By Drew Wilson

Dragons drop All Blacks to avenge an earlier loss

May 24, 2016 | 9:11 PM

The Sask River Dragons recorded a 13-5 comeback victory over the Saskatoon All Blacks with a solid team effort on a cold and overcast Tuesday night at Prince Albert Collegiate Institute (PACI).

The victory marked a tremendous turn around from the 41-0 loss to the All Blacks in Saskatoon.

The Dragons second successful penalty kick early in the second half gave the Prince Albert high school a 6-5 lead. Yuya Adachi, a foreign student from Osaka enrolled at PACI split the uprights with the winning kick from over 30 yards out.

Coach Paul Roy felt that was the turning point.

“(The All Blacks) were committing penalties and we took advantage of it with our penalty kicks. That got us the lead after that the boys started sniffing victory,”  Roy said. “We managed the clock really well after that and didn’t make any turnovers ourselves and just tackled really hard.”

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The All Blacks turned back the determined Dragons on two goal line stands shortly after the Prince Albert boys fell behind 5-0 early in the first half.  Provincial team member Scott Gauthier put the game out of reach late in the second half with Prince Albert’s lone try, followed by Garrett Simpson’s convert. Roy believed the team actually benefited from two early unsuccessful pushes for points.

“They learned from white line fever and calmed down and made the right decisions after that,” Roy said. “After that it was more of a concerted effort, more team like and we retained the ball. Our ball retention was much better in the second half.”

Roy also said the coaching staff is continuing to see progress from this diverse group of players.

“This group is a mix of older players who have been with us for a while and really young players, so we are either winning big, or losing big and today was our first really close game since the first one of the year,”  he said.

Roy, who has mentored the Prince Albert high school rugby program for many years, said it’s gratifying to see this group continue to jell.

Thursday’s scheduled home game against Lashburn has been cancelled, so the Dragons return to action Thursday June 2nd in Saskatoon.

dwilson@panow.com

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