Game star Karim Lynch summed up Saturday's ho-hum performance against the Lep/Tigers in one word.
"Relief," said the weary-looking British import after the 38-27 outcome at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
With several second division players in the starting 15 and a couple of rusty reserves propping, the two-time Alberta Cup provincial finalists persevered against the eighth-place LTs (1-8-1) for their eighth win in a row and the ninth in 10 games.
"We got through it, we just made a lot of mistakes," Lynch said. "Our mistakes were our downfall really."
A trio of first division standouts — flanker Kyle Gilmour, scrum-half Jake Robinson and veteran prop Graham Noren — were on the Prairie Wolf Pack's 22-man roster in Saturday's 15-13 victory over the Ontario Blues in Calgary. Gilmour, the 2009 senior men's player of the year in the Edmonton Rugby Union and St. Albert's MVP in 2008, scored a try. The previous week he crossed the try line in the Wolf Pack's 41-6 thumping over the B.C. Bears. The Calgary-based Wolf Pack will now play The Rock of St. John's, NL in the Canadian Rugby Championship final Sept. 18, the same day as the Alberta Cup semifinals.
Up front, Dan Taggart and assistant coach Gerbal Kiernan filled in at props. Taggart, the brother of injured prop, Adrian Taggart, was recently carded by St. Albert and with only a handful of practices under his belt he was thrown into action. His last game with St. Albert was four years ago. The last start for the 40-something Kiernan was four years ago in Ireland. He came out of retirement in June and subbed on during St. Albert's 21-12 win over the Calgary Canucks. His last hurrah as a starter for St. Albert was 1998.
"We were missing a few guys and a couple of new guys are not really used to our calls and game plan. It's fresh for them so it definitely attributed to some of the mistakes we had," said Dominik Jenni, a rugged flanker, of the revamped first 15s that gutted it out against the LTs. "To be honest, all around the field guys made mistakes today but we got the win."
Hat-trick for Lynch
Off the opening kickoff it looked like a blowout as the firsts bullied the LTs into submission right off the bat. In the second minute of play, Lynch scored the first of his three tries with a short burst set up by standoff Simon Gregory's pass from in front of the posts. Gregory kicked the conversion.
"We had a game plan and we absolutely nailed it," Lynch said. "After that, we went off the board a bit when we made a couple of mistakes and we had to defend our line."
The green-clad visitors stormed back with a vengeance and scored off a ruck in the sixth minute but missed the conversion.
Three minutes later, the firsts almost scored off a blocked kick by Lynch. After the ball deflected off his melon outside the LTs' 22-metre line, St. Albert was penalized after a five-metre scrum and a kick for touch by the opposition wiped out the scoring chance.
The LTs made the firsts look bad with their go-ahead try in the 19th minute with a kick down field that seemed to mystify several St. Albert defenders before it was downed in the try area. The conversion left the firsts trailing by five.
"After that great start maybe we got a little laid-back, knowing how that team is [St. Albert beat the LTs 40-20 last month]," Jenni said.
After giving up the lead it took St. Albert only a minute to get it back, as Lynch tracked down a kick that bounced towards the posts and without breaking stride grabbed the ball and waltzed in untouched.
After the conversion by Gregory, another valuable British import, he split the uprights from Ashley Hanson distance near the halfway line in the 30th minute.
The firsts extended the lead with a brilliant give-and-go between Adam Bontus and Lynch to end the first half. Bontus started and finished the TSN play of the game in grand style. Gregory's difficult conversion near the touchline made it 24-12.
A penalty kick by the LTs from in front of the posts in the first minute after the break was answered by Duncan Maguire's try in the 55th minute. Bontus did most of the legwork on the bing-bang-boom passing sequence. He was one of the better St. Albert players on the field.
"He had a cracking game. It was his first time at 13 [outside-centre] and I gelled really well with him," said Lynch, who switched from his main outside position in the centres to the inside spot without missing a beat.
Gregory continued to kick the stuffing out of the ball by converting the try by Maguire as St. Albert pulled ahead 31-15.
The LTs didn't go away quietly and in the 60th minute out-rucked St. Albert for a try.
Lynch, 22, sealed the deal in the 62nd minute while dragging two tacklers across the try line for the hat-trick. Gregory made no mistake on the conversion.
A mistake by St. Albert around its five-metre line resulted in a converted try by the LTs before referee Sandy Nesbitt whistled the game over.
"When we played basics we made them look ordinary," Lynch said.
Playoffs next month
In the race for first place St. Albert kept pace with the provincial champion Calgary Hornets with two games left until the playoffs kick off. Both teams are 9-1, with the Hornets ahead in the overall point totals with three more bonus points than the 2008 and 2009 pennant winners.
"Everything we're doing now is all a buildup towards the Hornets and the playoff games coming up," Jenni said. "We just want to peak gradually and get better and better and reduce our mistakes as we go."
St. Albert can nail down a top-two finish with a victory this Saturday at home against the third-place Calgary Irish (7-4). The last game of the afternoon rugby tripleheader starts at 5 p.m.
After two postponements, the rematch of last year's provincial final goes Sept. 2 in Red Deer at 7 p.m.
"Two big weeks and two big games. Obviously the Hornets should be a tough test, considering it's mid-week as well so we'll have less time to recover," said Lynch, last year's rookie of the year on the firsts.
"The big thing is we've got to stay injury free. Hopefully we can get through them and move on to the playoffs and have a better crack at the final."
St. Albert and the Hornets were scheduled to battle May 29 in Calgary but were snowed out. The makeup game was Aug. 14 at the Irish rugby club but a water main break supposedly flooded the fields and it was postponed.
"It was definitely disappointing. We were really looking forward to that game, especially after last year," Jenni, 24, said of the 24-22 loss to the Hornets in the final, which snapped St. Albert's 13-game season-long winning streak.
