The very first rugby match for everyone is a poignant one.....you either end up loving it, and I mean loving it, or you end up hating it, because that is what rugby does to people.  I've heard it said a few times and I think that it describes this game we love to a "T"...."rugby is an addiction"! 

The girls started off a little shaky in the first quater, (as we played four 15 minute quaters instead of two 30 minute halves) but that was to be expected given that it was the very first rugby game for 90% of them.  Ki-Rin scored early and they kept getting the ball out wide to their two very fast backs and there was no catching them once they took off.  By the end of the third quater and into the last quater, however,  we were on to them and our Reaper women were adjusting and things were coming together. 

We almost scored a couple of tries.....one off a kick off when Rhonda Mills ran up on the ball and stole it from Ki-Rin and presented it beautifully for us and the other was after a lovely set of 4 phases where we kept taking the ball in and crashing and slowly moving it up the field!

  All in all it was a great game, the Ki-Rin weren't easy on us, but that is not a bad thing because if your first game is not true to rugby form it will be a bit of a suprise when you do play a "real" game!  We have all come away with bumps and bruises, which we were sharing at practice on Monday but they were well earned.

Even Ki-Rin was impressed with the way our rookie team steadily improved throughout the match.  They are a veteran team that has been around for many years and for them to tell us that they have not seen a rookie team play that hard right to the end of a match (that they are totally losing), in years, if ever, is a really big compliment and our Reapers' ladies definately deserve it!  From the play and heart that I saw from our Reapers women and the very fast learning curve that they have displayed I do believe that sooner, as opposed to later we could definately be a force to reckon with for the Saskatoon womens' teams and eventually the Regina teams!