The big winner of the Gareth Jones Cup was St. Albert rugby.
The Bellerose Bulldogs and Paul Kane Blues poured their hearts into the emotionally charged sixth edition of the Battle of St. Albert on a damp and dreary Thursday.
Roger Scott, a longtime St. Albert Rugby Football Club aficionado, spoke from the heart in the post-match presentation ceremony about the Godfather of St. Albert rugby.
“I have to confess today that I present the Gareth Jones Cup with very mixed emotions. On one hand I’m excited and proud to see how much St. Albert schools’ rugby has flourished over 39 years. We witnessed another hard-fought contest today between two rivals and great teams, the Blues from Paul Kane and the Bulldogs from Bellerose, and to both teams and their coaches I say well played boys,” said Scott, who was joined by the Jones’ family at field level as players from both teams lined up opposite each other with mutual admiration after going nose to nose with reckless abandon.
“But I hold the trophy alone today with out my good friend Gareth Jones who sadly passed away this past December,” Scott added. “Gareth, buddy, your name is on this. Your vision and your efforts and the hard work and all the legacy of all of this rugby in St. Albert is because of you and thank you for all of your help in making this possible.”
The final score in the metro Edmonton division two pool A tilt was 25-10 for the Bulldogs as the team of Bellerose and St. Albert Catholic high school students are the keepers of the cup for the third year in a row.
“We came in thinking it was going to be tough and it certainly was. We gave it our all and obviously in the end it was worth it,” said Bellerose captain Ben Miller. “It was definitely a lot of fun with the atmosphere with all the players and the fans. It was great to see everyone come out and hyping up the game.”
Jones, one of the Nervous Nine founding members of SARFC and its first president, was a larger than life figure as the cigar-smoking Welshman who died Dec. 31, 2017 at the age of 78.
Jones also coached Paul Kane’s first rugby team in 1980 and was inducted into the Alberta Rugby Hall of Fame in 2005.
Last year Jones and Scott were the first SARFC members to achieve status in the Edmonton Rugby Union Hall of Fame.
“It’s honestly an honour to come together as a team to play on the first pitch representing the Blues’ colour in such a big game like this,” said Paul Kane co-captain Colin Hinecker. “It was a good game. They put up their best effort and we put up ours. It would’ve been nice to bring the cup back to Paul Kane but they played hard and they deserved it.
“But I’m proud of how we did.”
Bellerose was the inaugural winner at the 2012 St. Albert high schools’ tournament before Paul Kane pulled off victories of 12-11 in 2013 and 31-0 in 2015.
Bellerose was bullish on three-peating after wins of 27-5 last year and 20-7 in 2016.
“We definitely pushed through,” said Miller a Grade 12 standout who was slotted at eight-man while quarterbacking the Bulldogs as the team’s field general. “We worked as a team and kept our structure together.”
Bellerose was a sizable foe in terms of girth and numbers compared to the sleek and smallish compact Paul Kane squad.
“They’ve got some big boys, they definitely got more size than us, but it’s all about teamwork and if you work as a team you can get anything done,” said Hinecker, a Grade 12 eight-man. “It wasn’t a one man show for any of the tries we got, it was passing, rucking and getting our ball back.”
Will (The Thrill) Diederichs tied it at five for Paul Kane with a burst of speed off a scrum in front of the Bellerose five-metre line to end the first quarter. It was a bounce-back scoring play for Paul Kane after Adam Wilkins spun out of a tackle in front of the try line to plane the ball down for Bellerose a few minutes earlier.
The second quarter started with Bellerose in the Paul Kane end for several minutes before Thomas Gibson flexed his muscles to crack the try line.
Paul Kane almost pulled even on a kick and chase from around the Bellerose 22-minute line but Caleb Holt was able to track the ball down in the try area while under heavy pressure.
“In the first half we started off strong and then got a little sloppy and a little tired towards the second half and then we had a big team talk going into it and got hyped up again and brought it,” Miller said.
Bellerose grabbed the game by the throat in the third quarter as Junior Manchester split the uprights from close range on a penalty and before quarter time Jevan Godsmark scored under the posts with a spring in his step after Bellerose went wide left with the ball out of a scrum around the 22-metre line. Manchester’s conversion made it 20-5.
Godsmark was the Bellerose man of the match for the backs and Rowan Andrews was selected as the team’s top forward. Both are Grade 10s.
Paul Kane kicked off to start the fourth quarter and Miller returned the ball with purpose down the touchline in front of the stands before lunging over the try line with a one-handed effort with the ball while in grasp of a tackler. The try was the defining moment of the match.
“It was tipped off to me and I got it around 10 metres from our try line. I saw a gap in the middle of their defence, took it and powered all the way through,” Miller said. “I definitely had to reach to get that score. They got me just about five metres away and I just managed to slide in.”
Adam Mitchell closed out the scoring for Paul Kane and Diederichs rattled the conversion kick off the post.
“We played better in the second half. We pulled together as a team and got the grunt force out,” Hinecker said.
Paul Kane is 0-2 with one match left until the playoffs and Monday’s kick-off against the defending champion Sturgeon Spirits (0-2) is 4:45 p.m. at SARFC.
“We had a lot of improvements from previous games. We're working on pressing together as a team,” said Hinecker, 18. “We really pulled through as a team this time.”
First place in pool A is on the line Monday, when Bellerose (68 PF/36 PA) and the Bev Facey Falcons (46 PF/36 PA) clash at 6:15 p.m. at Pirates Rugby Club. Both teams are 2-0.
“We’re going to bring our all to try and get the top of the table," said Miller, 18, who shone bright in several matches last summer for the SARFC first and third division teams as a flanker.
“It was a lot fun. As a 17-year-old playing high school rugby and then going into the men’s premier league it's definitely a big leap but it helped me a lot experience wise obviously playing with Canada level players. It's a great team atmosphere and a very strong team so that helped me bring it to my high school team this year."
