It’s looking like 1997 all over again for the third division men’s rugby team.
It was 18 years ago when the St. Albert Rugby Football Club swept the Visser and Digby Dinnie playoff cups and the terrific thirds are on the threshold of duplicating the feat.
The thirds, winners of six in a row at 10-3, can book a spot at the Oct. 3 provincials with a victory over the Pirates in the Edmonton Rugby Union final Saturday. It’s a noon kick off at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
The Pirates are the 2014 Visser Cup champions in the ERU and lost the Digby Dinnie Cup final to the Calgary Canucks at provincials.
The thirds survived a tough 36-22 semifinal tilt with the Grande Prairie Centaurs (8-5) Saturday at SARFC for the right to challenge the first-place Pirates (11-2) for the Visser Cup.
Early in the season the thirds sunk the Pirates 25-8.
“The Pirates are kind of like GP. They run a seconds and thirds program so you’re going to see a combination of both. It’s always a really good battle with them. We know what we’re going to get and it will probably be fast paced rugby,” said scrumhalf Matt Herod. “Today was a very good game and honestly it’s exactly what you’re going to get against GP, a little bit of what you call fall rugby; slow, breakdown type rugby.”
The thirds fielded a skilled and savvy playoff lineup, ranging in age from juniors to plus-30 veterans and the mixture of young and old was too much for the Centaurs to handle.
‘It’s a huge win. For some of these guys it’s their first year playing senior rugby so to go to playoffs with a high berth and with a home seed as well and then go to city finals the next week is outstanding,” said Byron Elliott, a wrecking ball at eight-man with two momentum-swinging tries. “It’s also huge for guys like myself and the other old boys who have kind of been away and then came back and are battling old age and injuries. It’s a lot of fun.”
This year SARFC dropped its second division team in order to rebuild the thirds, 1-1-1 in 2013 before injuries and a lack of players at the club to support three teams at the time forced the thirds to call it quits three months into the season.
Last year’s seconds fell short of making the playoffs at 5-6-1.
“It’s a big transition from high school to second div rugby and as you can see we have some youth out there and there are old lads like myself and Ash (Ashley Hanson) and Nathan (Reis) and Matty to help bring them on in that transition. We can teach them and kind of show them how it’s done but the best thing having the young ones is that youthful exuberance because they run around forever,” said Elliott, 31.
“These young guys are quite good and honestly a few of them are stepping up to be leaders,” added Herod, 34. “As much as myself and Ash and Byron and Nathan are taking the age to the north side, these guys are bringing the age down and they’re also stepping into leadership roles which is phenomenal.”
The Centaurs, a thick-sized squad, opened the scoring in the seventh minute and the thirds replied with Herod’s pass out of a ruck to Hanson and the splendid standoff pulled off a kick and chase from around the visitors’ 40-metre line. Aiden Zalasky reeled in the ball on the bounce and the quick winger motored in the try area in the 12th minute. Hanson also drop-kicked the conversion.
Three minutes later, a highlight-reel give-and-go passing play between Herod and Elliott that originated from around the halfway line was a humdinger and their deceptive speed resulted in the team’s second try.
“The tight five did exactly what I wanted them to do. They moved their back row out of the way and it opened up the blind side for me which meant I could go for a run with Matty and it was a ghost ride after that,” Elliott said. “All I had to do was keep up with Matty and I managed to do that thankfully.”
A try under the posts by the Centaurs left the thirds leading by two.
Elliott’s gazelle-like dash down field also played a pivotal role in Herod’s score in the 34th minute, a quick straight-ahead dive over the try line. Hanson’s impressive long-range conversion near the touchline made it 19-10.
“It was Byron’s run that set it all up and I just did what nines (scrumhalfs) do and that’s look for that cheeky little off the back off the ruck play,” Herod said.
In the second half, after a Centaur stiff-armed his way into the try area in the 42nd minute, the teams traded scores with the firsts never relinquishing the lead. Austen McDonald’s try was followed five minutes later by the Centaurs stealing the ball from the firsts for a breakaway run into the try area.
But the play of the game was the push-over try by the thirds with Elliott touching the ball down with force in the 65th minute. Hanson’s conversion was good.
“It was the tight five again. I can’t give enough credit to those boys. All I had to do was control it in the back. We got the push going and we got them going backwards and soon as the line came we just went straight over it. Honestly it was just an armchair ride. It was an easy try for myself,” Elliott said.
“That kind of sums up the win right there,” Herod said of the TSN turning point. “When we walked the scrum in from about twelve yards out you could just see their heads drop. They were matching us in the backs and they thought they had us in the pack but when we started pushing them around the field they struggled.”
Joel Rubletz scored the last try off a forward-driven play with Hanson at the controls with only minutes to play to seal the deal.
