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09/04/10 – Providence Women vs Philly Women

 A side:
The Providence Women’s Rugby team overcame lame-o hurricane Earl and a spirited Philadelphia Women’s side to earn a win in their first Division I game on Saturday September 4, 2010. It looked like it could be a long day when Providence found themselves pinned in their own 5 meter minutes after the opening whistle. However, after some clutch tackling, rucking, and scrumming, Provy flyhalf Myrta Ventura was able to boot the team out of trouble. With the initial nerves out, Providence threatened to score on a number of chances but couldn’t quite get over the line. The 1st half ended 0-0.
Sensing a big win, the team came out working hard in the second half. The tireless rucking of the forwards against the bigger Philly pack finally paid off with points when a blow out ruck by Providence left space for Jen to sneak through the defense for a try. About 15 minutes later the team found the try zone again through good ball retention and support. After a number of phases inside the Philly 22 meter, Providence saw the ball go through the hands of #5 Adrienne to #13 Rachel and finally to 8-woman Marielle who fought her way in for the score.
While the trys were nice, the highlight of the match was surely a 15 minute defensive stand by Providence after Philly bullied their way past the PVD 22 meter, then 10 meter, 5 meter and finally were centimeters from scoring. Philly threw everything they had at Providence for 15+ minutes but the defense wouldn’t break. Providence’s entire side 1-15 held strong together and once again the ball mercifully found Myrta who booted us out of there with an unworldly clearance kick under pressure.
Providence sealed up its first DI win with a final try from Brickle just before the whistle. Lindsey stepped into flyhalf after Myrt was tackled by her opposite and took advantage of a hole in the defense to run into the tryzone untouched. Dana was a perfect 3 for 3 for conversions on the day leaving the final score 21-0. Thank you to everyone who came out for the game! Woooaaah Dence!
Woman of the Match: Marielle Sardella

B Side:

The Providence B-side, not to be outdone, was impressive in their first match of the season as well. The ladies dominated the match winning 27-7 and saw mulitple different methods of scoring to get the win.

Hard rucking and running by the entire forward pack led to good ball distribution to the back line. Inside center Jackie enjoyed several good runs and showed some great handling skills to set up #15 Rachel and fellow center Leslie for multiple line breaks.

By half time Providence was up 17- 0. The second half showed more of the same hard work from Prov. The forwards went on some breaks of their own with speedy runs off of rucks and in support. Defensively the team was led by hard hits from #4 Hoss (who I once ran screaming away from at practice in fear) and fellow forward Susan Ely. The only blemish on the day was a quick tap penalty try by the Philly Lock (after an EXTREMELY questionable call by the ref).

Scrumhalf Myrta Ventura was good for 2 conversions after having to drop kick them when no one could locate the tee. Sorry Myrta! Last but not least, a hats off to rookie Haley Menard who played in her first ever game of rugby and showed loads of potential!

Woman of the Match: Susan Ely

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9/11/10 – Providence Women vs Brown U. Women

Providence Women and Brown University had a scrimmage Saturday 9/11 at Brown’s Marvel Field. Not many surprises in this match as the two teams regularly practice together and a few Brown players were teammates of the Providence ladies at this past years 7′s National Championships.

Brown (one of the top college programs in the nation) challenged PWRFC throughout the match. The Arctic Fox put Providence on the board after the forwards and scrumhalf formulated a “secret plan” to score during an injury minute. The lead didn’t last long as Brown put up two impressive tries. Just before the half time whistle the forwards were able to punch in a try for Prov tying up the game 12 – 12.

In the second half PWRFC worked on better ball retention and it paid off. Two unanswered tries were scored, one by Myrta and one by House. The final score of the match was 24-12. But the real encouragement was how well all of the different lineups performed for Providence. Special shout out to Bowman, who was rucking, running, tackling, scrumming and line-outing all over the field.

Thanks to everyone who came to support us, and thanks to our college buddies for a hard fought game!

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09/18/10 – Providence Women vs Village Lions

A side: Providence Women travelled to the ‘Big Apple’ on Saturday 9/18 for a showdown of the newly promoted D1 teams. Providence defeated their former NRU DII rivals 31- 10 in a match that was much tougher than the score indicates.

Prov started the scoring off right away with a try by Ploi Flynn, PWRFC’s rookie center/wing. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the referee was blowing up both sides early and often. Minutes after the ref put the Lions #9 in the sin bin, he awarded them a penalty try for a high tackle by Dana. This call was only to be evened out later when Dana was awarded a penalty try for a Lion’s defender’s high tackle.

Providence was able to work back to the other end of the field which allowed Lindsey Brickle and House to score before the halftime whistle. Score: 17-5 PVD. It looked like Providence might open it up as Ploi scored again to start the second half. However, our old friend the ref blew us up for a scrum infraction and while Prov’s 1-9 were still pigpiled on top of eachother, the crafty Lions #8 scooped up the ball and ran in for a try. Luckily that was the last time Providence would let up points. The defense held strong again to preserve a 31-10 win against a very tough division rival.

The Woman of the Match was Adrienne Farfalla. Informal statistics (aka the memory of the scrumhalf) show she was at 94.7 % of breakdowns throughout the match. But as awesome as A was, this was truly a full team win. Thanks to everyone for working so hard and to our surprisingly large number of supporters in NYC!

B side: The Providence B side also took the field on Saturday 9/18 and, like the Providence A side, also notched a win against the village lions. With low numbers on the Lions side the Providence B’s had to compete with mostly the starting 15 of the NYC team. Providence demonstrated great rucking and strong running to win the match 24 – 7.
The scoring was done mostly by a pair of PWRFC rookies from Bryant University. Rosanna Harter scored two tries and Maria Acosta scored 1 to drive the team to the win. Watching these scores from the sidelines, many Providence players discussed how much it SUCKS to have to tackle either of them at practice. Glad to know it sucks for the other team too. All scoring was done in the first half of play and the scrumhalf/flyhalf duo of Dana/Myrta combined for 2 conversions.
The forwards picked right up where the Providence A’s had left off, providing good ball and tight defense. Sarah Matteau and Annie Lally looked especially ball hungry out there and led the forwards with some great rucking. The clean platform led to the scoring as the Provy rookies were able to weave/smash through the defense of the opposing team. A welcome to PWRFC rookie Marissa who played in her first Prov match. Also, a warm welcome BACK to Lexi who returned to the team after a short but agonizing absence.
Woman of the Match: Annie Lally
Great job everyone!!! Woooaah Dence!

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09/25/10 – Providence Women vs Boston Women