For the third straight year, the Dauphin Clippers girls rugby team are Westman High School Rugby 7s champions.
Dauphin clinched the title by going 3-0 at the final jamboree, Oct. 8, in Brandon.
The Clippers were tied with Rivers at 8-1 entering the Brandon event, after Rivers scored a 7-5 win over the Clippers in Dauphin’s jamboree, Sept. 29.
The two teams met again in a rematch in Brandon, with the Clippers getting their revenge in a 33-0 victory, clinching the title.
Dauphin finished 11-1, while Rivers was 10-2.
Clippers head coach Shawn Sarkonak said it is crazy to think the team has won the 7s season for the third time in a row.
“Myself and Kent Miner are just completely ecstatic and very proud of our girls. They went out and played their hearts out and came out champions,” he said.
When the schedule for the Brandon jamboree was released and the Clippers saw they would be facing Rivers again, they circled that game as the one they wanted most to win.
“They felt that the game that they lost, they know that they ended up playing an individual game instead of a team game and that’s actually what led to the loss,” Sarkonak said, adding the Clippers had previously beaten Rivers, 27-0, in Brandon, Sept. 26.
“They definitely were wanting another shot at Rivers, for sure,” he said,
The varsity girls all played in the Manitoba Summer Games, where they won a bronze medal, which did not sit well with them.
“They knew that they could have placed higher. And they used the 7s season to come out on top and put into work what they knew they could have done in the summer, and it showed,” Sarkonak said.
The Clippers JV team finished sixth with a 4-8 record, tops among the JV teams taking part in the 7s season.
For a lot of the girls, it was their first year playing, Sarkonak said, adding a couple of girls who were part of last year’s 7s team and played 15s in the spring were the leaders of the JV squad.
Sarkonak noted a handful of players will be trying out for Team Manitoba, which will compete at the Canada Summer Games.
“So they’ll get some extra work in,” he said.
The team will begin ramping up for the spring 15s season with workouts in mid-February.
