St. Albert’s second division men’s rugby team ran out of time in Saturday’s 29-12 loss to the Nor’Westers.
St. Albert’s second division men’s rugby team ran out of time in Saturday’s 29-12 loss to the Nor’Westers.
The seconds outscored the 2011 provincial finalists in the second half after giving up 24 unanswered points in the opening 40 minutes at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
“In the second half we showed glimpses of what we feel we can do,” said second-row Sean LeLacheur. “There were a lot of good things we did, it was just some small errors that we made in the first half that kind of got us in a big hole early.”
The Nor’Westers kicked off the Edmonton Rugby Union lid-lifter with a try in the 11th minute. They made it 10-0 seven minutes later, then missed a long penalty kick in the 21st minute.
The seconds threatened to score during their best drive of the half but lacked finish near the try line.
Sloppy tackling by the seconds allowed the Nor’Westers to capitalize twice for converted tries in the last eight minutes before the break.
“In the first half it looked like we were almost a bit tentative. We knew where we had to be but we didn’t quite know we had to be there so we didn’t hit the holes as hard and we didn’t hit the rucks as hard,” LeLacheur said.
Nine minutes into the second half a long run by standoff Andrew Marsden, a newcomer from New Zealand, led to a try by fullback Graeme Scott to break the shutout.
The Nor’Westers replied in the 55th minute with their fifth and final try of the match.
The seconds closed out the loss with a try by LeLacheur, converted by Frank Lucas.
“In the second half we were committing to the rucks, we were hitting the gaps hard and we got a couple of tries out of it,” LeLacheur said.
St. Albert’s man of the match was prop Angus MacDonald. Graham Noren was also a workhorse at eight-man.
A number of players with premier experience also subbed on in the second half to keep the score respectable.
LeLacheur, 27, described the loss as “a tad disappointing” after a sold week of training.
“There are a lot of new faces on the team, and a lot of them are young guys, so we know we have a lot of work to do,” said last year’s captain. “Overall, it was a promising game. There was some real good stuff from guys we haven’t seen in the second division before.”
It was a tough first draw for the seconds against the Nor’Westers’ first 15. Last year the teams split the season series – 39-32 for the seconds and 40-12 for the Nor’Westers in the last game before the playoffs.
The seconds finished with an 8-5 record after their 22-16 semifinal loss to Leduc Crude, the 2010 provincial champions.
The Nor’Westers beat Leduc for the J.W. Shaw Cup and in the provincial final fell to the Calgary Irish for an 11-4 overall record.
“In a perfect world it would’ve been nice to have seen a middle of the pack team, but when you see the top team in the league it really tests you right off the bat,” LeLacheur said. “They are just a hard team. They stick all their tackles. They’re very well structured and they’ve got some great players.”
The seconds will regroup this week in preparation for Saturday’s match with the Strathcona Druids. Kickoff is 2:15 p.m. at Lynn Davies Rugby Park.
“We’ll go back to the drawing board and start ironing out some things,” LeLacheur said.
SCRUM BALLS: The women’s rugby team lost Saturday’s season opener 48-3 to the Rockers at Ellerslie Rugby Park. The Rockers racked up eight tries and kicked four conversions after St. Albert captain Katie Davis opened the scoring with a penalty kick in the third minute. At halftime it was 24-3.
St. Albert only had two subs for the match, and both players entered the game in the first half with injuries to Davis and Megan Lauer.
St. Albert is back on the pitch Saturday against the Strathcona Druids at 12:30 p.m. at Lynn Davis Rugby Park.
