CDS rugby girls take third place in national tournament

April 29, 2015 · 0 Comments

Country Day School’s girls rugby team took a third-place finish at the annual CAIS tournament over the weekend.
Photo by Trinity College School Athletics

By Jake Courtepatte
Country Day School’s senior girls’ rugby team has earned quite a reputation for success over the past few years, continuing with the Canadian Accredited Independent School annual tournament last weekend.
For the second year in a row, the girls brought home third place overall at the CAIS tournament, dominating round-robin play before a tightly contested matchup on Sunday.
The road trip to Port Hope’s Trinity College School began with a 69-0 drubbing of Hillfield Strathallan College, a team they will meet again next week in CISAA divisional competition.
“The girls were phenomenal,” said head coach Dave Downer. “We couldn’t have asked for a better start.”
Just over two hours later, the CDS team continued their offensive dominance, this time with a win over Appleby College. The final score was 52-0.
Their first real challenge of the tournament came in Saturday’s play, when they took on the top-seeded Bishop’s College School from Sherbrooke, Quebec. A wake-up call produced a 40-0 loss for CDS.
“They were in pretty tough,” said Downer. “It was an elite-level team that they just weren’t ready for.”
From then on, CDS’s offensive production wavered, but defensively they stood strong. A 12-5 win over the hosting Trinity College put the girls in the third-place plate game the following day.
Facing another team from Quebec, Sanstead College, they came out on top of a 5-3 score.
For the third straight year, Bishop’s College School took home the girls’ championship.
The national success is the latest for a team who has utterly dominated the local competition for the past decade. Last May the girls team won their 10th consecutive CISAA championship.
To Downer, he credits the program’s success to the rapidly budding nature of the sport.
“Rugby is growing at an incredible rate. It’s quite easy to get into, since there are so few contact sports out there for girls. Girls are realizing it isn’t just for boys.”
He also adds that the university programs aren’t very crowded, which could be another draw for girls looking to join the sport.
“They have the opportunity to take their game past the club level and with them into university.”
The CDS team has three regular season games to play in the month of May before moving on to the CISAA championships in June.