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Gritty road win by firsts

Calgary Rugby Park – Returning to form as provincial contenders has taken St. Albert longer than expected this year in men's first division rugby.

Calgary Rugby Park – Returning to form as provincial contenders has taken St. Albert longer than expected this year in men's first division rugby.

But in Saturday's must-win match the firsts showed flashes of their former stellar self with a tough 21-12 triumph over the Calgary Canucks.

"It's a good win for us," an excited Jake Robinson told the Gazette after St. Albert improved its Alberta Cup record to 3-1. "They were a really hard team but we stuck to the game plan and wore them down."

The firsts have soldiered through a rash of injuries and the loss of key starters while working towards regaining their swagger as the Alberta Cup pennant winners and provincial finalists the last two years.

"This is really our first time together as a unit. We've got our imports in finally and this will probably be the team that we'll be playing with," said Robinson, the scrum-half for the 13-3-1 firsts in 2008 and last year's 13-1 edition. "We must keep building from here if we want to keep getting better and make the provincial final again."

Slow start

The Canucks (2-2) scored the opening try in the fourth minute as the legless-looking firsts barely touched the ball.

"It always takes a while to get into a game off the bus and that try was definitely a wakeup call. They were pressing hard on us," Robinson said. "After they scored we had a little talk behind the posts and said let's get our heads out of our butts."

The firsts got back on track with the forwards leading the charge into Calgary territory but it was the backs that almost put St. Albert on the scoreboard. Promising runs on the right side by fullback Aaron Takel and winger Matt Herod were snuffed out in front of Calgary's 22-metre line. Herod would later tiptoe down the touchline for major yardage until he was forced out at the five-metre line in the 22nd minute.

The Canucks would survive the push for points with a strong drive of their own that ended when the sneaky Robinson picked off a pass after a Calgary lineout deep in St. Albert's end. After the act of thievery he caught the Canucks by surprise with a kick-and-chase and followed through with a hard tackle to give the firsts some breathing room.

After an unsuccessful drop goal by Calgary in the 30th minute the firsts got rolling offensively. A steady ground assault of short passes and bullish runs culminated in a series of rucks in scoring range. A crash ball by forward Paul Flynn into contact put the firsts within spitting distance of the try line. Herod eventually wound up with the ball and fed it to English import Simon Gregory for the try under the post in the 34th minute. Takel's conversion made it 7-5.

"I was just against a tired prop and beat him on the outside. It was a mismatch and I went in. I only had a couple of yards to go so it wasn't anything special," said Gregory, who scored in his St. Albert debut after arriving from the University of Portsmouth. "It's all happened so fast. I played an interclub social game on the Friday night before I flew out on the Monday. Training was on Tuesday and I just threw myself into it. I've only had a couple of training sessions with the team so I'm a little bit rusty, but I did play in some university games against the navy [after the league fixtures ended]."

Welcome addition

Gregory, 22, drew the start at standoff after playing fullback with the Portsmouth Rugby Football Club in the national division three (London) fixtures.

"It's a pretty good standard," said the captain of Portsmouth's first 15 university team. "These guys [Canucks] played a lot of slow ball play in this game and at home you don't normally get that a lot. You get a lot of dynamic back row play."

The North Londoner was a standoff going through the ranks with the Old Albanians, and played for their first 15 team at age 16. Two years later he moved to Portsmouth to attend university. At Portsmouth he was recruited by Harry Heasman, a former St. Albert player of note, to spend the summer with the firsts.

"I'm really excited to be here," said Gregory, who also played for the U20 Hampshire squad. "I really enjoyed playing in this game. It was nice weather. You don't normally get sun like this in the UK but it was great."

With the wind at their backs in the second half the firsts threatened offensively before kicking for points on an early penalty outside the 22. Takel's boot was too close to call in splitting the uprights and was waved off.

Gregory and outside-centre Karim Lynch, an English import back for his second season with the firsts, teamed up on a dangerous kick-and-chase that bounced in St. Albert's favour for a lineout ball in front of the five-metre line. From there the firsts showed great patience in grinding out yards with Robinson and Gregory assisting on power plays into contact by Takel and Angus MacDonald, a third division prop making his first start with the firsts, that came up just short of the try line. The firsts kept hammering away and Robinson eventually punched the ball through while smothered by Canucks with 25 minutes to play. Takel nailed the conversion to put the firsts up by nine.

"We were just setting up phases to grind it in. We would slow down, get our backs open up, suck their forwards and backs into the rucks and then get it out," Robinson said.

Defensive giants

Twelve minutes later, after some determined defence stalled Calgary's attack, the Canucks caught a break by scoring off a quick penalty with a short run. The conversion bounced off the post and through to make it 14-12.

With about nine minutes remaining, second row Dominik Jenni was seeing stars after banging heads for the ball and was replaced by assistant coach Gerbil Kiernan, 39, who came out of retirement for the match. He was an emergency reserve at prop because of a lack of bodies up front for St. Albert.

A series of intense lineouts and hard-fought scrums ensued around midfield by a ramped up St. Albert side, followed by kicks from Lynch and Gregory that dramatically improved St. Albert's field position.

"Our forwards definitely dominated the scrums. That was a huge plus for us. They didn't have a clean scrum all game, which really takes the momentum away from them and drops them right back on their back foot," said Robinson, 22. "Our backs defensively came really hard up and made tackles to shut them down."

With two minutes left, Robinson fielded a kick for touch by the Canucks near the midfield flag and found a gap to the 22, paving the way for the game-clinching try by flanker Kyle Gilmour under the posts for Takel to convert.

"Gilly scored a good try at the end for us when we needed it," Gregory said. "We didn't have the ball a lot in the second half even though we had the wind but the guys put the hard work into the defence. The commitment was there, I think we just struggled a little bit with structure."

The first have the weekend off and don't play again until June 26, when they host the Red Deer Titans (2-3) at 3 p.m.

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