The UBC Thunderbirds put on quite the show for their home fans with a 60-5 win over the University of Alberta Pandas on a sunny evening at the Gerald McGavin UBC Rugby Centre. In their first conference match on home field in nearly two years, the Canada West preseason favourites improved to 2-0 on the season while the Pandas fell to 0-2.


 
"It's amazing to think we're actually back and doing this," said UBC head coach Dean Murten after the lengthy layoff from Canada West action at the Point Grey campus finally came to an end. "The girls were excited…if I had any hair it'd be standing up right now with excitement. It was just phenomenal. We thank everybody for coming out. All the donors and supporters have kept with us over the last 18 months and to see them out there now with the fans and parents, it was just a wonderful experience. To top it off with a great bit of sunshine…all in all a great day."
 

?? WRUG | Spectators cheer on @UBCWRugby as they take the field for kick off in their home opener against @PandasRugby. #GoBirdsGo pic.twitter.com/bL4cvQtCgv

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) September 23, 2021

Second-year fly-half Savannah Bauder had an impressive three-try performance and added four conversions for the T-Birds, Emma Feldinger and Piper Logan each scored two tries for UBC, while Madison Gold, Shoshanah Seumanutafa, and Olivia Sarabura contributed one try each in the convincing victory.



Alberta made a push midway through the first half and gained field position on a number of runs but were unable to get on the scoresheet until Maria Sawiak fought across the goal line for an unconverted try in the 52^nd minute.
 
"Something we've been tracking heavily is momentum," said Murten. "We had the momentum…but there was a spell of about ten minutes where we lost that momentum and it's something we have to address. We gave quite a lot of penalties away, but [even though] they didn't capitalize on them it's something we want to address."
 
The 'Birds next actions sees them host the University of Calgary Dinos on Sunday, October 3^rd at 1:00 p.m. (PST).
 
 
Scoring summary
 
First half
2' UBC – Piper Logan try 5-0
7' UBC – Madison Gold try 10-0
11' UBC – Savannah Bauder try (conversion – Bauder) 17-0
20' UBC – Logan try (conversion – Bauder) 24-0
31' UBC – Bauder try (conversion – Bauder) 31-0
40'+ UBC – Emma Feldinger try (conversion – Bauder) 38-0
 
Second half
42' UBC – Bauder try 43-0
46' UBC – Shoshanah Seumanutafa try 48-0
52' ALB – Maria Sawiak try 48-5
66' UBC – Olivia Sarabura try (conversion – Sarabura) 55-5
77' UBC – Feldinger try 60-5