Victorious as the first 15 were over the Druids Saturday, St. Albert’s second squad had very little to offer up against the Norwesters in a 50-0 drubbing at Leading Edge Physiotherapy Field Saturday afternoon.
In the warm-up game to the rugby double-header at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club (SARFC), the Norwesters scored early and often with St. Albert unable to create much pressure on the other side of midfield. Promising drives and runs for tries were stopped either because of penalties or turnovers.
“The second team is a very tough group, a very tough squad to play in because when the first team needs them, the better players get pulled out of that squad,” said coach Gareth Scott. “It’s very difficult to put the same team on the field.”
Injuries and suspensions arising out of the first squad’s July 5 loss to the Clan meant second squad players such as Andrew Marsden and Kyle Balliey received call-ups to the premier team while former firsts fullback Matt Herod was dropped to the seconds.
“It was going to be a tough game for them and it was but it’s tough to be too hard on them,” Scott said. “But you’d hope they would step up and maybe play with a little bit of passion and there was a little bit of that lacking today as well.”
The Norwesters dominated early and often, scoring their first unconverted try for a 5-0 lead within the first three minutes of the match before following it up with a converted try off a lineout barely six minutes later to increase their lead to 12-0. By halftime the Norwesters had built up a 29-0 lead on the second squad and held up only slightly when the second half commenced. Within five minutes of the second 40 minutes of play, they had scored again for a 34-0 lead.
“I think they just kind of went through the motions,” said Scott, who lit into the second squad after last week’s 37-31 win over the Clan for not playing the system he’s trying to teach them.
Scott said he was expecting the game to be difficult, but never thought the Norwesters would hit the 50-point mark and that his squad would be shut out entirely.
“If you let them run at you, they’ll run at you all day and the result was 50. That should never happen. It should never be that big of a discrepancy. We’ll try to have to fix it.”
The seconds have two weeks to prepare for their next opponent — the division leading Centaurs. St. Albert will play them in Grande Prairie on July 28.
