With Swilers pitch in St. John's unavailable, Rock wins ‘home’ game going away

Home is where the heart is, and the displaced Atlantic Rock displayed a lot of the latter as they defeated the Ontario Blues 34-22 Saturday in their first game of the 2018 Canadian Rugby Championship season.

Because of the ongoing rebuild at the Swilers Complex in St. John’s, the Rock’s normal home field, Saturday’s game was played at Concordia Stadium in Montreal. But the “home” team had a solid week of training in St. John's prior to leaving for Montreal and that translated into winning performance punctuated by effective defence.
The Rock trailed the Blues by seven points 10 minutes into the game, but led 24-22 at the half, with tries from Cole Keith, Tony Pomroy and Liam Carter

The defence of the Atlantic side took over at the break, shutting out the Blues, while the Rock got a pushover try from a scrum by Matthew Murphy.

Cooper Coats, the former Acadia University soccer player who chose to concentrate on rugby following graduation, was a perfect six-for-six kicking for the Rock, converting all four tries and adding two successful penalties.

“This was a passionate, skillful display,” said Rock head coach Simon Blanks.

“There were several outstanding performances, but again, Matthew Murphy stood out, as did all our front-row forwards.”

The Atlantic team, which was chosen from participating teams — including the Newfoundland Rock — in the Eastern Canadian championship tourney earlier this summer, will face the Blues again on Tuesday in Burlington. Ont. That game will determine the seedings for later this month when both sides head to Calgary for the CRC playoffs, which will also involve the Prairie Wolf Pack and British Columbia Bears.
The Rock’s depth will be tested on Tuesday as Keith, Matthew Heaton, Aidan McMullan and Patrick Parfrey won’t be available; they will be fulfilling national-team duties as part of a Canadian travelling side on a tour of France.

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