Sherwood Park – It was fitting that the first U19 match of the season for the St. Albert Rugby Football Club ended with a penalty try.
The SARFC juniors persevered in Wednesday’s chippy, mistake-filled and loosely-officiated affair to beat the Strathcona Druids 25-17 at the waterlogged Lynn Davies Rugby Park.
“It was a lot of dirty ball,” said U19 captain Orrin Farries. “You can never blame the ref for what’s happening, it was just really sloppy for both sides. For everyone, it’s their first game. A lot of these kids are high school students so they come out here and they’re hitting high and doing dumb stuff.”
Neil Coghlan’s penalty kick from outside the 22-metre line with time running out lifted SARFC into its second lead of the night at 18-17.
A few minutes later, after punishing runs by Farries, Trent Bennett and Nathan Gies pushed the Druids deep into their end, SARFC was awarded a penalty try that Bennett took credit for and the referee called it a game.
The Druids opened the scoring in the third minute with a well-struck penalty kick from a tough angle. They continued to pressure but SARFC buckled down to escape a couple of sticky jams without giving up points before the quarter ended.
Halfway through the second quarter, an alert Robert Blunden scored off a quick penalty play from inside the 22.
However the lead didn’t last long as SARFC was unable to track down a kick and the Druids scooped up the ball for a converted try under the posts to make it 10-5.
The home team closed out the first half with an unsuccessful penalty kick from outside the 40-metre line.
Early in the third quarter both teams flexed their muscles for ball possession inside SARFC’s half of the pitch and on a penalty play from inside the 22 the Druids scored under the posts. The conversion left the visitors trailing by 12.
SARFC rebounded to close the gap to 17-15 at quarter time on Coghlan’s penalty kick from inside the 40 and later on the scrum-half finished off a determined dash by Farries for the team’s second try and converted his own score.
“Our attitude had a complete shift in the second half. In the first half we were down on ourselves. We weren’t really hyped up in the warmup at all. In the second half we came out and played a little more St. Albert rugby. A couple of hits got us motivated too and once the whole team kind of got behind what was happening, we started getting the ball out to the backs more and that’s when we started putting points on them,” Farries said. “In the end, it’s just lucky that we didn’t (give) away too many balls and when we had our opportunities we took advantage of them sometimes.”
Farries was encouraged by the team’s potential.
“We had some really good hits out of some of our rookies. We had some awesome runs from our forwards. If we put the structure together a little bit better, this season is ours to have.”
The inside-centre from Red Deer is also a flanker for SARFC’s premier men’s team.
“I came up here to play some premier and thankfully I’ve been able to get some starts.”
Farries, 18, is among a number of juniors who played men’s rugby for the first, second or third teams this year.
“It’s a big culture shock. You come over here (to junior) and people take it a little less seriously. Some people don’t know what they’re doing and they don’t have quite the passion that the guys do who play in the men’s league,” said the University of Alberta student who started playing rugby in Grade 11 at Hunting Hills High School. “But it’s kind of good because you see the mistakes you might be making in the upper level. It’s good learning for you too and it’s good for leadership.”
The next game for the 2012 ERU finalists is this Wednesday against the Titans in Red Deer at 7:30 p.m.
The following week SARFC scrums down against the Parkland Sharks on July 10 at 7 p.m. at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
SCRUM BALLS: The U17 juniors are 2-0 after crushing the Nor’Westers 58-15 Wednesday at Ellerslie.
Last year SARFC lost the U17 ERU final 24-3 to the Nor’Westers after going 1-1 in league play against its junior rivals.
The juniors kicked off the U17 fixtures last Saturday with a 48-20 win over the Edson Axmen at Ellerslie.
The U17s are back on the pitch this Wednesday against the Clansmen at 7 p.m. at Airways Park.
