Tylo Borsboom would pick up the game’s MVP award after leading the Gees to victory
The RSEQ Women’s Rugby Championship has felt like the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals in the mid-2010s for some time now. The middle of the decade saw the Golden State Warrior take on the Cleveland Cavaliers for four straight seasons.
If that felt like a long time, just imagine adding two more years to the matchup. That’s the reality of the RSEQ finals. Starting in 2014, the Gee-Gees went on a run of six straight RSEQ Championships. The team added a national title in 2017 after taking down Laval in the RSEQ finals, starting a run of six straight matchups with the Rouge et Or in the regional finals.
The sixth straight matchup occurred on Saturday, Oct. 21 in Quebec City. Laval had earned hosting rights due to defeating the U of O, 14-12, in the first game of the season. Early in the game, a match of kick tennis broke out. After the ball changed hands a few times, and the Gees pushed through an exhausting set of phases, front row Deborah Oyetoran finally took the ball into Laval’s try zone for the first score of the game. Aurora Bowie’s convert was successful, and the Gees had a 7-0 lead.
Almost immediately after Laval sent a restart kick back to the Gees, flyhalf Jamie Lee Walker showed off her powerful leg with a beautiful kick from her own 35-yard line that resulted in a 50:22. A 50:22 occurs when a player kicks from within their own half, the ball bounces within the opposing team’s 22-yard line, and the ensuing line-out is given back to the kicking team.
After gaining field position, the Gees started mauling out of their line-outs. Their first was stopped, but Emma Wade pushed right through to the try zone on their second line-out. The underdog Gees had jumped out to a 13-0 lead.
Just a few minutes later, Tylo Borsboom took the ball out of a scrum and went to work. The fourth-year back row who played for Canada’s U-23 team this summer, came flying out of the scrum and broke tackle after tackle, picking up massive yardage for the Gees. She would pick up the game’s MVP award after a leading the Gees to victory.
Ketsia Kamba was the next to touch down for the Gees now that they had field position. Kamba led the team with nine tries in the regular season. Kamba and Wade would add another try each in the game.
Laval attempted a comeback in the second half but could only muster two tries. The Gees would take the championship, 27-12.
Following the game, all-stars and major award winners were announced. Ngozi Mosindi, Kamba, Borsboom, and Wade all grabbed a spot on the First-Team All-Stars, a list of the top 15 players in RSEQ., Sarah White, Leigha Stiles, Rachel Steel and Oyetoran all claimed Second-Team All-Star honours.
The Gee-Gees will return to Quebec City for the U SPORTS National Championships, which kick off Nov. 1 and continue until a champion is crowned on Nov. 5. The Gees enter the tournament as the top ranked seed, and strong contenders for the trophy, along with the Rouge et Or and the Queens Gaels. Stay tuned for streaming details.
