Grace McGurn scored three of the Irish’s 11 tries Saturday. /// Photo courtesy Notre Dame Women’s Rugby •
When Notre Dame took the field against Purdue in the teams’ Big Ten opener, the Irish looked familiar. Only two players graduated last spring, while 20-plus returners and a solid recruitment class have formed the base from which to grow this season. On Saturday, only one starter debuted for Notre Dame, and that cohesion translated into a 63-12 win.
“We’re ironing out the bugs, but we had good continuity already,” said Notre Dame coach Ricardo Ramirez, who has been with the program since its inception. “We’re working on a new structure, a new attack shape, so everybody is still learning some stuff. But overall, the baseline is there and looking really nice.”
Junior flyhalf Rachel Shey and senior scrumhalf Alexandra Buccilli did an excellent job managing the game, and are a hub of leadership in the middle of the field. The forwards find inspiration in senior prop Fiona Rutagengwa, who captains the pack. Grace McGurn and Sarah Cokingtin each had hat tricks Saturday, while Lilli Cronin (2), Scout Muzikowski, Kaitlin Ryczek and Abbi Wood also added tries. Sophie Asah kicked three conversions, while newcomer Wood added a two-pointer. Wood took the pitch a reserve, while Penn, Ind., high school standout Grace Kiraly accounted for the lone freshman start at center.
Purdue got its tries from Sarah Urycki, who is a driving force is re-establishing the fellow Indiana program.
“Purdue has been working to rebuild itself the last two-and-a-half years,” Ramirez said. “They redid their culture and got a whole new set of people involved coaching wise, and that’s made it better. They came here and played well, and they’re still building on that culture. Half of their players were new, so that was a big advantage for us.
“The Big Ten is a little unusual, on the good side, for the fact that we all know each other and are eager to help each other and develop,” the coach spoke to the connectivity of the league. “We do a lot of schedule changes and scrimmages, things like that, and talk to each other regularly. Everybody’s really open with each other.”
Some of those program relationships will strengthen, as the conference has reconfigured into east and west pools this year. Teams will play each twice – a set-up that saves on travel expenses – before contesting crossovers during conference playoffs. The league will then send at least two teams to the national DI fall playoffs.
“Last year we did well at the [fall] playoffs in Pittsburgh. We had some fatigue from the length of the season and were missing some players,” Ramirez recounted the 1-1 weekend. “For such a young team, we did well to step up to the challenge of being in that tournament.”
The goal is to return to the fall playoffs, and the Irish will use regular-season games against Indiana University – a traditional leader in the state – to gauge its progress. The ultimate test, though, will potentially have to wait until the post-season.
“We always like to play Penn State,” Ramirez said. “We’ve never won but we always have our best game against them. They bring out the best in us and we need to play teams like that.”
The Big Ten conference launches into full action this weekend.
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