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Rugby Roundup

Andy Tiedemann of St. Albert was in the starting line-up as Canada upset France A at the Churchill Cup in Glendale, Colo. Sunday’s 33-27 victory marked Tiedemann’s seventh appearance for Canada.

Andy Tiedemann of St. Albert was in the starting line-up as Canada upset France A at the Churchill Cup in Glendale, Colo.

Sunday’s 33-27 victory marked Tiedemann’s seventh appearance for Canada. It wasn’t considered a test fixture, unlike the 48-6 rout of Uruguay in the tournament opener in which the 21-year-old prop earned his fifth cap with Canada.

The historic outcome against the Les Bleus featured multiple lead changes as Canada booked its first-ever trip to the tournament final. The Canadians also withstood several penalties late in the match for the win.

Canada will now play the England Saxons in Saturday’s final at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey.

At the 2009 Churchill Cup, Tiedemann started against the Georgia Lelos and Ireland as the youngest player with the Canadian team.

The high school rugby product of the Paul Kane Blues is working towards securing a spot on Canada’s roster for the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.

For the second year in a row the Sturgeon Spirits settled for bronze at the fifth annual tier I (4A schools) provincial high school women’s rugby championship.

In Saturday’s playoff in Lethbridge the two-time reigning metro Edmonton premier conference champions blanked the Bev Facey Falcons 31-0. Ironically, the first provincial medal for the women’s rugby program at Namao was won against Bev Facey by a score of 20-0 last year at Ellerslie Rugby Park.

The Spirits also placed sixth at the inaugural 2006 provincials in Edmonton and fourth in 2007 in Calgary.

As the second seed behind Raymond in the eight-team draw the Spirits won their round-robin opener 32-0 over Medicine Hat and with a berth in the final at stake they dropped a 17-0 decision to Lethbridge Collegiate Institute (LCI). The first loss of the season was the only match in which the Spirits had surrendered points. In six metro contests they were perfect defensively while racking up 299 points in capturing their fourth premier title in five years. It was also the second straight metro campaign in which the Spirits finished undefeated. Their last loss in league play was the 2008 premier final, 10-5 to the Paul Kane Blues.

Last year the Spirits also tasted defeat once, 10-3 against the Strathcona Lords in the round robin at provincials.

LCI would go on to lose Saturday’s final to Raymond 50-0.

Meanwhile, the Paul Kane Blues were forced to pull out of provincials after qualifying as the second metro rep. The 2010 premier finalists didn’t have enough players healthy and ready to go to provincials due to diploma exam preparation courses, school projects, injuries and family concerns. Diploma exams also forced the Edmonton public league not to send teams to provincials.

As for the Sturgeon males, they finished seventh out of eight teams at the tier I provincials by defeating Grande Prairie 35-0. They were also awarded the most sportsmanlike team trophy.

In the round robin the Spirits fell 41-0 to Lindsay Thurber of Red Deer, the eventual gold medallists, and 25-7 to LCI.

Last year the Spirits lost the bronze final to Lindsay Thurber.

The fifth loss in Alberta premier women’s rugby for St. Albert was Saturday’s 80-5 thumping by the Calgary Irish.

The 2009 provincial champions led 28-5 at halftime. Marcia Davis scored for the visitors as they generated several scoring opportunities during a strong opening 40 minutes. However, they ran out of gas as only 16 players made the trip to Calgary.

The margin of defeat paled in comparison to last month’s 116-0 laugher by the Irish (2-0-1) at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club.

It’s been a rough season so for the St. Albert women’s program. The firsts and seconds are a combined 0-9. The firsts are averaging 71 points against per game and in the Edmonton Rugby Union the seconds are averaging 61 points against in four losses.

The firsts are back on the pitch June 26 against the Lep/Tigers (3-0-1). Kickoff is 5 p.m. at St. Albert. Last month against the Lep/Tigers the firsts gave up only one try in the second half while shut out 57-0 in the rain and snow at Ellerslie Rugby Park.

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