Ellerslie Rugby Park – Beating the lowly Lep/Tigers by 18 points in the last match before the playoffs wasn't good enough for the Labatt's Cup provincial rugby champions.
"It's unacceptable," said eight-man Kyle Baillie after a long-winded post-game team huddle following St. Albert's 35-17 win Saturday. "Guys weren't focused. You could see it in our warm-up today. It's time to be focused. It's crunch time now."
St. Albert's first 15 battled back from deficits of 12-0 at the 15-minute mark and 17-14 early in the second half to extend their winning streak to nine games.
"Clearly we came out slow, but once we got our minds in the game, everyone was ready to go and you could see the difference from the beginning to end, for sure," Baillie said.
The firsts were guilty of looking past the eighth-place Lep/Tigers (4-8) after whipping the green team 51-5 in July.
"We came into this game expecting to roll over these guys, which was our downfall obviously. They popped two tries in early, fast and quick, just because we thought we could go through the motions," Baillie said.
The playoffs kick off this Saturday for St. Albert against the sixth-place Strathcona Druids (5-6-1) in the quarter-finals. The last home game of the year is tentatively slated to start at 4 p.m. at the Leading Edge Physiotherapy Fields.
The firsts are gunning for their fourth straight trip to the provincial final.
"We all obviously want that championship again. It was a big deal getting that cup so hopefully we can pull out another one," said Baillie of the first provincial premier men's title in the history of the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
In the season series, the Druids won the league opener 29-17 and St. Albert posted a convincing 40-17 decision at home Aug. 13.
St. Albert (9-3) finished third behind the pennant-winning Calgary Hornets (10-2) and the Calgary Saints (9-2-1) in the Alberta Cup table.
The firsts are 48-9-1 overall with head coach Chal Smyth at the controls after going 18-1 in 2007 as provincial second division champions.
"The main thing for us is the focus. We've got the studs out here to punch it through," said Baillie, one of only four players to see action against the Lep/Tigers that started the 2010 provincial final against the Calgary Canucks.
The playoff lineup against the Druids will be different than the starting 15 against the Lep/Tigers. The second 15 also have a semifinal tilt in Leduc against the Lor-Ann Cup provincial champion Crude that same day.
In the 2010 Edmonton Rugby Union final for the J.W. Shaw Cup, Leduc defeated the seconds 39-15. This year, each team was victorious at home, with scores of 24-13 for the seconds and 41-29 for Leduc. Both sides finished with identical 8-4 records, but second-place Leduc had two more bonus points than the seconds.
"We've got a lot of high quality players and it really shows whenever they want to play. We've got to come to the pitch ready to go. If we do that, then we shouldn't have a problem," Baillie said.
Comeback charge
Against the Lep/Tigers, the firsts looked flatter than stale beer until fullback Karim Lynch scored under the posts in the 23rd minute. A key pass by Baillie set up the try. Matt Herod's convert was good.
In the 33rd minute, winger Adam Bontus slipped out of a low tackle while motoring down the touchline for St. Albert's second try. Assisting on the play was David Owen. He took a big hit while dishing the ball off, which led to a pass by Lynch in front of the halfway line that sprung Bontus free. Herod's convert made it 14-12.
Nine minutes into the second half, the Lep/Tigers regained the lead with a short chip-and-chase. The try scorer outmuscled Bontus for the ball in the try area for five points.
Five minutes later, Bontus flew down the touchline to put St. Albert back on top. Good scrummaging by the firsts in their end, plus another sharp play with the ball by Baillie, put the wheels in motion for Bontus to score.
The conversion by Jake Robinson, who subbed in for Herod at scrum half in the 54th minute, pushed St. Albert ahead 21-17.
Baillie, 20, sealed the deal off a five-metre scrum in the 68th minute with a twisting acrobatic catch before diving over the try line. Robinson nailed the conversion.
"We wheeled their scrum and Jake got a tip on the ball when their nine was trying to pass it back to the 10. It flipped over the entire scrum and I bobbled it in my hands but I managed to grab a hold of it and put it in," said the lanky Baillie, a product of Summerside, P.E.I., who played this year for the Castaway Wanderers' first division team in the British Columbia Rugby Union and the Atlantic Rock in the Canadian Rugby Championship circuit.
The last try of the match was tapped down by Luke Racine. Leading up to the rare score by the penalty-plagued prop was an outstanding individual effort by Lynch. Last year's team MVP chased down his own kick deep into enemy territory, then preceded to block the return boot by the Lep/Tigers. After they recovered the ball outside the five-metre line, Lynch uncorked a heavy hit and the firsts gobbled up the turnover. A few seconds later, Racine trotted into the try area.
Robinson split the uprights with a difficult conversion near the 22-metre flag.
Lynch had a great game airing the ball out with authority while bailing the seconds out of several sticky jams.
The small but snarly Preston Petrovitch, Irish import Johnny Moloney and lineout specialist Sean LeLacheur also made major contributions in the forwards.
SCRUM BALLS: Brett Kelly, a valuable forward and mainstay with the first 15 since 2007, has been cleared to play in the playoffs. He missed three games with a third-degree shoulder separation.
Veteran prop Graham Noren will complete his four-game suspension this weekend and is eligible to play for the seconds in the Sept. 24 final. Noren was red-carded in the 17-7 win by the seconds Aug. 13 against the Fort McMurray Knights in St. Albert for a bad word directed at an opposing player. However, the referee mistakenly thought it was meant for him and gave Noren the boot.
Owen is a question mark for the seconds after he limped off the pitch with the help of two teammates while favouring his left ankle. The Welsh Bullet leads all St. Albert players in tries while splitting time in the centres for the seconds and firsts. He has also filed in at standoff for the seconds as well.
