Centre Dufferin Royals get to celebrate league title win
GUELPH – While it was certain that a Royals squad would win bragging rights in District 4/10 high school girls’ rugby Thursday at the University of Guelph’s Varsity Field, it was the northern Royals from Shelburne’s Centre Dufferin that claimed the title.
Centre Dufferin repeated as league champions as they downed the Ross Royals 17-5 in a closely-fought championship match.
“It’s pretty special what these girls can do,” Centre Dufferin coach Adrian Brown said. “They’re an impressive bunch. Even today, our Grade 9s that are coming into the system are just outstanding. It is so fun to see how positive and how energetic they are and how just how committed these girls are. We get snow on the field, they’re there. Twenty-five-degree weather, they’re there. It doesn’t make a difference. These girls put in the work and it shows. First game of the season until now, they just keep building and now we’re just going to move to the next steps.”
Centre Dufferin scored three tries in the match, two of them coming in the second half, while Ross scored one.
“That was a great game,” Brown said of this year’s final, although it might have had a tough time beating the excitement of last year’s final when Centre Dufferin won the league title for the first time on a last-play try. “Both teams tackle like crazy people, both teams move that ball so well, especially on a day like today. It was a real defensive battle, and kind of a chess match to see who could break whose offense. It was just great to see how well that ball is moving on both sides of it.”
The final meant nothing as far as CWOSSA championship tournament berths as both already knew they were moving on.
“These girls are a little bit competitive on their own so whether or not it mattered or didn’t, I mean they all want to win,” Brown said. “I don’t think I have to encourage them to (get motivated for the game), It’s more so a matter of just getting them on the field, understanding their roles and responsibilities and then they go and do the job. It makes coaching real easy.”
Centre Dufferin is to host the CWOSSA A/AA tournament next Wednesday and Friday. They’ll be in Pool A with the Paris Panthers and either the Kincardine Knights or Grey Highlands Lions of Flesherton while Erin will be D4/10’s second team and will be in Pool B with Holy Trinity Titans of Simcoe and either Kincardine or Grey Highlands, whichever one wins the D1/7 title.
Ross will be in the CWOSSA AAA tournament next Wednesday and Friday at Brantford.
Ross is to be in Pool A with Brantford CI Mustangs and Kitchener-Waterloo (KCI) Raiders while Pool B is to consist of St. John’s College Green Eagles of Brantford, Waterloo-Oxford Crusaders of Baden and Owen Sound DSS Wolves.
In both tournaments, round-robin pool play is to be held on the Wednesday with the top team in each pool advancing to Friday’s final.
The championship win was Centre Dufferin’s second in two years.
For Ross, it was a return to the final after being ousted in the semifinals last year. They had won the previous five championship matches before high school rugby was put on the shelf for two years due to the pandemic.
Consolation Final
Bishop Macdonell 38 Orangeville 7
Bishop Macdonell claimed the consolation championship with the win over the Bears.
Teams in the consolation round were the teams that suffered losses in the championship round’s quarter-finals.
Sydney and McKenna had two tries apiece for Bishop Mac while Sierra had four converts. Navena and Wilson collected one try apiece.
Full names were not reported.
Neither were the individual scorers for Orangeville.
- Guelph Sports Journal