Victory never tasted so sweet for the Bellerose Bulldogs in high school men's rugby.
The cherry on top of the cake was the Gareth Jones Cup in Thursday’s grudge match with the Paul Kane Blues.
“Paul Kane is always a good rivalry with us and it feels great to win against them and to win the cup,” said scrumhalf Chris Gillett, the man of the match with two tries in the 20-7 decision at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
Bellerose was the inaugural winner at the 2012 St. Albert high schools’ tournament and Paul Kane was the defending Battle of St. Albert champion by scores of 31-0 last year at SARFC and 12-11 in 2013 at the Pirates Rugby Club in the metro Edmonton league.
“We lost it last year but it’s back with us and it feels good,” Gillett said.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com for the trophy pictures.
Bellerose held the upper hand at halftime at 7-0 and led by 20 before Paul Kane broke the shutout with a converted try with 12 minutes to play.
“We played a very great defensive game. Our forwards were great in the scrums, in the rucks, everything,” Gillett said. “Our backs did well too when we got the ball out to them. We got it out wide and got some good tries.”
Noah Brown of Paul Kane was disappointed with the result but happy with the team’s performance.
“Bellerose played really great but our guys did pretty good as well,” said Brown, a Grade 12 eight-man. “We made a lot of good tackles. We also did a pretty good job of rucking and a good job of getting on the forward picks fast and getting the ball out fast.”
Paul Kane lost at least three players to injuries, including Markus Kluyts (upper-body) early in the fourth quarter that forced the match to move from the main pitch to the second field for the ambulance to transport the player to hospital.
“We had a few injuries and a few guys who were having a tough time out there but they got the hang of it, especially in the second half when came back and got our try,” Brown said. “Overall it was a pretty good game. We all did good and we all come out with our heads held high.”
The forward-dominated tilt was basically contested between the 22-metre lines as the teams grinded out the yards.
A rugby-savvy Bellerose side had the edge in ball possession throughout the match and in the fourth quarter broke it open with long runs down the wing for tries by Gillett and Austin Mazzolini-Flynn three minutes apart after switching fields and Ben Manchester of the Bulldogs in the sin-bin because of a yellow card.
“It was all forwards this game. It seemed like a lot of forward stuff,” Brown said. “They had a lot of forward picks off the rucks and they had a lot of eight-man picks off scrums. They also had some guys in the backs as well that ended up getting some stuff done as you saw with those tries around the outside. We were having a tough time getting flat (defensive line).”
The first half featured several big hits by Paul Kane, especially by prop Zach Dreger, who stuck his tackles into the field like lawn darts.
After a scoreless opening quarter, including an unsuccessful penalty kick by Manchester, Bellerose got rolling inside Paul Kane territory and gradually rucked its way towards the try line. Gillett finished off the drive by going against the flow from outside the five-metre line for a try under the posts with four minutes gone in the quarter. Manchester converted the score.
“My 10 (Manchester at standoff) was calling for me to go blind. I picked it up, saw a gap and took it,” Gillett said.
A defensive stand by Paul Kane stopped Bellerose during a sequence in the third quarter, highlighted by a group effort to prevent Ben Miller from cracking the try line off a five-metre scrum.
A few minutes later, Manchester split the uprights from outside the 22 to make it 10-0.
Gillett’s second try, an enthusiastic romp that ended with the Grade 12 Bulldog jumping up and flinging the ball into the air in celebration, exposed a weak spot on the wing that Bellerose capitalized on during the following kick-off with Mazzolini-Flynn capping off the play.
“We put the ball all the way down through the hands and we scored in the corner. It was a great try,” Gillett said.
Roberto Parrotta’s try for Paul Kane closed out the scoring.
“We got close to tries but then we would get a penalty and they have a good kicker who would always kick it quite far so then we wouldn’t be as close. Whenever we would get right close they would kick it out,” said Brown, 18.
Both teams have three matches in eight days on tap in the division two/three pool A fixtures, starting Monday at SARFC. Bellerose (3-0) plays the M.E. Lazerte Voyageurs (2-1) at 4:45 p.m. and Paul Kane (2-1) tackles the Jasper Place Rebels (0-2) at 6:15 p.m.
Looming large on the horizon are the Sturgeon Spirits (3-0), last year’s division two champions and Tier 2 provincial bronze medallists as winners of eight of nine matches. Bellerose and Sturgeon square-off Thursday at 4:45 p.m. at SARFC.
“They’re a tough team. We’re looking forward to the game. It should be a rough game and it’s going to be good,” said Gillett, 18. “Right now our forwards are getting to those rucks, we’re getting set up on defence and making all those tackles that we need to make so it’s looking good.”
