Team building and having fun are two of the core categories for Banff’s women’s rugby club, and even though they lost 45-10 to the Calgary Saints during Friday’s (Aug. 1) match at the Banff Rec Grounds, they met their core values in spades.
“It was good, the girls did well with some interesting play using skill,” referee Nick McAuley said. “I think there’s a lot of development to come but it was good ... we’ve got five high school girls playing for Calgary and Banff has a lot of new girls coming in that have never played rugby before.
“It’s definitely a growing sport and Banff have definitely upped their numbers from the last time we played them. They only had nine players the last time we played them, so it was good to see them at 12 or13.”
Banff team captain Stephanie Fox says she more than happy with the improvement she’s seen from her players over the season. “We always come out with an extremely positive attitude throughout the game no matter what the score is. It’s a pleasure to play with them and I’m proud of them,” Fox said.
“We had two new players that just joined the team this week and they both came out and played super hard, put in their best effort and learned a lot I think.”
Fox was so impressed with the heart and attitude of newcomers Alex Davidson and Lynie Herbert, she declared the duo as the game MVPs.
“Lynie was the heavy hitter of the match for her excellent tackles and chasing down players during breakaways and Alex got MVP for playing wing and getting some awesome breakaways. They both took the initiative to learn the game and join the team,” Fox said.
“This was one of the first games we played as a team with the new players we had. The newest that hadn’t played before, so there was a lot of learning on the communication with one another, but you could see huge improvements with our defence.”
“I just watched and learned and anything I did wrong I just tried not to do it again,” Herbert said after her first match. “I’m definitely coming back, it looks scary, but it’s more fun than it is scary so people should come and have a go,” Herbert said.
