Category: Rugby

Too soon to talk playoffs? Seawolves are in

With 13 season games to go and a long way until the last of them on June 8, talk of playoffs may seem premature. But right now, the Seawolves are in.

Major League Rugby is using the same playoff format as in 2024. Top four teams in each division are in the playoffs. The No. 1 team plays the No. 4 team. No. 2 vs. No. 3. The No. 5 and 6 in the Eastern Conference and the No. 5 team in the Western Conference are eaten by the Bear, as in  . . . when running away from a hungry grizzly it’s not as important to outrun the Bear as it is to outrun the slowest person trying to escape the jaws and claws of Mr. Griz.

Right now, Mr. Bear’s Happy Meal is the Rugby Football Club of Los Angeles in the Western Conference. Seawolves (seven points) are ahead of RFCLA (three points) by four points in the standings. This is setting a low bear for the season, and I doubt coach Allen Clarke is promoting it.

But the Seawolves will have a chance to push RFCLA farther down Mr. Bear’s throat when Seattle visits the Southern California club at 7 p.m. this coming Saturday, March 15.

Right now, Coach Clarke should be feeling happy about having captain Riekert Hattingh, out for a year with a torn Achilles tendon, back on the playing field and about the team finding the right moment to take the lead in the March 8 game against New England, and the right man to do it.

That moment did not come at the start of the game against the Free Jacks, the team that beat the Seawolves in the 2024 MLR’s championships. By 11 minutes from the opening whistle, Seattle was down, 0-14.

Cam Orr tried to be that man who could gain the lead, scoring two tries, but missed conversions left Seattle down, 10-14. Three minutes after Orr’s last try, the Free Jacks were up another three points on a penalty kick by Jayson Potroz, who returns to the Free Jacks for the first time this season. Half an hour into the game and a try by Divan Rossouw had Seattle within two of New England. A conversion would have tied it, but it was not the right moment.

The kickoff back to the Seawolves after Rossouw’s try was a lesson in why a kick should be caught and not left to dribble, tempting someone to try to grub it through the oncoming defenders. Which is what happened. That ricochet ended up in the hands of a New Englander who cruised on for another try, topped by another conversion by Potroz. Anything set on a tee, Potroz can kick it through the uprights: three conversions and one penalty kick for a halftime score of 24-15.

But that was it for New England. The return of the Seawall defense kept the Free Jacks from scoring in the second half, which included a rare missed penalty kick by Potroz.

A try by Mikaele Kruse and a conversion kick by Rodney Iona (yes!) came close to a lead, 22-24. A Seattle penalty kick would have meant a one-point win. It went wide.

The right moment and the right man came with less than two minutes left in the game when sub Malacchi Esdale rumbled down the sideline for a try (no conversion), the only Seawolves’ lead of the game, a win (27-24) and we’re on the way to the playoffs.

Seattle scored five tries (worth one bonus point in the standings) and one conversion.

Take the points. Go for the tie. Get the win later.

Seventy-five minutes into the Seattle game against the Houston Sabercats, the Seawolves are awarded a penalty just five meters outside the 22-meter line. The Seawolves are playing with only 14 players because of a red card against Pago Haini. With five minutes left in the game, the Seawolves kick to touch, hoping for a lineout-maul-try to win the game 26-24, or maybe even 28-24 as Eduard Fouche has already kicked three conversions.

The lineout was successful. The ball came out from the maul under control, but then a knockout torpedoed the winning try, and Houston goes on to win, 24-21.

If on that penalty, Fouche had kicked for three points and a tie, 21-21, could they have gone on for the win? They would have received the ball back on the next kickoff and at least had a winning chance. But we’ll never know since no one followed my advice to always take the points, especially when you are down a man. (Also noting here, that no one has ever asked for my advice.)

Red cards: Looking back on the red card to Haini, it appears that he stumbled into the Houston ball carrier. The refs ruled that Pago was targeting a knee, a high danger play. It was a no-wrap tackle, but it looked like he was trying to regain his feet when he collided with a Houston knee. Are intentions regarded? If so, maybe a yellow car instead, although the Seawolves would have played out the game one man down as a 10-minute sin bin would have gone past 80 minutes.

Or two men down as on the fatal knock-on play, Njabulo “Juice” Gumede received a red card. He came in from the side of a ruck and his elbow hit the head of a Houston player. Definitely a red card.

A hometown win at Starfire Stadium on Saturday, March 8, at 7 p.m. against the New England Free Jacks, the team that beat them last year in the Major League Rugby championship game, would go a long ways to getting this season back on track. The Free Jacks lost 36-7 against the Chicago Hounds on Sunday. What happened to them?

Major League Rugby in color: Yellow & red cards

Now that I have paid my subscription to The Rugby Network, Major League Rugby has gone absent. What’s with that?

Now dialing in to youtube.com for the weekend’s highlights, which I have not completed.

However, in looking at the minimal information on Tribe Sports, the number of yellow and red cards handed out over the weekend has colored their game summaries. In five games, there were 14 yellow cards and three red cards. New Orleans and San Diego teams led with three yellow cards apiece. The Miami Sharks, Chicago Hounds and New England had red cards.

Is this because the refs are calling rules tighter or because we have hooligans in the gentlemen’s game?

Back to youtube.

Sharks had 2 yellows and 1 red

Anthem had 1 yellow

New Orleans, 3 yellow

Chicago had 2 yellow, 1 red

Houston, 1 yellow

LA, 1 yellow

New England, 1 yellow, 1 red

San Diego 3 yellow

In bye week, Seawolves have much work to do

The Seattle Seawolves rugby team has no game next weekend, which means they will have plenty of time to work on things. There are plenty of things to work on.

When they departed San Diego Sunday afternoon, they left behind a 40-26 defeat administered handily by the Legion. It could have been worse. The Seawolves, down 28-0 at halftime, did not get on the scoreboard until 57 minutes into the match. That was helped along by San Diego serving two yellow cards at once, leaving only 13 Legion players on the field.

Seven minutes into the game, San Diego had two tries and two conversions. Another converted try at 13 minutes and once more at 27 minutes as the Seawolves could not figure out how to stop the overlaps the San Diego backs were putting together.

Once Cameron Orr opened the scoring for the Seawolves, they rolled on for 21 more points in the second half with tries by Eddie Fouché and two by Jesse Mackail. Fouché kicked two conversions, and Rodney Iona had one.

It could have been 28-21, within seven of the winner and a bonus point in the standings. But that would mean the Seawolves needed to stop San Diego from scoring. They did not, as the Legion added 12 points for the 40-26 final. The Seawolves come away with one bonus point for scoring four tries.

Next Seawolves game is in Houston against the Sabercats, who lost Saturday to the Chicago Hounds, 25-22.

Seawolves’ hopes brought down by penalties

Joe Taufete’e scores on a play from a lineout for the Seawolves. Photo by Punkus Arnett

So many non-releasing penalties. So many non-releasing penalties against the Seattle Seawolves that torpedoed valiant attempts to change the score from 20-11 in the last half hour of the Major League Rugby championship match Sunday in San Diego

But 20-11 in favor of the New England Free Jacks it remained until the game’s end. The Free Jacks repeat as the MLR champions, the first team to do so since the Seawolves did it in 2018 and 2019.

Starting with New England fly half Jayson Potroz’ penalty kick at eight minutes into the game, the Seawolves were behind throughout. Six minutes later, Le Roux Malan scored an acrobatic try in the corner to put New England ahead 8-0.

Mack Mason kicked a penalty kick to get the Seawolves on the scoreboard, 8-3, with 25 minutes gone in the game. The Seawolves only try in the game came off a lineout five yards out from the New England try line. Great time for a maul to push in for a try, right? But that is not what happened. The Seawolves took the jump, passed the ball down to Rhyno Herbst on the inside, who fed the ball to Joe Taufete’e, who touched down in the corner.

Potroz added another penalty right before the half, and the Seawolves were within a converted try at the half, 14-8. However, some things would have to change in the second half for the Seawolves to get in the lead. The Free Jacks controlled the territory (64 percent) and the possession (58 percent) in the first half.

Potroz kicked two more penalties in the second half, scoring 15 of New England’s 20 points. The Seawolves kept the Free Jacks from scoring tries in the second half, even while playing with 14 men after Tavite Lopeti was given a yellow card for a high tackle. But, unfortunately for them, they could not score tries either. Mostly because of not-releasing penalties that stopped penetration into New England’s territory – deep inside New England territory, like within five yards of the try line several times.

Why so many “turnover penalties”? Was the ref too quick to blow the whistle on a ball being released by a tackled Seawolf? Were the tackled runners too far in front of their support? Was the support too slow to get to the tackled player? Maybe all of the above with a few ill-fated knock-ons thrown in as well.

Mason scored his second penalty kick at 47 minutes into the second half, getting Seattle to 11 points. But the last 28 minutes of the game were filled with dashed hopes for the Seawolves and New England hanging on to become the 2024 MLR champions.

High praise for Seawolves coach Allen Clarke, who guided the team to the finals through many injuries, finding the right players to fill in, coaching them to the Seawolves’ game and standards and finding plays that would score, such as the inside pass off a lineout that scored Taufete’e in the championship.

Fewer penalties, more tries for 2025. See you then.

Halftime fun in San Diego

Fans had to wait to celebrate Seattle Seawolves

       The Seawolves fans had to hold off their celebration until 10 minutes into the second half when Seattle took the lead for the first time, 21-20, in the Western Conference finals against Dallas. It was a short celebration as the Jackals regained the lead 20 minutes later, 25-21.

       It wasn’t until the 79th minute – the last in an 80-minute match – that the real celebration began. That’s when Seawolves fullback Divan Rossouw broke through the Dallas backline, raced toward the try line, only one tackler ahead of him when his long, accurately thrown pass connected with scrum half Ryan Rees, running in support, who touched down for the try. Conversion by Sam Windsor got Seattle back in the lead for good, 28-25.

Seawolves players and fans celebrate after winning Western Conference title. Video by Kathleen Saul

       The Seawolves, the winner of the Western Conference, will play the Eastern Conference winner, the New England Free Jacks, in San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium on Sunday, August 4, at 1 p.m. PDT to determine Major League Rugby’s 2024 champions.

       The Free Jacks, the MLR champs in 2023, beat Old Glory DC, 33-29, and the Chicago Hounds, 23-17, in their playoff matches.

       The Dallas Jackals, 6-10 in the regular season, seemed like they might continue their “coming together at just the right time” roll through the playoffs. They beat the best in the league, Houston at 14-2, last week and stacked up a 20-14 halftime lead in Sunday’s game against Seattle. That despite being down to 13 men on the field after a double yellow card. Wing Nick Benn scored two tries, a one-handed cartwheel try in the eleventh minute and a race to finish off an overload over Seattle at 31 minutes. Both were scored in the corner, but Juan-Dee Oliver converted both and added two penalty kicks for 20 Dallas points.

       Seattle’s first score came as a penalty try after Dallas collapsed a scrum chugging toward the try line. Score: 7-10. Then a Dallas penalty kick and Benn’s second try, and the Seawolves were back down 7-20. Joe Taufete’e restored some hope for Seattle fans when he dived off a ruck to score a try under the posts. Halftime score: 14-20.

       Did the second half seem like Dallas had the ball 90 percent of the 40 minutes? And when Seattle had the ball, there were some dropped passes or ones that went behind the intended receiver or some that dribbled back to be picked up in a scramble? Seattle had two tries called back. One in the first half for a forward pass and another in the second half for a knock-on in the end zone (also known as a ball dropped when trying to touch the ball to the ground, which scores a try).

       But when things went right for Seattle, it was highlight films: JP Smith’s show and go off a ruck at the Dallas try line to plunge over for a try (now forgiving that earlier dropped ball in the try zone) and then Mack Mason’s conversion giving Seattle their first lead, 21-20, at the 50th minute.

       Dallas missed a penalty kick at the 67th minute but scored a try on a maul off their lineout. The conversion kick bounced off the upright, but Dallas had a four-point lead, 25-21, with eight minutes left in the match.

       Another upset by Dallas? Not according to Rossouw and Rees.

No penalty tries against Dallas, please

Never a question that the Seawolves would beat San Diego Legion in the first round of Major League Rugby’s Western Conference playoffs.

Seattle scored four tries (one of them a penalty try), Mack Mason connected on two penalty kicks and a conversion for 30 total team points. San Diego led early with penalty kicks by Matt Giteau, first 3-0 and then 6-3, but another PK was all the Legion could score in the first half. They never led again after that 6-3 score at 11 minutes.

Loved Seattle’s kicks ahead through the San Diego back line. First by Divan Rossouw that resulted in Duncan Matthews touching down at 13 minutes (leaving San Diego behind forever), and then another by Mason that ended in the penalty try.

Rhyno Herbst dives over for a try. Punkus Arnett photo

Smart plays by Rhyno Herbst as he dived over (some would say “like a back”) for a try at 28 minutes and the pickup by Pago Haini at the back of a ruck at 74 minutes to land a try, bringing Seattle to 30 points.

Pago Haini makes it 30. Punkus Arnett photo

Allow one question, please: What was going on at the 80th minute? A yellow card against Seattle (Seawolves had two, the Legion one) and a penalty try for San Diego, leaving them two points shy of a victory. Giteau missed a penalty kick and a conversion. Add in those lost points, and the Legion wins 33-30.

That’s the kind of gift Seattle can’t afford against Dallas, the next playoff foe (Sunday, July 28 at 1 p.m. at Starfire Stadium). The surprise of the past weekend starred the Dallas Jackals, 6-10 in the regular season, traveling to the home grounds of Houston Sabercats, with the best record in the league at 14-2, and coming away with a 34-22 win. The Texas teams played a scrappy game won by the one that could scrape together something that led to a try. Dallas did that more than Houston.

On Sunday, the Seawolves should expect a strong Dallas defense, one that mostly smothered Houston’s back line. The Dallas forwards found their way to Houston’s try zone with persistence rucking deep in Sabercats’ territory. Three of the Jackals’ five tries came off rucks within 10 yards of the goal line.

Strong forward play, Seawall defense at its best, varied back line play, no yellow cards and NO penalty tries. A Seawolves’ win against Dallas sends Seattle on to the MLR championship on Aug. 4 in San Diego.

Without a question.

A Seawolves’ loss that begs a question

Win or lose, the Seawolves game Saturday against San Diego changed nothing. Seattle is still in the playoffs, and they play San Diego on Sunday, July 21, at 5:30 p.m. at home.

But the 45-33 loss to the Legion Saturday raises this question to another level: Can the Seawolves beat San Diego on July 21 to advance to the second round of the playoffs?

San Diego’s four-try win (they had six) and the five points in the standings were not enough to overtake Seattle, who finished second behind Houston in the Western Conference. For Seattle, you could call it a “meaningless” game. A game to rest players who needed it. A game to hold out some players with injuries. Not a game to display new tactics before the playoffs.

But the way the game played out brought that nagging question from above to center stage for Seawolves supporters.

Seattle dominated the first half hour of the game with tries from Divan Rossouw, Ina Futi and Mahonri Ngakuru, putting the Seawolves ahead 21-3. But before halftime arrived, the Legion had scored two tries off mauls to bring the score to 21-17 “before the teams went into the shed” (love that bit of rugby language).

Still, some halftime chatter would bring the boys back in fine form with nothing to worry about. That happened for a brief shining moment, with the Seawolves edging up to San Diego’s goal line before they lost possession, were called for a penalty and the Legion successfully juggled the ball among three or four players before one of them found themselves in Seattle’s end zone. At two minutes into the second half, the dominance had switched sides. From there, San Diego scored four tries, and  41-year-old Matthew Giteau kicked two penalties. Seattle answered with two tries, from Jeremiah Sio and an after-80-minute quick penalty try from Monate Akuei, who did not look too bad at the No. 8 spot. But the Seawolves could find no way to turn things around, to get the dominance back on their side.

San Diego ends their regular season with wins over the two teams ahead of them in the Western Conference, Houston and now Seattle. That’s gotta feel good.

Seattle ends with a 29-12 win over RFC Los Angeles and a loss to San Diego that raises questions.

Seattle 44, LA 12: A score that might have been

Mooneyham on an “almost” try. Photo by Punkus Arnett

These names would of, should of, could of been added to the list below: Ina Futi, Jackson Zabierek and Conner Mooneyham (twice over).

And the list below — Dan Kriel, Pago Haini and Cameron Orr – are the Seattle Seawolves who scored tries in the 29-12 victory over Los Angeles Sunday at Starfire Stadium.

The list above are the hard-luck Seawolves who crossed the LA goal line before something bad happened. Futi didn’t quite control the ball as he dived over and tried to touch down for the try. Zabeirek because his score became a penalty try when Reegan O’Gorman, who might have thought he held up Zabierek’s try, found out he had collapsed the maul and received a yellow card. In the last three minutes of the game, Mooneyham had two tries disallowed. He chased down his own kick ahead as it skittered to the back of the LA try zone. Did he touch it down before it got there? He thought so. The ref did not. A scrum to La, then a ruck and the LA’s passes had the ball wobbling over the LA back line until Mooneyham reached up for what looks like an interception. But the ball dribbled down his leg and maybe off his foot for a kick, which he fields and runs to score in the corner. The ref rules it a knock on. No try.

Futi’s almost try opened what looked like another 10-try victory similar to the one against Utah two weeks ago. Especially since Kriel scored his try 30 seconds later on LA’s goal line drop out after Futi’s near miss. Monate Akuei sprung Kriel with a great no-look, across-the-chest off load.

Then things slowed down. Half ended 10-5 with a Mack Mason penalty kick for the Seawolves and an unconverted try for LA off a maul

Seattle’s penalty try came at the 46th minute, and LA answered with a try twenty minutes later. It wasn’t until the last 10 minutes of the game that the Seawolves got serious about going after bonus points with a four-try win. Haini benefited with a try after a strong maul off a lineout (with the backs Kriel and Mooneyham joining in), and Orr did as well after a quick penalty at the 78th minute. Minute later, the game ended, 29-12 for Seattle.

This one by Cameron Orr counted. Photo by Punkus Arnett

You wonder what the score would have been without the TMO, the television monitor official. Would Futi and Mooneyham’s tries have counted? (Zabierek’s counted as a penalty try without Z getting credit for it.)

Overall, we’re in favor of the TMO reviews, but it has changed the game from when a single ref helped out by Just Anyone who volunteered to run touch controlled the game. What will happen when real live tracking is added to the game, where a microchip is attached to the rugby ball? Could the ball become the referee? With an added live streaming to announce the decision? “Mooneyham was outside the try zone. Sorry, no try.” Would William Webb Ellis recognize that game?

We may be ahead of ourselves here.

So long, Utah: No win, no bonus points

Utah lost today against New England Free Jackets, 36-27, with no bonus points. A bonus point would have put them in striking distance of overcoming the Dallas Jackals for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. But that did not happen.

Remarkable, too, that Utah, who lost to the Seawolves last week, 68-29, came within nine points of the top team in the Eastern Conference. What does that say about the Eastern Conference?