GOING FOR TWO
Mudmen’s A and B division teams shoot for a pair of titles on the weekend
The club’s A and B division teams shoot for titles on two fronts
The hard part for the Hunter’s Ale House P.E.I. Mudmen is to avoid anointing themselves the Nova Scotia Senior Men’s Rugby League A division champions before Saturday’s championship game kicks off.
Why?
Because last week’s breakthrough semifinal victory over the Halifax Tars, which vaulted P.E.I. into the final versus Enfield today, at 1 p.m., at Co-op Field in Charlottetown, could be seen as the Mudmen’s title game.
It’s not as Phil Gallant, longtime Mudmen player and organizer, knows.
It’s the Mudmen’s fifth appearance in six years in the final, each time losing to the Tars. Throw in a semifinal defeat to the Tars two years ago and bad things can worm into a rugger’s head.
“Five years ago we thought we had the team to do it. Years of losing to the Tars made us work harder. We were pretty deflated after last year (a final loss). We thought ‘what have we got to do to beat the Tars?,” said Gallant.
“It wasn’t so much physical, but we had to change our mentality.
“We can’t get ahead of ourselves and get cocky. We know we still have a lot of work to do. If we play the same game we played last Saturday we can beat anybody.”
In last week’s semifinal, the Tars took an early 7-0 edge, but the Mudmen recovered and held a 17-14 lead at halftime. Then a strong and focused Mudmen second half resulted in a 32-19 win.
But Enfield is no slouch. The N.S. squad downed Halifax RFC 29-19 in the other semifinal, and plays a similar fast-paced style to the Mudmen.
So Gallant isn’t taking Enfield lightly and expects a rugged game, even if the teams don’t share any bad blood.
“They have a physical scrum that can rival ours. Our two teams are respectful of each other. We get along well, know each other’s style. Not a chippy game, more of a respectful game,” said Gallant, whose team finished 7-0 in A division play.
“But we plan to be bigger, stronger, faster and fitter in every aspect. We have to just put it together that day.”
The B side wants the same thing when it takes on the Dartmouth PigDogs in Sunday’s B division final, at 1 p.m., in Dartmouth, N.S.
Though it won’t be easy as Dartmouth, one of the bottom four A division finishers, was relegated to the B division playoffs. And the PigDogs almost were P.E.I.’s opponents in the A division semifinal, so Steve MacMillan of the Mudmen B side understands it won’t be a cakewalk.
“All the guys have to show up. They’re a big physical team, hard running. You know what they’re going to bring,” said MacMillan, a prop with the Mudmen. “They’re an A division team so they’re high calibre. Plus they play on a small field and we’re a team that likes to spread the field, but we should be OK.”
The B division Mudmen went 6-1 in the regular season and beat Pictou County in last week’s semifinal and Windsor two weeks ago in the quarterfinals.
So it’s a playoff-tested squad, but MacMillan knows one more test awaits.
“Ryan Lloyd will need to lead the backs and Sylvain Duguay (will have) to be a leader for us,” said MacMillan. “We’re a team that gets around the field well, a fast team that plays our system, but we’ll need good leadership from the standoff position.”