Grizzlies Serve NorCal & RWC-Vying Eagles

[Note: Both teams’ kit was not ready for game day so the Grizzlies are in the green kit and the Gray Wolves in dark blue kit.]

The California Grizzles and Colorado Gray Wolves celebrated their first-ever 15s matches against each other in San Francisco. The latter has several Glendale-based iterations behind it (read: Gray Wolves Hungry for Reintroduction), and the home side resembles the Pacific Coast RFU Grizzlies days, when all-star programs were supported at all levels of the game. All told, a tremendous amount of talent and elite players filled Crocker Park, and a thrilling game marked the return to play.

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The Grizzlies is a NorCal-based program that competes in the new XV Series, but also plays stand-alone teams like the Gray Wolves. Captains Nicole Strasko and Shelby Lin represented the two most prominent teams on the roster – Life West and Berkeley All Blues – and led a squad rife with international experience. But the Grizzlies is also a platform for players outside of the Women’s Premier, that they may be developed and seen. Saturday’s lineup included teenager Neti Tuavao (Lamorinda), collegians Sam Els (Stanford) and Roxelle Thomas (St. Mary’s College), as well as East Palo Alto’s Kaela Lee and Sacramento Amazons’ McKenna Deemer.

“It was super fun, because even if I’ve been involved with some of the USA stuff going on, there’s nothing like coming and playing with your home-club teammates,” USA and Berkeley scrumhalf Lin referenced the three Daily Training Environment (DTE) blocks in the past year. “And then Grizzlies has been really fun, just bringing together different teams in the area. Even with the All Blues, Life West rivalry, that’s been super fun to play with people you normally play against.”

The Grizzlies had two weeks of training prior to the match, and yet, a quality performance showed itself on game day.

“In general the game was really fun, and probably had at least three phases,” Lin summarized. “The beginning was frantic from both sides, fairly high pace – I think that is super fun. But then the Grizzlies got a little more control beginning of the second half, probably even the end of the first half, with a bit of a slower tempo. And then toward the end of the game you saw Colorado make a great comeback.”

The first 20 minutes or so saw the teams reorient themselves to game day. There were exciting phases of play highlighted by players like Bulou Mataitoga and Olivia Bernadel Huey, who seem to thrive in the chaos that comes with broken play. The most stable and effective weapon, however, was the Grizzlies’ scrum, which was able to shove the Gray Wolves off its own ball and gain more possession.

Around the 20-minute mark, Colorado stole a California lineout, but then Grizzlies prop Hope Rogers Dellermann somehow emerged with the ball. Strasko went for a nice break through the middle of the field, and then team worked the edges before opening a little space for Mataitoga along the sideline. The center dotted down in the corner, and flyhalf Kristen Siano nearly slotted the conversion from five meters off the line, the ball hitting the crossbars.

The Grizzlies started piecing the phases together a bit more and showcased some really nice, quick handling in the backs. Center Rachel Pau’u was particularly agile, reining in passes that would have otherwise been thrown behind her, and wriggling the ball free for the offload to oncoming support. But the Gray Wolves defense didn’t break, with Kelsie O’Brien, Rachel Ehrecke, Hallie Taufoou, and more making consistent, decisive tackles.

“It’s always fun to play with the known people – like Hope, Strasko – especially because I only play with them sometimes in a different context, and usually play against them,” Lin said. “It was also interesting with the Life West centers. Rachel is newer to the sport and Siale [Alatini] has not played a lot of center before so they’re very fresh. So seeing them assert themselves or take control or back themselves and have a go is awesome. The try where Rachel beat seven people and then offloaded to me, that’s super fun for me.”

The aforementioned try came after another crushing Grizzlies scrum, and then Siano hit the extras for the 12-0 lead into the break.

“We saw attempts to implement the game plan we came into the game with; the shapes we’ve been training for four trainings,” Lin said of the positives. “And then we also saw people step into the reason why they’re here or got selected, so you saw a lot of individual efforts, a lot of continuity and offloads and go-forward, and that stuff’s great.

“Honestly things felt pretty OK and we worked out a lot of things mid-game, which I think is really cool,” Lin recapped the halftime talk. “[W]e talked about a little more settling into clarity of what your role is in the shape, and some of that was just being a little more direct and controlled, instead of attacking space that we haven’t earned yet.”

The Grizzlies made some changes after the break, like moving Bernadel Huey from fullback to flyhalf, and also brought on Lee, who was able to showcase some nice speed on the wing. Gray Wolves fullback Sam Sullivan had the sideline covered, however, and two fast-paced breaks ended in smothering tackles. The pack was still performing, and was still a reliable platform for points.

“The other thing I want to call out is the try off the scrum,” Lin said. “We went into that like, ‘Let’s just drive over. We can take this.’ And then watching the forwards execute that, that’s just awesome. We don’t have to do any work, just watch them score off the scrum, that’s awesome.”

As the pile moved toward the try line, No. 8 Strasko picked off the back for the score: 19-0 with Bernadel Huey’s conversion.

The visitors got life about five minute later, when Slaught finished off a solid set of sideline-to-sideline phases to finish in the corner (19-5), but Mataitoga restored the point differential after good gains from Pau’u and Rogers Dellermann: 24-5.

There were approximately 20 minutes left in the match, and it belonged to the Gray Wolves. On three separate occasions, visitors broke the line from their own end and finished off long-range scores. Colleen Cribbs was the first, and flyhalf McKenzie Hawkins, who drove a good kicking game, converted (24-12). Hawkins then picked off a pass deep in the Gray Wolves’ end and beat the pursuit to the line, and again kicked the extras: 24-19. Then, with no time on the clock and the “last play” notice from the ref, Colorado readied itself for the final restart. The Grizzlies intercepted a pass and had someone kicked the ball to touch, that would have been game. But instead, Ehrecke popped out of a ruck with the ball and moved it to Julie Tordonato for the line-break and try: 24-all. Hawkins added the two-pointer with ease, and the whistle sounded in favor of the Gray Wolves, 26-24.

“No one likes to lose, but especially in this kind of environment, it’s really about how can we develop as individuals within a team and unit structure,” Lin said. “And keeping that focus, we can highlight a lot of great things that happened, or will soon happen, out of this game. Keeping that mentality is important even if we are super competitive athletes.”

It was a fabulous, competitive game, and it served many purposes. The Grizzlies are serving the larger Bay Area and Sacramento communities, but they also aid those USA Eagles who need field time in advance of next year’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

“Any chance to play is really important, especially for the players who are staying domestic, because a bunch of Eagles have gone abroad. This is what we need, to actually play rugby,” Lin referenced the 10 Americans in the U.K. Allianz Premier 15s league.

“It’s good for the sport and for the high-level athletes to just have two club trainings a week but also 1-2 extra trainings – at least that’s what I’m looking for since I’m not in a professional environment,” the scrumhalf closed. “But there’s a nice separate element, too. The USA [DTE] stuff is great but reconnecting to how we all started in rugby and why we love rugby from more of a homegrown perspective is also really fun.”