Ellerslie Rugby Park – A mixture of young and old was the recipe for success for the terrific thirds to cook up their first Visser Cup since 1997.
The St. Albert third division men’s rugby team tasted victory in the Edmonton Rugby Union final Saturday by knocking off the defending champions and first-place Pirates 25-12.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said captain Ashley Hanson. “The plan this year was to rebuild our third division team. We’ve got a good mix of youth and a little bit of experience and the balance has been very good. A lot of these guys are definitely capable of playing in the first division in the top league.
“There’s been good development from some of the young guys this year like Brett Clow, Austen McDonald and Nathan Yue. They’ve been outstanding. They just give us that platform and that go-forward style of play. They’re just relentless and that’s all we ask of them. They’ve come a long way and the future of the club looks very good for sure,” added Hanson, a veteran standoff at age 34.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team’s championship picture.
The seventh win in a row catapulted the thirds (11-3) into the Digby Dinnie Cup provincial final Saturday against the Calgary Saracens at Ellerslie. It’s a noon kick-off and admission is $5.
The last provincial celebration for the thirds was also 18 years ago.
“It’s a surreal feeling to get the championship and go to provincials,” said Yue, a tough-as-nails hooker and one of several young guns loaded with talent on the thirds. “Honestly, it’s incredible. We have some old guys that have so much experience and the young guys have that piss and vinegar. You couldn’t ask for anything better.”
Unlike the Alberta Cup premier division, there are no crossover matches between the north and south in the third division.
“It works both ways. They don’t know anything about us and we don’t know anything about them,” Hanson said. “We’re excited and we’ll be ready to go for sure.”
The difference against the Pirates (11-3) was the forwards as the thirds pushed the boys in blue around the pitch with reckless abandon.
“Big kudos again, just like last week, to our eight forwards. They were outstanding. They won the game for us. They dominated. The work they did today was outstanding,” said Hanson of the forwards, who duplicated their Herculean effort in the hard-fought 36-22 semifinal win over the Grande Prairie Centaurs (9-5). “These guys (Pirates) are a very powerful side. We knew that coming in (thirds beat the Pirates 25-8 in May) so the game plan was to keep it tight in the forwards, scrummage well, be dominate up front and then play territory and take our chances. I think we played the script very well. It was the perfect game plan and we executed it perfectly.”
Up front the thirds were a well-oiled machine grinding out the yards, highlighted by three tries by veteran eight-man Byron Elliott, who credited the tight-five for his scores.
“It was definitely a forwards’ game. It just came down to who was working more together as a team and the boys really came out together today,” said Yue, who anchored the front row between a pair of stalwart props in Joel Rubletz and Alastair Lillico. “A lot of our success in the forwards is just having confidence in each other. All of us play with heart and are just so in synch with each other. The chemistry is great. Everyone out there is a unit instead of just eight individuals.”
The thirds shrugged off a converted try by the Pirates in the sixth minute with a push-over score by Elliott in the 15th minute that started with a lineout ball from Yue to McDonald at the five-metre line.
Elliott, arguably the thirds’ best player against Grande Prairie with two tries, finished off a fierce push for points by the forwards in the 28th minute to make it 10-7.
The first try in 10 years by Justin Benko in the 36th minute originated from a scrum outside the five-metre line, as Matt Herod fed the ball to Elliott, who flipped it to Hanson and his quick pass to Benko completed the scoring play as the thirds entered the half leading 15-7.
“They just came out probably a little bit harder than we did and took their chance and I think it galvanized us and woke us up and then for rest of the game we were in control,” Hanson said.
Two minutes into the second half, Yue was clotheslined by a Pirate, which enraged Nathan Reis, his former teacher and high school rugby coach with the Paul Kane Blues. With Yue sprawled out on the pitch in agony, Reis was ready to enter the Octagon against the guilty Pirate who was twice his size. The pit-bull of a back had to be restrained by teammates as a yellow card was issued over the high tackle.
“Whether it’s Reis or somebody else out there, just knowing that they have my back no matter what is a great feeling. We’re brothers,” said Yue, a fan favourite grinding out Yue Yards, his specialty as a headfirst runner into contact. “I have confidence with the ball because you know you have 14 other guys behind you. It doesn’t matter if you took a cheap shot, you can just get back up and you don’t have to worry about retaliating and getting a cheap one in on them because you know your entire squad is out to get back at them just as hard.”
With the Pirates down a player, Elliott completed his hat-trick in the 54th minute with the forwards doing the dirty work for the wily Brit to crack the try line and Hanson converted the score.
Hanson’s penalty kick from in front of the 22-metre line in the 59th minute pushed the Pirates to the brink, down 25-7.
A try by the Pirates in the 71st minute closed out the scoring.
“They had a couple of moments where they made some plays but our scramble defence is very good. Justin Benko made some great tackles today covering in defence and Emery (Mindana) saving a try at the end. It just goes to show the heart some of those boys have. You can never give up,” Hanson said.
