Ladies try for a successful comeback

A ladies rugby squad is hoping for a mayor comeback and in doing so help promote interest in the sport among teenage girls.

The Beaconsfield Rugby Football Club has been around for close to 30 years but its women’s team disbanded in 2005 after its core of players decided, for personal and family reasons, to move on. But earlier this year, someone pitched the idea of bringing the women’s side back. For the past several weeks, practise sessions have been held Sunday afternoons for newcomers to learn rules and strategy. These scrimmages, geared to women of all ages, start up again Jan. 17 and will run until the actual pre-season begins, said club member Jane Webb. “We are starting from the beginning, some who have expressed interest haven’t played before,” said Webb, 40. “We need about 20 to 25 players for a team even though there are 15 on the field.”

Webb’s own roots in rugby go back to the mid-1980s when she played for Beaconsfield High School and then John Abbott College before joining the Beaconsfield club. Her passion for playing was rekindled after watching her teenage son play this past year. “I was reminded of what I was missing,” she said, adding she had stopped playing after getting married and having kids. “There are not a lot of team sports for women, at least not contact ones. The (women’s) rugby is full contact just like the men play.”

The club is recruiting females for three new teams; women’s senior, u-18 and u-16. “That’s the future of rugby, those age groups,” Webb said of the junior squads. “The biggest part of this is to get that going.”

For now, the new junior teams for girls will probably play exhibition games next year as there is no local league to join, Webb said.

With rugby added to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the timing is excellent for promoting the sport with West Islanders, Webb said.

Coaching the lady senior’s team is men’s rugby player and Hudson resident Tommo Thomas, who hails from New Zealand. “I’m dealing with the basics,” he said of his coaching duties. “I’m thinking back to when I was five or six years old, why I did certain things on the field. I will explain things and walk through a move in slow motion.”

He said the players taking part in the training camp, held at the Beaconsfield Recreation Centre, have been improving day by day. “It’s amazing how quickly they process the information,” he said. “We will keep training and brush up on more skills and rules so they won’t feel out of place.”

Thomas, mentioning rugby is to New Zealand what hockey is in Canada, said he has to adjust his approach to the style of play here in Quebec.

For more information on the club, check www.brfc.ca, or for more on the women’s team, e–mail janewebb@gmail.com. <@Cp>Chronicle, Jonathan Dempsey<@$p>

Jane Webb 514-626-9920

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