Club Rugby Saturday Six Pack: Championship Weekend
Pacific North Women’s Division II Championship : Emerald City Mudhens vs. Sacramento Amazons:
For the second year in a row, the representative for the Pacific North in the Women’s Division II national playoffs will come down to the Emerald City Mudhens and the Sacramento Amazons. Last year the Amazons advanced, cruising to a 56-20 victory. This year’s contest will have distinctly different flavor to it.
Both teams, as was the case last year, cruised through their regular season undefeated. The Amazons going 6-0 with an average margin of victory lying just over 58 points. The Mudhens went 10-0 and have enjoyed an average margin of victory around the 67-point mark. When asked about their success this year, Emerald City put it down to strategy, while Sacramento believed fundamentals were the building blocks to their immense record.
“We’ve been really dialed in on working on our fitness and on our basic skills so we can master them to the best of our ability,” noted the Amazons’ head coach Roxanne Lembke.
John Wooler, coach for the Mud Hens, noted, ““We’ve got a pretty solid strategy and we keep to that and stay mentally focused. We work hard on our strategy depending on the geography of the field, with regards to defense and offense, … at the end of the day we buy into our strategy and game plan and feel confident.”
Having met each other before on the big stage, both teams have a sense of how to play their hand entering the weekend. Both teams learned valuable lessons about each other and also playing in the moment. Lembke was straight forward in what the Amazons took away from the experience last year, “We need to go out and put our best foot forward.” Later expounding upon the answer, “You never know how a team is going to turn out. You never know how a team is going to come out the next time you play them. We’re making sure we never underestimate our opponents… We expect them to come out just as hungry as we are, looking to progress just like any other team would.”
The Mudhens have spent a lot of time analyzing their performance last year and believe they’ve drawn some key learning items from the game. Wooler said, “We played them last year, in the same situation, and they beat us. They’re definitely a large, strong team. If you look at their stats they do a lot of damage in the first 30 minutes, they come out really strong. What challenged us last year was keeping possession of the ball. A strong team like Sacramento will put points on the board if you make too many mistakes and that’s what they did.”
Despite the intricate knowledge each team has from their scouting of one another, their recipes for success are both fairly simple. Lembke mentioning if the Amazons want to advance again they’ll need to act as a team, “Communication with our team and executing everything we’ve been working on throughout the season, as a unit.”
Wooler adding for the Mudhens, “The key to this game really is, keep possession early, minimize the turnovers and penalties, and really come up in defense and challenge them. Our weakness last year was our mental game. We made too many mistakes early on and they built a good lead.”
It will be a tough game, for both sides, and one which should be much closer than the previous fixture. The game will likely be won or lost in the opening fifteen minutes of each half. If either team can seize momentum early on they’ll be hard to catch.
Pacific Rugby Premiership Championship Match: Life West Gladiators vs. Belmont Shore Rugby:
The Pacific Rugby Premiership sees its championship this weekend. Returning from last year’s final, in a familiar second seed, is Belmont Shore Rugby. They will take on the Life West Gladiators, who have been on top of the PRPs ladder since January. The Gladiators have caught some by surprise this year, after a 3-7 finish last year, they’ve undergone a transformation and this year finished at 8-2. After such a drastic turnaround they’ll like their chances to complete the a season few saw comin. However, before they are able to do that they’ll have to get by the team that has handed them their two losses on the season, Belmont Shore. The men from Long Beach, have recovered nicely from a rocky start to the season, to also compile an impressive 8-2 record. After winning the PRP last year, entering the final weekend as the two seed, and handing the Gladiators their only two losses of the season by an average of 18 points, they’ll feel confident heading into this final encounter. In order to repeat, they’ll have to find an answer for Life West’s danger man, Devereaux Ferris. The scrappy and illusive scrumhalf has been a key catalyst behind the turnaround of the Gladiators’ fortunes. His ability to create something out of nothing helps separate him from the other scrumhalves in the country. While Belmont will be trying to keep Ferris from his usual cunning tricks, Life West will need to keep the ball from going wide and entering the hands of the dangerous duo of Adam Channel and Greg Sisley. The explosive wingers have been a constant source of nightmares for opposing defenders throughout the year scoring, seemingly, at will. If these two can’t get their hands on the ball, much of Belmont’s offensive production will be halted.
Atlantic North Women’s Division II Championship: Providence Rugby vs. Worcester Shamrocks:
It’s an all New England affair this weekend, when Providence and Worcester square off for the right to represent the Atlantic North in the national playoffs. If they win on Saturday this will be the third consecutive year Providence has made it into the National playoffs; for Worcester it would be it would be new territory. These two have met twice this season, with the first game resulting in a 26-26 draw and the second match ending with a 20-7 victory for the women from Rhode Island. The Shamrocks do most of their damage through Casey Glynn and Laurin Harvey. The pair have combined for 37 tries on the season. Providence knows firsthand, just how lethal they can be, as the duo were major factors in helping the Shamrocks establish a 26-0 lead in the first game after only 29 minutes. The Shamrocks will have the edge offensively, however, the Providence defense in nigh impenetrable. They’ve only allowed 56 points this season, and when taking out their two games against Worcester out, they’ve only let in 23. In perhaps a more worrying sign for the Shamrocks, Providence has shown an ability to shut down their most explosive threats. Worcester has improved significantly in the last year, but they will be pushed to the brink by Providence this weekend. The difference in the end may come down to experience in big game situations.
Pacific North Men’s Division III Championship: Napa Valley Rugby vs. Budd Bay Buffalo:
At the beginning of the year, not many would have predicted this matchup in Pacific North Men’s Division III championship game. Budd Bay were promoted from Division IV at the start of the season and wasted no time letting the rest of their competition know they weren’t there by accident. Despite an early set of losses they’ve grown into their own in the Spring. Taking down the top of both competitions in the Pacific Northwest, the previously undefeated Boise United D3 and the Seattle Quake. They now face a team equally as surprising, Napa Valley Rugby. The men from Northern California took their competition by storm in the Spring, going 7-1 while scoring over 40 points a game. Both teams have built their success upon being able to outscore their opposition, as neither has a particularly stout defense. For a neutral that loves attacking rugby, this could be the game of the year. Watch for both teams to attack with reckless abandon and run in as many points as possible. It will be an entertaining match, with the winner hoping they’ll be able to continue surprising people, only this time on the national level.
South Men’s Division III Semifinal: Asheville Rugby vs. Pensacola Aviators:
On Saturday the teams in the South region will meet in their semifinals to determine who gets to advance to Sunday’s championship game. There are plenty of quality matches, but the Asheville, Pensacola game stands out amongst the group. Both teams finished the regular season at the top of their respective divisions and both finished undefeated. For Asheville, they went 8-0 and the Aviators were 6-0. Other than being perfect in the regular season, they’ve dominated in other ways too. Asheville has been an attacking force scoring over 50 points a game. While, Pensacola have been one of the stingiest teams defensively all season, only letting in 25 points. Asheville will be looking to their back row and centers to apply most of the damage, namely a flanker, in Kenneth Wayne and an outside center in Payton Marshall. These two have been lighting the offensive fuse throughout the year and will look to do it again this weekend. There is an odd attacking couple of sorts for the Aviators as well. They have a fullback, Jeremaia Bolabasaga and a number eight, Steven Mendez both have been wreaking havoc on defenses all year long. It will be a tight game but if Asheville can crack the seams of the Aviators defense, early, it may be too much for the men from Florida to overcome.
Mid-Atlantic Women’s Division II Semifinal: Harrisburg Rugby vs. Norfolk Storm:
Two of the strongest teams in the country will square off on Saturday, in the hopes of making it through to Mid-Atlantic’s championship Sunday. Harrisburg had managed to go through their season undefeated, until a surprising loss at the hands of Phoenixville Whitehorse. They’ll be looking to prove that was only a slight hiccup and not a trend when they take on the Norfolk Storm. The Storm have had an impressive season in their own right, going 6-2, with their only losses coming to Severn River Rugby, the leaders of their competition. Harrisburg has been led by a trio of tenacious try scorers, in Nicole Snyder, Emily McHenry and Michelle Kirk. Between these three they have accounted for 36 of Harrisburg’s tries this season. One of the main challenges teams have in covering them is they cover different areas of the field. Kirk is the number eight, Snyder is the inside and McHenry plays on the wing. Expect the Storm to come up with some interesting defensive schemes to slow the progress of these three. If the Storm cannot slow Harrisburg down they won’t be too concerned, as their fullback Donna Dzieman has an ability to churn out points like few others. In the space of this season she has contributed just shy of half the Storm’s total points. The game will be won or lost by whichever team is able to nullify the other’s attacking weapons.
