St. Albert's dress rehearsal for the rematch of the provincial final was too good to be true.
The premier men played their roles to perfection in beating the Calgary Irish 30-5 at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club. The ninth-straight win by the firsts sets the stage for Thursday's first-place Alberta Cup showdown against the Calgary Hornets. Kickoff is 7 p.m. in Red Deer.
"If we can play this type of game, we'll keep up with anybody in premier," head coach Chal Smyth told his players during a fiery post-game speech. "We had a few hiccups but other than that it was the best game we've played this year. Be proud of today guys because we stepped up and played some good rugby. We played disciplined but we were way more physical than they were. They didn't want anything to do with us."
St. Albert flexed its muscles with Herculean strength in defence of the try area.
"In the three years I've been with this club, by far this was the best tackling I've seen. That was phenomenal, especially down here," proclaimed Smyth, while pointing repeatedly towards the south end of the pitch where the firsts were holed up for lengthy portions of the second half. "That's the type of rugby we have to play."
The Irish were kept off the scoreboard in the opening 40 minutes as the firsts racked up 27 points on four tries, two conversions and one penalty. After the break the Irish unleashed a fierce attack but St. Albert's physical defence only buckled once on a try in the 63rd minute.
"Our defensive structure was unbelievable. They really had to work for everything they got," said prop Graham Noren. "We had a good week of practice and all the guys really bought into the systems. We really came together today as a defensive unit."
In the 11th minute, Simon Gregory's penalty kick from a tough spot in windy conditions opened the scoring.
St. Albert's tries were scored from various players through tremendous team efforts. A major offensive catalyst was British import Karim Lynch, a candidate for the Edmonton Rugby Union's senior men's player of the year award.
As for the Irish, they struggled moving the ball against St. Albert's dominating defence.
"We were playing into a real stiff wind and they had a really, really aggressive defence. Their line came up real hard. They attacked very well," said Dave Shields, eight-man for the Irish. "We were back on our own 22 pretty much the entire half. They capitalized on a few key mistakes we made and it showed on the scoreboard."
Give the Irish credit for not throwing in the towel. They enjoyed better field position in the second half but settled for only one try. Their drives kept stalling at critical spots on the pitch as the firsts ratcheted up their defence with gripping tackles that took their opponent's breath away. A try-saving tackle by Duncan Maguire early in the half was one of the few times the Irish threatened to score off a very long run.
Gregory closed out the scoring with a late penalty kick. The valuable British import was 2-for-3 on penalties.
"It was a real good, hard physical second half. Our boys did well and we won the half 5-3," said Shields, 34. "We're going to try and build on what we did in the second half for the playoffs and if we have the chance to play St. Albert again, we'll be ready.
"We're also looking forward to having our own Wolf Pack guys back as well for the next match [Sept. 11 quarter-finals]. We had a few back today and hopefully the rest will be ready to go in the first round of the playoffs."
Last year the firsts stunned the Irish with a wild 25-23 come-from-behind win in Calgary and in the semifinals then embarrassed the green team 54-28 at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
"We're more balanced this year. It's a bit better mix of defence and attack, where as last year it was kind of more defensively orientated," Shields said of the 7-5 Irish.
Hornets up next
St. Albert is now 10-1 and a victory over the Hornets would clinch the third pennant in a row for the 2008 and 2009 provincial finalists. Last year their only loss was 24-22 to the Hornets for provincial honours after going 13-0.
"We had some superstars last year who aren't back and coming into the season, I wasn't sure what to think, whether it would be a bit of a rebuilding year or not," said Noren, captain of St. Albert's first 15 the last three years. "What we're lacking in this year, guys who will score a full field try, we're making that up in just grit. We're a lot more gritty and to be honest that's what we might have been lacking coming into the big games like the Hornets. They really put a beating on you and that's how we lost to them; they outplayed us and out-grit us, just like two years ago [in the final] against the Saints when they beat us [24-10 in Calgary]. Hopefully that grit will be the deal maker this season."
The teams are playing a rare Thursday tilt to make up for two previous postponements. They were scheduled to clash May 29 in Calgary but were snowed out. The makeup game was Aug. 14 at the Irish rugby club but a water main break supposedly flooded the fields and it was called off.
"I'm glad we can finally play them," Noren said." It's going to be tough, especially coming off a day's work and then go to Red Deer. Nobody likes to play weekday games so it's going to be a bit of a gut check for our guys and I'm sure for their guys too."
The Hornets were 9-1 prior to playing the seventh-place Red Deer Titans (5-6) Saturday, but the score was unavailable at press time. Going into the weekend fixtures, the teams shared the same record but the Hornets had three more bonus points than St. Albert to lead the division.
"They're always physical and they've got some backs that can really play with the ball well," Noren said. "It's a big game but unfortunately both teams aren't going to be at full strength so it's not going to be the ultimate judging yardstick."
Wolf Pack players
It was unclear at press time how many players St. Albert and the Hornets would lose to the Calgary-based Prairie Wolf Pack for Saturday's match against The Rock in St. John's, Nfld. The winner will host the other team in the Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) final Sept. 18.
"The Hornets are a very, very deep club. They could lose five or six guys to the Wolf Pack but they can just replace them with a bunch of guys and they will still be a pretty potent team," said Noren, 26.
He was joined on the Wolf Pack's 22-man roster by standout flanker Kyle Gilmour (tries in two wins starting for the Wolf Pack) and scrum-half Jake Robinson in the 15-13 victory over the Ontario Blues on Aug. 21 in Calgary. Kyle Baille, a St. Albert newcomer from the Maritimes playing in the forwards, is also listed with the Rock. All four players missed St. Albert's 38-27 sloppy win over the eighth-place Lep/Tigers (1-8-1) because of the CRC regular-season schedule.
"It would be nice to play the Hornets when they're at full strength, and the same with us too, to gauge to see where we're at going into playoffs," Noren said.
The firsts are guaranteed a quarter-final home game Sept. 11. The semifinals are Sept.18 at Ellerslie. The final is Sept. 25 at Calgary Rugby Park.
