The team to beat in the premier rugby playoffs is on a collision course against its most ferocious rival.
The fight to the finish between the St. Albert firsts — the defending Labatt's Cup provincial champions — and the Clansmen kicks off at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Ellerslie Rugby Club.
The winner of the Ken Ann Cup in the northern Alberta playoffs will go toe-to-toe against the Hornets or Saints from Calgary in the Oct. 1 final at Ellerslie.
"We have to come in firing on all cylinders and knuckle down against the Clan," said prop Angus MacDonald, one of six try scorers last weekend as the firsts waltzed past the Lep/Tigers 41-7 at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
Last year St. Albert slugged it out with the Clan in the playoffs and prevailed 20-17 en route to winning its first premier men's provincial title in club history.
"We're a lot more confident this year. We have a lot more strength and depth," said Karim Lynch, the MVP of the 2010 firsts.
The starting 15 against the Lep/Tigers was the most talented side St. Albert dressed this year. A healthy Brett Kelly at eight-man and Kyle Gilmour, a national sevens fixture back from captaining the Calgary-based Prairie Wolf Pack in the Canadian Ruby Championships fixtures, gave the forwards a big boost.
"There are a lot of forwards who were out but are now back, which strengthens us and hopefully helps us win," Lynch said. "Having [Irish import] Johnny Moloney come on board this year has really helped too. Having an old head like him on the team really strengthens us. He manages how we roam around the pitch."
In the Alberta Cup table the firsts finished five points higher with one more win than the fourth-place Clan. The season series was a saw-off. In week two the Clan scored the winning try on the last play of the game to eke out a 25-20 decision. In the rematch a resilient line-up of firsts willed their way to a 24-12 result in the second last game before the playoffs.
"They're strong, with a really good back line similar to ours. Their forwards are tough guys too," MacDonald said.
Winning streak
The 10th straight win by the firsts was also their third against the eighth-place Lep/Tigers this year. The week before against the green team the firsts went through the motions during a 37-17 tune-up for the playoffs.
"A win is a win and that's what we needed today to get to the semifinal," Lynch said. "We played them last week so it was tough. The result was good today but we still have things to work on for the next game."
The firsts performed only as hard as they had to while outscoring the visitors 24-7 in the first half.
"We played well in stages but we made a lot of mistakes and if we do that against the Clan they will punish us. Their tackles will be a lot more threatening," Lynch said. "We've got to come with our heads screwed on, otherwise they're going to make it tough for us."
In the last home game of the year the firsts racked up three tries and one conversion in the opening 19 minutes against the Lep/Tigers. Matt Jarvis scored off a lineout ball in the third minute. British import Mark Langford finished off a Kyle Baillie pass in the 16th minute after the firsts dominated a ruck close to the try line. A snappy scoring run by Duncan Maguire from inside the halfway line, set up by Langford's feed after a strong scrum by St. Albert, padded the point totals.
"At the beginning of the last game [against the Lep/Tigers] we just didn't have it together so that's what we came out to do this game and we did that," MacDonald said of the firsts falling behind 12-0 at the 15-minute mark and 17-14 early in the second half before beating the Lep/Tigers by 18 points Sept. 10.
In the playoff clash the Lep/Tigers missed a penalty kick from inside the halfway line in the ninth minute and in the 22th minute picked off a pass and returned it three-quarters the length of the pitch for a try under the posts that was converted.
Maguire's second try in the half was keyed by Lynch's romp with the ball from midfield. He faked the Lep/Tigers out of their boots with two phantom passes before flipping the ball to Maguire in tight of the try line.
The explosive Maguire, a playmaker from the Wolf Pack and the fastest player on the firsts, is a scoring threat every time he touches the ball.
Before the half ended, the firsts survived the loss of Baillie to a sin-bin infraction by holding up a try during a lengthy defensive stand.
MacDonald's first try of the year was a short and unmolested burst in the 54th minute to make it 29-7.
"I got that pass from Luke [Racine] and it was like Moses parting the Red Sea. I saw daylight. I went for it and just dived over the line," said the high school rugby coach of the St. Albert Skyhawks. "It was a nice feeling to help out the team like that."
A long dash by Jarvis, a former tailback with the Alberta Golden Bears who has been a revelation at wing in his first year with St. Albert, and a spectacular individual effort by Gilmour to track down a lineout ball in the try area, closed out the scoring.
Scrumhalf Jake Robinson converted three of the team's seven tries.
Racine and Preston Petrovitch gave the Lep/Tigers fits up front with their aggressive play. British import Chris Ealey also ripped through several tackles with his big legs.
"We made some mistakes today but we did some real good things too," said MacDonald, 24.
The firsts are 10-3 going into the big game against the 9-4 Clan. St. Albert's overall record is 49-9-1, highlighted by three straight trips to the premier final after winning 18 out of 19 games in 2007 as the Lor-Ann Cup provincial second division champions.
"We finished first out of the Edmonton teams [in the Alberta Cup] this year so we're definitely going in as the favourites against the Clan," said Lynch, 23.
