The St. Albert Rugby Football Club celebrates the return of the terrific thirds to the pitch today in Sherwood Park.
The men’s third division team scrums down in the Edmonton Rugby Union’s season opener against the Strathcona Druids at 2 p.m. at Lynn Davies Rugby Park.
“I’m very excited. I can’t wait,” said Luke Richardson, the SARFC second division MVP. “It would be exciting to kick it off with a win.”
SARFC pulled the plug on the thirds after a 1-1-1 start in 2013, when a rash of injuries and a shallow talent pool of players to support three men’s teams at the time took their toll three months into the season.
“So far the numbers have been excellent at training, lots of young fellas and lots of old faces too,” Richardson said.
This year, SARFC dropped its men’s second division team to rebuild the thirds. The seconds finished 5-6-1 last year after going 5-8-1 in 2013 and 2-12 in 2012.
“We’ll do a lot better in thirds this year than we did in seconds last year. We’ll have a lot more players, especially with the younger guys we have and the older fellas that will come and fill in when we’re short of numbers,” Richardson said. “The younger players will be able to adapt and they’ll get better in thirds as opposed to the second division.”
The ERU’s bottom division in men’s rugby – the fourth division was disbanded after the 2004 season – is a long way from the Alberta Cup premier ranks, where SARFC has excelled with six appearances in the provincial final in seven years, highlighted by Labatt’s Cup championships in 2010 (13-2 record) and last year (14-1 record).
“The change from thirds to prems will be very hard for some. It’s a lot more physical in prems as opposed to thirds,” Richardson said.
The last hurrah for the SARFC thirds was 1997 as winners of the Visser Cup in the ERU playoffs and the Digby Dinnie Cup at provincials.
The seconds were super in 2007, when SARFC didn’t field a premier team, and swept the ERU final for the J.W. Shaw Cup and the provincial final for the Lor-Ann Cup.
Next Saturday, the thirds travel to Drayton Valley to play the Riggers at 2 p.m. and the team’s first home match is May 22 against the Pirates, last year’s ERU champions and provincial finalists. Kickoff is 7 p.m.
This is the first full season of rugby at SARFC after reclamation work and outdoor facility enhancement projects that started in August of 2012 were completed last year and the fields re-opened Aug. 1.
“It’s great to have our fields back in full action. Hopefully the numbers to the games will be excellent as well,” said Richardson, 29.
This is the fourth year at SARFC for the diminutive Australian, a product of the Singleton Bulls from the Newcastle and Hunter Rugby Union.
“I was leaving home to travel the world for six to 12 months and I had a mate here. Once he left here I got in contact with the club and it worked out I could play for them,” said the EPCOR labourer. “It’s a good club with a great culture on and off the field. It’s very friendly and welcoming and as a person that came here knowing no one I now have a great bond with the club and a great bunch of friends.”
Richardson described his adjustment to the Canadian brand of rugby as interesting.
“The rugby we play back home is a lot more free flowing, or as they say running rugby, but I’ve noticed it’s very structured in Canadian rugby. It runs very technically,” said the scrumhalf and fullback by trade who has been deployed at standoff on occasions by the SARFC coaches.
SCRUM BALLS: Next Saturday at Ellerslie Rugby Park the women’s team and premier men make their season debuts. The women’s provincial second division champions battle the Druids at 2:15 p.m. in the ERU spring league and the fantastic firsts also go toe-to-toe with the Druids at 4 p.m.
