Two teams, two titles /// Photos courtesy Austin Valkyries Women’s Rugby
The Texas Rugby Union (TRU) introduced a women’s DII club league this season and saw six teams from Texas and Oklahoma compete. It provided meaningful competition to teams that are still building toward the DI Red River conference’s level of play, while also giving larger clubs, like Austin, an option for its second side. It’s been a fruitful year for the Valkyries, which not only repeated as DI Red River champions but also saw its first DII team win the first TRU title.
“If you want to keep players around it’s important to give them game time,” Austin president Francine Bray spoke to the challenges of carrying numbers. “[In the past,] we scheduled friendlies against DII teams and colleges, but it was a struggle to keep players around because we couldn’t get them minutes.”
When the TRU announced the inception of a DII league, Austin upped its recruitment to ensure that it could support a full second team. The DII league with its full schedule and local travel made retaining players easier. There was a reason to come to practice, learn the structure, grow and push the first side.
“A lot of that credit goes to the TRU admins who are constantly looking to grow women’s rugby,” Bray said of the DII league’s creation. “The cities in Texas are large. We should be fielding lots of teams, at least in the eastern part of the state. Cities as large as Houston and Dallas could have three teams easily. There are always the field and coaching and financial issues, but the player base should be there.”
Austin’s DII team won the TRU championship.
When Austin took the pitch in the fall, coach Luis Sanchez wanted to get as many players eligible as possible. That meant rotating many players onto the field for game time and trying a bunch of combinations. The goal was to have as big a player pool from which to choose as the season funneled toward the post-season, and Bray commended the coaching staff for managing that process.
Austin DII went 5-0 during league, topping the southern pool, while Tulsa emerged as the top team in the north pool. The TRU championship final four occurred in Tulsa alongside the various Red River club championships. Austin DI was in Oklahoma looking for a repeat Red River title, and the two Valkyries sides supported each other on the sidelines, running water, filming, and serving as personal cheering sections.
Austin DII and Tulsa met in the TRU final, and a thriller unfolded. Tulsa took a 17-12 lead into the break, as fullback Neariah Persinger scored three tries and added a conversion. She pushed the point differential to 22-12 with a fourth try at minute 47.
Austin’s DI team won Red River.
Austin wing Kiara Harris scored four tries as well, and conversions from Caitlin Curley made it 27-24 to Tulsa with 10 minutes remaining. As the pressure intensified, Tulsa was issued a yellow card, and that one-player advantage helped prop Casey Cappelletti pierce the goal-line in the final minute for the game-winner, 29-27.
The DII season is now over, as the TRU does not feed into the national tournament, but the Red River will be changing its structure next season.
The DI team has enjoyed good continuity since last year’s national tournament and an influx of players with good college experience has joined the ranks. Veterans sit in key positions (although scrumhalf has seen some turnover) and propel a territory-driven, high-tempo game. Forwards captain Eva Wermer and backs captain Jordan Ynostrosa oversee the performance.
Bray indicated that the league competition was comparable to last year and that a friendly against Glendale was most beneficial in the run-up to playoffs.
“In most of our matches, we have to be disciplined and make sure that we execute our game plan and not try to get away with things because we can – crappy off-loads, things like that,” Bray said. “When we played Glendale and faced the pace and pressure they bring on defense, our execution had to be sharper and our timing tighter. We won that game, but it was hard to be happy because we didn’t play that well. We didn’t stick to game plan.”
The team refocused, beat Little Rock 41-10 in the Red River semifinals and HARC 77-0 in the final. Austin is looking to bring that same sense of urgency to Tucson for the DI western regional championship. Last year, the Valkyries dropped its opener to Black Ice and the team’s looking for some redemption.
“I remember all of us feeling like crap afterward. The energy wasn’t there. The game plan wasn’t executed. We dropped the ball, to use the best metaphor out there,” Bray recalled the loss to Black Ice. “This year we can’t fall flat on day one. We don’t mind losing, but we want to know we played our best.”
Bray and team are feeling pretty confident in their level of play and know they’ll represent the region well.
“We want to see how battle-tested we really are,” the lock concluded.
And that chance will come against Life West on Saturday, May 20.