The shock and awe over how bad the Nor’Westers beat up the fantastic firsts shook the foundations of the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
Whipping the Labatt’s Cup provincial champions the last three years in Saturday’s 57-26 lashing was a significant achievement for the Nor’Westers, finalists in consecutive Ken Ann Cup north finals while on the losing end of scores against SARFC in the Alberta Cup premier playoffs.
“Any win over St. Albert is good. They’ve been top dogs for I don’t know how many years now,” said eight-man Aidan Holland of the Nor’Westers. “You can’t knock it. You can see the elation on the guys’ faces right now and that’s how much it means. It’s a win you can’t comprehend.”
Arguably the most important victory by the Nor’Westers since rejoining the premier ranks in 2014 was celebrated rather surprisingly nonchalantly on SARFC’s sacred main pitch.
“We want to show our respect to those guys over there and their fans but in the change room it will be a different story,” Holland said.
As for SARFC, the worst loss for the first 15 side since 2013 was a shocker.
Sam Townsend, SARFC’s fourth men’s head coach in four years, described the performance against the Nor’Westers as “horrible” during his quick post-game address to the players that was filled with colourful language.
SARFC scrumhalf Jake Robinson, who turned 29 on the day of the carnage, agreed.
“They had a bit more desire than us for sure. We were a bit lacklustre throughout the whole game. We didn’t really get our systems in place and we were kind of running around frantically so it wasn’t our best performance. The motivation and the heart wasn’t really there from the boys and it showed on the field,” said last year’s recipient of the Labatt's Cup player of the year award in the Edmonton Rugby Union.
“The Nor’Westers are a good team this year. All the credit to them. They came out hard. They wanted it more,” Robinson added. “It kind of stings a little bit to lose on home field but hopefully we can come back in a couple of weeks and give them a better game on their field.”
The June 16 kick-off is 7 p.m. but before the 1-2 firsts seek revenge against the 4-0 Nor’Westers the team's next match is Saturday against the 1-3 Lep/Tigers at 4 p.m. at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
“We’ve got to keep a positive attitude and come together as a team. We’ve got to come to training with our heads on. We’ve got to understand where we’re at,” said Robinson, the team's MVP during the 12-2 championship season in 2016.
How the team rebounds from its second loss in three tilts with the Nor’Westers – the first defeat was 38-36 last August on a converted try on the last play of the match after leading by 12 with about 10 minutes remaining at SARFC – will determine whether a provincial four-peat is still achievable or only a pipe dream.
The second setback was a forgone conclusion at halftime and the Nor'Westers in command at 33-7.
The first of nine tries, including six converted scores, was recorded in the fifth minute.
In the 29th minute, Matt Jarvis crossed the try line and the conversion left the firsts trailing 21-7.
It was 57-7 when Duncan Maguire scored the first of his two tries with about 15 minutes remaining. Luke (Aussie) Richardson also reached the try area late in the blowout.
The outside speed of the Nor’Westers, especially the explosive Sitiveni Nacoko, left the firsts reeling.
The Nor’Westers were also oozing with confidence while putting the boots to the home team.
“I wouldn’t go as far as saying we kicked their ass,” said the diplomatic Holland, noting the team’s counterattack and “our forwards did bring that little but extra” was the difference.
“The scoreboard does reflect a different game but St. Albert is always going to be a tough team as we found out last season. We beat them here by two points and then we went into (the Ken Ann Cup final) and lost.
“St. Albert can be a different team on the weekend if they’ve got their players here and they’re fit.”
The Nor’Westers were poised to end SARFC’s spectacular run of three-straight Ken Ann Cups and seven in eight trips to the north final in a row by rolling up 12 points to kick-off last year’s playoff, only to lose 41-38.
“It gave us that little added incentive for today but league games only mean so much. Hopefully we get back to that point (north final) this season and we can really bring it,” said Holland, 25.
The playoff format has changed this year with the return of the Lep/Tiers to premier and only the top three north teams in the Alberta Cup table qualify and the highest-ranked side receives a bye into the Ken Ann Cup.
A win over SARFC next Friday would secure the Nor’Westers spot in the Sept. 23 final while forcing the firsts to scramble for home-field advantage in the Sept. 16 semifinal against the Lep/Tigers, Clan or Strathcona Druids.
When asked if the Nor’Westers are the next fantastic firsts – winners of four Labatt's Cups since 2010 – Holland replied: “You like to hope so but we’ve only played four games so far. It’s a long season. We’ve got another seven games left and all it takes is a couple of injuries so you never know where you might be in a couple of weeks but we’ve got to stay humble because every win is a bonus,” said the second-year import from Ayr, Scotland. “You want to learn from losing and then hopefully that doesn’t come and then we’re learning from our mistakes in our wins.”
The firsts have plenty of heavy lifting to get back up to speed after their second loss in a row and the last time that happened was 2013, en route to the provincial final that ended in defeat, 47-10 to the Calgary Hornets at Ellerslie.
The first loss was 13-12 against the 2-2 Rams in Calgary on May 27.
The lineups in both losses this season were different and not quite up to the standard needed when the playoffs roll around.
Robinson, however, was encouraged by the team’s effort against the Rams.
“It was really good. It was kind of a live scrimmage so you play as go kind of thing. They called just a scrum and set it up so they could work on some things and we could work on defence structure and offensive phase play as well,” said the member of the Canada Corner wall of fame at SARFC. “It was fun to be at that international pace again with the ball flowing. It was just a quick match.”
