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Women's Elite Rugby: What happened in an enthralling opening round?
By Joe Harvey
While the Guinness Women’s Six Nations got underway in Europe, across the North Atlantic Women’s Elite Rugby was making its debut.
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The fledgling professional women’s league in the United States of America is comprised of six teams and will play a 13-week regular season before heading into knockout rugby.
It is an exciting step for rugby in the country, who have reclaimed a number of stars from Premiership Women’s Rugby to help launch a competition that could take the Women’s Eagles to best in class by the time the 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup comes to US shores.
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Over the weekend two matches took place between the New York Exiles and Boston Banshees, as well as the Chicago Tempest and Twin Cities Gemini.
NEW YORK EXILES 27-29 BOSTON BANSHEES
A last-minute penalty try handed the Boston Banshees victory over the New York Exiles in WER’s first-ever game.
Stern wind swept across The Stadium at Memorial Field in Mount Vernon, New York, as the two teams with a smattering of USA Women’s Eagles amongst their ranks went blow for blow.
Tess Feury flashed an early New York penalty wide of the posts as the Banshees’ Jenny Kronish was pinged for not rolling away at the ruck.
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Early Exiles pressure continued to tell, with hard carries from Kayle Hunkin-Clark and Adriana Castillo making inroads for the hosts and ultimately making way for Misha Green-Yotts to maraud over the whitewash and score the league’s first try.
Boston grew into the game after the restart and were soon camped deep in enemy territory and when the Exiles went offside defending a scrum five metres out from their own try line, the quick thinking of Cass Bargell sent Lauren Ferridge over from close range.
It took until Kronish’s yellow card in the 28th minute to open space on the field for the Exiles to attack following a cagey start.
In the end, it took a lengthy Castillo break from her own half to set up a score. The No.8 glided past defenders and after a burst from Green-Yotts, Feury brushed past Boston’s Bargell and Emily Henrich to dot down.
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Shortly after Kronish’s return to the field, New York scored again as their power helped hooker, Caoimhe O’Sullivan Roche, over the try line and allowed Jetta Owens to slot the game’s opening conversion for a 17-5 half-time lead.
As the second half got underway the same pattern of the first half continued.
Banshees’ indiscipline led to Shelby Vance spending 10 minutes on the sideline after repeated infringements at the breakdown and Owens’ penalty made the visitors’ comeback seem unlikely.
It was only when Morgan Cunningham snuffed out a huge Exiles break that momentum swung the way of Boston. As New York looked to score from their own 22m, the wing dragged down Sophie Frick and forced a knock-on.
Emboldened by that defensive display, the Banshees soon made their way downfield and ultimately scored through Kronish from close range and Cheta Emba added the conversion.
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Kronish continued to be in the thick of things as Boston drew within three points.
She stripped the ball carrier of possession, and the lock forward offloaded to Yeja Dunn, who sprinted through four tackles and dived over the try line.
With the wind in their sails, the Banshees took the lead when Emba latched onto a Rachael Harkavy cross-field kick.
In an act of outright defiance, the Exiles careered through the opposition defence again as Green-Yotts put in the hard yards to grab her back-row colleague, Castillo, a try beneath the posts with less than 10 minutes on the clock.
As if the minutes before had not been attritional enough the Banshees took things to the next level in their search for a winner.
Hard carries from the pack and a series of bursts from the backs kept Boston within scoring distance. It was New York’s desperation that lost them the match.
Constant infringement in defence as the clock ticked past the 80-minute mark and when Scout Cheeks was adjudged to have deliberately knocked the ball on with the Banshees almost certain to score, Lindsey Oliver felt there was no other option but to award the penalty try.
It was a decision that sent the away team into delirium and left the Exiles waiting until next week for another shot at victory.
CHICAGO TEMPEST 15–20 TC GEMINI
A Kailynn Hampton hat-trick was the catalyst for Twin Cities Gemini’s 20-15 win over the Chicago Tempest.
Gemini had started brightly to buffer Chicago into their own 22m, with the road team drifting from one side of the field to the other before Serena Liu, Brogan Mior and KJ Johnson combined to send Hampton over the try line just seven minutes in.
With early nervousness wiped out for the Tempest after going a score behind, the team rallied.
The electric running of Saracens loanee Isla Alejandro ultimately unlocked Gemini, the full-back’s elusive carry setting up back-row Kit Buzby to dot down in the right corner.
As a slightly disjointed first half continued, Gemini looked the most likely to score again.
When they tried to maul over the try line, Chicago did not align themselves correctly in defence and rushed out of the line and made it easy for Mior, Trinity Todd and Samantha Black to set up Hampton for her second of the game just 20 minutes in.
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Whether it was infringements at the ruck, high tackles or collapsing a Twin Cities maul, Tempest invited pressure on themselves and paid the price when Hampton latched onto Todd’s offload to score the league’s first-ever hat-trick with five minutes still to play in the first half.
Following the break, there was a lull in scoring. Having taken on half-time advice from their coaches, each side eased back into the game but neither made inroads.
Only when Marcaya Bailous swept past opponents as Chicago made the most of a midfield scrum was the crowd at Northwestern University’s Martin Stadium.
To put themselves out of sight in the fixture, Gemini No.8 Abby Jacobs battled over from close range as carries from Mikey Williams and Todd made inroads into the opposition half.
In the final play of the game, Bailous scored her brace with a mazy run in which she handed off a duo of defenders and offers hope that Week 2 can offer brighter horizons.
Week 2 Fixtures:
Saturday 29 March
Denver Onyx v Bay Breakers, 18:00 GMT, Infinity Park
Boston Banshees v Twin Cities Gemini, 23:00 GMT, Veterans Memorial Stadium
Sunday 30 March
Chicago Tempest v New York Exiles, 19:00 BST, Martin Stadium
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