The Red Deer Titan’s Men’s Divison 3 Rugby Club are feeling pretty good about their season so far after going undefeated through the first half of the season as they head into the mid-season break.
“So far so good. We’re still undefeated at this point and we’re about halfway through the year,” said Titans’ Head Coach Mike Berry.
After six games this season, the Titans stand at a perfect 6-0 record after they defeated the Rams 38-12 on Friday night in Red Deer in their last league game until late July.
“It’s kind of unfortunate that we have so few games in the next couple of months because of the Stampede and Westerner Days, the long weekend. But we have a couple of exhibition games in July, so it’s not such a long break,” said Berry.
The Club, Berry said, has really started to gel together over the course of the season.
“I like that the guys are getting together off of the field. Everybody’s starting to gel as a group. Everybody’s having fun, which is great, both on and off the field,” he said, adding the key now is to remain focused.
“There’s still stuff to develop on as a group. The record is nice to have but it makes things tough, as well, to tell guys that we need to kind of fix things even though we are winning. It’s definitely a good feeling though.”
One thing Berry said he’d like to see his team work on is their defence.
“Our defensive structures on how we move forward, but that’s just more practice and we’ll focus on that kind of stuff.”
While the Titans’ next league game isn’t until the end of July, they do have a couple of exhibition matches lined up in the intervening time including one against the Outback Barbarians from Australia on July 5th and one against the RAPTC RFC of the British Armed Forces Merit League 2 on July 14th. Both games will be played at Titans Rugby Park.
“We’ll have to keep in shape. With contact being quite a bit of the sport we’ve got to keep the guys quite physical. With the weather hopefully getting warmer we’ll have to work on fitness levels,” said Berry, adding the toughest part may be keeping the team interested throughout the break.
That maintained interest and physicality will be especially important when they return to league play, because after that initial matchup in July the team has just two games in August before their final league game on Sept. 10th. Right after that it’s into playoffs.
“We just want to keep doing what we’ve done through the whole year. At this point, with just four games left, we just want to focus on what we’ve done so far and build towards playoffs,” Berry said, adding the goal is to end up in the provincial final against the winner of the Edmonton league.
To do that, though, they’ll have to win the Calgary Rugby Union championship.
“In order to get there we have to develop as a group and focus on the little things.”
The Red Deer Titans Men’s Divison 3 team is back in action on July 5th for a Touring Side exhibition game against the Outback Barbarians. Game time is at 7:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Titans Senior Women picked up a 55-12 victory over the Saracens on Saturday in Calgary and in junior action the U13 Boys team were not able to come away with a win over the Saints at Irish Field in Calgary on Saturday despite a big comeback push. U15 Boys picked up a dominating 61-0 victory over the Saints immediately after to remain undefeated on the season heading into playoffs.
Both junior teams will take part in the U18 Alberta Regional Championship Tournament this weekend in Calgary before heading into some playoff games in the coming month.
zcormier@reddeerexpress.com
