Comets go 8-0 in opening week in dominating start for Raymond rugby program

By Garrett Simmons
Westwind Weekly News

You can’t get any better than an 8-0 start to the season.

That’s the situation the Raymond High School  girls
rugby program found itself in after an opening week that went as perfectly as it possibly could.

It all started with senior and junior varsity league wins over Winston Churchill High School. The JV squad scored a dominating win while the seniors picked up a 45-5 victory.

“Churchill was well coached and play good defence,” said Raymond coach Dan Bikman. “Our kids, for the first game of the season, played good. It was a tight game early, and then we opened it up.”

That opening-season game was a precursor for the rest of the week, which included Friday games against Raymond’s archrival – Notre Dame.

The SV game was a four-quarter battle that featured a comeback 34-26 victory from the home Comets.

“It was a good game,” said Bikman. It was really back and forth.”

Raymond trailed going into the fourth quarter, and in the end, the game boiled down to one factor.

“Fitness,” said Bikman, was the key to Raymond’s comeback in the game’s final frame. “We just eventually were able to find some holes.”

Notre Dame kept the game in control for three quarters thanks to the team’s workhorse, a player who simply refused to go down, as Raymond failed to make a solo tackle on her all game long.

“They had an unbelievably tough runner,” said Bikman. “They have a great team but I would say 50 per cent of their ball carrying was done by this one girl.”

Raymond’s depth was another factor in the late-game comeback.

“Eventually, we were able to win the possession battle enough to get a couple of tries in the last quarter,” said the coach.

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