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www.insidehalton.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, November 2, 2017 | 36 Kevin Nagel, O a k v ille B e a v e r S p o r t s E d ito r, k n a g e l@ b u rlin g t o n p o s t.c o m Sports "Connected to yo u r Community " By Herb Garbutt O a k v ille B e a v e r s t a ff When she showed up at her ballet class muddy and grass stained, it was pretty clear that Taylor Black wasn't your typical dancer. It didn't take long to figure she wasn't your typical rugby player either. Black began playing rugby with the Oakville Crusaders when she was 10 be cause all the kids in her neighbourhood were playing. After showing promise in the sport, she began training with Upright Rugby Her coach Tyler Leggatt immediately saw her po tential and recommended the then 14-yearold to the Dog River Howlers, an under-17 side that was going to compete at the Hei delberg International Youth Sevens Rugby Tournament in Germany She may have been one of the youngest players, but it didn't show on the rugby field. "She lit it up," said Leggatt. "There was a French junior national team there and because the Howlers were eliminated, they asked her to play for them." Black tried to balance dance and rugby for a summer, but after rushing from rugby practice to dance, it became clear she would have to make a choice. Rugby won. Since then, she has done nothing but prove it was the right decision. "She's very dedicated to her development, but also in the success of the program," Leggatt said. In July, Black helped Canada earn a silver medal at the Youth Commonwealth Games in the Bahamas. Despite the loss to Australia in the final, the 17-year-old said it was the highlight of her season. Oakville's Taylor Black was named Rugby Ontario's junior female player of the year. Black contributed to rugby success at the high school, club, provincial and national levels. | photo submitted "It was great to see what it's like at the next level, to experience what it's like to play a team like Australia," she said. "That will keep pushing us." There have been many highlights to choose from for Black over the past year: a gold medal with Canada at the Tropical 7s tournament and plate winners at the Euro 7s Championship. In 15-a-side, she scored a try in each of the Canadian U18 team's vic tories over the United States as it swept the Can-Am series in Ottawa in August. She also helped her club (Oakville Crusaders) and high school (Oakville Trafalgar) teams claim provincial titles. All of that contributed to Black being named the Rugby Ontario junior female player of the year. Leggatt said Black, who is now helping coach younger players at Upright Rugby, shines in many aspects of the game. "Her catch and pass is exceptional and has been since she was young. She's able to move the ball fast." he said. "She's very good at the point of contact. She's a tough but very effective tackler and she reads space very well." Although dance eventually lost out to rug by, her dad says she is still benefitting from the days before pirouettes and plies gave way to rucks and scrums. "(Dancers) have that core strength and body awareness," said Peter Black, who now coaches his daughter's Crusaders team. "I think in dancing she was used to training long hours with a lot of repeti tion." "She's motivated," Leggatt said. "She's got that competitive mind-set. She's determined to do well." Young rugby Crusaders side gains experience w inning M cC orm ick Cup consolation By Herb Garbutt O a k v ille B e a v e r s t a ff Sure, it wasn't the big prize. No body sets out at the beginning of the season to be consolation cham pions. But for a young Oakville Cru saders team the experience was invaluable. Daniel Mathie's penalty kick with four minutes to play gave the Crusaders a 29-27 victory over the Aurora Barbarians in Rugby Ontar io's McCormick Cup consolation championship in Markham. "To play in a league champion ship of any kind, to know what it's like and how to play under pres sure, there are all sorts of experi ence and lessons we can take from it," said Crusaders coach Rodin Lozada. The Oakville side encountered pretty much everything there is to experience in a champion ship game. They fell behind early, stormed back to take the lead, then let it slip away before coming through in the final minutes to se cure the victory. Yet that still paled in compari son to their consolation semifinal win in which the Crusaders trailed 18-3 before rallying for a 25-18 vic tory on Andrew Wilson's try on the final play of the game. There were more wild swings in the final. Oakville fell behind 10-0 by the 25-minute mark. Twice more Aurora moved the ball deep into Crusader territory before turn ing the ball over on penalties. Oakville got on the board with Matt Nicol's try that made it 10-7 and was threatening again when the first half ended. Brendan Gilbert's try eight min utes into the second half gave Oakville its first lead. Filip Dobrielski drove over the line to extend the lead to 19-10 and four minutes later Avery Lecce's try and Mathie's third convert gave Oakville a 26-10 advantage. The Crusaders seemed to have all the momentum, especially con sidering Aurora had a man sent off on the final Oakville try. Instead, Aurora scored two minutes later and then added a second try while still a man down to cut the lead to 26-24. The Barbarians then regained the lead, 27-26, converting a pen alty kick with seven minutes re maining. "We're a pretty young team that can be inconsistent," Lozada said. "We got the lead and then fell asleep a little. Most of the top teams, the average age tends to be late 20s, early 30s. Our average age is around 22." Going with a younger side was a conscious effort by the Crusaders, who last won the McCormick Cup in 2012. "The team had gotten older over the last few years," Lozada said. "We really wanted to take advan tage of the huge pipeline of talent in this area. The results were not as important as learning how to be organized, how to play with struc ture -- just learning how to play at this level." Oakville went 4-9-1 to finish sixth in the eight-team Marshall Premiership. After a 31-17 loss to the Peterborough Pegans in the opening round of the M cCor m ick Cup playoffs, the Crusad ers were relegated to the consola tion draw. They bounced back to rout the Oshawa Vikings 70-7 in the quar ter-finals before rallying for the semifinal win against Bytown.