Twin Cities Amazons Rugby Club

Amazons 20- NOVA 12

Excerpt from Alex Goff--ERugbyNews.com

"NOVA really came out at us with nothing to lose, said Amazons head coach Roger Bruggemeyer. "They were definitely the aggressor in most instances we had a lot of trouble."

The Amazons suffered a little from turnover-itis when mounting attacks and NOVA were happy to get it wide quickly, using their backs, Jen Starkey especially, to outsrip the Twin Cities threequarters.

Still the game remained tight, 5-5 most of the first half and 8-5 Amazons at the break.

But slowly, inexorably, the Amazons forwards began to take control. They powered up the middle and forced NOVA to become impatient and commit penalties. They drove over two pack tries while giving up one as the lead rocked back and forth. The second Twin Cities try put them ahead 20-12, but then directly after the second NOVA rebounded with a score to make it 20-17. That's how it ended.

"We won on experience alone," said Bruggemeyer. "We had to resort to boring, Midwest, forward-oriented rugby but that's what we needed to do it. NOVA were more aggressive and their wing [Starkey] gave us fits."

Excerpt from Alex Goff--ERugbyNews.com

And in a battle of territorial #2s, the Twin Cities Amazons beat Oregon Sports Union 24-12.

Mindful of ORSU's strong backline the Amazons kept the ball close and used their experienced and physical forwards - something Minnesota wasn't able to do - to suck in the defense.

"We totally sucked in their backs," said Amazons coach Roger Bruggemeyer. "It wasn't pretty, but it was effective. A lot of people think that's all we want to play, but we love to move the ball wide if it makes sense. We can play open rugby."

Twin Cities weathered a torrid first 15 minutes, and despite being harassed all day by ORSU flanker Becky Royce, before their pack began to exert their power.

From that solid platform, and as the forwards opened gaps, center Maria Rye scored two tries and scrumhalf Rebecca Radtke scored one more, sneaking in around a ruck after the forwards had steamrollered their way downfield.

"We have a back row move that uses me and I guess I become a forward too," Rye told ERugbyNews. "So I was able to use our scrum to open up some space for me. the other one, they made a mistake and pretty much the ball fell into my hands and I was able to run in."

The Amazons were missing several backs, including center Ashley Mulford, but were able to get to the national semis anyway.

"One of our goals from the beginning of the season was to make the final four," said Rye. "We wanted to get a good seed and keep going. Through the season we've made a lot of changes in the backs and it's been difficult to really get that cohesion. But we felt it today. Roger told us we weren't going to get a lot of the ball, but if we concentrated on our defense we'd be OK. We want to get more ball but ORSU is a very good team and we needed to contain their backline."

Rye said the team came together today, a day after what she said was a pretty poor team performance against NOVA on Saturday.

"We feel good about the effort today, and we know we have Berkeley coming up," said Rye. "We will have a few more players with us, and we will give it our all."