Despite a final push by their competition, the St. Albert Rugby Football Club premier men slotted one final victory in the Alberta Cup fixtures Saturday in a 39-21 win.
Coming out with a fire under their butt, the Labatt's Cup provincial champions scored three tries against the Nor’Westers before half, while denying any tries with a strong defence.
Eight-man Orrin Farries said he was really impressed with the team’s performance in the first half.
“The defensive showing we had, making our tackles, not letting them get inside lines ... when we put all that kind of stuff together, it's why we’re able to pull up 17 nil in the first half,” he said.
It was in the second half the premier men let their game slide a bit, and allowed the Nor’Westers three tries.
Matt Jarvis, who managed to chase a kick from half all the way through the Nor’Westeres defensive line before scooping it up and scoring between the posts, said the team fell asleep a bit in the second half.
“That’s kind of been our Achilles heel is that we haven’t been able to finish games out,” he said. “After the third 20 minutes, we kind of came alive again and finished it out well.”
Coach Jeremy Kyne said the team “played decently,” and said the first half was great, considering having no reserves and playing on such a hot day.
During the team huddle after their victory, Kyne told the men to just be “ruthless.”
“We’ve got to learn how to step on teams’ throats and keep our foot there really. Never let off and just be relentless I guess,” he said.
Kyne said it was good to make a strong impression early on with the Nor’Westers, considering they will be facing off again in the Alberta Cup’s second round.
St. Albert began this season with two losses, and since then every game has been a must-win situation, Farries said. This was the first game that was not, but he said he was glad the team kept the momentum going.
“I’m not always overly impressed with the amount of effort at trainings, but when you come out on a Saturday like today and people are making tackles, running hard lines, talking to each other, good things happen,” he said.
St. Albert came into the game in a three-way tie for second place with the Nor’Westers and Canucks RFC in the Alberta Cup 12-team league. On Saturday they solidified their second-place spot, beaten only by the Strathcona Druids RFC, finishing off the Alberta Cup fixtures with a 5-0-2 record and 237 points for.
Farries said in the Alberta Cup every team has extremely skilled players, and ultimately what success comes down to is “getting boots on the ground.”
“Just being work-horses. I think the hardest-working team, even if they’re not the most skilled could probably win the Alberta Cup,” he said. “Knowing we are probably up there with the most skilled teams in the Alberta Cup if we can get our work rate up I don’t think there’s a team that can test us.”
