Warriors women’s rugby team takes to the pitch for the first time

A goal 10 years in the making finally came true Aug. 2, as the Eastman Warriors fielded a women’s rugby team in the annual Rugbymania sevens tournament hosted at the Maple Grove Rugby Park.

Establishing a women’s squad has long been a goal for the program, with members of the team, including Celine Sonnenberg, practicing with the men’s team for the past decade.

“It was awesome, it was awesome to see more women play,” Sonnenberg said, adding when starting training, she didn’t expect it to take ten years to get on the field.

“It’s finally here… I hope to see more women show up.”

Isi Masi is coaching the Warriors’ women’s team.

“This was a great moment, it was beautiful to see the girls out there with their jerseys and having really no fear to play rugby,” Masi said.

The team, playing under the name Yellow Cards for the jamboree, had to battle against more veteran teams, with mixed results. They managed a 1-3 record in pool play.

“This has been a day we have been looking forward too,” Masi said following a couple games.

“I think we’re holding our own in there. It’s very exciting to see girls playing rugby for the first time.”

It was a good performance for a team full of rugby rookies, with Sonnenberg hoping to see more enrollment moving forward.

“Anybody’s welcome, most of our team are first time players,” she said.

The tournament was under the Sevens format, with multiple games in a day. Teams battle seven-on-seven with seven minute halves.

“Seven minutes seems like a short time, but when you’re playing sevens you need a lot of cardio,” Masi said.

The players even made their coach a shirt with his practice mantra labelled on it for the tournament, “only one more time,” in reference to his running regiment.

The Warriors have exhibition games lined up against Portage later in August, and hope to be full-time participants in the women’s division next season.

In the men’s division, an Eastman team playing as the Prairie Babas came out on top for the second consecutive year, nabbing a $1,000 prize.