After an 87-3 blowout over Wilfrid Laurier, it was obvious the Purple Pipe had to be given to the women’s rugby team. This week, the prestigious pipe is shared by Martha Goodrow who scored 32 points on two tries and 11 converts, and Karen Harwood who scored five tries in the Western victory. The two athletes sat down with the Gazette to discuss team strategy, Guelph and getting concussed off the field.

How long have you been playing rugby and why did you start?

Harwood: I started playing in Grade nine in high school because a friend of mine played and she thought I’d like it. I tried it out, and I loved it.
Goodrow: I also started playing in Grade nine. My homeroom teacher in Grade eight was the rugby coach and said “you’re playing rugby next year” and I was like “okay, great,” and the rest is history.

What did the team do to recover from the loss to Waterloo, moving on to beat Laurier 87-3?
Harwood: I think our coaches really picked up the tempo. We had been going a bit easier earlier in the season. They really just picked it up and showed us where we had to be at.
Goodrow: She [head coach Natascha Wesch] didn’t yell or get mad at us for losing. She automatically turned the focus to the next week and what we were going to do. I think that we knew that we had something to prove, and something to establish and improve on from the Waterloo game. The practices leading up to Laurier were very intense and very focused and we had a specific goal in mind.

Who is your biggest competition?
Goodrow: Guelph for sure. We’ve been going back and forth with them. In my first year we lost 7-4 in the [Ontario University Athletics] final, second year we beat them and last year we lost 14-0 in the OUA final.
Harwood: I think that in the past decade we’re the only two teams that have been the OUA champions.

The rugby team travels a lot. What do you guys do to keep yourselves entertained on the bus?
Goodrow: Movies.
Harwood: I do the Gazette crosswords.
Goodrow: A lot of people do the Sudoku too. A lot of the time our coach has us do unit thinking where we sit in groups and go through different scenarios as if we were playing, so that kind of gets your mind switched on for the game.

What is your most embarrassing athletic moment?
Harwood: I have two. One would be walking into a set of bleachers after a game and giving myself a concussion. The second would be walking into a hand dryer before a game and giving myself a concussion.
Goodrow: She had a goose egg on her head after walking into the hand dryer at Trent.
Harwood: Before the game I was trying to ice down my forehead. The bleachers [incident] was in the summer, a really hot day and I wasn’t looking where I was going. That was a bad one. My legs crumpled under me and I almost fell down, I couldn’t keep my balance.

Best London bar?
Harwood and Goodrow: Ceeps.
Goodrow: I’ve told everyone that I’m not graduating without going to Ceeps in sweatpants and a hoodie. You do not need to dress up for Ceeps but everyone always does, so one day I’m just going to go in grubs [laughs].

Best place to chill on campus?
Goodrow: I’m at Lucy’s a lot. It seems to be the kin/athlete hang out.
Harwood: I was in engineering in my first two years so I just lived in Spencer [Engineering]. But now I’ve been freed from there so I just kind of wander. I’m experiencing a whole new side of campus; it’s exciting. [laughs]

Any pre-game rituals?
Goodrow: For the team we have a specific taping time, then we have meeting, then we go out and do individual warm-up for 15-20 minutes, then we have team warm-up, split, and then we come together and we put our equipment on. And then we all stand on the goal line with our arms linked and the captain says ‘Ready’ and we step on the field.
Harwood: I really like pre-team warm-ups. One thing that drives me crazy is that we keep switching what stretches we do, so we’re not always doing the same thing and I can’t stand it. I love a routine before games. We do have a pretty good one, and it helps me to focus.
Goodrow: Tash sends out a lineup and then at the bottom it has all of the timing for the hour and a half before kickoffs