Last year’s division three champions are back at square one after their first win of the season erased a deficit in the points standings.
The St. Albert Rugby Football Club team was 0-3 with a default penalty of minus-five before defeating the Leduc Crude 31-24 in Friday’s home opener in the Edmonton Rugby Union.
The bonus point decision (a win equals four points and an extra point is awarded by scoring four or more tries) means the SARFC thirds have zero points with seven matches remaining. The top six teams make the playoffs.
“It’s a very long road for us. The default (SARFC was unable to field a team May 28 against the Lloydminster Reapers in the Border City) puts us down points so technically we’re back up at even but as long as we go up we can do the same thing as last year when we had a slow start and then had a couple of wins and just started rolling,” said winger Jon Anderson of the eight consecutive wins, including three in the playoffs, by the 12-3 overall ERU Visser Cup and provincial Digby Dinnie Cup champions in 2015.
“We’re started to pick it up and now that we’ve got some guys out it will start going good again.”
The thirds persevered after falling behind by 10 early in the third quarter in front of a sun-drenched and packed SARFC balcony.
“It’s great to win in front of the home crowd and finally put a win on the board. It means a lot. We’re the defending champions so we’ve got to start getting some points,” Anderson said.
“We started slow but we started picking it up and as it went on we really started to click. We started to get our systems going and the intensity picked up way more by the end of the game,” he added. “Our defence today was really, really strong too and that’s one thing we’ve been working on a lot in practice, just being able to have that hard line speed, get our tackles in and make sure we’re making those hits.”
Tries by scrumhalf Matt Herod and flanker Josh Freeman and a conversion by Luke (Aussie) Richardson put the thirds on top by two to start the fourth quarter.
Herod was a man possessed whenever he touched the ball and Ashley Hanson weaved his magic at standoff as the thirds put the pedal to the metal in the decisive quarter.
Freeman was among a handful of U21 SARFC Dolphins in the lineup that made an impact against Leduc (1-3-1).
A number of thirds were also slotted in spots they don’t normally play in.
“We had a lot of guys playing out of position, especially in the forwards. It was their first game playing in certain positions but everybody stepped up really well and played really strong,” said Anderson, who scored the only try of the fourth quarter to ice the win after having one called back a few minutes earlier by the ref over extra movements with the ball on the ground around the try line.
“It was essentially the same play both times. When we have a scrum nice and tight inside their 22 or on their 22 it gives you a lot of room on that offside wing so I was just able to get that ball and work my way around the corner and get into the endzone,” said Anderson, 27.
Saturday the thirds and the SARFC division one women (2-1) travel to Grande Prairie for ERU action. The women’s match against the Sirens (0-2) starts at 2 p.m. and the thirds play the Centaurs (0-3) at 4 p.m.
The Calgary Saints were no match for the fantastic firsts on Saturday, as the SARFC premier men’s team rolled to overwhelming 55-22 triumph at the Calgary Irish Rugby Club.
The Alberta Cup contest was a done deal at halftime at 35-8.
The firsts are 3-1 after their second win in a row and the Saints are 1-3.
The two-time defending Labatt’s Cup provincial champions host the Calgary Irish (0-3) Saturday at 1 p.m.
It’s the last match before the firsts scrum-down July 16 against the Calgary Canucks (2-2) at SARFC.
The Lorne Akins Gators continued their domination at the Great Edmonton Junior High 7s Rugby Festival by sweeping the Tier 1 male and female finals for the umpteenth time since its inception in 2012.
Gator Blue defeated Leduc for the male title in the six-team draw and in sudden-death overtime Gator Pink beat Gator Yellow for the female crown in the seven-team draw Saturday at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
Gator Blue went 5-0 in the round robin and in the semifinal Ben Brown, Will Diederichs and Rylan Baerg scored tries for a 10-point win over D.S. Mackenzie.
After falling behind early to Leduc, tries by Brown and Diederichs evened the score at halftime and the second half was all Blues with tough defence and offensive punch by Diederichs, Michael Nobrega and Chris Manchester.
Diederichs provided key offensive points and defensive flagging throughout the tournament.
The showdown for female honours saw Gator Yellow play its best rugby of the season to not only grab the lead in the final but torment Gator Pink on defence.
A brilliant diving try by Maren Krec after time had expired lifted the Pinks back into their match and in overtime Raeesa Cherniwchan out-manoeuvred several tacklers and danced her way into the try area for the championship-winning points after several minutes of intense back and forth action.
A clean sweep by the Pinks of their six pool matches featured strong efforts by Kiana Krueger and Krec. Makenna Shuttler was also competing in her third appearance in the city final.
The Yellows won three and tied two on their journey to the playoffs. Impressive runs were recorded by Katie Ostapchuk and Taylor Marthiensen and in the final Morgan Maloney’s scoring dash almost won it for the Yellows.
Maloney was also a tireless defender and flagger, while Holly Heron contributed to the team’s success and the Resschke twins, Paisley and Gracie, provided staunch leadership.
It was the second year in a row the two Gator teams battled in the female final.
The season started on the turf in March at Servus Credit Union Place for more than 60 flag rugby players on seven different teams, including two male and two female Tier 2 teams that represented the Gators in Friday’s championship tournament.
Coaching the Gators were Shawn Andersen, Angus MacDonald, Sabrina Kelly, Will Backhouse, Hugh Steele and Roger Scott.
Scott wrote a detained story on the Tier 1 and 2 playoff tournaments for the school and for a copy, email the former longtime Lorne Akins’ teacher and rugby enthusiast at [email protected].
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com for the Tier 1 team pictures.
