The last Alberta Cup match before the playoffs kick off for the premier men’s team is Saturday against the Strathcona Druids.
Start time is 4 p.m. at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
Both teams will also scrum down in the Sept. 19 north semifinal at SARFC. The winner plays the Nor’Westers (6-6-1, five bonus points) or Clansmen (4-9, 11 BP) in the Ken Ann Cup final Sept. 26 to determine the north rep for the Labatt’s Cup provincial championship Oct. 3 at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
A victory over the last-place Druids (1-11-1, seven BP) would clinch the second consecutive Alberta Cup pennant and fourth in eight years for the SARFC first 15 (10-2-1, 11 BP).
In the season opener, the defending provincial champs rolled over the Druids 63-14.
The firsts are undefeated in seven matches as winners of six in a row.
Canada’s final two warm-up matches in England before the Rugby World Cup featured two familiar St. Albert faces in the starting lineups.
Andy Tiedemann scored his first try for Canada in the fourth minute while propping in his 35th cap appearance in the 16-15 win over Georgia last week and flanker Kyle Gilmour earned his 10th cap in Sunday’s 47-18 loss to Fiji.
In the world rankings, Canada is No. 18, Georgia is No. 13 and Fiji is No. 9.
Tiedemann was on the 2011 World Cup team (1-2-1 record) in New Zealand and Gilmour is making his World Cup debut. They are among five Albertans on the Canadian squad of 17 forwards and 14 backs.
The St. Albert Rugby Football Club products also played for the Calgary-based Prairie Wolfpack, winner of the 2015 Canadian Rugby Championship tournament.
Tiedemann and Gilmour were high school rugby standouts with the Paul Kane Blues and St. Albert Skyhawks, respectively, and they also dominated the gridiron with the St. Albert Catholic High School football team.
Canada’s group D opponents at the World Cup are No. 2 Ireland (Sept. 19 in Cardiff) and No. 15 Italy, No. 7 France and No. 17 Romania in England.
After the World Cup, Tiedemann, 27, is expected to sign with a Hong Kong club after stints with FC Auch Gers of France and Plymouth Albion RFC of England and Gilmour, 27, will join the Rotherham Titans of England.
Sunday marks the last leg in the St. Albert Men’s Soccer League round-robin playoffs to confirm the semifinalists against GSE (Green Street Elite) and SV Spurs.
The fourth of fifth legs was scheduled Tuesday but scores were unavailable at press time.
Prestige Worldwide (3-0 and 6-7-1 in league play) was ranked first after three legs, followed by Magnitude FC (1-1 and 5-5-4), Chester City (1-1 and 6-5-3), SA City (0-1-1 and 1-11-2) and SA United (0-2-1 and 3-9-2).
Sunday’s kick-off times are 11 a.m. between SA City and Prestige and 11:30 a.m. between Magnitude and Chester City.
The semifinals are Sept. 15 (GSE versus round-robin No. 2 team) and Sept. 16 (Spurs versus round-robin No. 1 team) at 6:30 p.m. at Riel Park.
GSE (13-0-1) and Spurs (8-5-1) have byes into the semifinals as the top finishers in league play.
The Sept. 20 finals at the Victoria Soccer Club start at 1 p.m. for the championship and 3 p.m. for third place.
Last year, GSE crushed Chester City 7-2 for its third consecutive playoff cup in the team’s four-year history and SA United edged the Spurs 3-2 for third place.
Meanwhile, GSE forfeited all three matches at the Alberta Soccer Association Tier 3 provincials after only six players showed up for the tournament.
GSE was 1-8 in three trips to provincials in the last four years before last weekend’s no-show in Calgary.
The latest excellent adventure for Arinn Young of Legal is a season of wheelchair basketball at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Young, 19, spent last season in Toronto studying psychology at Centennial College while training at the Wheelchair Basketball Canada National Academy at the Pan Am Sports Centre.
Internationally this summer, Young competed at the second annual Women’s U25 World Championship in Beijing and the Parapan Am Games in Toronto.
Canada earned a spot at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games with a silver-medal result at the Parapan Am Games. The senior women’s team finished 4-1 overall after losing to the undefeated United States 80-72 in the gold-medal final.
Young was Canada’s top scorer against Guatemala (18 points in the 78-18 rout) and Argentina (22 points in the 82-28 blowout) and was the team leader in rebounds with eight in both games.
Young, a member of Canada’s 2014 world championship winning team, finished the U25 worlds with her fourth consecutive double-double. She was the co-leader in points with 24 while reeling in 10 rebounds for Canada (2-5) in the 61-53 loss to China (4-3) in the bronze-medal playoff.
This year at the domestic level, Young played for the gold-medal winning Edmonton Inferno at the Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League women’s nationals in Calgary and was named a tournament all-star, as well as Team Alberta’s bronze-medal team at the Canada Games in Prince George, B.C. and the sixth-place Alberta Northern Lights at the CWBL club nationals in Scarborough, Ont.
The five-foot-eight high school standup basketball product of the Morinville Lady Wolves is classified as a 4.5 player (minimal disabilities and can walk normally) on the court. Multiple knee operations forced her to switch to wheelchair basketball in 2011.
