The St. Albert division two women’s team won a coveted playoff date with the Clan in the Edmonton Rugby Union playoffs.
The convincing 32-10 semifinal result against the LA Crude set the stage for Saturday’s rendezvous with the defending ERU champions at 1:15 p.m. at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
“We have to play like we did today with guns a-blazing. We have to keep our work rate up and take it to them,” said flanker Kennedy Palmer after the St. Albert Rugby Football Club hosts out-scored the Leduc-based team six to two in tries Saturday.
The Clan finished first at 6-1 (198 PF/85 PA) in round two of the ERU fixtures for a bye into the final.
“They’re a bigger team and they push hard so we’re really going to have to bring up our big guns because they’re fast too,” Palmer said.
The Clan’s 7-5 overall record includes two previous matches with SARFC: 46-21 loss (eight tries to three for SARFC) in round one June 12 and the 39-22 win (six tries to four for the Clan) in round two Aug. 24.
“They have strong backs so it's hard work for the centres. They have some strong girls that can really get through our line,” said winger Keely Mazzolini-Flynn.
SARFC is poised to win its first women’s Playoff Cup since the 2014 division two ERU and Rugby Alberta championship team.
“We started training all the way back in February so it’s been a long season and it feels like all that training has worked,” said Mazzolini-Flynn.
SARFC is 8-5 after beating the Crude (6-7) for the second weekend in a row and the third time this year.
The last round two match in the fixtures to determine home-field advantage in the playoffs was 46-29 (eight tries to four) for SARFC (5-2, 267 PF/228 PA) against the Crude (4-3, 191 PF/142 PA) in Leduc.
“Today’s the best we’ve played all season. We really came together as a group. We fought hard and we never let up and anytime they got any room we just gave it back to them. It was amazing,” Palmer said.
SARFC finished the semifinal exceptionally strong after the Crude tied it at 10, three minutes into the second half.
“The first half was a bit tight. There wasn’t a lot of space and then in the second half we were able to kind of suck them in and get a little bit more space out wide and had more opportunities to score,” said Mazzolini-Flynn, 19.
The incredibly fast third-year rugby player from the Bellerose Bulldogs exploited the outside of the Crude's defence for two scores and was stopped short of the try line a couple of times on potential scoring runs.
“I have to give it to my teammates. They always set me up. I just do the running. They create space for me and I just try and finish when I get the ball,” said Mazzolini-Flynn.
Her first try opened the scoring in the ninth minute as the ball was swung left to right along the five-metre line for the points in the corner after the Crude held up a try on the previous play.
A yellow card to prop Eleena Monk for an intential knock down in the 23rd minute left SARFC shorthanded for a spell and the Crude quickly capitalized after a series of scrums for the equalizer in the try area.
SARFC replied in the 31st minute with the first of two tries by Kiera Arndt as the crash and bang standoff spun out of the arms of a tackler to plant the ball down after the team's gritty effort to grind the ball forward in tight of the try line.
Before the halftime, Kolby Krueger and Ashley Holden teamed up for a potential scoring opportunity that ended with a knock on in front of the posts after a controversial tackle on Mazzolini-Flynn past the 22-metre line in Crude territory led to the first of several chit-chats throughout the match between the referee and either the captain or other players on the visiting team.
The Crude ratcheted up the physicality after knotting the score at 10 and the overzealous approach yielded a yellow card after Emily Dewitt was corkscrewed into the pitch in the 52nd minute. On the ensuing penalty play from between the 22-and 40-metre lines, SARFC attacked the back-pedalling defensive line with gusto before Arndt completed the push for points.
Up 15-10, head coach George Harding made a shrewd move in the 58th minute by subbing on premier division calibre players’ Jasmine Jarvis and Sabrina Kelly in the forwards and Brie Gray and Marcia Davis in the backs. The ageless Fran Blake also made an appearance in the wave of substitutions.
SARFC closed it out with tries by Mazzolini-Flynn racing down the touchline in the 62nd minute, Kennedy’s burst to corner with nine minutes remaining to cap off a sequence of key ball-handling plays by Davis, Gray and Charlene Ghostkeeper and the match ended with Kelly scoring under the posts.
The last try was converted by Jill Mitchell as her sixth attempt at kicking for points sent the ball ricocheting off the crossbar and through the uprights.
The post-game celebration was extra special for the players who braved the snow and cold as the starting 13, two short of a full lineup, in last year’s semifinal at SARFC as the Crude, the 2017 champions, rolled up 31 unanswered points with the extra manpower before the match was called with 10 minutes remaining.
“This win means so much because last year they creamed us, but this year we had our full team out and that really helped us because we do better as a big group,” said Palmer, 20, a high school rugby product of the Paul Kane Blues.
Visit StAlbertToday.ca for the team’s playoff picture.
