Tag: Dewald Kotze

Seawolves in playoff fight round for round

Even a win against RFCLA on Friday night would not guarantee a spot in the Major League Rugby playoffs. A tie? Definitely not. The resulting 26-26 score leaves the Seattle Seawolves where they were before Friday’s game: two points behind LA and in fifth place in the standings. The top four go to the playoffs.

The Seawolves are now on something of a breather this week with no games for 10 days until Monday night when they are at Utah. Given the number of Seawolves who were replaced in Friday’s game, this rest is much needed. Three players at scrum half? Wow! And Riekert Hattingh left the game early? That hardly ever happens. Word is that he had been sick. Get well, Riekert, and all the other Seawolves.

Both teams on Friday night had four tries, accounting for one bonus point in the standings. Seattle’s tries were scored by Duncan Matthews, Dewald Kotze, Malacchi Esdale and Divan Rossouw.

The tie awards each team two points in the standings, with the fourth-place team, LA, at 30, and the fifth-place team, Seattle, at 28.

The head-to-head match did not decide the argument on who ought to be in the Western Conference playoffs. That will have to be decided in the next five games Seattle and LA have left in the regular season, a round-to-round campaign to the playoffs. Here they are:

Round 1

Saturday, May 10, LA at home against Anthem

Monday, May 12, Seawolves at Utah

Round 2

Saturday, May 17, Seattle at home against San Diego Legion

Monday, May 19, LA at Chicago Hounds

Round 3

Friday, May 23, Seattle at home against Houston Sabercats

Sunday, May 25, Miami Sharks at LA

Round 4

Saturday, May 31, LA at Old Glory DC

Sunday, June 1, Seattle at New England

Round 5

Saturday, June 7, LA at Utah

Sunday, June 8, Seattle at home against Miami Sharks.

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