Leduc – The St. Albert seconds lost to a better team in the Edmonton Rugby Union semifinals Saturday.
“That is a great second div side. It was a good group of guys that we played against today,” captain Sean LeLacheur said after the seconds fell 22-16 to the Leduc Crude. “They beat us last year [39-15] in the final and then they went on to win provincials. They looked pretty good today and it wouldn’t surprise me if they did it again.”
Leduc and St. Albert shared second place with eight wins and four losses, but the Crude had two more bonus points to clinch the home playoff berth. The Crude haven’t tasted defeat at home since 2008.
In league play, both teams won at home by scores of 24-13 for St. Albert and 41-29 for Leduc.
“They game-planned really well for us today. They know our strengths so they kind of targeted some of our weaknesses and stayed away from some of our strengths,” LeLacheur said.
The seconds got off to a promising start as Matt Herod opened the scoring with a penalty kick from outside the five-metre line in the eighth minute.
Despite tricky wind conditions, both teams took turns booting the ball in the early stages of the match. Ashley Hanson got some good kicks away to keep Leduc on its toes. As a result, the seconds had chances to expand their lead while in prime scoring territory but lacked finish.
Field position gradually shifted in favour of Leduc, forcing the seconds to play the latter part of the first half pinned deep in their end. They withstood a couple of fierce barrages while defending the try line with some gutsy defence. It took its toll, however, as Simon Rowe suffered a cut above his eye, Nick Gies hurt his wrist and Nate Reis had the wind knocked out of him after throwing his body in front of a Leduc ball carrier twice his size.
Rowe and Gies pulled off a couple of defensive gems before they got nicked up. Rowe intercepted an errant pass that stalled one drive. Gies also pounced on a turnover in front of the five-metre line that denied Leduc a scoring chance.
Leduc eventually wore St. Albert down defensively to end the first half with a try.
After the break, Leduc pushed St. Albert’s forwards back to the try line and eventually rucked over a lineout ball from around the five-metre line in the 45th minute. The conversion was good.
A resilient defence stood its ground in the face of constant pressure by Leduc until Herod split the uprights from inside the halfway line in the 61st minute to cut the lead in half.
Leduc ratcheted up its attack and almost scored before the referee issued sin-bin cards to Justin (Bomber) Armitt and a Leduc player in the 66th minute. When play resumed at St. Albert’s five-metre line, Leduc pounded the ball into the defensive wall a couple of times before planting it down in the try area.
The seconds refused to give up with their season hanging in the balance. A kick for touch by Hanson on a penalty play set the stage for a lineout ball near the 22 and David Owen roared through Leduc’s defensive line for the try. Herod’s convert just missed the mark.
Leduc cranked up another offensive drive and scored the backbreaking try from a five-metre scrum with under 10 minutes to play to make it 22-11.
The game ended with a try by Braeden Platten in injury time to finish off a vigorous run by Herod.
“We played solid defence. They just found a way to keep the pressure on and find breaks in our line. They had good ball control and they just kept coming at us and coming at us and eventually they found holes,” LeLacheur said. “There have been times this year where we had some mental breakdowns and some communication errors that led to easy tries, but that wasn’t the case today. We didn’t give them any easy ones.”
The loss was the second in a row and the third in six games for the seconds after five straight wins. They finished 8-5 overall after going 7-7 in 2010.
The post-game pep talk by LeLacheur, a versatile forward and MVP of the seconds last year, was full of positive reinforcement for the sad-looking group of seconds.
“We played really, really hard today. It’s just really disappointing that we couldn’t pull it off. I know all of us wanted to keep playing this year,” said LeLacheur, 26, the director of senior rugby at the St. Albert club. “It was a great season for us. We’ve got a lot to be proud of. We’ve got some fantastic young guys on our team and we’ve got some older guys [Owen and Hanson] that I think are still planning on sticking around for a bit.
“There are definitely a lot of bright times ahead for us.”
