After the dust settled on their first playoff game of 2015, the Banff Men’s Rugby Club had utterly dominated the Calgary Irish. The unflattering scoreboard showed a 56-15 edge for Banff, which had spent the better part of the past 90 minutes delivering punishing hits and scoring at will on the beefy Irish forward pack.
But after the final whistle, the Irish indicated they would protest the result, as the Bears didn’t have enough forwards. If the appeal goes ahead, the Irish will advance.
Banff was not impressed.
“I think we dominated through all aspects of it. All we needed was our hands on the ball to turn over and get scores. We didn’t get as many in the second half, but we didn’t need the ball as much,” said coach Darrell Cranny. “We beat them. If they want to (contest it) let them. We’ll see how it turns out.”
At press time, the Bears hadn’t received word on the appeal, but instead planned to play the Calgary Saracens on Saturday in Calgary. Cranny said upon re-reading the rule book, he believes the appeal is baseless, and the Bears should be clear to advance to the Calgary Rugby Union Tier III semifinals.
The lopsided win against the Irish was just the warm-up they needed, Cranny said, to prepare the team for a long run.
“The first half, we played freely. It flowed. In the second half, they had the ball a bit more. They tried to play the way they like to play – up the jumper and through the middle. They’re a good team and hard to play against. When they play hard, they play hard. It was the test that we needed.”
The first minutes weren’t much of a test for Banff, as they scored tries on long runs, exposing the Irish’s lack of foot speed.
By the second half, the Irish changed their strategy, and tried to lure the Bears into a grinding battle. But the Banff squad was equal to the challenge, and battled tooth and nail against the opposition.
“They were big boys,” Cranny said. “That intensity, in the first half, everyone was into it. In the second half, we held back a bit, but we made our tackles, and pulled back.”
The Bears were on the hunt for a playoff-calibre match, which could test their group after they lost Jack Dawson, Oliver McKay and Alex ‘Boeuf’ Boston to injury. On the field, Malcolm Wilson, Mark Hooper and Tyler McLeod shone in leadership positions, setting the tone for the rest of the match.
“All of the forward pack was solid. Joe Newman was good, Koji Seki was good at scrum half and Matt Soukas was good as a replacement,” Cranny said.
Banff has had success against the Saracens this season, and Cranny believes they have the talent and the bodies to make a run at the provincial championship. The last time the two teams played, the Bears won 55-27, in what was a tough game for both sides.
“We’re looking really solid. There is no one we can’t beat,” Cranny said.
