Girls Rugby annihilated Newton, making them five time MYRO state champions on Sunday May 24.

Although rugby has only been a varsity sport at Algonquin for a few years, the program has had impeccable success.

“It feels pretty awesome- I would say amazing,” varsity co-coach Emily Philbin said. “[We are] the only varsity sport to do it five years in a row, I believe. Not just five championships, five consecutive years.”

Rugby’s success is clearly impressive, but what’s arguably more remarkable is the team’s dynamic. Like other spring sports teams they had difficulty adjusting to the weather restrictions in the beginning of the season, but the team managed to overcome the obstacles and use them as an opportunity to grow.

“We’re a very close team and we have to create great relationships or we don’t play as well,” senior Natalie Lambert said. “We’re all strong players in our positions, but without one another, we aren’t as good. It really is a team game.”

They also lost several key players from last year, but they didn’t let that stop them from playing at a high level.

“Our season was successful because of how we grew as a team,” senior Maggie Scott said. “We came into the season a little unsure, because we had lost so many of our starting varsity players, but as the season went on everything clicked and we grew to be a very strong team.”

The varsity coaches Laurie Bourdon and Philbin worked the girls over the course of the whole season to prepare them as much as they could. Since rugby is such a physical sport, it was really important to focus on safety.

“Safety is the number one priority when you coach rugby,” Philbin said.

The coaches also had the girls do walk-throughs and visualize game-like situations to help them prepare for the big game. In the beginning of the season they did a lot of running and conditioning, but when they got deeper into the season they spent time working on more technical things such as penalties and tackles.

“It’s an exhausting game and it had been an exhausting season and so I think the focus part was probably even more key than practicing all the penalties and stuff,” Philbin said. “Just thinking about what to do, what you know to do, and how you do well, and just focusing on that I think was really helpful for them.”

In the end, all of their hard work truly paid off, and the girls had an unforgettable experience playing on the team.

“Since the sport is really a team game, I think the relationships you build are essential and we really bond as a team,” Lambert said. “We have each others backs.”

“Rugby has changed my high school experience because it has given me a whole new level of confidence, and also introduced me to some of my best friends,” Scott said.