CWU Women’s Rugby will take on Oregon Sports Union Rugby (ORSU) on March 14. ORSU is a Portland premier rugby club and not a collegiate team. Their website states that the team attracts and develops rugby players from all backgrounds that live in the greater Portland area.

CWU senior inside center Suiluana Sooialo A’au said the match will help her become a better player and senior flanker Michel Navarro is excited about the match. 

“We haven’t had a lot of games this season and we’re hoping to get a good match so that we can prepare for the [Bay Area Semi-Final],” Navarro said. “So we can fully get the full experience.”

Navarro said ORSU has a very strong forward pack, which makes for an interesting match.

“It’s gonna make it more competitive since we are both good at those,” Navarro said.

Preparation

When it comes to the preparation of the team, Navarro said it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle. She said junk food is not going to give players the nutrients they need to build muscle.

“Eating healthy is a big part of it and also just practicing, training together [and] trying to get our structure together,” Navarro said.

Head coach Trevor Richards said it’s important for the team to be physical to match the physicality. He also said the team has shown that their defensive system is excellent when it’s run well. 

“In order to stop [ORSU], we’re really going to have to maintain line speed,” Richards said. “That defensive launch to get off the line and perfect and provide pressure on attack.”

Expectation

Navarro expects the match to help the team build off each other’s strengths in order to prepare for the semi-finals.

Navarro and A’au both said making sure the team flows smoothly is important.

“We wanna practice hard and become united as a family more… so we can play together and flow better,” Navarro said. “We’re not frantic, everything is natural in our force.”

“Getting that high level competition will really help us so that we can figure out what we need to work on and what things are working, so that we can continue doing those and bring it into the matches ahead of us,” Navarro said.

A’au said the match against OSUR is the process of the preparation for playoffs.

“We want to make sure that we’re winning every game that we have in front of us from now through the end of the season,” Richards said. “That’s going to give us really positive momentum heading into playoffs.”