Ellerslie Rugby Park – Simon Gregory kicked a game-winning penalty kick to give St. Albert an emotional victory on the rugby pitch Saturday.
Gregory, originally from England, gave the St. Albert firsts an 18-16 lead at the end of their game against the Clansmen at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
“It felt good,” said the 22-year-old, originally from London. “Aaron [Takel’s] the normal kicker, but I missed a couple kicks recently. I don’t think I played that well, particularly, throughout the game, but I’m glad to get that one at the end to win it.”
The win vaulted St. Albert into first place in the Alberta Cup standings with a 6-1 record and a total of 28 points. The Druids (5-1-1), St. Albert’s next opponent, are in second with 26 points, the Clansmen (5-3-0) are in third with 26 points and the Calgary Hornets (5-1) are in fourth with 25 points with a game in hand on St. Albert.
The Clansmen are the only team that’s beaten St. Albert all year, at the team’s first home game on May 15 when the visitors were victorious 34-12, so it was an opportunity for revenge for St. Albert.
Gregory wasn’t in the lineup for the first game against the Clan because he just arrived in St. Albert in June.
“For me, obviously, coming over from England, the Clan and the St. Albert rivalry doesn’t mean a whole lot to me at the moment, but after playing in that and feeling how much I’m hurting now, I realize it means quite a lot to these guys,” he said with blood running down the bridge of his nose.
The game was a rough one with players from each side taking swings at one another on a couple of occasions, and the Clan fans in the bleachers demanding a yellow card more than once, but no cautions were handed out.
St. Albert got off to a bit of a tough start with a missed penalty kick from Takel in the sixth minute, a sign of things to come. It was a long kick, just inside the half-field line and in the middle of the pitch, but it ended up well short.
Takel ended up going 1-for-4 on penalty kicks and 1-for-2 on try converts for a total of five points.
After Kent Plewes put through two penalty kicks for the Clan, St. Albert responded with a try in the 41st minute, just before the halftime whistle. After fighting to get the ball over the goal line for a couple of minutes, Jake Robinson ended up touching the ball down for the score.
St. Albert got caught napping at the start of the second half and allowed the Clan’s Graham Dibden to score a try on a big run down the sideline after a missed tackle. The convert put his team up 13-7.
Just eight minutes later, St. Albert scored their second try to pull within one point shortly after a nice play from Takel, who kicked the ball up field and chased after it. He couldn’t reach it, but after an offside call on the Clan, Greg Baker was able to score the try.
The teams exchanged penalty kicks and St. Albert found themselves down 16-15 from the 62nd minute onwards. It wasn’t until the fifth minute of stoppage time at the end of the game that St. Albert was able to catch a break.
The Clansmen kicked the ball up to the half-field line where Kyle Gilmour caught it while sliding to the ground. He wasn’t let up before being tackled, causing a penalty.
Gregory kicked the ball from about 38 metres away, but the kick was made even longer because it was near to the sideline, and it just snuck over the uprights.
“We’ve had injuries throughout our premier team, but the second [division] guys have really stepped up and been put into the fire,” said St. Albert coach Chal Smyth. “They battled hard. In the end, it’s going to be some tough decisions to select a 15 against the Druids.”
St. Albert visits the Druids on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Sherwood Park.
Meanwhile, also at Ellerslie, the St. Albert seconds ran all over the Norwesters to the tune of 50-7. St. Albert is tied in the division with the Leduc Crude with 31 points, but Leduc has three games in hand.
Also on Saturday, the St. Albert second division women (1-7) scored their first victory of the season over the Grande Prairie Sirens (0-7-0-1) 15-5.
