The Bellerose Bulldogs left their mark in the Battle of St. Albert as a desperate team in defence of the Gareth Jones Cup.
“We definitely needed this win or else I don’t know if the confidence would’ve been there for the rest of the season,” said captain Ben Manchester after the Bulldogs roared to victory against the Paul Kane Blues in metro Edmonton high school rugby.
The first of five Bellerose trys was scored in the opening minute of Wednesday’s 27-5 showdown at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
“That set the pace for the rest of the match,” said Manchester.
The Grade 12 standoff kicked off the fifth annual Gareth Jones Cup with a deep ball to Paul Kane as the Bulldogs pinned their ears back to quickly gain possession. After a scrum, Liam Douglas finished off the first of his two trys with an outside run.
A dominating first quarter by the Bulldogs ended with a try under the posts as Ben Miller gobbled up a boot from midfield and busted his way into the try area. Manchester kicked the conversion to make it 12-0.
At halftime the Bulldogs held the upper hand at 17-5.
“We had a few unlucky bounces at the start definitely with penalties and all that stuff but we just had to move back and churn out the win,” Manchester said.
The Blues settled down after a shaky start to hang with the Bulldogs.
“It was hard-fought on both sides. It was a really good game,” said Ethan Simmons, a Grade 12 Paul Kane scrumhalf.
“We were hungry. We lost to them last year and for the guys in Grade 12 it’s their last year playing in this and we were trying to get the win,” Simmons added. “Bellerose just came out stronger than us. They played a good solid game, like no mistakes. They’re a great team with really good coaching and good players. I played with a bunch of the guys (in the SARFC junior program) and they’re pretty skilful.”
The lid-lifter for Bellerose was also the second loss in a row for the 1-3 Blues in the division two pool A fixtures.
“I wouldn’t say it’s the best of the bunch but definitely improvement on the other games,” said Simmons of the 15-12 win over the Bev Facey Falcons and the 50-21 crushing defeat against the Sturgeon Spirits. “We’re finally starting to push on defence and we’re spreading out. We’re also starting to move the ball well.
“We’re working as a team.”
The Blues crossed the try line in the second quarter after a lengthy Bellerose injury timeout as Isaiah Ansah scored off a penalty play. The conversion was unsuccessful as Will Diederichs nailed the post.
With five minutes left until halftime, the Bulldogs spread the ball out left after a lineout deep in Paul Kane territory for Douglas to sprint into the corner of the try area.
Penalties in the third quarter kept the Bulldogs from running away from the Blues.
The pressure continued in the last quarter as Josh McCullough and Aidan Nadurak scored trys six minutes apart. McCullough rumbled through the defensive line off a penalty play and Nadurak was the finisher on the wing after a try attempt by Garrick Letwin, a St. Albert Skyhawk on the Bellerose roster, was held up by the Blues.
“Our ball movement was working very well today,” Manchester said. “Our pack is a bit small but definitely hard working and it showed.”
Man of the match for Bellerose was split between Nick Allen (forwards) and Douglas (backs) and the team’s most effort with least recognition selections were Letwin (forwards) and Adam Bouchar (backs).
The Bulldogs proved last year’s 20-7 triumph over Paul Kane wasn’t a fluke after losses of 12-11 in 2013 and 31-0 in 2015.
Bellerose was the inaugural 2012 winner of the Gareth Jones Cup, which is named in honour of one of the Nervous Nine founding members of SARFC and its first present. Jones also coached Paul Kane’s first rugby team in 1980 and was inducted into the Alberta Rugby Hall of Fame in 2005.
Unfortunately nobody from Bellerose knows where the coveted cup is after it disappeared following last year’s post-match celebration.
This year’s edition of Bulldogs is looking to go father than the 2016 squad that lost only one match and it was the division two semifinal, 46-19 to the metro champion Edmonton Christian Lions (“The ref was a little tough in that one,” Manchester said), after finishing tied for first with Sturgeon at 5-0-1 in pool A.
“We’re missing a few key players that were here last year so we’re filling a lot of spots,” said Manchester, 17, who will play this summer for the Strathcona Druids in Sherwood Park.
The Blues rebounded smartly from the lopsided outcome against Sturgeon, last year’s finalist, with a staunch effort against the more polished Bulldogs.
“We wanted it real bad. We lost our last game to Sturgeon and we wanted to prove something today,” Simmons said. “We actually did better than we expected to against Sturgeon. Our coaches told us when they were in high school they lost 100 something to nothing so we figured 50-21 isn’t bad.
“We just tried to keep up and play a style of rugby that we could defence against them. We had a hard time with it but we’re going to figure it out.”
The Blues split six matches last year and the last one was a default to Sturgeon.
“We’re definitely looking to finish the season. Last year we had too many injuries and we had to fold,” said Simmons, 18. “We’re looking strong this year. We have more numbers than we thought we would and lots of guys are out to practices. There is a lot of enthusiasm this year around the school. A lot of people want to play rugby and a bunch of new guys too.
“We’re just trying to get our team rounded and squared away and I think we’ll finish up good.
The last game before the playoff for Paul Kane is this Wednesday against the Salisbury Sabres (0-1) at 4:45 p.m. at SARFC.
The Bulldogs play twice in three days next week: Monday against Facey (1-1) and Wednesday against Sturgeon (1-0). Kickoff times are 4:45 p.m. at SARFC.
Last year Bellerose and Sturgeon battled to a 31-all draw.
