St. Albert was its own worst enemy in Saturday's tug-of-war with the Fort McMurray Knights in second division men's rugby.
"We had too many penalties. It took our momentum away," scrum-half Frank Lucas said after the 17-7 win at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club. "If we smarten up on our penalties we should coast through [the regular season] and hopefully go far in the playoffs."
The parade of penalties included a red card to stalwart prop Graham Noren with 17 minutes to play that left the seconds short a player while leading by 10.
Several laws of the game were broken by the seconds leading up to a missed penalty kick by the Knights from the 22-metre line in the seventh minute.
A few minutes later the Knights fumbled the ball away at St. Albert's five-metre line. David Owen scooped it up, avoided a tackle on the try line, then flipped it to Ashley Hanson to kick for touch to relieve the pressure.
A penalty in the 17th minute, after a St. Albert lineout at Fort McMurray's five, gave the Knights the ball, prompting captain Sean LeLacheur to bellow, "Show me some heart, Albert!"
The Knights stormed down the pitch and their boot into the try area was tracked down by Braedon Platten with several Knights in hot pursuit.
In the 21st minute the Knights converted a lineout ball from inside the St. Albert 22, as the scorer broke a couple of tackles en route to the try area. The conversion was good.
The seconds started clicking late in the half with the forwards spearheading the attack, but were denied points because of penalties and a huge number of dropped balls in scoring range. During a scrum at the Fort McMurray five, Lucas stole the ball and several passes later Platten flew across the try line with a short burst on the wing. Hanson was unlucky on the long conversion.
The try was a team effort with several hands touching the ball before Platten capped off the scoring play to end the half.
"We're a smaller pack so we have to hit as one, and try and catch the other team off their cadence when they hit. Hopefully we drive them up a bit and that's what happened there," Lucas said of the big forward push at the Fort McMurray five. "We eventually got the ball wide and nice and fast and Platten finished it off," he said.
Strong second half
The Knights kicked off the second half with a burst of energy but the seconds held their ground until Owen's kick and chase from outside St. Albert's 22 resulted in a penalty try in the 44th minute. After outrunning a defender for the ball, and a posse of support help trailing on the play, the Welsh Bullet kicked it again. As the ball rolled into the try area he was grabbed from behind and the referee signaled a St. Albert try. Hanson's conversion was good.
The third try by the seconds was another brilliant kick and chase ball by Owen from inside the St. Albert zone for Aaron Wiecker to tap down in the 56th minute. The rookie winger and recent graduate of Paul Kane High School lit up the pitch with impressive speed down the touchline. Hanson just missed the conversion.
During a lengthy push for points by the visitors, tempers flared when the Knights took exception to an aggressive Noren diving over a ruck for the ball. During a conference with both parties, the referee explained to Noren what he did wrong. The St. Albert veteran disagreed and during an exchange of words with his Fort McMurray antagonist, Noren called him a bad name. However, the ref thought it was directed at him, so instead of issuing a yellow card he tossed Noren from the match.
The Knights elected to kick for points on the penalty, but missed the uprights.
Late in the proceedings, Platten made a great defensive play from his fullback position on a kick and chase to give the seconds the ball at their 22.
The contest ended with a red card to the Knights' scrum-half after he inflicted pain on LeLacheur in front of the Fort McMurray try line.
The forward driven affair featured bone-rattling tackles by Justin (Bomber) Armitt in the first half and Nathan Reis in the 53rd minute, which ignited a roar of approval from the St. Albert fans on the sun-drenched balcony overlooking the pitch.
After a shaky start the seconds settled down in the second half and outscored an equally-determined Fort McMurray side.
"We just sprayed the field by moving the ball and using more quick ball. Our game plan is to get it wide and they just tired out," Lucas said. "Fort Mac is a strong team in the forwards and our strength is in the backs. When we got into our game plan and stuck to it, we went forward. We got the ball to our backs, that's our strength, especially when you've got Ash [Hanson] and Di [Owen] back there."
The win was the sixth in seven games for last year's J.W. Shaw Cup finalists in the Edmonton Rugby Union playoffs. They also beat the Knights (4-5) in Fort McMurray 29-12 in June.
"Fort Mac is a tough team to play. They've got good chemistry. That's the only team they have. They have 22 guys that show up to their practice," Lucas said. "Against teams like that we've just got to rely on our fitness."
Saturday's win pretty much sewed up a spot in the Sept. 17 semifinals. The seconds (6-3) have three games remaining, including a pair against the first-place Norwesters (7-2). The first tilt is Saturday at 2 p.m. in St. Albert.
"Hopefully we get our numbers going here in practice and we start buying into what we need to do and go forward from here. We've also got to stay away from penalties," said Lucas, 26, St. Albert's third division MVP in 2009.
