It's now or never for St. Albert's fantastic firsts.
If the premier men fail to conquer the Calgary Canucks today for the Labatt Cup, they will go down in history as the team that didn't win the big game for the third year in a row.
"Obviously there is quite a bit of pressure after the last two years, making it all the way to the provincial final and not being able to finish. We don't want to be known as that team," the soft-spoken Kyle Gilmour told the Gazette at Thursday's training session at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.
Last year they blew it big-time. Their only loss was 24-22 in the final against the Calgary Hornets in Edmonton.
"That was a big-time heartache. We were undefeated [13-0] going into the provincial final and we were expected to win and we just came up short," said head coach Chal Smyth.
The heat is on St. Albert's first 15, 38-6-1 overall in premier under Smyth's watch after going 18-1 in 2007 as the second division provincial champions.
"They know that this could be our last chance ever being there," said Smyth, the 2009 recipient of the Lynn Davies Cup as the Edmonton Rugby Union's [ERU] coach of the year.
Seven players in the projected starting line-up against the Canucks also started in last year's final. Gilmour, a flanker turned eight-man, captain Graham Noren at prop, forwards Brett Kelly and Ben Robinson, scrum-half Jake Robinson and Edwin Shimenga in the centres also started in the 24-10 loss to the Calgary Saints in the 2008 final at Calgary. Hooker Aaron Millard, winger Duncan Maguire and fullback Adam Bontus started against the Hornets and will have the same role against the Canucks.
"The majority of the guys [on the 22-man roster for today's final] have been in one or two provincial finals," Smyth said. "They're pretty focused on our game plan and what we're trying to achieve for Saturday. "
They are on the verge of becoming the first St. Albert team to ever celebrate a premier men's provincial championship. The first provincial title by the firsts was the 1989 Ken Ann Cup in the ERU.
"Saturday's game is as big as it gets," Gilmour said of the showdown between second-place St. Albert and the sixth-place Canucks.
Kickoff is 4 p.m. at Calgary Rugby Park. A jam-packed fan bus and a convoy of supporters are making the trip to Cow Town to cheer on the lads.
"There is a lot of pride on the line. We're really hoping we can do it this year," Gilmour said.
Date with destiny
St. Albert is 12-2 and the Canucks are 9-5.
"They gotten a bit better throughout the year. The last time we played them [21-12 win June 12 in Calgary] they played us tough. It was a very close game and we're expecting the same thing this time," Gilmour said.
After giving up a try to the Canucks in the fourth minute, the firsts battled back to lead 7-5 at halftime. It was 14-12 when Gilmour turned on the jets to score the game-clinching try under the posts with two minutes remaining. The forward-dominated affair was too close to call until some shifty running by Jake Robinson got the ball rolling for Gilmour's heroics.
The Canucks went on to become the second-best defensive team in premier. In the playoffs they pulled off a pair of massive upsets: 19-13 against the third-place Druids in Sherwood Park and 25-15 against the Hornets.
A call to the Canucks requesting an interview was not returned by press time.
Smyth described the Canucks as a dangerous foe.
"They play the same style as the LTs [Lep/Tigers]. They have big forwards. They're just a big, strong team that play a pretty tight game. They don't play an expansive game. They like to keep it nice and tight and they try to wear you down in the possession game. You've got to be very intelligent around the tackle area and be really disciplined too. You can't take penalties. They've got a good fly-half so if you're taking penalties they're going to kick into the corner, put you on your back foot," Smyth said. "We have to play very stingy defence and that's going to be a big part of our success."
The firsts are coming off a monstrous effort against the fourth-place Clansmen in the semifinals. They surrendered a converted try in the third minute, then stormed back with 20 straight points (a try by Maguire and 15 kicking points from standoff Simon Gregory, including a momentum-shifting drop goal) to make it 20-5 at the break, then hung on in the second half to derail the Clan 20-17.
"We were missing two key guys in Jake and Kyle [to the Calgary-based Prairie Wolf Pack], and for us to come out with a win against a team that really came on at the end of the season, that was a huge confidence builder. You could see it in the eyes of the guys, even though we did make it hard for ourselves in the second half," said Smyth, who will go with almost the exact same line-up in Calgary that beat the Clan.
The turning point in the season for the firsts was their last game before the playoffs, a disappointing 26-10 loss to the Hornets in Red Deer that determined top spot in the premier table,
"We had a small hiccup against the Hornets," Smyth said. "They showed us what it takes to play very physical and tough in the contact area and it really opened everybody's eyes going into the playoffs."
Gilmour and Jake Robinson didn't play against the Hornets because of Wolf Pack commitments. The Hornets also had a bunch of players on the Wolf Pack, and their absence against the Canucks was a factor in the playoff shocker.
In the Canadian Rugby Championship final last Saturday, Gilmour started his fourth straight game at flanker for the Wolf Pack and Robinson came off the bench in the 74th minute to engineer the team's only try in the 19-8 loss to The Rock on a rain-soaked pitch in St. John's, Nfld. It was televised live on CBC and the high school rugby products of the St. Albert Skyhawks were highly visible.
"The Rock did a good job slowing us down and keeping it tight. We never really got it going. They also played the weather to their advantage and it worked for them," said Gilmour, 22, the first division team's MVP in 2008 and the ERU senior player of the year in 2009.
Throughout the season the firsts never fielded the same line-up twice as 38 players saw action in premier.
"You've got to realize we're missing eight [starters] from last year's provincial final team. There were a lot of answers that had to be made throughout the season on our development and my main goal was just to develop as many guys as we could in all [three] divisions, especially since we made a jump into the second division too," Smyth said. "We were a little unsure of what kind of talent we had. We had a lot of good athletes and a lot of young guys but not a lot of experience, but as the year went on you could see that we were getting better and better.
"Adam Bontus is a guy who has really improved the last three years since I've been with the club. Duncan Maguire has gotten a lot better. Kyle Gilmour has had a great year. So has Karim [Lynch]. Dom Jenni has really come on too. All these guys have now become leaders and they're not the talking leaders, either. They lead by example and that's what we need in order to win a provincial championship."
