Ellerslie Rugby Park – Losing by 71 points to the first-place U19 team in the last match before the playoffs was a wakeup call for the 2012 Edmonton Rugby Union finalists from St. Albert.
“It’s a tough loss,” said junior player Nathan Gies after Wednesday’s 71-0 pummeling by the Clansmen Blue. “Our numbers were down and morale was down a little bit too.”
The juniors were missing key players against the Clan, who fielded two teams in the U19 fixtures and dressed a ton of players for the tilt.
The Clan exploited the short-staffed juniors for three converted tries in the opening nine minutes and finished the blowout with 11 tries and eight conversions.
The Clan scored 28 points in the first quarter and at halftime led by 38.
The closest the juniors came to scoring was a tricky drop goal attempt by scrum-half Neil Coghlan from inside the 22-metre line in the first quarter and the juniors down by 21 points.
“It’s hard to keep it up when you’re losing like that but you’ve just got to keep saying it’s 0-0,” said Gies, who split time at eight-man and outside-centre. “We were just losing it on the outside with not having enough numbers to spread out (the defensive line).”
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the juniors despite spending most of the match defending instead of attacking. Zach Piercey imposed his physicality on the Clan in the rough and tumble affair, Austin Havens was strong at hooker and fullback Jake Mentz ran miles.
The loss was the second against the Clan Blue (6-1) this year and the third overall by the juniors in seven league matches.
“We lost to them before but it was by a closer margin,” Gies said. “The difference was basically numbers and just the hype. There was not as much hype in this game but we tried to come with all we got.”
He stressed the lopsided result was not indicative of the team’s season.
“We have that spirit and we’re all playing really good rugby, it’s just numbers and not being able to go to practices,” said the second-year U19 junior. “It’s hard with numbers, especially making the time. We all work.”
Last year the juniors lost the ERU final 29-14 to the Clan B team and finished 5-1-1 overall after placing first in league play at 4-0-1.
“We’re almost the same team as last year, just a few guys are missing,” Gies said. “This year we’ve definitely got more speed. We have a lot more faster guys.”
Juniors is the next step up the competitive ladder after high school rugby.
“In junior it’s all about spirit. All the different schools finally come together and we can all work together and make stronger teams,” Gies said. “It’s more uplifting to play U19 with everybody together.”
The U19 semifinals kick off Wednesday at 7 p.m. The final is Aug. 17 at 4 p.m. and the provincial showdown against the Calgary Rugby Union champion is Aug. 24 at 4 p.m. All matches are scheduled for Ellerslie.
Gies, 18, is confident the juniors will rise to the occasion.
“We’re going to make it happen. We’re going to make all the practices. We’re all going to be there,” said Gies, a high school rugby product of the St. Albert Skyhawks and co-captain of 2012 metro Edmonton city conference champions and consolation playoff winners at the Tier II (3A schools) high school provincials.
