Airways Park – A shortage of manpower forced several players to take a double shift last weekend against the Clan.
The main core of the third division’s winning line-up Friday night also scrummed down Saturday afternoon with the seconds in a losing cause.
“We had pretty much the same team today as we did yesterday,” said the versatile Braedon Platten after the seconds went down to defeat 32-3 at the home of the Clan. “All the guys that came out put a lot of heart in it, especially in the forwards. It was great to see.”
The day before the thirds rose to the challenge to beat the Clan 27-25 in a rollercoaster affair at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
“It was a great game and a really gutsy effort by our guys. We really grinded it out. It was a hard win,” Platten said. “One would score a try and then the other would score. It was that kind of game.”
The thirds rallied from a daunting deficit with less than 10 minutes to play with a pair of tries to take the lead. The Clan scored a try on the last play of the game, but missed an easy chip shot on the conversion that would have tied the score.
“We were just trying to get points at the end and once we got the lead we kept it,” Platten said.
The Clan had enough players dressed to field two teams while the thirds made the most of their starting 15.
“It seemed like there was a new prop in every scrum for them but our guys stepped up and kept driving it and bringing it the whole game,” Platten said. “You could see it really took it out of them, just because they had subs and we were still running around and playing hard.”
Platten said the thirds showed vast improvement against the Clan after losing their opening match in the Edmonton Rugby Union fixtures to the Druids 13-8.
“The boys gave a real good effort. They wanted a win, especially after losing the week before.”
The seconds gave it their best shot against the Clan but fatigue played a major role in the decisive loss.
“In the first half it felt like we were keeping up but in the second half we were a little bit gassed but that’s just something we’ll get better at as the season goes on,” said Platten, a reliable standoff who spent time at inside-centre for the seconds.
The halftime score was 10-3. It was 5-0 for the Clan when Frank Lucas split the uprights with a wind-aided penalty kick from outside the 22-metre line in the 20th minute. He also kicked another penalty from inside the halfway line but the ball fell short of the posts to end the first half.
A converted try in the 40th minute pretty much sealed the deal for the Clan.
The physical confrontation saw two Clan players and Patrick Whitehead of the thirds spend time in the sin-bin because their roughhouse antics.
Scrum-half Simon Rowe, prop Graham Noren and flanker Liam Zahara turned in solid efforts for the seconds.
“There is a lot of promise for the rest of the season,” said Platten, 22, the thirds’ MVP last year.
The next match for the league finalists the last three years is Friday against the Druids. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Ellerslie.
The thirds play May 28 against the always-tough Edson Axmen. Game time is 2 p.m. at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
SCRUM BALLS: Brad Angove, a standout contributor in the backs, played the entire match for the seconds and then went the distance in the following game for the firsts in their 25-20 loss to the Clan.
On Sunday morning the seconds’ most improved player in 2010 ran the 21.1-kilometre half-marathon in the RunWild Leading Edge Marathon and finished a respectable 292nd out of 541 competitors in a time of two hours, 15 minutes and 34 seconds.
Nathan Reis, a cagey winger and one of the oldest St. Albert players on the pitch, is sidelined indefinitely with a broke rib, partially collapsed lung and a tender air pocket after taking a hard hit in the chest in the loss to the Druids. The Paul Kane High School teacher was released from hospital in time to attend Saturday’s matches against the Clan.
