Over the last six years, women's rugby has been growing in Nova Scotia and gaining recognition as a high-performance sport.

"The big success right now for our Keltics program is now all the universities are offering scholarships because the level of play within Nova Scotia has improved so much," said Jack Hanratty, provincial coach for Nova Scotia Keltics.

Hanratty said the growth can be shown by results, membership or through experience playing the sport. The Keltics program focuses on all three.

Changing attitudes

"The one thing we've noticed is that you used to play rugby because somebody you knew, or somebody in your family, had a history in rugby," said Hanratty.

"And now people are seeing the game, because now it's an Olympic sport, as … a real option of being a student-athlete."

This summer, the Keltics senior women's team won the silver medal at the Canadian championship tournament, finishing ahead of B.C. and Ontario.

"We are continuing to improve and it's showing when we do go to compete," said Sarah Boudreau, captain of the Acadia Axewomen and a member of the Keltics program.

Competing for national honours

Boudreau and the Axewomen, the host team, will be competing for a medal at the national university championship event starting Thursday in Wolfville.

Eight teams representing all of the U Sports conferences, including Atlantic University Sport champion St. Francis Xavier, will compete for the national banner.

"This is the first year that Acadia is hosting and it's kind of cool to be able to compete for that on your own home turf," said Boudreau. "I'm feeling very confident."

There will be approximately 200 athletes attending, with 25 of them having played with the Keltics.

Calgary, Laval, Queen's, Guelph, Victoria and Ottawa are the other teams competing. There are four quarter-final matches on Thursday with the final on Sunday afternoon.