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Game on for Skyhawks' rugby

The St. Albert Skyhawks are rucking and mauling again after a one-year absence in metro Edmonton high school rugby. Their return to league play kicked off in Wednesday’s 22-0 loss to the O’Leary Spartans at the St.

The St. Albert Skyhawks are rucking and mauling again after a one-year absence in metro Edmonton high school rugby.

Their return to league play kicked off in Wednesday’s 22-0 loss to the O’Leary Spartans at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.

“We couldn’t wait to play this game. We were super excited all day; it’s all we could think about,” said Grade 12 captain Brodie Wurm.

A lack of players last year put the varsity men’s squad on the sideline.

“We’re pumped that we got a team together,” said Wurm, who played for the Skyhawks in Grade 10 when they lost the 2008 premier conference quarter-final 13-0 to the Paul Kane Blues and in Grade 11 with the Bellerose Bulldogs.

Connor Howard and Nathan Gies also have two years of rugby on their high school resumes.

“We haven’t had much practice so this was a really big learning experience for our team. We just tried to get a handle on things,” said Wurm, a second-row contributor for the gung-ho Skyhawks. “Overall it was lots of fun. I just wish we would’ve got at least one score but it was still not too bad for our first game considering that most of our team has never played before and they didn’t know most of the rules.”

After surrendering some quick tries early in the contest, the Skyhawks settled down and turned in a solid effort.

“We lost the game in the first quarter. Everybody was all over the place but we eventually got the hang of it,” Wurm said. “The rest of the game we were with them the whole time.”

The overly aggressive Spartans had three players ejected and three more sentenced to the sin-bin.

“They took lots of penalties but we kept it cool. We didn’t retaliate at all. Nobody from our team was sent to the sin-bin so that was good,” Wurm said. “The big thing was getting everybody to calm down when things started to heat up because of their penalties.”

Wurm, 17, was upbeat after the match despite the loss.

“It was a good game. We did a lot of things really well. Our hits were the main thing. We kept them low,” he said. “For the next game we have to improve our passing and we have to run right up the field instead of sideways.”

Howard, a Grade 12 scrum-half, was a major contributor for the Skyhawks. He also played for Bellerose last year after scrumming down with the Skyhawks in Grade 10.

“Playing for Bellerose wasn’t too bad. We had taken them with us when we were in Grade 10 [in 2008] because they didn’t have a team that year so they were really accepting of us last year. It was a lot of fun,” Wurm said.

During their hey-day as a rugby power, the Skyhawks won the inaugural Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association tier II (3A schools) provincials in 2006 and finished fourth in 2007. In the metro league they captured the city conference crown in 2004 and were back-to-back premier champions in 2005 and 2006. Some of the St. Albert senior men’s first 15 players are Skyhawks grads.

“It’s good for the school to have the rugby program going again,” Wurm said.

The Skyhawks hook up with the defending premier champion Sturgeon Spirits (1-0) Wednesday at 4:45 p.m. at the rugby club.

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