The Dauphin Clippers girls and boys rugby teams are set to host the Swan Valley Tigers in the Westman High School Rugby League semifinals, Wednesday.
For the first time in the team’s history, the Clippers boys finished in first place, finishing 4-0. The girls, meanwhile, finished second with a 4-1 record.
Both teams ended the season with shutout victories over the Vincent Massey Vikings, Friday in Brandon, with the boys winning by a 46-0 score and the girls walking away with a 60-0 triumph.
Clippers coach Aaron Miner said both teams look good heading into Wednesday’s semifinal matches, adding they were able to work on the small things against Vincent Massey, while getting all of the players some playing time.
“The younger players played full games. We sat a lot of our veteran players to avoid injuries. And we need to build the team for next year,” he said. “We’re going to be losing our two Grade 12s and our three exchange students. So those five rookies (that played) got a lot of playing time, because we’ll need them for next year.”
This is the first year the boys have finished in first place and Miner said Gerald Lopez has been a key to this season’s success.
“He coaches both rugby and football and he drew in a lot of his football players into the rugby program. And then we also have our youth program that’s now really starting to show,” he said, adding there may have been only two players who had to learn the basics. “Usually you’re teaching half a team how to hit, how to take a hit. All the safety stuff. Well, on day one, we were practicing plays. Now we’re working on the small things that most teams haven’t gotten to yet, because they don’t have the experienced players that we do.”
Facing their arch rivals from Swan Valley, Miner is expecting a tough battle in both contests.
“Swan is not a pushover team at all. They play like we do. They have a good, strong football program that rolls into their rugby program. They’re girls program has always been quite strong. They have some big girls there that don’t like to play against Dauphin,” he said. “It’s always a hard fought battle between these two teams and I expect Wednesday to be nothing less than that. It will be both games that we have to come prepared for.”
Game time for the girls is 5:30 p.m., with the boys game to follow.
