The team that can’t win the big game is predicting an Alberta Cup championship victory in men’s rugby.
“I guarantee you right now we are the team to beat this year,” a confident Matt Herod, director of senior rugby at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club, told the Gazette at Thursday’s training session. “Are we the best? I’d say so. We have excellent leaders. We have experience. We have great youth with lots of talent. We have excellent coaches that continue to push us. It’s an exciting time right now.”
St. Albert’s first 15 is coming off consecutive first place finishes in league play, but disappointing losses in the provincial finals after winning the 2007 Alberta Rugby Union second division title. Over that span their record is an impressive 44-5-1.
“Everybody wants that premier championship. That’s what everybody has been talking about,” said Herod, 29. “We need some serious hardware and that’s pushing the guys right now because as much as a 13-1 div one season is great, one loss is all that it takes to lose everything you’ve worked so hard as a team to achieve. No one can take away what we did in the season but we still don’t have that overall trophy to say, ‘Hey, we are the best.’”
The recent success of the first 15 has raised the profile of St. Albert rugby to unprecedented heights.
“We’re the team that everyone wants to knock off,” Herod said. “We want to make this club that opposing teams hate to come play here but people love to party here.”
The first loss of an otherwise outstanding 2009 campaign was the 24-22 upset by the Calgary Hornets for provincial honours at Ellerslie Rugby Park. It was 8-7 St. Albert at halftime. Erratic penalty kicking proved costly.
“Play that game 10 times in a row and I like our odds,” said Herod, a natural scrum-half who started on the wing and had a brief stint at fullback in his first season with St. Albert’s first and third division teams.
He expects the firsts will continue to play winning rugby when the season kicks off next Saturday at the Leading Edge Physiotherapy Field. Game time is 3 p.m. versus the Druids of Sherwood Park. The thirds also host the Druids at 1 p.m.
“The excitement is high right now, especially on the first 15. May 8 has kind of crept up on us. We’ve been [training] in the Bellerose high school since mid-January, so fitness-wise and hands-wise we feel we’re very strong obviously heading into the first game,” Herod said. “There is no question we are definitely going to be the fittest team that steps on the field in Alberta.”
After blowing the most anticipated game in the club’s history, the firsts are anxious to go the distance this year.
“Everybody wants that championship real bad and the intensity in training is extremely high. It’s probably higher than I’ve ever seen at the beginning of a season. Ever since we hit the field it’s rugby first. Everything else is put aside. It’s rugby for an hour and a half and guys are training like it’s a game atmosphere, which is what you want in every training session. If the year goes like this all year long, it will definitely take St. Albert to the next level,” said Herod, who honed his rugby skills on and off the pitch with the Stratford (Ont.) Black Swans as their president and club captain, as well as playing for Toronto’s Irish Canadians before arriving in St. Albert.
The competition for starting spots is especially fierce this year with St. Albert returning to the Edmonton Rugby Union’s second division.
“Everyone is working for their position. That’s one thing Chal [Smyth, the head coach] makes perfectly clear; every week your spot is up for grabs,” Herod said.
The firsts are missing a handful of players who performed admirably last year. British eight-man Byron Elliott, the team’s MVP and scoring star with 22 tries, and New Zealand hooker Callum Wilson will not be back.
“They were big staple parts of our pack obviously but we have depth there,” Herod said. “For those players last year that started one game and were on the sideline for the next game, they’re going to get some good opportunities to be starters.”
British import and fan favourite Karim Lynch, the rookie of year on the firsts playing in the centres, should be back June 3. A couple of props from Ireland, including one that will play exclusively with the second 15, plus a fly-half from England and a big forward from the Maritimes are among the newcomers who will challenge for playing time. They are not expected to arrive until next month.
“We’ve got a starting 25 that can play premiership right now. Do we maybe need help in certain positions? Absolutely. That’s why we bring guys in but not one of those guys has a starting position on the team yet. If someone steps up and plays better, that spot is theirs.”
After hosting the Druids, barring any changes to the fixtures, the firsts entertain the Clan the following week, followed by a road trip to Calgary to battle the Hornets.
“If we can have that bonding at the beginning of the year, knowing that we got through three really tough games pretty much unscathed against two top clubs in the Edmonton area and the top club from last year, it’s really going to make us an even stronger team,” Herod said. “Ideally we would like to have our full line-up for the Hornets. We would like to make sure they know that when the game is over that they’re not walking away with that championship at the end of the year without a fight.”
