The Battle of the Bay renewed itself, as Life West and Berkeley faced each other in Week 7 of the Women’s Premier League (WPL). They last met on Aug. 31 and the Gladiatrix pulled away in the final 10 minutes for a 36-20 victory. On Saturday, the scoreline tightened. [lead photo: Jackie Finlan]
Life West was coming off a two-point loss to Glendale prior, a defeat that occurred at home.
“Last week obviously it wasn’t ideal but it was something that we asked for when we came into this league. We wanted competition and Glendale gave that to us,” Life West flanker Elizabeth Cairns said. “It was a definitely a huge learning, a huge growing moment for us. We had to really look at ourselves and be critical, but also celebrate the good things so we don’t tear ourselves down too much. So I think it was really about taking something away from it that we could build on, because we knew that wasn’t the last time we were going to be challenged.”
Berkeley fulfilled that prophecy. Minutes after kickoff, the All Blues regrouped from a midfield scrum. The ball moved to inside center Evan Hoese, who dummied between the centers and linked with Bulou Mataitoga, who played fullback this match, for the corner try. Flyhalf Sam Miller kicked the extras for a 7-0 lead.
Hoese and Shelby Lin drove a good kicking game that relieved pressure and Berkeley’s scrum looked the stronger in the first half. Life West struggled with handling, but when everyone synced up, it was pretty, end-to-end rugby that had a real dismantling effect.
Life West got into some penalty trouble in the second quarter, committing three consecutive offenses before earning a yellow card from head ref Lee Bryant. Defending in its own end, the Gladiatrix produced a turnover and got the ball to fullback Leti Hingano, who broke a host of tackles for the long-range try. A collar tackle in the end zone produced a Berkeley yellow card, but it wasn’t deemed a penalty try, and Hingano, recovering from the long sprint, missed the off-center conversion, 7-5.
As the half neared, Life West enjoyed some sideline-to-sideline continuity, and made good ground up the wing through Neariah (Nene) Persinger. Hope Rogers, who was all over the place all day, took the final pass from Catie Benson out of contact for the try. Hingano’s conversion hit the post, 10-7 to Life West.
Ros Okpara returned from the bin and injected a ton of go-forward with ball in hand. Berkeley raced toward the halftime whistle, working its phases and scrambling well when the Life West defense disrupted play. Once the ball moved to the try line, the forwards went to work and Allie Byrne found a seam for the dive-over. Miller hit the conversion for a 14-10 lead into the break.
“Mostly just cleaning up the really small details … and focusing on the work you had in front of you at the moment and letting your teammates handle the work they had in front of them,” Cairns said of the halftime discussion. “Penalties are definitely one of our weaknesses right now so cleaning up our defense as well and just making sure that we’re staying disciplined.”
Continued discipline issues, knock-ons and a stout Berkeley defense that was good about getting in the passing lanes neutralized Life West’s offense in the third quarter. And both sides struggled in the scrum the second half, but Life West was able to steal a couple of Berkeley put-ins at crucial moments.
“We’re getting a lot of feedback from the refs on how they want us to scrum and we’re trying to adhere to that. … We’re changing up the way we scrum a little bit [from how] we have in the past years, so part of that is buying into that new type of scrummaging we’re doing,” Cairns said. “We’re just trying to stay low and lean into the other team, and right now there’s a really big struggle in the front row with who is pushing first, who’s leaning first, who’s not holding their weight. I think it went back and forth. I think it’s been like that the last couple games. … [W]e’re trying to adhere to the refs but also stick to our strategies as well.”
A Life West scrum near Berkeley’s 22 set up a good attacking platform. Flyhalf Sara Parsons cut back across Miller to pierce the line and then looked for Hali Deters following. The center reserve motored the rest of the way for the try, 15-14.
The final 15 minutes saw handling degrade but the energy did not abate. Berkeley had an opportunity to go ahead but Life West stole its five-meter scrum and then returned play to the 50 meter. The All Blues then turned over the ball and moved it to Okpara, who barreled down the sideline to the five meter. A penalty followed to end that drive.
Life West held on for the one-point win while Berkeley banked another bonus point in the close loss.
“Sara Parsons is really coming into her own at 10. I’d say she’s one of the best defensive 10s in the league and, speaking as a 7, that’s awesome to have,” Cairns called out standouts on the day. “And she wants to play. She wants to play on the front foot and we want to play fast rugby so I can appreciate that. Shout out as well to Nene on the wing. She’s doing her job out there, exactly what we need her to do when we need her to do it. But our biggest thing is sharing the work load. We don’t want there to be one shiner – ever – we want everyone to step up at their time so we don’t have to rely on one person.”
Life West is now 5-1 in the WPL West and hosts San Diego (2-3) next weekend. Then the Gladiatrix have a three-week break before facing ORSU in Oregon on Oct. 26. Berkeley (3-3) is not out of contention for a Cup semifinal berth but needs to win the next two road games against Glendale and San Diego.
In other WPL news, San Diego beat ORSU 58-0, and in the East, Atlanta defeated New York 51-10 on the road, and Beantown traveled to Twin Cities for a 22-20 win.