North American Rugby Database

Report

The defending Champion Denver Onyx travel to the Midwest to face the Twin Cities Gemini at TCO Stadium during Round 9 of the 2026 WER season!

This is the second meeting of the season between these sides following a Round 2 clash at Infinity Park in Colorado where the Onyx took a commanding 54-29 victory to go 3-0 in this match up dating back to the start of WER’s inaugural season.

The hosts would open the scoring early with a 2nd minute score from KJ Johnson and the extras from Chloe Headland gave them a 7-0 lead and it would take the Onyx 10 minutes to hit back but when they did, they hit hard. Joanna Kitlinski got the defending champions on the board and Makayla Wilkins evened things up with the conversion, before Anna van Dyk gave them the lead 5 minutes later. From here, the game bogged down, although the two sides would still trade scores with a pair of Onyx tries sandwiching a Gemini score from Natayah Bauer to give the visitors a comfortable 14-35 lead at the break.

Clearly the Onyx weren’t satisfied with a 21pt lead however, and they started the second half on fire with two scores in the first two minutes of the frame, before the Gemini cooled things off with a score of their from Megan Ahnen in the 45th minute. Ahnen doubled up a few minutes later to secure the try BP for the Gemini and cut the deficit to 26-40 with plenty of time left, but the Onyx would recover and halt the comeback attempt, adding another 3 scores in the final 20 minutes to put the game to bed.

The Onyx improve to 4-0 against the Gemini with a big 26-59 victory in this one, and all but lock up 1st place in the standings and a chance to defend their title in the 2026 Legacy Cup game. The Gemini fall to 6-3 on the season but pick up a bonus point to move to within 3pts of the Bay Breakers in 2nd, who they will play next week with the winner likely earning their own spot in the Legacy Cup.