Through three regular season games this fall, the Abbotsford Rugby Club’s Division 1 men’s team has been simply dominant, outscoring opponents 115-36 en route to a perfect 3-0 record.

And the scariest thing for Abbotsford’s opponents? The defending provincial champs insist that they haven’t come close to playing their best rugby.

“We haven’t really put it together as a team yet,” asserted Abby captain Scott Alexander, whose team plays its home opener on Saturday against Langley. “We haven’t played a solid 80 minutes. We’ve always waited until about the 40-minute mark.”

Alexander’s concern about slow starts might seem like nit-picking given the way his team has been blowing out opponents, but it really speaks to the expectations that Alexander has for this group. The Div. 1 squad lost just one full-time starter from last year’s provincial championship roster, and they’ve supplemented a strong veteran core with some top talent from the youth ranks.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys, and what we’re trying to drill into their heads is that we’ve got to run the game plan from minute one, instead of minute 40 or 50,” Alexander said. “But these are easy things to fix. We don’t have a lot of weaknesses, it’s just a matter of coming together as a team.”

Saturday’s home opener against Langley (2:30 p.m., Exhibition Park) figures to be a good test for the Abby men. The local rivals are the last two undefeated teams in the fall Div. 1 league.

“It’s always a big rivalry with Langley,” noted rugby club president Ryan McWhinney. “We’ve had some close games with them in the past, and they’re usually hard-hitting.”

The Div. 1 men have a new face on the sideline in Alan Borrows, a longtime player with the local club. Doug Primrose, who had coached the Abby men for the past five seasons, stepped aside in the spring to spend more time with his family, and the local club recently contracted Borrows to coach the team until Christmas in a part-time capacity after the search for a full-time coach hit some snags.

“We’re still working on some other full-time leads,” said McWhinney, who has fielded applications from coaches from South Africa and New Zealand. “The problem is that a lot of the candidates are overseas, and getting them over here presents some problems.

“We had thought that maybe a few local people would have stepped up, but a lot of other clubs are experiencing the same issue. There’s just not a lot of qualified coaches. It’s one thing to coach youth, but it’s another thing to coach grown men who are your peers.”

Exhibition Park will be a hive of rugby activity on Saturday. The U19 Tier 2 boys take on Langley at 10 a.m., followed by a tilt between the Abbotsford women and the Ravens at 11:30 a.m. The Div. 2 men face Langley at 1 p.m., followed by the main event featuring the Div. 1 men and Langley at 2:30 p.m.

RUGBY ROUND-UP:

On the youth rugby scene, the local club is thriving.

“We’ve got more kids than ever playing youth rugby in Abbotsford,” said McWhinney, who noted that the club added a second U19 boys team to keep up with demand. “And the great thing with our youth teams is that they’re really strong.”

In weekend action, Abbotsford’s youth sides won five out of six games.

n The Abby U18 women had 10 players score tries in a 74-10 thumping of Velox on Sunday. Leading the way was Lindsay Sidwell with three tries, while Angee Loewen and Shea Fehr scored two each.

n Jorden Best, Justin Douglas and JD Paul scored two tries each as the Abby U15 boys beat Bayside 34-7. Trevor France earned man of the match honours.

n The Abbotsford U16 boys overcame an early try from visiting Chilliwack in a 24-5 victory. Christian Styles (2), Brody Quirk and Connor Hunter scored the tries.

n The Abby U17 boys posted the most lopsided win of the weekend, blasting Bayside 72-0. Jordan Tait-Comis accounted for 32 points on his own, while Allan Dicks and Patrick Shields notched two tries apiece.

n Jake Buskell, Chris Chalmers and Kurtis Appeldoorn scored tries for the U19 Tier 1 boys, but the local side dropped a hard-fought 22-19 decision to Surrey.

n The U19 Tier 2 boys beat SFU 17-5 behind tries from Arie Neu, Sam Batryn and Justin Meade.