Someone’s gotta lose
P.E.I. Mudmen, Loyalists square off in Nova Scotia elite division action today in Charlottetown
It’s a battle of undefeated teams and for first place Saturday when the Hunter’s Ale House P.E.I. Mudmen host the Fredericton Loyalists in Nova Scotia Senior
Men’s Rugby
League action in Charlottetown.
Game time for the Elite Division game is 2 p.m. at Co-op Field.
P.E.I. is 1-0 in the division following a sold defeat of Belleisle, while the Loyalists sit at 2-0 after a win over the Halifax Tars and a come-frombehind victory over Enfield,
So something has to give.
And although it’s a prime challenge, said long-time player and organizer Phil Gallant, the hearty Mudmen are ready to face it.
“They are a resilient group that don’t have many holes in their game. They have a strong backline that spread the ball well,” said Gallant in an email interview. “We hope that we can use our speed and skill to wear them down to create opportunities.”
It’s the only game for the Mudmen on the docket as the B Division team doesn’t play until next week and the Charlottetown Rugby Football Club is off in the women’s league until July 29.
It’s also the weekend of the Cavendish Beach Music Festival and that draws away some club members for security duty and just plain fun, so Gallant said the Mudmen will tap the idle B division team for hplayers.
“It’s a challenging weekend with the Cavendish concerts so we are missing some key role players. We are looking for young guys to step up. It is a testimony to the strength of our club and our depth that we can have so many guys ready to play at this level when called upon,” Gallant said.
So far this season in the men’s bracket no team has run away from the field. Games have been close; the largest loss was Windsor’s 33-22 defeat to Dartmouth in A Division play.
Those results mean no game is a cakewalk, said Gallant, and whoever lines up game day must be ready to g o.
“The league so far we see a lot more balance with teams and not so many big one-sided games like other years. Any team can win any game on any day it seems,” said Gallant. “We need to stay sharp and bring our best performance no matter who is in our lineup each week. This is the only way to stay atop such elite teams.”