The Foothills Lions’ early season power outage in Division II rugby appears to be a thing of the past.
The offensive starved Lions found their scoring legs in picking up their first win of the Calgary Rugby Union (CRU) season after defeating the Calgary Canucks 35-26 in Foothills’ home opener May 25 at the Holy Trinity Academy field in Okotoks.
Foothills’ Jordan Smith said the victory affirmed the team can succeed at the second division.
“The Canucks are not an easy team. We were communicating on the field and we were just finally able to put it together the way we should have the first two games of the season,” Smith said. “After the game everybody was just super happy and excited. I had the biggest smile on my face.”
The Lions, now 1-2 in CRU action, have played tight defensively through two games at the Division II level, but were held to 19 points in their first two games before their offensive coming out party against the Canucks.
“We finally got it worked out where our forwards were doing the really hard work and making it easy on the backs to get the ball out to score,” Smith said. “Our backs are clicking and starting to gel.”
It was an inauspicious start to the game for Foothills as the Canucks parlayed the first line-out of the game into a long try just minutes into the contest. However, the Lions answered right back when powerful outside-centre Dustin Stradeski bulldozed his way through the Canucks’ defence, leading to a try on a short run from Lions forward Shayne Pelletier.
Later Lions flanker Tyrell Robertson picked off a pass at midfield and ran it into the house. The long score marked a turning point in the game and resulted from good communication from the Lions’ defence, said Smith.
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“Part of our defence is having someone shoot up and not necessarily looking for that pick, but trying to get that first tackle and (Tyrell) read it just right,” said Smith. “Normally on that play it would be Dan (Larson) shooting up to take that, but Tyrell was already at such a good pace that Dan called him on to it.”
Five minutes later and the Lions were back at it on offence as full-back Kevan Yeats fed Stradeski for a long-try, followed by a convert, to give Foothills a 21-7 lead and surpass the team’s total offensive production in their first two games.
The Canucks pushed back and narrowed the gap to 21-12 before Stradeski got on his horse again, this time off a feed from scrum-half Ben Hintz, for his second score of the half.
The resilient Calgary club clawed back to cut the lead to 28-19, before Stradeski again put his stamp on the game. The Holy Trinity Academy graduate must have enjoyed playing at his alma mater as he showed off his playmaking abilities in drawing several defenders before feeding winger Michael Rinvold on the left sideline for a 50-plus yard scamper through the try-zone.
Lions coach Darcy Gallant said it was great to see the evolution of Stradeski’s game on display.
“Dustin on a weekly basis we’re pounding it in his head that defensively he can’t be a liability,” Gallant said. “Secondly, he can’t be selfish, last year with some of those plays he made (against Calgary) he wouldn’t have made, he would have lost the ball or wouldn’t have realized to make that extra pass.”
Foothills forward Joel Gusdal had his kicking boots on hitting all five of his convert attempts, giving the Lions the 35-19 advantage heading into the half.
The second–half would see both teams commit unforced errors and failed to execute offensively as they did in the opening 40 minutes. Calgary would add a late try and convert to narrow the deficit to 35-26, but that was as close as they would come.
In the front end of the doubleheader between the CRU foes, the Division III Canucks cruised to a 24-0 victory over a youthful and relatively inexperienced Lions outfit, dropping Foothills’ record to 1-2.
“We had a lot of young guys out there who have not played a lot of rugby and the first half was an eye-opener for some of them,” Gallant said. “At halftime time I challenged them that rugby is a physical sport and that’s the number one thing.”
The Lions coach said his players answered the bell in the second half.
“The second half they were physically more engaged and involved and with the new players that’s what I want to see,” he said.
Next up, Foothills hosts Bow Valley in Division III action 8 p.m. on June 1 at the John Paul II Collegiate field in Okotoks while the Division II Lions welcome Banff to Okotoks for a 2 p.m. tilt on June 2 at the same pitch. For more information on the Foothills Lions go to www.foothillslionsrugbyclub.com.
