The Dauphin Clippers rugby teams continue to run roughshod over their opponents in Westman High School Rugby.
Desiree Lariviere and Paityn Bourgouin each scored four tries to lead the Clippers girls to an 111-0 win over the Vincent Massey Vikings, Thursday in Brandon.
Jorja Percival, McKenzie Kropelnicki and Alina Genik had two tries each and Ryann Richard-Soltis, Kiersten Vandekerckhove and Mila Heschuk had one each.
Vandekerckhove had 13 converts.
Clippers coach Shawn Sarkonak said the Clippers started out a bit slow as the Vikings kept them out of the end zone for the first seven or eight minutes of the game.
“I wouldn’t say the girls came out flat, but I think they came out underestimating Massey a little bit. Once they realized, ‘okay, we’ve got to start pushing harder here and supporting,’ they just kind of flipped the switch and the score ended up being what it was. They played their hearts out after that,” he said.
The Clippers continued its balanced scoring attack with eight different players finding the end zone, something the coaching staff has been preaching all year.
“There’s no individuals out here. This is a team game and you win or you lose as a team. We’re telling the girls when the score gets a little bit up there or out of reach for the other team, we always remind them that if you start playing as an individual, you’re going to come off,” Sarkonak said.
The Clippers, Sarkonak said, will work on its support, making sure they are at rucks in time.
“Massey did a good job or stealing a few balls from us and counter-rucking. I think that actually surprised our girls. They’re usually the ones that do that themselves and so once that switch was flipped, the ball was being moved nicely,” he said.
“They were digging hard gaps, supporting, working on offloads. And that was the big thing in the second half that they worked on, was just support. Running with each other, being there for each other. In the first half they got caught watching, thinking that when someone got a good line break, they were going to get in and score.”
The Clippers will host the Souris Sabres, Thursday at 5:30 p.m., a game Sarkonak expects could be Dauphin’s toughest game in what will be the final game of the regular season.
“We always have good games against Souris. They’ve got a good coach there, a good youth program. Right now, they’ve got a roster of 14, so if they don’t find a 15th, then we’ll be matching that for the last game of the season,” he said, adding if that were the case in the playoffs, Souris would have to play a man down.
The Clippers boys Green, meanwhile, beat the Vikings 66-0.
Alex Thompson led the way with three tries and Ben Miner had two, with Julien Lopez, Parker Schau Ryzlie Nepinak, Jaime Comacho and Josh Yakielashek adding singles.
Jordan Evans had eight converts.
While they played well in the win, Clippers coach Aaron Miner said there is still plenty to work on.
“There were pieces of the game that were taken for granted, because we were playing a smaller team,” he said.
“If we make it to provincials, playing a Winnipeg team will not be like this. They’ll have a lot more size and structure than these smaller teams that the Westman league has this year.”
Miner noted both the varsity and junior varsity teams have good size and are facing younger teams in the league.
“The league is very young this year, with the exception of our varsity team. So we’re going to have to work on a few things if we want to be successful at the provincial level,” he said.
Like the Clippers girls, the boys Green team will host Souris, Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
Miner expects the Clippers to be at their best against the Sabres.
“We have a healthy rivalry against Souris and we always enjoy playing them very hard and that’s the expectation,” he said.
“It’s our first home game, so the boys will want to put on a performance for, hopefully, a big crowd. We love playing Souris. It brings out the best and the worst in us and I think that will happen once again this year.”