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By Keiran Gorsky
The University of Ottawa women’s rugby team will get a touch of Olympic pedigree as coach Jack Hanratty takes the helm of the Gee-Gees, who begin regular season play Sunday at the the Bishop’s University Gaiters. Hanratty joins the Gee-Gees after heading the Canadian women’s national rugby sevens team that he coached to a silver medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
The move came as something of a surprise to dedicated Canadian rugby fans, after what has been a considerably successful tenure for the 36-year-old Skerries, Ireland native. Canada’s silver in Paris marked their best-ever result at the Olympics.
“It was just the right time for me to step away while things were good,” Hanratty explained in an interview with the Ottawa Sports Pages. “My line is that I didn’t leave. I might have left Rugby Canada as an organization, but I didn’t leave rugby in Canada.”
Hanratty, who has been involved in Canadian rugby for the last 12 years since he accepted a coaching role with Rugby Nova Scotia in 2013, gradually climbed the national ranks until he was named interim coach of the women’s sevens team in 2021. His appointment was made permanent in August of 2022, following Canada’s bronze medal finish at that year’s Commonwealth Games.
Here in Ottawa, Hanratty will take the place of his friend and mentor Duncan McNaughton, who led the Gee-Gees to a perfect 6-0 record last season before falling 32-26 to their archnemeses in the Université Laval Rouge et Or in the Quebec championship match.
For his efforts, McNaughton won the Jim Atkinson Award as the coach of the year in U Sports women’s rugby. Ottawa went on to lose both of their games at November’s U Sports Women’s Rugby Championship in Charlottetown, finishing in fourth place. McNaughton will remain on the coaching staff as a consultant.
It was McNaughton who talked Hanratty into putting his name forward for the position. Having coached early in his career at Dublin City University, Hanratty is looking forward to overseeing a more consistent stream of fixtures and applying what he considers a more “holistic” approach that suits university play.
“You celebrate winning games but you also celebrate people getting an honours degree and getting the job they’ve always wanted,” he described his new mindset.
Hanratty also noted the appeal of staying in one place for longer stretches of time than his international position would ever allow. Though he officially took on the job in January, he’s had remarkably little to do in the lead-up to this season. He only held his first full team meeting two weeks ago. In the meantime, Hanratty has been refereeing local youth rugby.
“It’s very humbling,” Hanratty laughed. “There was a couple of weeks where you were known as the coach of the Olympic team and now you’re known as the local referee.”
The composition of these Gee-Gees is not totally dissimilar from the Canadian sevens team he took charge of roughly four years ago, that saw a slew of their 2016 medal-winning veterans retire from the sport.
This year’s Gee-Gees will be without 2024 U Sports player of the year Aurora Bowie, three-time first-team All-Canadian Ketsia Kamba, first-team All-Canadian and national team prospect Alysia Comtois, captain Tylo Borsboom, plus a half-dozen more graduates.
With that in mind, Hanratty is setting out with the tentative goal of winning the RSEQ conference, armed with the knowledge and willingness to analyze every result along the way. The U Sports season being so short, and genuinely competitive matches being relatively few and far between, Hanratty wants to ensure training sessions are at a sufficiently high level for players who might very well see playing time with Canadian national teams in the near future.
“We’re not only trying to create the best team in the country eventually – we’re trying to create the best two teams,” Hanratty said of his ongoing commitment to Canadian rugby.
Along with Ottawa Irish product Pam Buisa, former Gee-Gees Claire Gallagher and Maya Montiel are on the Canadian squad at the Aug. 22-Sept. 27 Women’s Rugby World Cup in England. Gee-Gees alumni, Hanratty emphasizes, wear their badges proudly and make a habit of coming back to train with the team whenever possible.
Sunday’s season opener on the road at Bishop’s comes against an opponent they trounced 63-8 in their last meeting. They will have to wait until Sept. 20 to get their rematch against Laval. Their home opener comes on Sept. 13 against the Concordia Stingers, who earned a respectable 24-7 scoreline against Laval in the conference’s first match Friday night.
The Carleton University Ravens women’s team, meanwhile, hosts McGill Saturday to begin their campaign. McGill was 0-6 last season, while Carleton was 2-3-1.
Many more local university teams will also be starting their U Sports seasons in the coming days.
The Gee-Gees women’s soccer team, winners of the last three Ontario titles, begin their season Saturday against Trent in Peterborough. The Carleton Ravens, who were 5-4-3 last season, start on the road at Toronto Metropolitan.
The Ravens men’s soccer team beat RMC 4-0 to open their season Friday night at home. The 2023 Ontario champions lost to Toronto Metropolitan in extra time in last year’s playoffs.
The football Gee-Gees got their season started with a 27-12 win over Waterloo last weekend and will host York for their home opener at 4 p.m. on Saturday at Gee-Gees Field. The Carleton Ravens lost 42-23 to Toronto in football action last weekend.