Photo courtesy Glendale Rugby •
Glendale and ORSU were coming off of opening-round wins as they lined up for their second match of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) season. After the first three tries of the match, ORSU held the lead, but then the Raptors responded with three scores for the 22-10 win.
“It was a very hard game with really hard hits you could hear from the sideline,” said Glendale coach Kitt Ruiz. “It was pretty even throughout. It really could have been anyone’s game.
“I’m pleased because we took what we needed to work on from the San Diego game, what we worked on in practice, and put it into play,” the coach added. “And that was our tackling game and building the defensive wall. Both of those things were much better this weekend.”
While Glendale looked to shore up its defense, the team also pinpointed a few known areas of concern in their opponents.
“They have a really powerful back row, and defensively, that was something we needed to counteract,” Ruiz said. “Many of us have played with and against Beckett Royce for a long time, and we know she’s someone we have to pay a lot of attention to. Rachel [Johnson], their 7, is also feisty and had some great hits and running lines. We knew we had to contain them, and we did OK. Beckett was able to get through some of our defense.”
Ruiz also noted the performance of ORSU hooker Paris Hart, scrumhalf Claire Lundy and the Oregon team’s general strength around the pitch.
“Everywhere,” Ruiz pinpointed the areas in which ORSU challenged Glendale. “I vividly recall a try line stance on their five meter. We were scrumming and they wouldn’t budge. We had been able to get nice, clean ball from our scrums all day, and the girls felt like we were doing well. But they held us there, and we weren’t able to capitalize on being that close to the try line.”
Glendale did get on the board first, and then ORSU answered with back-to-back tries, 10-5 to the home side. The Raptors then accounted for the next three scores, the final of which was converted by Colleen Cribbs.
“We brought in fresh legs at a key time in the backline, and that allowed us to play with more pace and width,” Ruiz said. “That a made a difference toward the end of the game.”
Sarah Chobot, Melissa Polheber, Andrea Prusinski and last week’s league MVP, Justine Wypych, scored Glendale’s tries. The coach singled out Raptors hooker Jeanna Beard as influential on the day as well.
“Jeanna had a breakout game. She made great tackles and fantastic running lines,” Ruiz said. “We asked her to throw in the lineouts, which added some stress for her, but she did very well around the field.”
But Ruiz emphasized that the real triumph was implementing the lessons learned from last weekend into today’s tough game against ORSU. Today’s game provided some more insight into where the defense could use tweaking, and those adjustments will be a focus for round three’s game against Berkeley. Glendale will be sending both its WPL and developmental teams to northern California next weekend. ORSU and San Diego, both 1-1, will meet in SoCal.
In other news, San Diego won big against Berkeley, while Twin Cities and New York remained undefeated in the Red Conference. The Amazons defeated D.C. 50-12, while New York held off Atlanta 24-16.
Looking for more results this weekend? Check out the running record on club, college and high school fixtures.
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