Clippers girls earn rugby three-peat

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This article was published 03/06/2025 (303 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ryann Richard-Soltis had a pair of tries as the Dauphin Clippers won their third provincial high school girls rugby title in a row, beating the Souris Sabres 31-15 at John Reilly Field in Brandon on Monday.

Dauphin received single tries from Victoria Carter, Kiersten Vanderkerhove and Paityn Bourgoine, with the latter adding three converts. Aubrey Skelton had a pair of tries for Souris and Karas Munz touched the ball down once.

“We owe a lot to our teamwork,” Richard-Soltis said. “We really make it a team. Expectations are pretty high and we really hold ourselves to them. I think we’re succeeding. We were doing really well this season.”

With no Winnipeg teams vying for the title this spring, the two Westman High School Rugby (WHSR) squads had a rematch of the league final, which unbeaten Dauphin won 45-5 on May 24 as they surrendered their first points of the season in victory.

Monday’s provincial final was the closest of the three games between the teams this season, with a strong start for Dauphin proving to be the difference.

“It was really important,” Dauphin coach Shawn Sarkonak said. “Coming off the finals, Souris was the first team in 12 games to score against us and I’m happy we got that out of the way, to be honest with you, because the girls were focusing on it I think too much.

“We put that rest, it’s over and done with, and we moved forward. Souris proved yet again they are contenders and have great athletes: They put up three more tries on us but defence was key. I thought at times that our defence was a little bit lax, especially on the counter rucking side of things, but overall the girls were able to hold on and get the victory and make it a three-peat all-around for league and provincials.”

Richard-Soltis, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student, agreed the great start was huge.

“I think it did a lot for our team,” Richard-Soltis said. “I’m really happy with the way we all played and really happy for us.”

Dauphin punched in a try by Vanderkerhove three minutes into the game on their first possession. When Carter and Richard-Soltis added tries to give Dauphin a 19-0 lead just 13 minutes into the game, it looked like the rout was on but Skelton replied for Souris. Before the half ended, Richard-Soltis and Skelton traded tries and Dauphin held a 26-10 lead with 30 minutes to go.

Both coaches were animated with their teams at half time, and the Sabres made the second half considerably closer.

But the back breaker came 12 minutes into the second half when Bourgoine romped for a long try to put the champions up 31-10. Munz added a late try for Souris but they couldn’t get any closer, despite playing stout defence in the second half and limiting Dauphin’s mighty offence.

“I saw a team that grew immensely as the season went on,” Souris coach Brian Yon said . “When we first played this team, they blew us out 55-0 and I knew this team had much more to give. We came the next game and punched one over and grew a little bit more, and then I thought we should have punched in a few more that game too.

“And then today, it was a bit of a slow start and a bit of a (bawling out) at half time and they responded the right way and we dominated the second half. It just goes to show, we coaches believe in this group and they had lots more to give and they showed that in the second half. We’ll call it a learning experience for these kids to walk away from here and be confident in themselves and know they can play. They have a ton of potential and they do so many wonderful things, they just have to believe and do it right from the start.”

The Sabres still lead with six provincial girls championships, which were all captured between 2003 and 2010. Since then, the Swan Valley Tigers won in 2008 and 2011, the Minnedosa Chancellors won from 2017 to 2019 and again in 2022 after they became the Rivers Rams, and Dauphin captured the last three. The season was cancelled due to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Of the 21 times the girls title has been contested, a WHSR team has won 15 times.

“I’m extremely proud of them,” Sarkonak said. “Year in and year out, whether it’s sevens or off-season or 15s, they put the work in and you can tell. In the winter academies, we have anywhere from eight to 12 girls who are driving down and taking part in it. That is the biggest difference that you see across the league. The other teams just don’t have as many taking part, and I hope that changes, because at the end of the day, the biggest thing the executive wants for the league is to have parity as much as possible and make it a battle.”

On the boys side, the St. Paul’s Crusaders have won the last 10 provincial championships and 15 overall. They crushed the St. John’s Ravenscourt Eagles 61-5 in the gold-medal game on Saturday to extend their streak.

The last WSHR team to earn the boys title was Souris in 2013. The only other Westman champions are the Vincent Massey Vikings in 2006 and Minnedosa in 2010.

Sarkonak’s team will have 10 seniors next year, and he admitted they might be going into rebuild mode after that. Yon is graduating about half his team.

For now, Dauphin remains the team to beat.

“This feels good,” Richard-Soltis said. “I’m really happy with this win.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com