Game Report: Sat. July 9, 2005

Senior Women Second Team
(The Senior Women 1st will play on Tuesday at Williams HS)

The Barbs Second Team continued its domination of the division, defeating Peterborough Pagans 2, 32 - 0 on Saturday at Fletcher's. Although Peterborough was short a player, they were tough and tenacious opponents who covered the field well. Aurora were not given any give-away tries. The forwards controlled the scrums and won good rucked ball all afternoon. The consistently drew in the Peterborough forwards creating space for the backs to run in all but one of the tries. The one forward try was a beauty scored by captain Kim Jack, who picked up a ball stolen against the head and ran 40 metres beating 3 defenders to score under the posts. The backs executed their plays with confidence, bordering at times on the description "razzle dazzle". No one broke through without support players in pursuit. Prop, Marci Bieman, was everywhere on the field hitting rucks and running with the backs. She was mutually named player of the game by both teams, although many other players were closely behind. Aurora's try-scorers were Kim Jack and Ashley Walker with one each, and Hayley Lapierre and Katie Quinn with two each. Martha Goodrow, an U19 making her debut with the seniors, kicked the convert. This gives the Barbs a 6 - 0 record with one more league game to go, the Nomads on July 23.

Junior U16 Men
31 boys showing up to play the game, but not everyone was ready to play against an undermanned but very tough Yeomen team. We started the game with some of the boys that we rely on to be better players, unfortunately they did not work to their potential. Except for a few, the tackling was very poor. Yeomen's forwards picked up most of the loose balls and dominated the possession. During the second half we started to play better. We ran out of time and lost the game by 3 points. It was a good comeback, but we just fell short.

Senior Women Exhibition Match vs. Ontario U19 – July 10
Under a very hot sun and on a dusty dry Ajax Wanderers’ field, the Aurora Barbs women played an exhibition match against the Ontario U19s. The juniors came out strong, seemingly unintimidated with facing senior players, and scored the first try within two minutes. That set the tone for the first half with the Barbs having to come from behind. The women gradually gained the upper hand and demonstrated excellent running angles, quick passing and strong defence. Even so, Ontario was up 15 –13 at halftime. In the second half, the Barbs opened things up, scoring 22 points, as the team pressed the juniors on every aspect of the game. The final score was 35 – 20. Aurora’s try-scorers were: Johnny, Nathalie Bendavid, Ashley Walker and Leila Hughes. Scottish import, Lianne Corrigan took an excellent pass from Johnny and scored one as well. Melissa Bruneau was solid, kicking two penalties and two converts. The day was a good workout for the senior women and excellent preparation for the national championships in August. The juniors, who include the Barbs’ own Martha Goodrow (who also scored a try), were fit and played with confidence and will represent Ontario well. Thanks to Sarah Stern for organizing this successful match.