Sherwood Park – Haunted by last year’s playoff demise, St. Albert’s premier men played like a team possessed in Saturday’s exorcism of the Strathcona Druids.
“It was energetic. It’s what we needed to do after last year’s loss to them,” said hooker Robert Blunden of the 46-15 beat-down of the Druids, who punted St. Albert’s first 15 to the sideline in the Alberta Cup north semifinal.
“We did what we came here to do and that’s win,” Blunden said of the 3-1 firsts. “Mentally we were all there. Forward ball all day except the rain was a little bit of a factor, not our style of rugby, but we went hard. It was heads-up rugby and we executed when we needed to do. We only gave them (two) tries when we screwed up.”
The firsts held the upper hand at halftime at 26-8 after giving up the opening try in the sixth minute and the team’s seventh and last try was Duncan Maguire’s third of the afternoon with five minutes remaining.
“We wanted more points but it’s a good start pushing forward from our loss to the Rams,” Blunden said of the 43-27 defeat in the second match of the season June 2 in Calgary and the tries were 7-3 in favour of the Rams (3-1).
The 23-15 playoff shocker to the Druids at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club, after the teams split consecutive weekend encounters in league play the month before by scores of 25-17 for the Druids and 60-10 for SARFC as the home sides emerged victorious, marked the end of an era for the firsts, winners of three consecutive Labatt’s Cup championships and four overall in eight trips to provincials while competing in nine-straight Ken Ann Cup north finals.
“That’s always in the back of our minds but we treat every game like it’s the same. We always go out with the same mentality. It doesn’t matter who we play but it’s extra special when you beat the Druids,” Maguire said. “The Druids are always a team that it’s a full-on game with them. They’ve had some great games against us and we were up for it today.”
The firsts improved to 20-16 in tries for/against after the second win in a row.
“It’s huge. We didn't have a good start on the game sheets for the start of the season. We weren't too happy how we were playing. We were kind of squeaking by in games and we had a rough one down in Calgary so we just needed something to really put back our momentum and gain some confidence, which is good going into the break we have right now,” said Maguire of next month’s fixtures that has the firsts playing two matches – July 14 against the Clan (2-3) at 2 p.m. on Super Saturday at SARFC and July 21 at the Lep/Tigers (3-1) at 4 p.m.
The possibility exists the June 16 rescheduled match against the Labatt’s Cup champion Nor’Westers (3-0) at Ellerslie Rugby Park will be played in July at the Nor’Westers.
Last year, the Nor’Westers shredded the firsts 57-26 at SARFC and two weeks later 51-3 in blustery wet weather on their home pitch, en route to a 13-2 overall season, compared to the 9-5 firsts and 7-8 Druids.
“Nor’Westers are a huge game. We know this league always comes down to playoffs, however you always want to put your best foot forward against teams and have a good result and if we can have a good result against the Nor’Westers, and we know they’re a really strong side, then it’s happy days,” Maguire said.
The firsts are revamped, refocused and rejuvenated after last year’s sub-par showing, with Jeremy Kyne, a former Druid as the fifth head coach of the men’s rugby program in five years.
“Practices are more intense. The numbers are there. We’re more conditioned this year. Our fitness is our key basically to keep us going,” Blunden said.
The firsts also didn’t want to sully Kyne’s reputation at his former club, while another ex-Druid, Adam (Snowy) Gowing, is back performing in the backs after suffering a concussion a few years ago.
“We were definitely very excited about it. There was a half-hour delay before the game started so that threw everyone off a little bit but everyone was into it,” said Blunden, 24.
In the 33rd minute, and the firsts up 19-8, Blunden rekindled memories of his high school football days as a prime-time running back with the Bellerose Bulldogs lugging the ball past and over the Druids for the team’s fourth try of the first half.
“I was just cutting back against their grain, they were coming back and pushing in, and when a defence does that you just slide in against where they're going and it was their (number) 10 I was up against so it was an easy stiff-arm to knock him over and I went in straight through,” said Blunden, a candidate for the team’s player of the year award in 2017.
The award winner, New Zealand import Jordan Roberts, produced two tries in the second half and the first by the forward was a textbook team scoring play with several exchanges of the ball between teammates for the score 23 minutes after the break. The try also coincided with the rain ending after the initial downpour started when the second half kicked off.
In the opening 40 minutes, Maguire’s try and Jordan Tait’s conversion made it 7-5 in the 13th minute. Maguire, a winger, tracked down a ball on the bounce along the touchline past the 40-minute line and waltzed into the try area untouched.
Tait, a newcomer to the firsts at scrumhalf, finished the win with 11 kicking points.
Ten minutes later, fullback Joe Casella broke through the defensive line in Druids’ territory with speed to spare for another try.
Casella, an English import, also set up Maguire’s second try with a timely run and pass sequence for the recipient of three 15s caps and four 7s caps with Team Canada to dance his way into the try area to extend the lead to 19-8.
“Joe did all the work. He kind of went up through the middle and I just kind of got lucky. I cut a short line off of him and got enough of the ball and I had two or three people to beat and I was able to do it,” said Maguire, 28.
