Nor’Westers Fields – An extraordinary effort with the season hanging in the balance propelled St. Albert’s queens of the pitch into the division one playoff mix.
Nor’Westers Fields – An extraordinary effort with the season hanging in the balance propelled St. Albert’s queens of the pitch into the division one playoff mix.
Wednesday's physically-taxing 17-5 performance against Crude/West brought out the very best from the determined women's rugby team.
“We worked really well as a team and I think we almost hit our peak. This is what we wanted this season,” said captain Sabrina Kelly after St. Albert's last match before the semifinals kick off next Saturday. “Every other game it's been kind of up and down throughout the game. This game we started strong and we played strong the entire game.”
League play ends today and the results will determine the final standings in the six-team province-wide division but after the win St. Albert (2-3) is poised to finish third or fourth overall behind the Clan (4-1), last year's provincial champion, and Calgary Saracens (3-1).
“We're not sure we're going to be in the playoffs but if we do we're starting to hit our stride,” said head coach Byron Elliott. “That was probably the performance we've been trying to look for like the last few weeks. Against the Clan (30-10 loss) we just fell short, the Saracens (45-31 loss) we just fell short and even the time we played the Crude/West as well (10-5 loss in the Edmonton Rugby Union spring league), the girls came away feeling frustrated because they know had they sustained the pressure for the full 80 they would've won those games. There were chances there begging.
“The impressive part today was the way we controlled the game. The first 20 was a bit iffy but after that the way we controlled the game for the last 60, we had every bit of territory, every bit of possession and they were basically feeding off our scraps and our mistakes, the messy parts.”
St. Albert's strong showing was a continuation from how the team ended its last match, a nasty, penalty-filled tilt against Clan, who were red carded twice for dirty deeds. After falling behind by two tries in the opening 11 minutes, St. Albert trailed 20-0 early in the second half before a strong push back resulted in two scores to give the Clan a scare.
“I would like to think we did just that today, absolutely,” said Kelly of riding the wave of momentum into the must-win contest. “This is the first game that we've actually showed up in the first 20 and given them a run for their money.”
Crude/West (1-3), a joint Leduc/Nor'Westers squad with a strong pack lacked speed in the backs and was unable to match a skilled St. Albert side that won with grit and toughness.
“We're a very small team, in the forwards especially, so it comes down to the fact that we can't give up,” said Kelly, a rugged eight-man and tenacious tackler. “Even though we're smaller than them, we give 110 per cent and instead of giving our size we give our fitness. We have a very, very fast paced game and we try and get it out to our backs.”
St. Albert was fearless at the point of contact while stopping Crude/West in its tracks.
“What we've tried to install is you can't be passive and against these teams. You have to have an edge and I think maybe that was something we were lacking previously and it's started to come,” Elliott said. “They're starting to realize they're giving you it, you give it back. It's nothing dirty, it's just being more physical around that breakdown area and you don't have to go in swinging or anything like that, it's all about making your presence felt and the ladies are starting to realize that and maybe they'll start to actually realize how strong they are and how effective they can be. It's something we touch on a lot and it's an area we've been looking to improve on all season.”
St. Albert led 7-5 at the break even though they were denied at least three scores in the try area, including a pair by Maddy Doyle, a punishing prop who is tough to stop plowing into contact.
In the 12th minute, after runs by speed demons Michelle Marler and Marcia Davis put St. Albert in position to score, Kirsten Porter dove over the try line following a well-executed scrum. Krysta Florence kicked the conversion.
Six minutes later, Crude/West bowled its way into the try area but the conversion was unsuccessful.
The rest of the half was dominated by St. Albert but Crude/West locked it down defensively in front of its try line.
In the second half, the hard-running McKenzie Pusch, a standout in the backs and Team Alberta U18 player, was hauled down from behind in front of the try line while in hot pursuit of a ball she had kicked forward but no penalty try was called.
A couple of plays later, after St. Albert regained possession from a maul around the five-metre line, Katelyn Moorhouse distributed the ball out wide and after a series of passes Brie Grey legged out a try in the ninth minute.
After the second injury replacement in the half for St. Albert, Crude/West almost busted loose on a breakaway attempt but was stopped from going the distance by a try-saving tackle.
St. Albert's third try was scored by MacKenzie Doughty as the finisher on the wing with about 20 minutes remaining and a Crude/West prop in the sin-bin with a yellow card for over aggressive play that left a player face down in the pitch.
Despite unrelenting pressure in the late stages of the match, St. Albert was unable to score its fourth try for a valuable bonus point in the division table.
“In a game where it's 33 degrees out it's pretty hard to play 80 minutes so I think we just didn't quite have it in us. We played a really, really good defensive game the entire game so that was really tough on us and we just couldn't quite get that last one,” Kelly said.
St. Albert is now 9-5 overall, including its 7-2 record in the ERU spring league to determine the teams in Alberta division one and ERU division two for the remainder of the season.
Last year St. Albert finished 11-4 as the provincial and ERU second division champions.
“We wanted to be competitive at first division this year and I think we've definitely done that. We've not lost any games by huge margins. We have given everyone solid competition,” said Kelly, 23.
St. Albert will now play the waiting game to see how the playoff picture unfolds.
“I'm immensely proud of the ladies, I always am, and I can't wait to see who we play if we do make it,” said Elliott, who has his fingers crossed it will be the Clan. “Hopefully these injuries today are nothing serious because I would like to turn up in (the semifinals) with 21, 22 players again like today.”
