Carrying the playoff torch for the women’s program at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club has the division two team fired up for today’s match against the LA Crude.
“We’re pretty much going in guns a-blazing. We want to win, straight up. There is no ifs, ands or buts,” said standoff Kiera Arndt at Thursday’s training session.
The rematch of last year’s semifinal kicks off in prime-time viewing at 4 p.m. at SARFC.
“It’s actually a moment for redemption for us,” said forward Jill Mitchell of last year’s 31-0 loss to the Crude in the snow and cold. “We only had 13 girls and some of us were hurt out of the 13 that played. This year we’re going to be able to field not only a full roster, but some subs and it shows the depth that we have of the girls who played together the whole season so it’s a really a nice way to begin hopefully our run into the final.”
The winner tackles the Clan for Edmonton Rugby Union honours next Saturday at 1:15 p.m. at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
The last playoff cup celebration by a SARFC women’s team was 2014 as the division two ERU and Rugby Alberta champions.
The best balcony in St. Albert will be packed for the last home game of the season.
“I’m so nervous thinking about it, but I’m super excited,” Arndt said of playing the Leduc-based team. “It will be different this year because we won’t be dealing with the snow and we're going to have a full roster which will be super beneficial.”
Last year’s 8-2 team had 17 players eligible for the Crude semifinal (players in the Alberta premier semifinal were ineligible for their club’s division two playoffs), but SARFC scrummed down with two short of 15 starters while the Crude had a full lineup. The Crude led by 10 at halftime and the match was called with about 10 minutes remaining because of the lopsided score and brutal playing conditions.
“It was awful,” Arndt said. “They were the defending champions and they kept going on the outside against us.
“They beat us because we were shorthanded, but we didn’t give up and that showed a lot of what kind of a team we had.”
In round two of the ERU fixtures, SARFC defeated the Crude twice in Leduc 34-29 July 10 and 46-28 last weekend to secure home-field advantage in the playoffs.
SARFC (5-2, 7-5 overall) finished ahead of the Crude (4-3, 6-6 overall) while the Clan (6-1, 7-5 overall) received a bye into the final as the top team.
“Leduc is always tough. They’re hard hitting, they’re big in the forwards and they’re hard runners,” Arndt said. “We don’t want to play their game. We want to play our game. We know what we're good at. We’ve got quick backs and we're a small team, but we're very technical and that’s a great way to expose the bigger hard hitting teams.
“And we’ve got lots of heart, too.”
SARFC can’t afford to take the Crude lightly despite this year’s winning results.
“They’re going to bring passion. They are always a feisty club and feisty in not a dirty way, but they mean business. They play pretty much a forwards’ game, but they also have some speed in the backs so we have to bring everything,” Mitchell said.
The SARFC playoff lineup has a sprinkling of familiar faces from the non-playoff Alberta premier league team, “But the reality is the core of our div two team, whether that’s 13 or 15, has been purely div two players,” Mitchell said.
Arndt, 26, is a division two fixture who made the odd appearance with the premier side.
“Division two is brilliant. We’ve got young girls. We’ve got our high school girls. We’ve got Fran Blake, St. Albert’s very first (female team) MVP. She is out there on the pitch with us. That’s badass,” said the high school rugby product of the Paul Kane Blues. “We’ve got people with different playing styles and from different eras. Everybody brings their own thing to the team and it's beautiful. I love div two because it’s such a mixture and it creates something great.”
Mitchell, 45, rejoined the SARFC player ranks after a lengthy retirement and is having a blast.
“Rugby is a family and that’s what always brings people back,” said Mitchell (nee Porter), who dates back to the early years of the SARFC women’s program when she was in her late 20s. "Brandy (Hanson, nee Hubick) was the baby on the team when I started playing and now we’re together again.”
Mitchell got back into rucking and mauling, “Because I believed in myself and just knowing that all these girls, whether they’re 17 or whether they're 52, are going to believe in me as well,” she said. “There is that sense of belonging here at the club and there is always a spot for someone who is dedicated, hard working and loves rugby.
“We have a 52-year-old (Blake). We have some 18-, 19-year-olds. My nieces, Emily and Kendall (Dewitt, the terrific twins) are playing. We have a mother and daughter (Tricia and Mackenzie Hamm) playing.
“So really the team that is getting us there (into the playoffs) is our entire club.”
