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Lions stung in streak breaking loss

You could almost see it coming.

You could almost see it coming.

Enjoying its best stretch as a third division rugby side the Foothills Lions saw their five game winning streak come to a screeching halt when the Calgary Hornets stung early and often en route to a 51-15 triumph Friday night at Okotoks’ Wylie Park.

“It was hot all day and I feel like the energy was just off at the start of the game,” said Lions vice-captain Dan Larson. “Everybody was just a little bit flat and never really got into it. There were sparks of energy, but no continuous momentum.”

The sparks did fly on numerous occasions in what was a chippy first meeting of the season between the Calgary Rugby Union foes.

A first-half skirmish kick things off and the antagonism continued from there with four yellow cards handed out in the match.

“Definitely some of the guys are going to be a little more vulnerable to that sort of thing,” Larson added. “It takes its toll for sure and throws everybody off.”

After Calgary opened the scoring the Lions took their only lead of the evening when former Highwood Mustangs standout Ryan Helash took off for a darting 50 yard run to the try zone by the outside centre.

The Hornets bit back in a big way adding four scores down the left sideline in the opening half to take a commanding 34-10 advantage at the break.

“They have a good system where one pod is out wide and they’ll be crashing it in and as everybody is flowing over they make a couple of long passes,” Larson said. “Then that goes over to the other pod and there is just one or two wingers there to cover them and they get that mismatch.

“It’s a good gameplan.”

The Hornets added four more majors to put the game out of reach with Lions inside-centre Henry Thach providing the only offence for the team on a short try after strong interior work from tenacious flanker Matt Hunter.

“These guys have like 60 or 70 registered players. They dropped a couple guys (from higher divisions) to come play because they didn’t have enough for their thirds team,” Larson said. “It’s good competition and if we had a better day we’re well matched, but we had an off day.”

Foothills (5-3) continues a tough stretch of games on paper with a pair of tilts against teams in the top half of the table. Next is a clash with the Rams/Saints at Wylie Park on Aug. 18 at 7 p.m.

“The last of our season is the top three teams,” Larson said. “It’s going to be a grind to the finish, especially if we lose a couple guys to university, we’re already low on numbers.”

Those looking to get a game in are invited to come train with the Lions men who practice on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and typically play league games on Friday night.

For more information go to foothillslionrfc.org


Remy Greer

About the Author: Remy Greer

Remy Greer is the assistant editor and sports reporter for westernwheel.ca and the Western Wheel newspaper. For story tips contact [email protected]
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