Pagans earn promotion to premiership
The Peterborough Pagans proved they are worthy of playing in the Ontario Rugby Union’s top league.
The Pagans got a preview of what the competition is like in the ORU’s Marshall Premiership with a 31-17 win over the Oakville Crusaders in the opening round of McCormick Cup playoffs at Nicholls Oval.
The Pagans earned the right to promotion to the Premiership next year by winning the Marshall Championship Division title last week. All 16 Marshall teams, from Premiership and Championship divisions, are combined for the year-end McCormick Cup. The Crusaders finished sixth in the eight-team Premiership.
Pagans’ head coach Paul Hunter said it’s 99 per cent certain they will accept the promotion. Their win against Oakville secured the Pagans an unbeaten 8-0 record at home this year. They’ll travel to Toronto for the Cup quarter-finals next Saturday against the Toronto Scottish.
If there was any doubt the Pagans belong in the Premiership, which they’ve never competed in before, it was erased on Saturday, said Hunter. They grew a 12-10 lead at half-time to a 14-point win.
“I think today gives us legitimate reason to put a team in the Premiership,” said Hunter. “Not only did we win but we won convincingly.”
They even played the final 20 minutes down two players who received yellow cards and held Oakville off.
Next week they’ll get a taste of the level near the top of the Premiership as the Scottish finished second only to Brantford.
“The players are getting excited to play these games,” said Hunter. “That’s where you want to play and test yourself. We have some young guys who take their rugby careers seriously and they want to play against the best.”
The Pagans did it without a pile of their Fleming College and Trent University players who had varsity games on Saturday.
Veteran Alex Haystead said there has been no formal meeting to decide on promotion but he thinks it will happen.
“The rumblings in the club are we’re crazy not to go up,” Haystead said. “Now is the perfect time to do it. We have the veterans coming out to play and a lot of young talent. Peterborough, as a rugby town, is growing. If you’d told me at the start of the year we’d be moving up I don’t know if I’d have believed you but halfway through the season everybody felt we had a chance.”
The big difference from past years, Haystead said, is the commitment level. They’ve had 50 players to draw from and even in the fall, when a lot of players leave for college and university, they’re still getting 25 to 30 to practice. He remembers some years when they’d have seven guys at fall practice and they’d be trying to register new players just to field a full lineup.
“It’s more like a club now than a men’s team,” said Haystead. “It’s nice to see. We’re starting to have some fun playing rugby so the commitment is there. Talent and success breeds that.”
He said beating Oakville validates their desire to move up. “We knew we belong,” he said. Keegan Sands and Jack Smith scored two tries for Peterborough and Mike Francis one. Josh Boyles kicked three converts.
Oakville came out fast and hard from the start, and Peterborough had to be patient in the first half. Oakville were first to score and took a 10-0 lead after 20 minutes. Peterborough had a couple of chances but were not able to execute. As the half drew to a close Peterborough started to get a little bit more ball and were able to move it through their backs to sore 12 points.
The Pagans built off the momentum as Smith scored early in the second half and they didn’t look back as Oakville fell off the pace.