The Labatt’s Cup provincial champions will have to wait until the Oct. 2 premier men’s rugby final to beat the Calgary Irish this year.
The second loss for the first division men against the Irish was Saturday’s 41-15 rout at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
“It was tough out there for the boys. The first 20 minutes was really good. We were playing our system and then it just seemed once they got a couple of tries on us our confidence got a bit down,” said flanker Orrin Farries, the team captain against the Irish.
The 26-point margin of defeat was identical to the 43-17 Irish thrashing in Calgary last month.
Both matches were too close to call at halftime with the firsts down 12-7 in St. Albert and 15-5 in Calgary.
“That (first) game we kind of showed up and we were all scrambled. There wasn’t a good sense of focus,” Farries said. “Today, I’m not going to blame the roster, I’m going to blame the fact that the boys got away from tackling low and playing St. Albert rugby, shipping it out wide and retaining our own ball. We got sloppy. We started playing rugby plays that get you penalties and that’s not what we want. We don’t want to get penalized too much.”
A rash of injuries and commitments with the Calgary-based Prairie Wolfpack for the Canadian Rugby Championship tournament, June 28 to July 1 at Calgary Rugby Park, left the first 15 with only seven starters from the previous weekend’s 20-7 win over the Nor’Westers (2-3-1) in St. Albert.
Player/head coach Clay Panga, Lucas Albornoz and Liam Beaulieu in the forwards and Adam Bontus in the backs – as well as SARFC and national team products’ Andy Tiedemann and Kyle Gilmour – are on the Wolfpack roster.
A trio of youngsters – front-row Nathan Yue, second-row Brett Clow and eight-man Austen McDonald – helped fill holes in the starting lineup against the Irish.
“If we all play the way Clay has coached us to play, the 15 boys we had out there today would win. We can beat any team in the province with those 15 boys, we just need to have heads on and play the game that Clay has taught us. Clay has coached us really well and we got away from it today,” Farries said.
The loss dropped the firsts (4-2) behind the surging Irish (4-1), who have one more bonus point than the No. 1 team in the north.
“It’s pretty big for us going up here to get a win like that. They were at the top of the league,” said Irish captain Brian O’Hara. “We have to maintain this momentum and build on that and just try and stay there for the rest of the season until we get to playoff time.”
It was also extra special beating the firsts on their hallowed grounds.
“It’s massive for us,” said O’Hara, who crossed the try line twice. “It’s tough to come up here. It’s a long journey. Luckily we got a bus today. It makes us more relaxed but it is a tough journey to make and it’s sometimes tough to get mentally ready.”
The firsts opened the scoring in the eighth minute as Antony Fitch accepted a pass around the 22-metre line and bolted through the Irish’s defensive line. Fitch converted his try after stepping around the last defender, who tripped over himself around the five-metre line while lining up the slippery standoff.
Jake Robinson’s fingerprints were all over the ball on the play as the firsts pushed the Irish back towards their try line to kick off the match.
Robinson was outstanding at scrumhalf before he subbed off with under 30 minutes to play and blood pouring out of his nose and the Irish in front 24-7.
In the 15th minute, Fitch’s drop goal attempt from around the 22 was just wide of the posts.
The firsts kept pressuring but turned the ball over in front of the try line in the 23rd minute.
The Irish gradually reversed their field position and in the 26th minute missed a penalty kick from in front of the 40-metre line.
Four minutes later, the Irish caught the firsts short on numbers on the right side and a long gallop down the touchline ended with a high tackle for a penalty try and the conversion evened the score.
Rubbish tackling by the firsts allowed the Irish to score their second try in the 35th minute to lead by five at the break.
“They had 15 of the last 20 minutes in the first half and that hurt us bad. The penalty try also didn’t feel so good. It sapped the boys,” Farries said. “After that try it seemed from our kick off we took our foot off the gas pedal. We stopped playing and stopped holding onto the ball and they took possession from that point on.”
In the second half the Irish gutted the firsts with two tries and one conversion in a four-minute span before the 53-minute mark to make it 24-7.
“They came at us pretty hard at the start,” said O’Hara, an import flanker from the Munster Rugby Club. “In the second half we really kind of fronted up and it kind of opened up a bit for us luckily and we scored some good tries.”
Fitch’s penalty kick from Ashley Hanson distance in the 63rd minute left the firsts trailing by 14. A few minutes later he subbed off with a lower body injury.
The Irish sealed the deal with three tries and one conversion during an eight-minute stretch before Mitch Millett broke loose for the last try by the firsts.
O’Hara, 25, described the win as the team’s best performance this season.
“We’re getting better with our structure to our game plan and we implemented that pretty well today,” said the returnee from last year’s squad that finished 7-5 in league play. “We didn’t have many people leave the group. We have the same core group together and that’s just helped us build and get a better feel for each other.”
Farries, 20, was disappointed with the lack of discipline by the firsts.
“Some of the boys started tackling pretty high and that’s just not our game plan. It’s not the way Clay has coached us to play and once we get away from that there’s not much we can do,” said the Red Deer product.
Robinson and Fitch were co-recipients of man of the match honours and Aaron Millard, an underrated front-row, winger Brad Angove and Justin (Bomber) Armitt in the centres also had strong outings.
“The team was still good in patches. We had some good lineouts and some good scrums. The backs, once we got it to them, they worked some magic but you just can’t rely on your backs, you’ve got to win with 15 guys,” Farries said.
A break in the fixture gives the firsts time to heal up and regroup before tackling the Calgary Saints (3-2) July 11 in the Cow Town.
“These two weeks off will be really good. Next week will be a good one to just let the boys ease off and the week after that we’re going to come to training and we’re really going to focus back on that shape that Clay’s taught us,” Farries said. “After that there is not going to be a team that’s going to stop us out there if I say so.”
