told our girls to play properly and not to rub their noses in it.”
LSS’s girls’ team will play its next game in two weeks, Mcguff said.
Also last week, the LSS boys’ team played its third pre-season exhibition game at home Monday, March 11, defeating Nanaimo District Secondary School 50-32, coach Gord McGeachy said. Regular season play kicks off the first week of April with the LSS boys’ team pitted against visiting Cedar.