Rugby vs. The World Challenge: On Ice in Canada

Ice hockey and Canada are synonymous, but the country has a proud rugby tradition as well. When the two sports go head to head, it’s anybody’s guess as to who will win in the latest DHL Rugby vs. The World Challenge.

Laura Russell traded her rugby shoes for a set of ice skates at the most recent DHL Rugby vs. The World Challenge, which saw the Canadian women’s national team player take to the ice against three-time Canadian Olympic ice hockey gold medalist Jennifer Botterill.

Jennifer – no stranger to rising to a challenge thanks to her Olympic experience – had to admit that rugby wasn’t a sport she knew much about.

“I’ve played at four Olympics,” she said, “however my rugby experience is not quite so extensive.”

Laura, of course, is well-versed in rugby, but as a Canadian national team player, she knows DHL as well: DHL is the Official Logistics Partner of Rugby Canada, in addition to being the Official Logistics Partner of Rugby World Cup 2015.

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Laura took surprisingly well to the ice and seemed confident in handling the puck. But how would she fare in the hockey penalties challenge?

With a neutral goalie minding the net, Laura and Jennifer took turns taking penalties to see who could score the most in five attempts. Jennifer’s experience proved to be the deciding factor in this challenge, which she won by a score of 4-1. But even with just one goal, Laura made a solid appearance.

“I was impressed with Laura,” said Laura. “For someone who hasn’t spent too much time on their skates, she had the one goal and a couple of other very close chances.”

The next challenge, despite coming from the world of rugby, was suited to both challengers. In the gauntlet, the players ran a zig-zag pattern between tackling dummies, making a total of four tackles while being timed. Laura makes tackles like that all the time on the rugby pitch, but Jennifer has a similar aspect in her game, checking her opponents into the boards on the ice.

In the end, Laura won by just over a second, but said that “Jen did an amazing job for just being thrown into it.”

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With the score tied at one each, it would come down to a feat of strength to decide the contest. The final challenge was the high striker, the famous carnival game that sees contestants whack a target with a hammer to send a puck up the tower to hit a bell. Between Laura and Jennifer, each player got one whack to see who could send the puck the highest.

Jennifer clocked a respectable eight out of 10, but Laura’s excellent swinging technique allowed her to strike the target perfectly, sending the puck all the way to the top and striking the bell for a 10 out of 10. The final challenge and the overall win went to Laura and rugby.

The Rugby World Cup Trophy Tour continues in April, returning to Europe for a stop in Germany that will see rugby will take on soccer in the country of the reigning World Cup champions for the next DHL Rugby vs. The World Challenge.

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