In a game that was a microcosm of the Foothills Lions’ season, the rugby club failed to capitalize off a strong first half and allowed a rival squad to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the latter stages of the game.
Foothills dropped its last game of the season 20-15 to the Calgary Canucks, a tilt in which the Okotoks-based men’s rugby squad controlled its own destiny. The Lions would have guaranteed themselves a spot in the Calgary Rugby Union’s third division post-season had they produced a tie or a victory.
“We started out really well again,” said Lions coach Darcy Gallant. “I thought the first half was our best half of rugby of the whole season.”
Foothills held a 15-5 lead through the first half with tries from Eric LeGreeley and winger Dillon Popkes, as well as a successful convert and penalty kick from Kevan Yeats.
Unfortunately for the Lions, their play in the second half dropped off dramatically.
“Our inability to play a full 80 minutes this year has been an issue,” Gallant said.
“It was a windy night and I won the coin toss and chose to play with the wind first,” Gallant added. “Once the second half came along the kicking game came into play and that put pressure on our younger players.”
With a playoff spot on the line, the game wasn’t lacking in verbal and physical jousting between the third division clubs. The emotions spilled over at the start of the second half when a mini skirmish broke out after punches were exchanged.
The referee quickly broke up the fracas, but the trash talking between sidelines carried over for a prolonged period of time.
Foothills Lion Jordan Smith said his team never fully recovered from the incident.
“Once that happened everybody just lost focus on the game plan,” said Smith, who sat out the game with a dislocated shoulder. “We’re a young team and the young guys on the team are very hot-headed and the other team knew how to fire them up in a bad way.”
The Canucks scored a try to tie the game just seconds after the scuffle and put the Lions on their heels for most of the second half. The Calgary-based club scored 15 unanswered points in the final 40 minutes to wrestle the game away from Foothills.
With only minutes remaining, the Canucks were holding on to a 20-15 lead with the Lions driving the ball down the pitch and threatening to tie the game. The Lions needed to score merely one try to even the game in order to qualify for the playoffs, but failed to convert on two glorious scoring opportunities due to a stalwart Canucks defence.
Gallant, who played 17 seasons of rugby for the Canucks before moving to the Foothills, said Calgary is a team composed of savvy veterans who know how to provoke a reaction from their opponents.
“Some of our guys got wound up pretty easily,” Gallant said. “That’s a part of learning about playing rugby. As you get older you learn that you’re just wasting your energy.”
It was a year of missed opportunities for the Lions, who held a 6-2 record as late as Aug. 12, but dropped their last four games to close out the 2011 season and missed out on a playoff spot which was all but guaranteed to them in early August.
“It’s a little disappointing the way it ended for us,” Smith said. “We thought this would be the year where we would make it all the way to the final. It might take another year or so before we gel as a proper team.”
Looking ahead to next season, Gallant said he’ll be busy recruiting players from a stacked class of high school seniors in the Foothills. The coach said he plans on putting together a second division team next season to complement the third division club; it’s just a matter of bringing in enough players to the Lions organization.
“It’s time for us to turn the corner. Our young talent base and all the talented players graduating from all the local feeder high schools next year, we plan on having at least 50 registered players,” said Gallant.
Should the Lions go ahead with Gallant’s plans to field a second and third division squad, they would need to commit to the Calgary Rugby Union by February.
