CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – Tessa Hood is learning a lot in her first season with the Charlottetown Rugby Football Club (CRFC).
“Take cues from the older girls, listen to them. Keep going if anything bad happens. Stay positive out there,” said Hood, the just-graduated Colonel Gray High School rugger. “(Senior rugby) is different, a good level of competition and really fun.”
Hood can apply that knowledge today when the CRFC host Enfield in the club’s home opener. Game time for the Nova Scotia Senior Women’s Rugby League game is 1 p.m. at Co-op Field in Charlottetown.
CRFC (1-0) is third in Tier A with five points after a 72-0 win over Halifax RFC two weeks ago in Truro, N.S. Enfield (1-2) is second with eight points. Both are chasing the 3-0 Halifax Tars.
Hood, a scrum-half, is also learning to deal with the excitement of the home opener, always guaranteed to fire players up.
“I’m definitely nervous, but it’s a good nervous. Not scared, but pumped up,” she said before a recent practice in Charlottetown.
Her teammate Alysha Corrigan, standing beside her, smiles and agrees.
“It definitely makes me excited. We have a lot of away games, so it’s (great) to see a lot of support at home. It gets everyone excited,” Corrigan said.
Enfield won’t be an easy out for the defending champ CRFC as it beat the Valley Bulldogs to open the season then lost the last two games to the Halifax Tars and Halifax RFC, respectively, by a combined score of 97-70, including a one-point loss to the Tars.
CRFC head coach James Voye knows Enfield’s capabilities. He also knows his squad showed perhaps a bit too much swagger as it stumbled out of the gate in the opener before it got rolling and can’t do the same thing today.
“We had a little bit of a hiccup. There was a little of that nervousness before we played Valley RFC. We were a little tight. We got a couple of tries and started to loosen up. The girls will be more focused and ready to go,” said Voye, who guided CRFC to an undefeated season last year. “Enfield is known for their forward play so we have to try and get the ball wide. (That’s the key) passing the ball well and spreading the field.”
The Tier B team is off this weekend and a good thing, too, as the Tier A team is short about eight players, so Voye will backfill from the idle team – another good thing as those call-ups get valuable time on the pitch.
“They know the systems and will fit right in,” Voye said.
RELATED: Click here for the first story of the season on the team.
Hood was part of the P.E.I. under-18 women’s team which won high school club bowl championship at a seven’s tournament in New York late last year.
Corrigan is no stranger to rugby success either as the UPEI Panthers standout fullback has a full trophy case. It includes a co-UPEI female athlete of the year and rugby MVP from this past season, and two all-Canadian and four Atlantic university all-star honours during her four-year career. She’s also just recently returned from a Rugby Canada senior women’s camp in Ontario.
But the veteran isn’t resting on any laurels against Enfield. She knows there’s a game to play.
“They’re a good team, good backs and fast. We’ll have to stick to our structure and makes our hits. Good things happen when you’re making hits.”
The Tier B squad returns to the pitch Saturday, July 14, versus Riverlake in Fall River, N.S.
