 Top News - Sports - May 7, 2008 |
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KEVIN HILL/St. Albert Gazette
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ALBERTA CUP LID-LIFTER
Aaron Millard protects the ball while battling his way through the Lep/Tigers defence in Saturday’s Alberta Cup match at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club. St. Albert won the first division opener 38-15. St. Albert scored three converted tries in the first half. |
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First division back with a bang
St. Albert rugby shines in Alberta Cup home opener |
By Jeff Hansen
Staff Writer
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St. Albert celebrated its triumphant return to the premier ranks of Alberta rugby with a rousing victory against the Lep/Tigers.
"It’s always a good start with a win," fly-half Ashley Hanson said after the 38-15 decision in Saturday’s home opener at The Next Generation Field.
"We’re back in the first division in quite a big way."
Historically the St. Albert Rugby Football Club has fielded strong sides in the second division but has done poorly in the first division.
"It’s always tough to step up. We’ve still got a tag of being a second division team but the boys showed today that we can step up to that high standard," said Hanson, St. Albert’s co-MVP with the 18-1 Lor-Ann Cup provincial second division champions.
"We’re not afraid of anyone this year. We’re confident otherwise we wouldn’t be here."
St. Albert’s starting 15 featured several returning players from arguably the most talented team in club history.
"Success breeds success. Last year gives us the impetus to do well and go for it this year," said Hanson, a transplanted Brit who split time last year with St. Albert and the Edmonton Gold in the Rugby Canada Super League.
"The reason why we didn’t want to go up last year was we didn’t feel we had the depth. We’ve still got a very, very good core of guys from last year, plus there are some other new guys who’ve come in [from other clubs] and some new guys who’ve come through the high school program. We now believe we’ve got the guys who can help us go forward."
In the first half St. Albert opened the scoring with three converted tries and led 24-5 at halftime. Crossing the try line was Ben Robinson (seventh minute off a flurry of activity deep in the Lep/Tigers’ end after a punishing run by Kenya import, Edwin Shimenga), rookie Duncan Maguire (chased down a kick into the try area in the 13th minute) and Rio Wells (touched it down underneath the posts in the 16th minute after a quick burst from the 22-metre line).
The first of three converts by Hanson in the opening 40 minutes was a thing of beauty. With the ball positioned right next to the touch line about 40 metres away, he banked it in off the far post with an impressive hook shot. The play of the game drew a standing ovation from St. Albert supporters.
Hanson, 27, also split the uprights with a penalty kick two minutes before halftime. He finished the game with 13 kicking points.
"In the first half we really ran the ball. We were going forward all the time. In the second half they changed the way they played and we just couldn’t get the ball back," Hanson said. "All the credit to them. They fought back well. They’re a good side. They’ve been established in this league for a long time."
The second try by Wells made it 29-5 after the Lep/Tigers turned over the ball in their end with eight minutes gone in the second half.
"Yeah, I scored two tries but I’m not going to take all the credit because I couldn’t have done it without the other 14 guys," Wells said. "I didn’t do as well as I should have done today. There are a lot of things I need to improve on position-wise and just being patient. On that one mess up it was a bad pass I threw out to [Chris] Hartman coming to the right side of the pitch that they [Lep/Tigers] took advantage of. In order for me to correct that mess up I had to score a try to get that out of my mind."
The humble 34-year-old winger also downplayed his MVP award as the Edmonton Rugby Union’s senior men’s player of the year.
"I’m proud of it but that was last year. I’ve got to improve even more this year," said Wells, who spent five years in the CFL with the Edmonton Eskimos, Toronto Argonauts and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
"I didn’t do it all by myself last year. I put my hard work in but I’ve got guys that surround me that could’ve won MVP, too."
It’s the highest individual honour for Wells since receiving a CFL community award. He collected his share of MVP trophies in high school in New Orleans as a three-sport star in football, basketball and track.
At Fresno State University he was a second-team All-Western Athletic Conference Pacific Division all-star in his senior year at defensive back.
This is Wells’ fourth year of rugby and he is a fixture in the starting line-up.
"We get about 40 guys out at training and they all push me. It makes me better," said the high school teammate of former NFL quarterback Kordell Stewart.
Wells downplayed St. Albert’s winning performance against the slower Lep/Tigers.
"We’ve got some improvements to make. From a fans’ point of view things probably looked pretty good, whereas we look at it and it wasn’t good," he said.
"We need to work on our weaknesses and not on our strengths. That’s the only way we’re going to hopefully become a premier champion and that’s our goal as a team."
The next Alberta Cup match is 4 p.m. Saturday against the Calgary Saracens in St. Albert.
"We just have to take this victory and be proud of it for the day and then move on to the next game," said Wells, another Gold player on the St. Albert roster.
"It’s not going to be easy for any of us this year. Teams are going to be gunning for us [but] we want people to know we’re not big headed. We know we’ve got a lot of hard work in front of us. We’ve got a lot of things to improve on and a lot of people are counting on us to do those things." |
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