The staff at the University of Notre Dame, School of Physiotherapy threw down the gauntlet to our staff for a mixed touch rugby game in October to celebrate the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The game took place at 5:30 pm on 16 October at Manning Road Oval. Our team – the Wannabies, consisted of many talented sportsmen and sports women, but unfortunately none of that talent was in the sport of touch rugby. However, the team banded together and like most elite sporting organisations learnt the rules quickly half an hour before the match.
Once the game started, the Wannabies were off to a flying start with Leo Ng breaking the defensive line to score twice in quick succession. Browyn Smith, who was playing her first game of touch rugby, finished off a good team play and dived over the line for her first ever try. The smile on her face after the try was priceless. The Notre Dame rugby team came back strongly with their team plays and the game became an exciting seesaw battle. In the second half, Pieter Coenen stole the ball against play to score an brilliant individual try. The defensive pressure of Karen Richards, Kevin Netto, Tanis Kelly, Sarah Stearne and Andrew Lavender kept the team in the game. Joining the game late in the second half, Vinicius De Oliveira (the soccer star) was jumping up and down during the game hoping for someone to teach him the rules of the game. Nearing the end of the match, Heidi Welch made a dash down the left wing (transferring her hockey skills to touch rugby) to score our team’s final try.
There was a bit of a debate about the final score, but in the writer’s view, the final score was 5 all, so we will stick to that. It was a great evening, and we hope to build a strong relationship with The School of Physiotherapy at the University of Notre Dame in the future as the only two physiotherapy schools in WA.
