It was a historic moment for the Chilliwack Crusaders Rugby Club's women's team after they won their first game ever on Saturday (Oct. 26).
The women beat the East Vancouver Scribes 26-0 during the home opener at Yarrow Sportsfield. The men's team also dominated, beating the Scribes 55-5.
Trinity Knox scored the first two tries for the women, followed by Taylor Fong with the third, and Kyla Knox closing the game with the final try. Kyla Knox also successfully kicked three out of four conversions.
The victory was three years in the making for the women. They started out in 2021 playing touch rugby with just six or seven people, and then later began playing contact before joining the league.
"The growth was definitely slow at first; we had about 10-13 players, and only three of us had ever played, so we were very inexperienced, and the results reflected that," said team captain Landry Winkles about the team's journey to where they are today. "During our first half-season, we struggled. We didn’t even have a kit and played in the men’s old gear for most of it."
They started getting some games under their belt during their first full season with the league in 2021/2022. They were meshing more, but still had low numbers and a lot of injuries, Winkles added.
By the 2022/2023 season, things started to pick up.
"We entered that season with a core group of players who had a season’s worth of experience and knew enough to start competing. This core helped us recruit more consistently, and the team began to look like rugby," Winkles said. "By the end of that season, we saw a huge shift in momentum. People started buying in and taking things more seriously. That led to this season, where we finally won our first game.”
During Saturday's home opener, the men also had a "fantastic" game, said Tyrone Brown.
Try scorers included: Jordan Henstra (2), Teddy Tooke (2), Tyrone Brown (1), Lucky Malalagama (1), Tommy Ingram (1), Colton Dirks (1), and Loz Davies (1). Brown added three conversions, with Ingram and Aaron Solomanz each contributing one conversion.
Both the men's and women's team play their next home game on Nov. 2 at Yarrow Sportsfield (3635 Savoy Rd.). The men go up against Meraloma Rugby Club (Vancouver), while the women will take on the UBC Thunderbirds.