It wasn’t the way team manager Gary Moore wanted it to end, but the silver lining is a silver medal.
The Springbank Community High School Phoenix senior girls rugby team brought home silver from the Alberta Schools Athletic Association Tier 2 provincial girls rugby championships June 8 in Lethbridge. With Springbank and Winston Churchill of Lethbridge tied 5-5 in regulation, the game went to sudden-death drop kicks from 22 metres out to determine the winner. The Churchill kicker coaxed one through the uprights on the 38th try to give her team the 7-5 victory.
No other attempts at the uprights went through.
“A disappointing one,” Moore said of the drop-kick decider after the overtime session settled nothing. “You’re looking at determining the game on an individual skill basis, from the 22, that most girls can’t kick.
“They’re already talking about changing it for next year. That was not the way to end the game.”
The Phoenix carried the play, led 5-0 late in the match but were unable to hang on in regulation.
“We were leading, and I thought we had the game,” Moore said. “We were dominating on the field. But then, you know, things happen in sports. The game was tied and we were sort of carrying the play in overtime and just couldn’t punch it across.”
The Phoenix senior girls rugby team took silver at last year’s provincials as well.
He lost half his team at the end of last season and is losing only a third of his team this year – a team that won Division and Zone banners this season.
He’s looking to improve his team’s fortunes next year, even though he got more than he expected this season.
“The girls had a fabulous season,” he said.
“I honestly did not expect to have this success this year.”
