he women’s rugby team sent a message to their rivals, the McMaster Marauders, on Friday night. The Gaels cruised past the York Lions 31-3 in Toronto to improve to 3-0 and now look ahead to their game against the undefeated Marauders.

Head coach Beth Barz said she noticed Marauders staff in the crowd on Friday.

“They were there taping our game so I would say that they’ll be prepared,” head coach Barz said. “There are a few things they haven’t seen for sure so we’ll be looking at running a few of those plays.”

Fly-half Andrea Wadsworth put down two tries against York, and scrum-half Susan Heald broke through with a terrific run to help the Gaels remain unbeaten. Coming off a poor performance in a narrow 15-14 victory over the Brock Badgers, Barz said she was pleased see a more dominant effort from her team.

“It really came down to the defensive side of the ball,” she said. “When you can put yourself in a position to put the other team on their back foot it makes things easier in terms of attack.”

Field conditions were wet on Friday, forcing the Gaels to run their offense predominantly through their forwards to minimize handling errors with a slippery ball.

“We played quite well in spite of the conditions,” Barz said. “Most of the girls have played in conditions that are less than ideal.”

With only two games remaining in the regular season, the women will prepare for the Marauders next weekend — a game that could decide first place in the Russell division. The Gaels edged out the Marauders 15-14 last year to win the division.

Despite the win, Heald said the team still isn’t a championship caliber team.

“I don’t feel like we’re where we should be,” the team captain said. “I thought we’d have bigger improvements from each game. McMaster will be a real test of our abilities to see where we stand against better teams.”

Heald said worrying about their opponent won’t help the team this week.

“We’re just going to play simple rugby and play our game,” she said. “Obviously we’ll have to play tougher defense because they’re a very skilled side.”

The women host McMaster on Saturday at 1 p.m. on West Campus.