Airways Park – The fantastic firsts switched gears in the second half to accelerate past the Clan in Friday’s premier men’s rugby match.
The reigning Labatt’s Cup provincial champions from the St. Albert Rugby Football Club clutched up twice from seven-point deficits to win 34-25.
“It was obviously pretty intense and pretty close,” said fullback Antony Fitch, who kicked nine points and helped set up two tries. “The key was maintaining our confidence, maintaining our tempo and just keeping together as a team.”
It was with heavy hearts the Clan scrummed down against the firsts after the loss of teammate Shane McElhanney, 28, Aug. 15. The funeral was held Saturday in Edmonton.
Before the opening kickoff, a moment of silence was observed as players from both teams stood together between the referee on the halfway line with arms around shoulders while the Canadian flag was lowered to half-mast in front of the Clan clubhouse.
“Obviously it was an emotional game for them. We had to show them respect and play our best and that’s what we did,” Fitch said. “It was probably one of our better standards of matches between the Clan and St. Albert.”
The Clan led 10-3 at the break after Fitch kicked a penalty close to the 40-metre line in the 12th minute to open the scoring.
His second penalty kick, a boot from inside the 22-metre line in the 22nd minute, appeared to split the uprights but it was ruled no good despite protests from head coach Si Culley, who was standing behind the posts.
The Clan pulled even four minutes later with a penalty kick past the halfway line and in the 30th minute another penalty attempt by the home team was wide of the posts.
The Clan jumped ahead in the 35th minute with a try in the corner and the conversion was successful.
Five minutes into the second half, Dan Laventure capped off a series of passes for the try and Fitch’s conversion was the equalizer.
The Clan regained the lead in the 52nd minute at 17-10 with a converted try.
The firsts answered with a bang, as the explosive Jake Robinson zippered his way into the try area off a quick penalty play in scoring range in the 56th minute and Fitch’s conversion was good.
Laventure’s second try started with a steal by Paul Flynn in SARFC territory, leading up to a penalty play by the firsts highlighted by a bold run through traffic by Fitch before Laventure made it 22-17 in the 60th minute.
Three minutes later, another inspired dash by Fitch set the stage for Aaron Weicker to finish off a pass from Andy (Pinky) Kelleher with a sprint down the wing to lead by 10.
The Clan replied with a penalty kick and the firsts responded with Orrin Farries picked off a pass for a lengthy try untouched following a chip-and-chase by Robinson to reverse field position. Fitch’s conversion with six minutes to go left the Clan trailing 34-20.
The Clan closed out the scoring with an unconverted try.
“We pulled it together quite nicely,” Fitch said of the team’s second half performance.
The firsts were still smarting from the loss of their previous match, a disappointing 38-36 loss to the Nor’Westers (5-3) at SARFC. A converted try by the Nor’Westers on the last play of the match completed a 14-point rally with around 10 minutes remaining after the firsts clawed their way back from a 17-point halftime deficit with 29 consecutive points to lead by 12.
“Against the Nor’Westers a couple of weeks back we kind of fell apart, jumped on each other’s backs and jumped on the ref’s back,” Fitch said. “Today we played a better game. We played our game and we came away with the win.”
The firsts (7-2) maintained their second-place standing in the Alberta Cup table as the No. 1 north team with two matches remaining. If the Ken Ann Cup semifinals kicked off today, the firsts would host the Clan (3-6) Sept. 17.
The final to determine the north rep for provincials is Sept. 24 at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
The last home match before the playoffs is Sept. 1 against the Strathcona Druids (3-3-1) at 6:30 p.m.
“We want to go in there top of Edmonton, just so we can play our home game and have that little bit of an advantage,” said Fitch of the provincial champions the last two years. “Obviously we’re confident. We’ve got a top quality coach and we’ve got top quality players. Not much has changed from last year or the year before.
“It’s quite a relaxed sort of tempo right now, just because we’re obviously guaranteed a playoff spot, so we just want to go in there a bit confident and play our game and I think we can come away with a win.”
The pre-season whispers of a three-peat are growing louder as the firsts strive to match the 2011-13 Calgary Hornets’ run of three in a row.
“It was jokingly brought up at the start of the season and it’s brought up every now and then just to get us back to concentrating but we try not to over-emphasize it. We try not to jinx ourselves. We want to prove ourselves by playing our game on the pitch,” said Fitch, 22, of winning three consecutive provincial titles and four in seven years.
SCRUM BALLS: The third division men gave it their best shot with only 13 players in the season-ending 57-7 loss to the host Lep/Tigers (7-3) Saturday in the Edmonton Rugby Union.
Unfortunately, the Lep/Tigers didn’t loan the thirds (2-9 for 11th place out of 12 teams) extra players for a starting 15 lineup, unlike last year when a skeleton squad of Lep/Tigers showed up at SARFC in July and the thirds showed good sportsmanship in giving the visitors some players early in the 62-5 contest to help fill out their squad for a somewhat competitive outing.
Last year the thirds finished 12-3 as winners of the Visser Cup championship in the ERU and the Digby Dinnie Cup at provincials.
