The sixth triumph in a row by the premier men’s provincial rugby champions was the best of the bunch.
A pair of late tries by game-breaker Duncan Maguire propelled St. Albert’s first 15 past the Calgary Saints 26-17 in last Saturday’s thriller at Calgary Rugby Park.
“It was a real inspirational win,” said Chal Smyth, head coach of the 6-3 firsts in the Alberta Cup fixtures. “Everyone played exceptional. Everyone played to their abilities and probably a little bit more. The guys should be proud of themselves.”
The firsts persevered despite losing the services of Brett Kelly, a valuable eight-man, to a shoulder injury five minutes into the match.
“We could’ve crumbled after Brett got hurt but the guys were pretty determined to keep going. Everyone said, ‘OK, I’m going to do a little bit more.’ It was really good to see,” Smyth said. “We were also missing some pretty good players but the guys that were there really stepped up. We had guys out of position but everyone just did their job.”
The Saints marched into the break ahead 17-12.
“They had a fair bit of the territory play in the first half. They scored quite quickly and then we came back and countered with two quick tries, but they came back and scored two more quick ones,” Smyth said. “In the second half, we came out and we really started taking it to them. We were starting to put phases together but we kept making mistakes or taking bad penalties. We also dropped two or three tries within the 22.”
A good chunk of the second half was spent in Calgary’s end.
“For about 27 minutes, we were down in their zone and we just couldn’t punch it in, and then they got out of their zone and got to our 22. We battled but we took a couple of penalties. They had chances to extend the lead and they missed, but we couldn’t get out of our zone,” Smyth said. “With three or four minutes to go, we had a scrum in our zone on the far side on the far corner. We went up the blindside and we got an offload to Duncan. He beat one guy and just outran their fullback and kicked it into the end zone.
“Jake [Robinson] hit the kick and we went up 19-17 with two minutes to go. Everyone was pretty pumped up, especially after spending around eight to 10 minutes within our 22 of them taking it to us a little bit. We bent on our defence but we didn’t break.”
After the converted try, the Saints kicked off to St. Albert and wound up with a lineout ball at the 22. It was stolen by the firsts and eventually the ball was offloaded to Maguire, the fastest winger in the league and the team leader in tries.
“Duncan ran around two guys and scored,” Smyth said. “When you have international speed like that, it’s tough to stop him.”
Another prime-time player was fullback Karim Lynch, last year’s MVP.
“Karim really got us out of some sticky situations with his positional kicking. He played another exceptional game,” Smyth said.
The win pushed the firsts past the Saints (5-2-1) into a second-place tie with the Clansmen (6-3). On top of the table are the Calgary Hornets (8-1).
After a surprising 0-3 start, the firsts are working towards their fourth straight provincial final under Smyth’s watch.
“It’s not what happens at the start of the year, it’s how you build to the playoffs and the confidence that you build,” said Smyth, who is 45-9-1 overall as the field general for the firsts since 2008. “Last weekend was a huge character confidence. We built a lot of confidence in each other and as a team. Guys can now believe that, whatever lineup we have, we’ll be all right because guys will step up and fill their role.”
In the Edmonton Rugby Union, the seconds (5-3) are in the playoff hunt for the second year in a row and the thirds (4-5) have been better than expected.
“Ever since June 1, I think the club’s overall record is around 15-4 in all three divisions,” Smyth said. “Overall, everyone has really played well. Definitely our imports have really stepped up and played really well. The seconds now have guys that were in the prems in the first month but we have asked them to step up and play some prems games in the last six weeks.”
The firsts have three matches remaining before they host the Sept. 17 quarter-finals. Today they scrum down against the Strathcona Druids (4-4-1) at 4 p.m. at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club. Four key players — Maguire, Robinson, Kyle Gilmour and Adam Bontus — have Prairie Wolf Pack commitments in the Canadian Rugby Championship series and will not be available. They will also miss the Aug. 27 showdown with the Clan in St. Albert.
“The Druids and the Clan are going to be really tough. Both teams are coming on. We’ll be missing our Wolf Pack players and it’s another chance to see what these guys are made of,” Smyth said. “The Druids are a good team. In the last few weeks, they’ve had a lot of injuries but they will probably have guys back. We’ll have [forward] Johnny Moloney back. He just got married in Ireland. [Forward] Dom Jenni is back too. It will be nice to have these guys back in the squad, but we’re going to rely on some of the guys in the second division to step up and perform this weekend with the prems. I try to put guys in certain situations where they can succeed and then they’re not going to feel like they’re going let the other guys down. A lot of times these guys really step up and say, ‘Hey, I want to be counted on.’”
