CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. - Alysha Corrigan not dressed in UPEI Panthers green for an Atlantic University Sport (AUS) women’s rugby contest? Outrageous, but true.
The former Panther standout, now with the red and white attired Acadia Axewomen, returns to her former home digs for the rematch between UPEI (1-3) and Acadia (3-1) on Saturday.
Kickoff is 2 p.m. at UPEI and Corrigan knows this game will be unlike opening day when Acadia thumped 116-12 in Wolfville, N.S. Corrigan had two tries and eight converts that day.
“Playing them here (Wolfville) in the first game of the season was weird. Coming back home will have a whole different feeling,” said the Charlottetown native.
Corrigan, a fullback, spent four years with the Panthers leading UPEI in scoring (40 points) in her final year, earning AUS all-star and U Sports 2nd team all-Canadian awards and sharing the UPEI female athlete of the year award with sprinter Bailey Smith.
She moved on to Acadia when UPEI didn’t have a course she wanted and after applying to U Sports was deemed eligible for athletics for a fifth year. So she joined the already strong rugby squad and so far is third in scoring in the league with 33 points on three tries and nine conversions.
She admits to not holding back in that first game against many of the same players she shared space with at UPEI in the fall and the Charlottetown Rugby Football Club in the summer.
“When you step on a rugby field you go out and play the best you can. You have a goal and the goal is to win,” she said. “But at the end of the day, you can take a hit and give a hit and walk off the field and laugh about the game.”
Earlier his year, Corrigan got the invite from Rugby Canada for a senior women’s team tryout in Ontario. She impressed, made the cut from the original 85 invitees and was recently named to the 41-woman short list. Coaches now evaluate the play of the 41 over the next few week and by late October will announce the 30-woman roster for the national team set to tour Europe in November.
But that’s later on, right now Corrigan plans to spend some time re-acquainting herself with her old stomping grounds this Thanksgiving weekend.
“I’m staying home through the long weekend and definitely hang out with the UPEI girls and have fun,” she said.
