BANFF – A big slab of victory was snatched from the jaws of the Banff Rugby Club Bears after the men's team got caught “flat-footed” at the worst possible time.
After three years away from the hometown pitch, the Bears played to a 17-17 draw against the Red Deer Titans on Saturday (June 4) at Banff rec grounds. Although, in the dying moments of the match, the Bears gave up the lead in "disappointing" fashion.
“I think the tie is the worst possible outcome,” said Bears Jeremy Woodcock. “[The Titans] were happy to kick the ball out at the end instead of playing us for a win or a loss.
“They capitalized a lot on our mistakes, which is what good teams do, and unfortunately, the result isn’t what we wanted.”
In front of a good-sized hometown crowd, the Bears came out with a fierce intensity in their home opener, but were unorganized and trying to do too much individually.
In the final five minutes of the first half, the Bears managed to settle back into team play and scored back-to-back tries, taking a 10-0 into the break.
The Titans cracked its goose egg in the opening minutes of the second half, going coast-to-coast on the Bears' defence for the try and conversion, making it 10-7.
Banff flirted with a third score, only a few feet away from crossing the try line, but couldn’t march in against the big boys of Red Deer.
Only moments later, the missed opportunity came back to bite the Bears as a Titans player booted the ball and dribbled it all the way downfield, which forced a Bears player to dive on the ball in their goal area.
The Titans scored a three-point penalty kick on the ensuing play to tie it at 10.
Bears captain Frank Dwyer, who said it was great to be hitting people again, continued that the team started losing its intensity in the second half and gave up costly errors.
“Every try we had here today was off-set plays and every try they had was us trying to do it ourselves and our mistakes,” said Dwyer. “I really think they capitalized on our mistakes.”
As time ticked down with less than four minutes left, Bears ankle-breaker Woodcock got fans cheering again when he broke free from the pack mid-field and “juked the jockstrap off" a lone Titan defender standing between him and his second try of the day to put the Bears back up.
Jeremy Woodcock of the #Banff Rugby Club “jukes the jockstrap off” a Red Deer Titan to score a try on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/ZYgOyEiGHc
— Jordan Small (@jordiesmall) June 6, 2022
Although, the position of the touchdown for the conversion kick almost didn’t work out for Banff.
“I wasn’t actually trying to deke him out,” said Woodcock. “I was trying to get him to turn his hips so I could take the outside and have my outside winger cut back in so it would be an easier try for him because I wanted our wing to cut to the post for an easy kick.”
The conversion kick was successful – barely – after the soaring ball clanged off a post and through.
Up seven points, Banff only needed a few minutes to hang on, but the Titans were far from being belly-up.
On the ensuing kick-off, Banff fumbled the ball and Red Deer took possession. Working with the clock against them, the Titans' final push was too much for the Bears to stop as the away team scored a try and kicked a conversion to tie things up.
On the last play, the Titans booted it out of bounds to end the match.
“Two minutes left in the game and we’re up by seven and I think we went back to our flat-footedness and they just charged on us,” said Dwyer. “It’s disappointing we didn’t hold the line a little harder than that, so obviously a tie is disappointing.”
The Bears are now 0-1-1 and will “get back to the basics” as they hunt for their first victory Saturday (June 11) at Banff rec grounds against the Foothills Lions. Kick-off is 2 p.m.
