Wednesday's Ruck & Maul

(Photo, Dave Crossley)

CONNECTED!

CWRFC feels beyond proud to relate to the Canadian ladies in the photo.

L to R. Karen Paquin, Olivia de Merchant, Gabby Senft, Caroline Crossley, Olivia Apps, Sophie de Goede, and Julia Schell. All these ladies have either played part of, a complete or more, or mini and age grade season/s rugby as a Tricolor. (ladies in blue, starters vs NZ, ladies in mauve, finishers).

In the case of Sophie, we have been privileged to have followed the progress of this young lady since day #1 – circa, age six.  Soph played with and outplayed most of the boys during her days of mini rugby, and along with Caroline, formed the initiative for a girls’ age grade program at our club. We watched Soph cycle down to Windsor Park with a bag of rugby balls across her shoulder and practice goal-kicking for hours on end. Sophie currently leads all scorers at RWC.

We remain in awe of the achievements of Karen Paquin, a lady who we had the joy of watching play the game at CW, on and off for three seasons.  Karen, at age 37 defies the concept of age. She has played the complete eighty in nearly all of her starts at this RWC, leading the charge with aggressive work at the breakdown and alertly linking for or creating a try of her own.  Karen’s husband was the assistant coach with our debuting women’s program in 2015, a season when they won the BCRU Premier Championship. Julian Carnet worked with Jess Dovanne as the coaching team and in two ensuing seasons, Julian took the lead. Many recent CW family members would be unaware of this connection with our club.

Caroline started playing minis “late” in her young years, after playing rugby at school.  She went on to play with Sophie as an unstoppable 1 - 2 punch during her age grade and high school years.  These ladies have been forerunners of what has become a very active girls’ youth program on Vancouver Island.

Julia has been the most recent of our senior women club players with a meteoric rise to the highest level, a product of personal goal-setting and hard work.

The cheers from Victoria on Friday should be heard at Bristol!  Bookies have the Kiwis as minor favorites at odds on 5/6, although with Canada at 16/13, one could almost prognosticate that it is even Stevens. Personally, I really like the fact that these teams are meeting at a neutral venue, check, favor Canada.  Canada defeated the Kiwis in 2024 in Christchurch to win the Pacific Four, 22 – 19.  This season, they almost did it again, ending up with 24 – 24 tie in NZ.  Late breaking has the Kiwis ruling out star, Jorga Miller, to boot. Check, Canada. So, along with Shania Twain and the Tragically Hip, I must put my money on the Canadian ladies. England remains 1 – 5 favorites to win the bikkies, with NZ @ 5 – 1 and Canada @ 7 – 1. I think being the ‘dogs will sit just fine with our ladies. The Hosts play France in the other Semi. On the local front, Premier men are at Meralomas and Premier women are at Comox this weekend.