Despite a good second half in which the Olds High School Spartans senior girls' rugby team outscored the Rimbey Junior-Senior High School Spartans 17-10, the Olds group could not overcome a 33-0 first-half deficit during rugby action Wednesday. The southern Spartans lost the contest 43-17.
The match was the OHS Spartans' first contest of the 2011 Central Alberta High School Rugby League season.
“We seemed really tentative to start the game. I don't know if it was just nerves or lack of confidence but … Rimbey really took it to us in the first half. And then in the second half we seemed to settle down and get back into our groove and start to play our style of rugby and we found a lot of success,” said George Grant, Spartans' coach.
Grant said both Katie Turner and Karli Coombes had excellent second halves in helping the Spartans gain some confidence heading into the team's second match against Notre Dame High School from Red Deer on Friday.
Coombes, a Grade 12 student, acquitted herself well as a first-year player, said Grant.
“For her first time ever playing the game, she played really hard and really actually motivated a lot of the other girls to run harder and hit and it was great to see,” he said.
While Grant said there are still many areas of the game that need improvement, he was encouraged to see the effort the girls put in during the second half.
“Hopefully we can build upon this and get better results in the future,” he said.
The team has five more league games remaining in the schedule before trying for the south central zone berth at the provincial championships to be taking place during the second weekend in June.
