Police rugby women draw first blood

POLICE Rugby Club made a strong start to the TT Rugby Football Union’s (TTRFU) five-stage Women’s Division rugby season when they won the first leg of the competition with a 34-0 victory over Harvard in the final, on Saturday.

National team standouts Alesha Bruce and Nicolette Pantor scored a try each, along with Kadiera George, Ornella George, Jada Simmons and Nekeema Joseph.

Pantor, the team captain, also added four points from two converted efforts, in a one-sided encounter.

The event was hosted by Caribs, on their pitch at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain. The four other legs of the women’s competition will be hosted by the three other participating clubs – Harvard, Police and Royalians – then by the TTRFU itself.

The teams played in a 10-a-side format starting with two matches.

The two winning teams went on to the final, while the two losing teams played for third place.

Police opened its account with a narrow 15-14 win over Royalians, before Harvard and Caribs met in the second preliminary match, which Harvard dominated and won 50-0. Harvard, however, were evidently unable to reproduce their earlier sparks in the final.

In the third place match, Caribs were pitted against Royalians.

Royalians rebounded from their loss to Police with a dominant performance and won the match 30-0.

The second of the five-part women’s series of rugby tournaments will be hosted by Police on July 21.

Yesterday, Police and Harvard II played their first match of the Men’s Senior Division, in a rescheduled fixture.

Harvard won the encounter, 41-17.

That result put them level at the top with Rydeus, Rainbow Sports and Culture Club, and Exiles, all of which secured bonus point victories last weekend, over Caribs II, UWI/Tobago Combine and Defence Force, respectively.

On Saturday, Trinidad Northern will meet Caribs at Caribs’ Pitch from 4.30 pm in what is traditionally the most highly anticipated match in the TTRFU calendar. Northern is off a 24-18 win over Royalians, recorded a week ago.

At the same time, Harvard will take on Royalians at the Queen’s Park Savannah.