Tag: Chicago Hounds

A Seawolves win to dispel all doubts

Reasonable doubts were had about this past weekend – round one in the Seawolves’ campaign to reach the playoffs. With fourth-place team, RFCLA, facing 0-11 Anthem and Seattle against 8-3 Utah, some doubters may have thought Seattle, fifth place in the Western Conference of the Major League Rugby and parked outside of the playoffs, might fall further behind.

Those doubts were not dispelled until the 80th minute of the Monday night’s game. Despite tries by Malembe Mpofu (under the post for seven points), Lauina Futi and Toni Pulu plus two successful conversion kicks by Rodney Iona (in winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour), the Seawolves were down 21-24 going into the last two minutes of the game. Just before time expired, Rhyno Herbst picked up the ball from the back of a goal line ruck and dived over for a try, giving Seattle a 28-24 win, with another conversion by Iona.

That leaves Seattle still in fifth place, two points behind LA, who notched a 45-17 four-try win over Anthem on Saturday. Anything but a four-try Seattle win would have left the Seawolves further behind LA, like seven points behind in the standings if they had lost to Utah.

Round 2 starts at 6 p.m. Saturday at Starfire Stadium when Seattle meets San Diego, who are 7-6 including a 40-26 win over Seattle in the first game of the regular season back in February. They are in third place in the Western Conference.

LA follows up on Monday against the Chicago Hounds, who are 8-4 and in second place in the Eastern Conference behind New England.

Looking for a win and a loss, no doubt about it.

Start Lynch, Peters for more media coverage

“The Seattle Seawolves (3-5) beat visiting Chicago 28-22.”

That was The Seattle Times print-edition coverage on Saturday morning of the Seawolves’ game Friday night.

One sentence. Six words. Four numbers, two hyphens and two parentheses.

They could have said a lot more, as perhaps the Seawolves staffer who supplied the information had done.

  • J.P. Smith earned his 100th caps, only the second to do so in Major League Rugby.
  • Seattle, who sits at the bottom of the Western Conference standings in Major League Rugby, beat the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference.
  • That Seattle got on the scoreboard first as Rodney Iona slotted a penalty kick, the first of his 13 points he added in conversions and penalty kicks to the Seawolves’ total score.
  • That Divan Rossouw, Riekert Hattingh and Lauina Futi scored tries, all of which keeps the Seawolves closer to getting into the playoffs this coming summer.

There is a way to get more than six words in the local newspaper: Take this man off the sidelines and into the lineup. Marshawn Lynch at stand-off, at No. 8, on the wing, in the centers for a half, or until the first hydration break. Or let Marcus Peters play some defense. The crowd of reporters, columnists and photographers would strain the attendants at the entry gate.

This has been suggested to the Seawolves previously by an unnamed source. And big names, especially American football names, get coverage. Read it here: Marshawn Lynch, Marcus Peters join ownership group for Seawolves.

And read it online, where the readership is tallied to see which sports capture the most eyeballs.

A bye, then many games in few days for Seattle

Let’s pause slightly to applaud Toni Pulu and Riekert Hattingh for scoring tries and to Eduard Fouche for making one of two conversion kicks in the 29-12 defeat at the hands of Old Glory DC. Then let’s move on to what’s ahead for the Seattle Seawolves.

This coming weekend, Seattle has a bye, which means they will fall further behind as other teams in the Western Conference all have games. The Utah Warriors found out what a bye weekend can do: They fell behind the RFCLA in the standings and are right now the team Seattle needs to top in the standings if the Seawolves want to see playoff games this summer.

While Utah was resting at home last weekend, the LA club beat Houston Sabercats, 24-22, allowing them to climb two points better than the Warriors in the Major League Rugby standings – 23 to 21.

Seattle is six points behind Utah, in fifth place, the non-playoff spot in the Western Conference. A win by Seattle and a defeat by the Warriors will not be enough for Seattle to gain a fourth-place spot in the standings; they’d be at least one point behind. They will need more than that, and there are many – maybe too many – opportunities coming up in the rest of April and beginning of May.

Let’s start with the needed rest the Seawolves will get in this coming bye weekend. On Saturday, Utah will play LA, the loser relegated to the fourth-place spot in the standings – the team Seattle needs to overcome.

Starting Friday, April 18, the Seawolves will play four games in the next 15 days:

Friday, April 18 at Starfire against Chicago Hounds, the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference. 7:30 P.M. (PDT)

Rest five days.

Wednesday, April 23 at Anthem at 4:30 p.m. (PDT)

Rest four days.

Sunday, April 27 at NOLA Gold at 1 p.m. (PDT)

Five days after that, on Friday, May 2, Seattle will get a rematch against LA at Starfire.

Fifteen days, four games. Lots of games to catch up, to climb over whoever is in fourth place in the conference.

Also, lots of games to stay healthy, uninjured. Trainers and conditioning coaches, do your stuff.

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

How San Diego stayed in Top 4, and Utah did not

How San Diego (4-1-0) got down 17-0 at the half against New Orleans (3-2-0) seemed unlikely. But they did on Sunday. The Legion was dancing with the threat of falling out of the Top 4 in the Western Conference, where you need to be for getting in the playoffs. Then at 40 minutes, San Diego and New Orleans each received yellow cards, and the Legion found their 14 men were better than NOLA’s.

San Diego scored two converted tries in the first 13 minutes of the second half, allowed a miserable penalty kick to NOLA and then added two tries and a penalty kick to win 33-20. San Diego is at 24 points in the standings, right there with Houston and behind the Seawolves by five points.

NOLA stays at third in the Eastern Conference, behind New England (24 points) and Chicago (18).

The remembered Utah Warriors team is not the one on the field this year. In a game with five lead changes and Utah up by three at 68 minutes, the old Utahans would hang on to win. Not so in the present age as Dallas scored a try in the 80th minute to win, 22-20.

That puts Dallas in fourth place in the Western Conference with 19 points, ahead of Utah’s 14. The Jackals have one more game played than Utah, and the competition for that fourth playoff spot should be worth watching. Would the present No. 1 team in the Western Conference (guess who) rather play Dallas, winning 34-32 previously, or Utah, beating them 23-13.

Chicago 59, Anthem 26: Someone have mercy! (But not the Seawolves.)

Seawolves’ next foe: 4 yellow cards and 1 red

Old Glory DC 22, LA RFC 22: In this tie game, the Los Angeles club, the next one on the Seawolves’ schedule, racked up four yellow cards including a second one against Alex Maughan, which makes that second card turn red. LA opened the scoring but got down 22-10 while playing short-handed. Then in the 66th minute, LA started coming back with two tries and a conversion to tie at 22. Not a team that the Seawolves can let up on for anything short of 80 minutes when they play Sunday, April 14 at 3 p.m. Game will be televised on FS2.

Chicago 38, New Orleans 21; I stopped watching this game at the 45-minute mark when NOLA was ahead 21-12 and well on their way to victory. But Chicago turned to mauls to push over 26 points while keeping New Orleans scoreless. James Scott, a huge lock ran in two tries for Chicago (who needs mauls when the second rows run like backs). Nice to see former Seawolves Ben Landry in his usual white scrum hat out there playing as well as Brad Tucker (wish he’d come back). Larome White, who was a Seawolves in their first year, is also with the Hounds.

New England Free Jacks 25, Miami Sharks 3: Besides an early penalty kick by Felipe Etcheverry, the Miami Sharks did not show up in the scoring column. New England, who lead the Eastern Conference only had three tries, not enough for the extra bonus point. With 15 points for the tries, Jayson Potroz added two penalty kicks and two conversions for 10 points for the 25 total. The Free Jacks stay on top of the Eastern Conference with 19 points, ahead of NOLA with 15.

Utah 44, Anthem 19: Anthem ahead at the half, 19-15, but never scored in the second half while Utah ran in 29 more points.

Seawolves down 26-0 when the lights came on

Simply put, Chicago scored 26 unanswered points in the first half hour of the game against the Seattle Seawolves on Saturday. Then Seattle scored 34 unanswered points to win 34-26.

Seattle scored five tries (Jade Stighling, Mack Mason, J.P. Smith, Sam Windsor and Toni Pulu) for the extra bonus points keeping them within four points of Houston, who lead the Western Conference. Mason added three conversions and a penalty kick, which put the Seawolves ahead 27-26 for the first time in the game at 75 minutes. Pulu’s try with a minute remaining and Mason’s conversion kept Chicago from getting a bonus point for losing within seven points.

A remarkable turnaround from the first half hour compared to the time that followed. At the beginning, the Seawolves missed tackles, let Chicago’s backs get outside their back line, gave up an intercepted pass that was run in for a try and had a forward power over them for Chicago’s fourth try (a bonus point).

Then someone turned on the lights. A great pass out to Stighling who touched down in the corner, Mason converted his own try, a show and go by Smith to drop over the Chicago goal line, Windsor’s try from not at the end of an overload (he had another man outside of him – and man inside if he wanted to offload that way) and great back and forth passing by Riekert Hattingh and Ina Futi, ending in Pulu’s try.

You can’t have unanswered points without solid defense, which the Seawolves had after the first half hour. Best defensive play? Gotta be Jean Droste’s holding up a would be try by Chicago at 70 minutes.

Seawolves are back at Starfire on Friday night, April 5, at 7:30 against the Dallas Jackals, who were respectable against Houston this weekend losing, 30-27.  

Houston depends on kicks to stay undefeated

Kicks make a difference in today’s rugby. Too much foot in the game? Maybe. But for now, those are the rules of the game.

In the Dallas vs. Houston game Friday evening, the Jackals made five tries but their kickers only made one conversion, losing out on eight possible points.

Houston had four tries but converted two of them. They added two penalty kicks even though they committed 12 penalties to the Jackals’ eight.

So Dallas had 25 points on tries and two on a conversion for 27 at the end of the game.

Houston had 20 points on tries, six on penalty kicks and four on conversions to win 30-27 and maintain their undefeated status.

Hoping the Seawolves’ kickers are on target this afternoon in Chicago, the team scores more than four tries, the Hounds score fewer and the Miami Sharks pull off an upset against San Diego on Sunday.

Seawolves dance next at Chicago, Dallas, LA

Could be a new version of the “tush push.” Loved this halftime entertainment.
A Seattle welcome to returning AJ.

The Seawolves will be shakin’ their booties against Chicago (there), Dallas (here) and LA (there) before they meet the New England Free Jacks, perhaps a precursor to the championship match, now set for August, not July as previously posted earlier here.
So how did those teams do this past weekend:

Chicago took on New England, the reigning Major League Rugby champions, and got within five points of a win with a last minute try. But New England, behind two tries and a penalty kick from fly half Jayson Potroz, ended with a 22-17 win. Seven of Chicago’s 17 points came from a penalty try after New England’s fullback Reece MacDonald knocked on a Chicago pass at goal line. That resulted in a yellow card on MacDonald. IMHO, a yellow card is too heavy a penalty for an “intentional knockoff.” A penalty at best. A scrum even better. In this case, the penalty try was justified as Chicago would have scored except for MacDonald’s knocking down the pass. Despite the boost from the penalty try, the Hounds are not to be overlooked by the Seawolves.

Dallas also needed a penalty try to come “anywhere” close to New Orleans Gold, 35-22. The Gold scored early after receiving a red card and kept scoring to 27-3 before a legit try by Dallas and the penalty try right before half. Score at the break, 32-15. Dallas added a converted try and in the 79th minute, NOLA kicked a penalty. A red card and a yellow card against New Orleans, and a yellow card against Dallas. The Jackals are 2-2 on the season, which gets them to fourth place in the Western Conference.

What happened to Utah? The Warriors are tied at the bottom of the Western Conference with LA at eight points. And LA beat them this weekend, 36-32. Without the two bonus points for four tries scored and coming within seven pints of the winner, Utah would be at the bottom of the conference alone. LA scored five tries, converted four of them and added a penalty kick. Dan Hollinshead, LA’s kicker, is a danger. (He plays ahead of Jordan Chait, a former Seawolves.) Seattle will need to reduce their penalty count before facing Hollinshead. And the demise of Utah comes from the loss of Olive Kilifi, back in the arms of the Seawolves.

Elsewhere:

Miami 50, Anthem 21: Stakes for this game was a first Major League Rugby win for either team. A chance maybe for an Anthem victory, but it did not happen. Miami scored three tries in the first 13 minutes of the game, and three more in the first 17 minutes of the second half. Miami gets their first Major League Rugby win in a game that got plenty sloppy in the second half.

San Diego 27, Old Glory DC 11: San Diego’s win included five tries, allowing them to pick up four bonus points for the win and one for four tries scored, putting them in second place in the Western Conference, one point ahead of the Seawolves. Old Glory did not look like the team that beat New England Free Jacks by one point earlier in the season. They went scoreless in the second half.

Seawolves are in Chicago on Saturday, March 30 at 3 p.m. PDT. Shown on Marquee Plus (home of the Chicago Cubs), Root Sports and The Rugby Network.