Calgary Rugby Park – The greatest day ever in St. Albert rugby was the culmination of blood, sweat and tears by the premier men’s provincial champions.
“This is the icing on the cake. It seals the deal,” said captain Graham Noren, a satisfied look etched across his battle-scarred face while clutching the Labatt’s Cup during Saturday’s boisterous post-game celebration.
“This means everything for the St. Albert club and the fans. All the support we’ve had from everybody has been incredible. Our coaches have been amazing. All the imports we’ve had that have really helped us and all of our domestic players have really put in the hours, day in and day out to get us to where we are right now — and that’s provincial champions.”
The 33-17 conquest of the Calgary Canucks was unprecedented in the distinguished 29-year history of the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
“It’s absolutely brilliant for St. Albert to win the premier division for the first time,” said British import Karim Lynch, who split the Canucks defence with a thunderous scoring romp two minutes into the second half for a converted try to put the firsts up by 10.
Two years ago, the first 15 were just thrilled to play in the final, a 24-10 loss to the second-place Calgary Saints, in their first season of premier after winning the 2007 Lor-Ann Cup second division provincial championship. Last year, St. Albert’s first loss after 13 straight wins was a devastating 24-22 result against the third-place Calgary Hornets.
“Losing last year, after the season we had, was absolutely gutting, so to win it this year is fantastic,” Lynch said. “We wanted it more than ever before. That’s why we won it and that’s why we deserved it.”
The team that couldn’t win the big game was under the gun to put the past behind them.
“Of course there was an immense amount of pressure. If we had lost this one, St. Albert would’ve been ashamed of us,” said Jake Robinson, a dangerous scrum-half who streaked into the try area in the 51st minute to give the firsts a commanding 21-10 lead. “You can’t go three years in a row losing it in the provincial final. We had to pull it out. Third time is the charm, I guess.”
Head coach Chal Smyth said the firsts played the game of their lives.
“The heart they showed today was incredible. They were committed to winning. They knew what was at stake, especially the last two years when we came up short in the final. They were focused, determined and totally prepared; nobody was going to beat them,” Smyth said of the team’s 13th win in 15 games, while going 39-6-1 overall during his three-year tenure as field general for the fantastic firsts.
So why this year did the firsts taste victory at provincials?
“Throughout the season everyone was saying the Hornets [11-1 pennant winners] were the team to beat. Nobody saw us as that team,” said Noren of the second-place finishers that bowed out to the Hornets 26-10 in the last game before the playoffs.
“I don’t want to say we snuck in the back door because we were competitive, but we had a bit of a harder road this year to get here. We had to up our level of intensity for this game and the road we travelled really helped us in the provincial final.”
Noren is among a handful of players in St. Albert’s starting 15 line-up in four straight provincial finals, dating back to the second division 18-13 triumph over the Medicine Hat Ogres to finish 18-1 overall in 2007.
“This may not have been our most dynamic team, our most talent-filled team, but we had the guys that we’re really buying in to what we wanted to accomplish. We were all on the same page. We didn’t have any egos at all. Everybody came to practice every day,” said the long-time prop.
It wasn’t a surprise the firsts returned to the final but who they beat certainly was. In the Alberta Cup table the Canucks finished sixth at 7-5, then pulled off shocking victories of 19-13 in the quarter-finals against the third-place Druids in Sherwood Park and 25-15 in the semifinals against the Hornets.
In June, the firsts survived a too-close-to-call 21-12 decision over the Canucks in Calgary.
The rematch was a fierce defensive struggle until the firsts broke it open with four tries in the second half.
“It was a tough game. The Canucks played great. They’re a hard team up front,” Robinson said. “We just wore them down. We held them back and played awesome defensively. We went around them on the outside when we had possession and that was the difference, especially in the second half.”
It was 6-3 St. Albert at halftime, as standoff Simon Gregory kicked penalties in the ninth minute (long, straight-ahead attempt from outside the 22) and 19th minute (at an angle from outside the 22). After the teams exchanged missed penalty kicks, the Canucks got on the board just before injury time with a boot from just outside the 22.
The second half started with a bang, as Lynch exploded like a firecracker with the ball to ignite the firsts to victory.
“Jake Robinson made a fantastic catch. He off-loaded it and I had some space to work with. Luckily I was able to finish it off,” Lynch said. “It was a good turning point for us. We had a good team talk at halftime and after that score we never looked back.”
After Gregory converted Lynch’s try, the Canucks strung together several crisp passes while marching towards St. Albert’s try line, leading to a score in the 44th minute. A difficult conversion kick was good.
Four minutes later, the firsts stormed back into Calgary’s end. A penalty to the Canucks gave Gregory an easy kick to make from inside the 22 to extend the lead to 16-10.
The score stayed intact after Calgary missed a penalty kick from outside the 22 in the 50th minute.
The firsts started pulling away after Robinson’s try, set up by a massive tackle by Edwin Shimenga outside the Canucks 22. Fans chanted Robinson’s first name with gusto as he flew down the left side to score the game-breaking points. Gregory missed the conversion.
“They tried to off-load it and gave a poor pass. It bounced off the deck and it was a loose ball and I got it and from there it was a foot race,” Robinson said.
In the 60th minute, after a wimpy-looking streaker invaded the pitch, the Canucks missed another penalty. Sources said the streaker was a Hornets’ player, which didn’t go over well with the rival Canucks. One of their fans jumped out of the stands and attacked the streaker near the St. Albert bench, which triggered some interesting fisticuffs.
Defensively, the firsts were too good to be true, especially in the second half when Calgary threatened in spurts to score.
“We hit areas which they weren’t used to,” Lynch said. “The forwards were fantastic today. We defended immaculately, and that was basically what won us the game.”
The Canucks’ trademark pick-and-go game ran into a brick wall of St. Albert defenders, with Brett Kelly and Shimenga pounding the ball carrier from either side of the ruck.
There were no shortages of punishing tackles that either slowed the Canucks down to a crawl or forced them to fumble the ball away. In the first half Justin Gilmour came up with a couple of clutch tackles and Kyle Baille also made a Canuck pay the price with a big stick in St. Albert’s end. In the second half everybody on the firsts took turns grounding the Canucks into the pitch. Shimenga especially had a field day crushing the Canucks into submission.
“Once we picked up our tempo and really attacked them, they faltered and started reeling,” Noren said.
With time ticking down in the final, the Canucks managed to score a converted try to trim the deficit to 26-17 but it took nearly five minutes for them to cross the line while trying to hammer the ball in against a stubborn defence as fans rocked the stands with chants of “Albert! Albert! Albert!”
“They had opportunities to score from our five but we really dug in for the longest time. It was unbelievable how long we kept them out. St. Albert pride, that’s what did it,” Noren said.
Adam Bontus (assisted by Gilmour) and Duncan Maguire (showboated his way into the try area with his index finger raised high in the air after tacking down a bouncing kick) put the game away with scores down the stretch. Gregory added another convert as the British import finished the win with 13 kicking points.
As for the Canucks, they were just happy to be in the final despite the loss.
“We did OK. They didn’t run away with the game. There were just two or three mistakes that we had that made it tough for us,” said forward Fergus McConnell.
Even though the Canucks were the home team for the final, St. Albert showed its support by packing the stands with enthusiastic rugby fanatics proudly wearing their club colours.
“I don’t think there is a club in this country that deserves it more than we do. We fought many years to deserve this,” president Mike Stewart told the players after the trophy presentation. “We are, without question, a club and a half.”
