The University of Lethbridge is set to host the U SPORTS Women's Rugby Championship tournament this weekend. To celebrate, Canada West is looking back at the conference's previous national champions. Today, we take a look at the Lethbridge Pronghorns, who won three consecutive national titles from 2007 to 2009.
The 2017 edition of the tournament kicks off today, as the host 'Horns take on the defending national champion St. FX X-Women at 5 p.m. MDT.
Brian Swane, Special to Canada West
EDMONTON – If there was a travel website for the Canadian university rugby championships, the reviews would be near perfect.
From Victoria to Halifax, the hosts have rolled out the welcome mat, made the guests feel right at home, and even sent them away a souvenir trophy, compliments of the house.
That will be the case yet again this weekend when the University of Lethbridge hosts the 2017 U SPORTS Women’s Rugby Championship. Everywhere, that is, except at Lethbridge’s Community Sports Stadium, where the three-time national champion Pronghorns are hoping for a little home field advantage.
This is the 20th edition of the annual championship, and thus far the host school won just twice: the 2003 Alberta Pandas and the 2008 Pronghorns, who downed St. Francis Xavier 29-15 in the gold medal match.
“To be really honest, I wouldn’t necessarily say it was a huge advantage when we hosted,” says Pronghorns coach Neil Langevin, who guided the team to three straight national titles from 2007 to 2009. “It was probably the most stressful season that we had just because we knew expectations were pretty high.
“But is there no doubt that the home crowd in Lethbridge (helps). It’s pretty famous for being a large crowd. We’ve drawn a thousand fans for well over 10 years here and they’re very loud and vocal. This year we have a young group, so there’s no doubt that playing at home is going to be an advantage for us this year."
In the history of rugby nationals, 13 schools have failed to protect their turf, including four that hosted and lost twice. Thus, Langevin, who was in charge of Lethbridge women’s rugby from the program’s inception in 2000 until 2012 before returning this season, has seemingly cracked the code that continues to baffle so many others.
“It built up quite a bit in the tournament in 2008,” says Langevin, whose team faced not only the pressures of hosting but the weighty expectations of being defending champs. “I’ve always tried to ensure that athletes see me as level and calm-headed, but I also know that the players felt that pressure of playing in front of family and friends.”
Their 2008 title neatly fit into the narrative as middle chapter of the Pronghorns’ three-peat. In 2007, Lethbridge captured their first national championship by upsetting – fittingly – the host team, Western, in London, Ont. By 2009, the Pronghorns had morphed into a juggernaut, out-scoring the opposition by 306 points over six matches in the Canada West regular season and championship tournament, before going 4-0 at Nationals in Vancouver, capped with a gold medal triumph for a second straight time against St. FX.
“The first national win was unexpected, the second was a very hard battle, and the third one, we were pretty well entrenched and that team was very deep and very strong,” says Langevin.
The Pronghorns opened the 2008 tournament with a pair of convincing round-robin wins, over Western and Laval. The hosts then decimated Guelph, 39-3, in the semifinal to set up a championship match against the X-Women.
“That was probably one of the better games we’ve encountered,” Langevin says. “We were behind until the second half, but the heart was there throughout and they just refused to stop and played incredible defence, which we’ve always done here.”
It likely didn’t hurt that the Pronghorns have arguably Canadian rugby’s largest and most loyal fanbase, which was out in full force that cool fall day.
“There weren’t really a lot of bleachers, but we figure it was about 1,500 people around that grass field, so it might have been pretty intimidating because there wasn’t a whole lot of space out there,” recalls Langevin.
The amazing support the Pronghorns enjoy year in and year out is perhaps the enduring legacy of the 2008 national championships. Crowds frequently number in four digits, the team members are widely recognized student-athletes who appear in ads for the university, and girls grow up in Lethbridge dreaming about playing rugby for the Pronghorns.
“I think it is very much the culture of women’s rugby being entrenched here in Lethbridge as being something that the community knows about and is proud about,” says Langevin.
As for this year’s team, Langevin feels it possesses much of what helped the 2008 Pronghorns take advantage of playing at home. But having seen his own teams do it twice, he knows that the seven visiting squads will arrive with every intention of crashing Lethbridge’s party.
“Once you get there, you just make wherever it is home and you just need to focus the girls on the task,” he says. “The location can be a help in the game and at times it can also hurt, but the job of the coaches are to focus the players on performing and doing their best in the role of the team to achieve something.”
More on the U SPORTS Women's Rugby Championship:
For more on the 2017 U SPORTS Women's Rugby Championship at the University of Lethbridge, click here.