BANFF – The Banff Bears men’s rugby club didn’t play its best game against the visiting Calgary Canucks on Saturday (Sept. 15), but it’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish.
The Bears, who won the game 24-17, nearly fumbled their chance to play in the southern Alberta provincial championship game next weekend due to inconsistent play, but managed to pull it off in the last five minutes of the game.
“I can’t help but think that too many of the players had their minds on the finals next week, not in this 80 minutes,” said player coach Mark Hooper after the game.
The Canucks got on the board first, driving the ball into the Banff end and then kicking a field goal for a safe three points. They would score again on a nearly identical sequences of plays, by kicking another field goal to take a 6-0 lead early in the first half.
The teams then struggled in neutral territory for a few minutes before the Bears got a lucky break when Dominic Amon found a break in Canucks coverage and ran the ball long for the first try of the game.
A converted kick had the Bears sitting with a one-point lead, 7-6.
After that the Canucks would wrestle possession away from Banff and the Calgary team would score again against the Bears by opting for another safe three-point kick to regain the lead 9-7.
The Bears would strike once more in the first half, sliding across the line and missing the conversion kick to close to 12-9.
Calgary would score their only try of the game when play resumed in the second half, driving the ball into the Banff end zone on a series of broken tackles.
Banff would strike back after a sequence of nice passing plays, and the score was held at an uncomfortable 17-14 for most of the half. Despite the Bears playing with good coverage, the Canucks would tie the game on another three-point kick from long distance.
With the game tied and the season on the line, Banff’s Amon would score his second of the game and the kick would be converted to give the Bears a one try lead with six minutes on the clock remaining.
They would hold on to advance to the Southern Alberta provincial championship game next Saturday (Sept. 22) at the Calgary Rugby Union park at noon.
Hooper was not happy with the team after the win, saying they should never have put themselves in a situation where the outcome was determined by a single play.
“The individual has to decide what they want from this season,” said Hooper. “It’s one and done now. You lose, you’re out. You lose and, in my eyes, it’s a waste of a season now and we’d have just wasted a great opportunity to bring some silverware back to Banff.
“This comes down to the individual deciding if they want to be a southern Alberta champion or not.”
