The future stars of St. Albert men’s rugby shone bright in the seventh edition of the Gareth Jones Cup.
The Battle of St. Albert between the Bellerose Bulldogs and Paul Kane Blues was also a showcase event for approximately 20 players from both metro Edmonton division two teams involved with the St. Albert Rugby Football Club’s junior program.
The fiercely fought affair went down to the wire as Paul Kane scored two second-half tries to knock off the winners of the last three cups 14-7.
“My dad would be so proud of both teams,” said an emotional Penny Jones, daughter of the trophy’s namesake, during the post-match trophy presentation.
Gareth Jones, the legendary Godfather of St. Albert rugby, died Dec. 31, 2017, at the age of 78.
Jones, one of the Nervous Nine founding members of SARFC and its first president, also coached Paul Kane’s first rugby team in 1980.
Jones was inducted into the Alberta Rugby Hall of Fame in 2005 and two years ago joined Roger Scott, another St. Albert rugby pioneer, as the first SARFC members in the Edmonton Rugby Union Hall of Fame.
Winning the Gareth Jones Cup is arguably more prestigious than a league championship for St. Albert’s high school rugby teams.
“As a returning player, it’s hard to lose the cup. However, this was a phenomenal game of rugby,” said Bellerose captain Thomas Gibson. “The fans said it was super entertaining and they love the sport so I’m glad they could watch a game of rugby like this.”
The teams displayed respect for each other but there was no fear between the rugby rivals.
“It was good spirit on both sides. It got a little nasty at some points, but everyone left it all out on the field today,” said Thomas Hutchinson, a Grade 12 scrumhalf for Paul Kane.
This year’s major breakthrough for Paul Kane after losses of 25-10 last year, 27-5 in 2017 and 20-7 in 2016 was extra special.
Paul Kane also lost last year’s league semifinal to Bellerose 34-17.
“This game was a grind because they’re a fantastic team and luckily we came out on top,” said Paul Kane captain Michael Nobrega. “They were super tight the entire game and it was an honour to be able to play against them. They were that good and we needed to bring our A game so to come through like we did feels fantastic.”
“It means a lot, especially for all the players in our senior year,” Hutchinson added. “Everyone played really hard. Bellerose dominated in the first half, they put it all out on the field, and in the second half our team woke up a little bit and brought it back.”
Bellerose held the upper hand in the first half in terms of ball possession and terrritory advantage, but after a converted try in the first quarter a dogged Paul Kane defence left its mark on the club’s premier pitch.
“The first half we were kind of flubbing it around a little bit, just not doing the perfect thing, so we were just focusing on our defence,” Nobrega said. “They had a maul that ran through us like 30 yards and it was actually fantastic play to watch but we still hung tough.
“At the half, we collected ourselves together and came back stronger. We just decided to pull it out within ourselves and do our best and we did that and it paid off luckily.”
Paul Kane penalties, especially high tackles, allowed Bellerose to operate within striking range of the try area. An example was the over-aggressive two-on-one tackle on the illegal side by Paul Kane near the touchline that drew the attention of referee Thomas Hughes. The infraction allowed Bellerose to continue its push for points, culminating in Gibson crashing through the defensive line on a penalty play from the five-metre line in the 12th minute and Caleb Holt kicked the conversion.
A sin-bin penalty during a rare offensive drive by Paul Kane in the first half left the Blues one man short for the last nine minutes before the break and Bellerose amped up its attack, but a hard-nosed defensive stand in front of the try line stonewalled the Bulldogs as the first half ended 7-0.
“We came out of the gates intending to really put the pressure on Paul Kane and we feel we did fantastic in the first half,” said Gibson, a sizable Grade 12 Bulldog who split time between eight-man and lock. “When I went over for that try I was just thinking to myself ‘What are we going to do next?' I slapped my teammates on the back and just said, ‘Let’s keep this going, let’s keep this rolling,’ and we kept it rolling. We hit hard rucks, we hit hard scrums and we made tackles. Everything was going smoothly.”
However, Paul Kane turned the tables on Bellerose in the second half
"Paul Kane really brought the thunder. They played some phenomenal rugby,” Gibson said. “Paul Kane fought back. They saw what we did in the first half and brought it right back to us.
“I’m really glad they did because it was a really fun game.”
Four minutes into the third quarter, Paul Kane was back at full strength after time served in the sin-bin and that's when the momentum started turning and the defining moment was the nifty chip and chase down the touchline during a lengthy run by Ronald Ryan to put the Blues in tight of the try line. A few plays later, a series of passes among the backs ended with Jacob King as the finisher and his conversion knotted the score with 10 minutes gone in the quarter.
“Their fullback made a fantastic kick in our own half, picked it up and ran. That was a fantastic try, just good rugby,” Gibson said.
It was the spark that ignited Paul Kane.
“When we scored our first try our backs kind of realized we have a strong back line and that’s when it kind of turned for us,” Hutchinson said.
Early in the fourth quarter, Ryan was the ringleader among the backs cracking the whip with another explosive scoring opportunity along the touchline that paved the way for a Paul Kane scrum deep in the Bellerose end. The Blues evbentually distributed the ball through several hands before Will Diederich dived over the try line with a straight-ahead burst for the go-ahead score that King converted.
“The way we were passing the ball in between us was fantastic so it felt really nice when we scored that second try,” Nobrega said.
As time wound down, Bellerose was met with stiff resistance every time it crossed the halfway line while Paul Kane gained gobs of yards while attacking with quality ball control.
Paul Kane also worked the clock with a smart decision to kick for points from the 22-metre line with three minutes remaining, but King’s boot was wide left.
The thrilling result raised Paul Kane’s record to 3-1 record for second place in the six-team table.
“We played really well today, but I don’t feel it was our best performance,” said Hutchinson, 18. “We’ve still got Sturgeon to play and then playoffs so we’ve still got a lot to bring."
Thursday’s match against the Sturgeon Spirits (4-0) kicks off at 4:45 p.m. at SARFC.
Leading up to the Gareth Jones Cup, Paul Kane trampled the J. Percy Page Panthers 63-0, lost 45-22 to the Archbishop Jordan Scots (2-1) and upended the St. Francis Xavier Rams 24-5.
“The first game was really good. The second game we didn’t pull through so well. We kind of had too many high tackles. Monday’s game (against the Rams) we didn’t do our best for the three quarters and the last quarter we came in and really pulled it through,” said Nobrega, 18.
Bellerose is 0-3 with two matches left before the May 27 semifinals. The defending league champions play the Rams (1-3) Thursday at 4:45 p.m. at SARFC and a resceduled game with the Panthers (0-3) still has to be finalized.
Gibson, 18, is confident Bellerose is headed in the right direction after its performance against Paul Kane despite a roster of only two Grade 12s and one-third of its lineup are returnees from last year’s 6-0 championship team. Six starters against Paul Kane were Grade 10s.
There are also only two St. Albert Catholic High School student athletes on the team.
“This was our best game. One hundred per cent. We’ve never had our defensive structure like that. It's something that we’ve been working on in practice ever since our first game. It's always been something that we wanted to work on and I’m really proud of the fellas for putting what we did in practice – defence, defence, defence – into this game and that's what gave us an edge in the first half," said Gibson, 18. "We also have a lot new guys to rugby and it’s a far more different sport from like football, hockey, stuff like that. Everything is just so hard nosed and it’s just exhausting, but we're really starting to come together now."
