Tag: Dan Kriel

Correction: Seattle could beat SD to the playoffs

Thank you Steven Vocke for pointing out that Seattle wins all three of their last matches and earn winning bonus points (4+ tries), Seattle gets to 52+ table points, which is more than San Diego can hope to achieve in their two remaining matches.

I overlooked that SD only had two games remaining. So . . .

I’d say that a Seattle win and a LA loss would still be a winning thing for Seattle.

What must happen in the three games left in the regular season is Seawolves win and LA loses for the surest way to the playoffs. If Seattle beats Houston Friday night at 7:30 in Starfire Stadium and LA loses to the Miami Sharks on Sunday, May 25, Seattle would step ahead (with two games remaining). Don’t quote me, but this could come down to the last round of the season on June 7 and 8 when Seattle plays the Miami Sharks and LA faces the Warriors in Utah.

And we will be watching San Diego’s two remaining games.

The wins this past weekends for Seattle and LA were like doppelgangers. Both needed 80th minute tries to seal the win. The scores were similar: Seattle beat San Diego 29-25; LA over Chicago 26-24. Four-try wins for both; each team went up five points in the standings, now LA 40, Seattle 38.

I “watched” both games via the Tribe app on my cell phone, once during a celebratory graduation dinner and the LA game in an airport lounge with no TVs. At the dinner, it seemed the least noticeable way to keep track of the game. Tribe alerts viewers with a line of type for tries, conversions (made and missed), penalty kicks (made and missed) yellow and red cards. Saturday’s game looked like this:

When following on Tribe, you are left to wonder about many things. How could Dan Kriel and Duncan Matthews, two of the most orderly players in the league, get yellow cards? Where were the balls touched down for tries by Divan Rossouw, Riekert Hattingh and Duncan Matthews? Where were the two conversions and a successful penalty kicks by Rodney Iona placed on the field. But the worst is the agonizing wait between when R. James scored a try followed by a missed conversion at the 70th minute and what would come next. A news flash on a Legion victory, 25-22, or something else? Like a try by O. Noa. I tried to disguise my shout of “Hooray” as a cheer for the graduate, but that one was for Olajuwon.
Same with the LA game against the Hounds of Chicago. At the 69th minute, Chicago gets a penalty try to go up 24-21. What would be next? Nothing to help the Seawolves as LA scores a try to win 26-24.
 

From scrum to try: How many touches?

Brock Gallagher scored Seawolves’ first try of the second half Wednesday night.

He was the last Seattle player to touch the ball before he scored. The question: How many Seawolves touched the ball from scrum to try?

I can’t view the highlights, so I don’t know. Any guesses without cheating by looking at the highlights? I’ll say seven.

You’ll almost need all 10 fingers to count the Seattle Seawolves who scored tries in the 60-19 victory over the Anthem RFC. That pulled the Seawolves to within one point of the LARFC in the Western Conference of Major League Rugby. Much closer, but still at the bottom and out of the playoffs at this point.

About those scoring Seawolves: Start with Lauina Futi under the posts for seven points, then Captain Riekert Hattingh, then Malacchi Esdale, J.P. Smith, Jeremiah Sio (more on that later), the aforementioned Gallagher try, Dan Kriel, Kerron Van Vuuren and Duncan Matthews. Nine tries for 47 points. Add to that a penalty kick for 3 (50) and five conversion kicks (60) by Rodney Iona.

But the greatest kick of the night was a cross-field kick by Iona that just cleared the outstretched arms of the jumping defender and landed in the arms of Sio, who ran it in for a try.

A five-point win in the standings brings the Seawolves to 24 points, still one point behind LARFC at 25, thanks to a try in the 80th minute of their game Tuesday night that brought them within seven points of the winner: New England Free Jacks 23, LA 21. Without that try, the Seawolves would be ahead of LA: at 24 points each but ahead on plus or minus points (Seattle plus 15 and LA at minus 26).

LA starts the coming weekend facing San Diego, who has been dropping in the standings lately. Seattle (4-5) plays NOLA Gold (3-6) in New Orleans on Sunday.

Hoping the winless Anthem wins the rest of their games so they can taste victory but glad they put it off Wednesday night.

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.

Can Seawall defense be Man of the Match?

Can 15 men be named Man of the Match? Or 23? If so, then the Seawall defense was the Man of the Match in the Seawolves 29-21 win over the New England Free Jacks on Saturday.

You could look at New England’s 21 points and ask how that justifies praising the Seawolves defense. But those points included a penalty try and another try scored when the Seawolves were down to 14 men after a yellow card was given to Seattle for collapsing a maul (the penalty try). That happened at the 67th minute of the match. The Free Jacks scored a try and conversion four minutes later. Take away those scores and we’re back to 26-7 where the game stood at the 56th minute mark.

Mack Mason helped the Seawolves build those points with three penalty kicks in the first half. Two minutes before the half, Conner Mooneyham, who’s been on the sidelines since last year, reminded New England of how fast he is and why he shouldn’t be left alone out on the wing. A 40-yard run by Mooneyham, a ruck cleared by Riekert Hattingh and the ball out to Mason, then to Jean Droste (love second rows in the back line!) and then an offload to Dan Kriel, who used his right shoulder to floor New England fullback Reece MacDonald while plunking down the ball with his left hand for the try. At the half, Seattle led 14-7.

Twelve minutes into the second half, after more than a dozen rucks near the New England try line, Kara Pryor dived over for a Seattle try.

Hattingh, not to be outdone by Droste filling where a center should be, lined himself up at wing  and the overload gave him a green-grass path for an untouched run for a try.       

There the game stood at 26-7 before New England collected their yellow card advantage. Mason added another penalty kick with 10 minutes left in the game, contributing 14 points to the Seawolves 29-point total.

Back to the defense. New England scored seven tries when they defeated Houston; three against Seattle including a penalty try. Wayne Van der Bank scored three tries against Houston; one against the Seawolves. Jayson Potroz scored 17 points against Houston, four against Seattle. The Seawall defense was up quickly on the New England backline, giving them no room to spring their fast backs. And the defense kept New England eight points back, no bonus for being within seven.

Best Seattle defense: Divan Rossouw’s try-saving tackle on the try line.

Seattle has collected 33 points in the Western Conference standings, four up over second-place Houston. New England has a one point lead over Chicago in the Eastern Conference, 24-23.

Seattle gets a week off and returns to Starfire on Friday night, May 3, at 7:30 against the Anthem. Not a time for mercy.

Dallas player scores 5 tries, but Seattle wins

Good golly, Miss Dallas, you sure like to maul, which helped in Jackals’ hooker Dewald Kotze score five tries against the Seattle Seawolves, who had to wait until the 78th minute for a penalty kick by Mack Mason to win, 34-32.

Kotze scored his tries at the

22nd minute: A maul off a lineout coming from a kick to touch after a Seawolves penalty, and there were many of those. Vaughen Isaacs missed conversion.

34th minute: A maul with the Dallas backs joining in for the pushover try. No Seattle backs joined in the fun. Isaacs conversion bounces off post and over for two.

39th minute: Another maul with the Dallas backs joining in for the push. Seattle backs refused to serve. Isaacs misses conversion

47th minute: Dallas backs once again join in to help Kotze to his fourth try. No conversion.

54th minute: Jackals’ forwards do it alone this time for Kotze’s fifth.

With four (five) tries, Dallas picks up a bonus point and another for a less than seven-point loss.

And while pushover tries are effective, they are also boring to most spectators. Seattle put on a better show.

25th minute: Try by Dan Kriel and a conversion from Mason. Riekert Hattingh picked up the ball from the back of the scrum, out to scrum half Ryan Rees and then on to Kriel to run in for the try.

32nd minute: Seattle shows that they can maul, too, with Pago Haini touching down for the try. Mason converts.

51st minute: Seattle awarded a penalty try after an “unwrapped tackle,” (also known as a chop block, no arms tackle, desperate throwing your body at the legs of a bigger man) on Hattingh. That scored seven automatically and Dallas got a yellow card.

69th minute: Seattle, too, can push over for a try. This one by Dewald Donald. Mason makes the conversion, and the score is 32-31 for Dallas.

78th minute: An offside penalty against Dallas inside the 25-yard line. Mason kicks for the 34-32 Seattle win. Mason added another penalty at the start of the game and made all his conversions.

With the penalty try, Seattle has four tries in the game for the bonus point. That puts them at the top of the Western Conference with 24 points, ahead of Houston’s 23 and San Diego’s 19. Houston and San Diego at off this weekend. So Seattle will be at No. 1 for the next week. Hope they stay there.

Next for Seattle: At Los Angeles on Sunday, April 14, at 3 p.m. PDT. Shown on FS2.

Ouch