It has been a long hard road for coach Pat Parfrey and his Newfoundland Rock team, but they finally achieved victory on Saturday Aug. 13, winning the Rugby Canada Super League (RCSL) championship 25-13 over Saskatchewan Prairie Fire in the final at Regina, Saskatchewan.

Pat Parfrey has provided outstanding leadership to the sport of rugby, coaching teams at the local, provincial and national levels and serving as president of Rugby Canada. He is also a prominent member of the Memorial University community, a University Research Professor and internationally-renowned scientist and clinical epidemiologist. Last year he was named an officer of the Order of Canada. Most recently, he was appointed associate dean of clinical research in the Faculty of Medicine.

Saturday's game started slow and The Rock were outplayed by the host team in the first 40 minutes. The Fire took a 13-3 lead into half time. But The Rock responded with a faultless second-half performance to win after two failures at home in the RCSL finals.

Coach Parfrey said it's the first national title for a Newfoundland rugby team. “I think this is probably the best Newfoundland team of any sport we've ever had. We've been to three national finals and now they are the national champions.”

The Rock come from the smallest pool of players, live the farthest away from their competition, and everything they do to prepare is a huge commitment. But it was all worthwhile last weekend with Coach Parfrey hoisting the trophy, his three sons looking on, hundreds of Newfoundland supporters in Regina cheering and hundreds more cheering in the bars along George Street back in St. Johns as his image beams via the Internet on to TV screens around the province.

Dr. Parfrey, who insists he did not want to get involved in rugby when he arrived in St. Johns in the early 1980s, nonetheless accepted an invitation from the architect of Newfoundland rugby, Noel Browne, to come watch the Swilers play. Then began a 20-plus year journey to bring rugby to the highest level. There had been under-age successes at the national level, successful tours, but on Aug. 13, the rugby community of Newfoundland reached the promised land - national champions.

Members of The Rock team are Frank Walsh, Peter Densmore, Rod Snow, Sean O'Leary, Chris Mooney, Andrew Fagan, Kevin Parfrey, Ken Goodland, Brendan Parfrey, Dean Blanks, Mike Simpson, Tyler Wish, Robert Wilson, Mike Rudofsky, Ciaran Hearn, Dale Pike, Dave Penney, Brad Lester, Mike Webb, Justin Meyers, Steve Hubley, Geoff Coughlan, Owen Parfrey, Wes Aylward, Colin Penney, Bobby Neville, Mike Yetman, coach Pat Parfrey, assistant coaches Simon Blanks, Frank Deacy and manager Bas Crosbie.