There were bound to be some growing pains for the Foothills Lions’ leap to a new division and the jump was indeed painful.
The Foothills Lions wrapped up their inaugural campaign in the Calgary Rugby Union’s Second Division with a 59-7 loss in Red Deer to the Titans, on Aug. 25, to close out the season with a 2-10 record.
“It wasn’t exactly the way we wanted to end our season,” Lions forward Jordan Smith said. “We had to cut the game short because a lot of our guys had played in the third division game not 20 minutes before that game so we were all pretty beat up.
“The referee just called it for safety reasons because there’s a certain point where the human body can’t take it anymore.”
Lions coach Darcy Gallant said he’s still confident his team can contend at the Division II level.
“There still wasn’t as many bright spots as I thought there should have been and the negatives just sort of compounded,” he said of the season. “I think there was some better rugby to be played and it just wasn’t done.
“Like I told them the last few weeks we can’t go backwards now.”
Gallant found a silver lining in closing out the campaign despite a convincing loss.
“It was disappointing in a way, but we made all of our fixtures and that was our goal at the beginning,” Gallant said.
The Lions barely had enough to field a team in Red Deer as injuries, players returning to university and work commitments built up come season’s end.
“We go from 47 registered to about 25, we’re no different than anyone else, if we were I would be panicking,” Gallant said. “I think the core guys are there and a lot of them learned a lot of lessons. We’ve just got to build up a few more extra bodies.”
The Division III Lions won the early game over the host Titans in a 54-39 shootout.
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“They just opened a new facility there so we were playing on turf,” Gallant said. “It was really fast, guys seemed to be getting around and our backs found some holes.”
The Division III Foothills team (3-8) closes out its season at home today, Aug. 29, at the John Paul II Collegiate field in Okotoks in a 7:15 p.m. tilt with the Calgary Saints.
Smith called the Lions’ first season in Division II a learning experience.
“I was hoping we would have done a little bit better, but I didn’t expect us to win everything this year,” Smith said.
One such teachable moment was the importance of constant communication on the pitch, he said.
“When we are gelling and communicating together everything seems to go well,” Smith said. “Even in this last game we were behind and were exhausted, but were still communicating and our defence was still really good.”
“I think that’s one thing that will come out next year is all of those guys coming back are going to have that communication going with one another.”
The Lions forward is looking forward to improvements in the 2013 season.
“Now we know what we’re going to be up against next year and there’s no way we’re going to take a step back at all,” Smith said. “Next year we will definitely be able to come out much stronger.”
For more information go to www.foothillslionsrugbyclub.com.
