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Buoyed by their 35–15 victory in the first leg against this same Bruc team two weeks ago, the combined squad of players from the Rascasses of Saint Barth and the Archigirls of Saint Martin was looking to repeat that strong performance, having won three straight games against the Abymiennes. But that wasn’t to be this Saturday at Palais Royal. Yet the first half of the game was tightly controlled; both the Rascasses and the Archigirls, playing as a united team, bravely prevented the Bruc players from pulling away on the scoreboard (21–12). But midway through the game, the northern islanders fell apart and trailed by 40 points two-thirds of the way through regulation time. The final 15 minutes of the game were slightly better, but that didn’t stop the “Brucettes” from adding to the score, closing out the game at 79–12. For Saint Barth coach Thomas Boisseau, the Northern Islands team lacked direction, but that wasn’t all: “We didn’t step up together on defense, and with the speed they bring on the other end, we paid for it dearly. Yet we were in the fight; we played our game, but in return we hit our cardio limit pretty quickly, and our opponent took advantage of our slump in the middle of the match to score several tries in a row… once the gap widened, it was hard to close the score.” Suellen Delafosse, one of the long-standing leaders of Entente des Iles du Nord, remains clear-headed about this loss, but that doesn’t stop her from looking ahead to the rest of the season: “We had a good first half, unlike the second, where we lacked intensity on defense. On the other side, the Bruc players wanted to show their fans that they could beat us at home. It wasn’t a good day for us, but we’ll bounce back for sure—we’ll have other chances to do well! Before, we were just friends; now we’re a team that still has a lot to prove.” Léa De Rancourt, who’s racking up minutes of playing time game after game, echoes this sentiment: “We know we’re capable of replicating, on the road, performances similar to those we deliver when we play at home. Tonight, the Abymiennes were better than us, but we’ll come back stronger next time. Losing games like this is also valuable for the experience; we’ll use our mistakes to beat them in our next match.”
That match will take place on May 9 for Entente Rascasses – Archigirls, who will host the defending champions, Good Luck Gosier, at Bellevue Stadium in Saint Martin. If the island team arrives at full strength, with players freed from their professional and personal obligations, there’s no doubt that Entente des Iles du Nord will give the Gosier team a run for their money. That’s the bare minimum required if they hope to reach the championship final again at the end of the season.
