The Strathcona Druids played kick to win to beat St. Albert on a windy Saturday afternoon in premier men's rugby.
Adam Gowing of the Druids split the posts three times on five penalties and Andrew Marsden of St. Albert was 2-for-3 kicking in the 9-6 defensive struggle at Lynn Davies Rugby Park.
"We like to play rugby that people want to watch and unfortunately today it wasn't the weather for that," Marsden said. "Positional kicking is a big part of the game. With this cross breeze obviously they know it well. It's their home grounds so they played it pretty well and us not so good."
The tiebreaking kick was Gowing's successful attempt from outside the 22-metre line in the 62nd minute.
"It just wasn't really a day for running rugby and it ended up being a kicking game," Gowing said. "It wasn't a great spectacle for the supporters but we got the four points for the win."
Marsden cut the lead in half from inside the 22 in the 36th minute and evened the score with a chip shot five minutes into the second half.
In injury time, Graham Noren dragged several Druids towards the try line during a determined romp, but St. Albert was later assessed a penalty and the Druids kicked the ball out of danger to end the match.
"If it wasn't for some last ditch defending we would've lost the game," Gowing said.
St. Albert's major downfall was penalties.
"It just came down to our mistakes and we made too many today," Marsden said. "Full credit to them; they capitalized on our mistakes."
Second half surge
The Druids dominated territorial play in the second half but were unable to crack St. Albert's defensive amour. The score was tied when Matt Herod striped the ball in front of the try line for Marsden to kick for touch to end a mighty forward push. A few minutes later the forwards wrestled the ball away from the Druids around the five-metre line to relieve pressure.
"Our pack was awesome and they got us good forward ball, but St. Albert's defence was superb. We kept on hitting their line and they kept on turning it over, which shows the character they have," Gowing said
In a span of seven minutes the inside-centre from Ireland was short of the posts from inside the halfway line, was on target from inside the 40-metre line to open the scoring and then made it 6-0 from outside the 40.
Gowing also missed one of the team's two drop-goal attempts. Last year he nailed two long drop goals in the 29-17 season-opening win against St. Albert.
"Our pack got us into those positions for points today by driving the ball hard," Gowing.
The lack of scoring was a surprise despite the shifty wind conditions.
"Finishing for both teams wasn't quite there but I guess at the same time you could say the defence was," said Marsden.
The import standoff from New Zealand punched the ball wide from outside the 22 in the 13th minute after the Druids stood tall to stop St. Albert short of the try line.
In the first half both teams went full throttle up and down the pitch.
"We said before the game the first 10, 15 minutes were going to be 100 miles per hour for both teams. It's the first game of the season and we want to let them know who we are and they're going to let us know what they're about," Gowing said. "Once we kind of dictated the pace a bit more, we slowed it down and got our forwards into it more."
Tough battle
The punishing affair took a heavy toll with numerous injury timeouts and water breaks. It was also the second match of the afternoon for a number of players on both clubs who had played earlier in St. Albert's 17-15 second division win over the Druids.
"For it to still be a fast-paced game is a big credit to those guys and the offseason training they did with their fitness," Marsden said. "There will be some sore bodies tonight. It was a pretty physical game with quite a few high tackles going both ways."
Gowing, 25, wasn't expecting the 2011 provincial finalists to be a pushover.
"We knew it was going to be physical because it is St. Albert. They brought it hard and we just had to match up," he said.
Only eight players were dressed for duty against the Druids from St. Albert's 22-man roster that suffered a 31-13 loss to the Calgary Hornets for last year's Labatt's Cup.
Marsden, a newcomer from the Glenora Bears Rugby Club who played premier rugby in Auckland and Aussie Rules for New Zealand, was making his second start for St. Albert this year. He went the distance at standoff in the 29-12 second division loss to the Nor'Westers on May 5.
Marsden, 28, wound up playing for St. Albert through his girlfriend from Edmonton he met in New Zealand. His girlfriend's mom works with Jasmine Fleming, the team's physiotherapist and the club's director of senior rugby, who also plays for the women's team.
"We decided to come here and between Jasmine and my girlfriend's mom they organized that I should play here. I just do what I'm told, mate."
The next premier match is Friday against the Clansmen at 7 p.m. at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
