Rivers downs Dauphin 20-7 in rugby final

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This article was published 04/06/2022 (1362 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A tall, speedy freshman in blue breaks down the touchline with a wet, muddy rugby ball tucked under her arm and blonde, braided hair blowing in the wind.

On film, five-foot-eight lock Payton McNish could easily be mistaken for Jordan McLeod, her inspiration to play in the first place.

“My mom works with (McLeod’s parents) and she talked about how great it was, how great coaches Kat (Muirhead) and Cody (Pollon) were so I thought I’d give it a try,” said McNish, who scored the first try to spark the Rivers Rams to a 20-7 victory over the visiting Dauphin Clippers in the Westman High School Rugby girls final on Friday.

Before McLeod graduated and joined the UBC Thunderbirds in 2019, she led the Rivers-Minnedosa-Elton co-op team to three provincial titles as the Minnedosa Chancellors. Current captains Brooklyn and Brianne Zemliak were freshmen on that squad and haven’t forgotten what they learned even after two years away from games.

“I definitely had to mature a lot. I kind of just took what Jordan did … and put into the game what she taught me, what Kat and Cody taught me,” said Brooklyn, the fly-half and leading tackler for the Rams.

“It feels amazing, having those two years off, it’s very nice to have a victory at the end of our Grade 12 year.”

Both teams have one match left. They meet next weekend in the provincial final as none of the Winnipeg schools were prepared for the usual semifinal crossover games.

It’s fitting, though, as the two crushed everyone they met in the regular season.

Dauphin beat Swan Valley 57-15 and Rivers blanked Crocus Plains 63-0 in the semifinals. The Rams took the first meeting against the Clippers 15-7.

While no tears were shed for the end of a season, there wasn’t a dry boot on the pitch after 60 minutes of trudging around waterlogged turf. Some drop kicks were impossible as the ball wouldn’t bounce. The ball got slick, which led to a product much sloppier than most expected and required referee Aaron Sanderson to intervene more than anyone would prefer.

Rivers found its legs first when McNish capped a nice string of passes for her try nine minutes in.

Just past the midway point of the half, Brianne Zemliak collected a pass that sailed over her twin sister’s head and bounced outside, rumbling in from the 22-metre line to double the lead.

Rivers spent the majority of the half in Dauphin’s end, but Madisson Garton saw an opening in the Rams’ backs and broke off a long run, cutting past the Rivers fullback before McNish chased her down for a try-saving tackle.

“When she made that cut I was like ‘I have to be there,’ or else she would have scored that try,” McNish said.

Dauphin calmly plotted down the pitch, however, then Allee Hrechka passed to Garton and she dove over the line. Brooke Miner nailed the convert to make it 10-7 just before the halftime whistle.

Early in the second half, the Clippers knocked the ball on deep in their end and on the ensuing scrum, scrum-half Alexis McLean dished to Brooklyn Zemliak who broke two tackles and went airborne, crashing down over the line to make it a two-score game at 15-7.

The Rams touched the ball down one more time with 15 minutes left to seal it.

“We were pretty motivated having two years off,” said senior Alissa Janz. “We felt the pressure since we won (the WHSR sevens title in the fall).”

The Clippers were pleased with their efforts and are already looking ahead to next week.

“I felt so good. We went into it strong and we really improved since we first played Rivers and I really thought we tried hard so I was happy with it,” Garton said. “Just keep practising and reviewing, going over plays and getting in a mindset of ‘We’re going to get this, we’re going to win the provincial banner.’”

The WHSR boys final is on Sunday at 5 p.m., when Dauphin hosts Souris. The winner plays Crocus Plains in the provincial semifinals while the loser takes on St. Paul’s, the lone school from Winnipeg prepared to compete.

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