VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds are looking to ensure their recent Canada West dominance translates to the national stage as they get set to compete at the 2022 U SPORTS Women's Rugby Championships beginning with a 3:00 p.m. PT quarter-final meeting against the Guelph Gryphons at Wallace Field in Victoria, B.C.
The tournament runs through Sunday November, 6 where the T-Birds, seeded #3 in the U SPORTS rankings hope to be featuring on the final day but first they'll need to take care of business against the #6 ranked Gryphons to open the proceedings.
The 'Birds come in flying high having enjoyed second-straight undefeated regular season that saw their high-octane offence on display in outscoring their opponents 276-92 en route to a 4-0-1 record.
UBC carried that consistency into postseason play just over a week and a half ago where they opened with a convincing 64-12 CW semi-final win over the Alberta Pandas before claiming their third-consecutive Canada West Championships, thanks to a 24-12 victory over the rival UVic Vikes in Edmonton, Alb.
Leading the way for the blue and gold is
Dean Murten who was recognized with a third-straight Canada West Coach of the Year award last week. Murten, who also earned the 2021 U SPORTS Coach of the Year nod likes the way his team is trending but emphasizes the need to be stingier at this time of year.
"I was obviously very happy at the amount of point we scored during the Canada West season," said Murten. "However, I am a firm believer that defence wins games, we had a few errors in some of our earlier games but I have been very happy the way we have become a little bit harder to score against. We're still not quite there yet but we're certainly going in the right direction."
The T-Birds boast a lineup filled with speed and skill led by the likes of recently crowned Canada West Women's Rugby Player of the Year, Shoshana Seumanutafa, the fifth-year centre is one of the foundational players making a difference on UBC's backline.
Other significant standouts include third-year fly half and leading scorer Savannah Bauder, the speedy second-year wing Piper Logan both of whom where CW Players of the Week during the regular season.
The above are joined by fellow T-Birds who were named to the 2022 Canada West Women's Rugby All-Star Team including
Rori Wood,
Jordan McLeod,
Rachel Smith and
Alayna Scramstad.
UBC will no doubt have their work cut out for them facing a tough Guelph Gryphons squad that suffered just one regular season loss (5-1) before a convincing 58-0 Ontario University Athletics semi-final win over the Brock Badgers. Guelph then dropped a close 29-24 decision to the Queen's Gaels in the OUA Championship game.
"Guelph will look to dominated around the ruck area with a very powerful pack of forwards," added Murten in sharing what he expects to see from their opening opponent. "This will be a great challenge for our defence. They will have a strong scrum and lineout that will provide a great opportunity for them to tie our forwards in and launch their backline. We need to be ready for everything the through at us, matching them physical is the key to winning the game."
The winner of UBC vs Guelph advances to face the winner of the Laval Rouge et Or vs Acadia Axewomen who meet in the other quarterfinal on their side of the bracket. Coming into competition the defending national champion Queen's Gaels hold the number one seed, and they'll open against the host Vikes at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
All championship games will be streamed on
CBC Gem and French broadcasts will be available at
USPORTS.ca
