The Seawolves’ loss to NOLA Gold on Sunday sets up a mano a mano fight for fourth place in Major League Rugby’s Western Conference. That will come Friday night at 7:30 at Starfire Stadium when LARFC, now in fourth place, comes to visit Tukwila. With six weeks to go in the regular season, this match-up between the fourth and fifth place holders might not be a win-and-you’re-in to see who goes into the playoffs, but a victory Friday night would advance the argument for who ought to be there.
Both LA and Seattle lost this past round, LA to San Diego, 38-36. They were down 31-17 at 60 minutes into the game when the Legion got their second yellow card in 10 minutes. With SD down to 13 players, LA rattled off 14 points to tie at 31-31. SD scored again, then La scored and a successful conversion kick would have tied it with a minute left in the game. The kick went wide, but LA still got two bonus points in the standings: four tries and finishing within seven of the winner. That boosted them to 27 points in the standings.
Seattle had what it takes to win a game against NOLA: tries by Jade Stighling, J.P. Smith, Lauina Futi, Eduard Fouche, Divan Rossouw and Devin Short.
They also had what it takes to lose a game, as they did, 44-36: Seattle had 11 penalties in the first half when I stopped counting; NOLA had one. Three yellow cards against the Seawolves that half. Playing with 14 against 15, then 13 against 15. Three missed conversion kicks. Some untimely mishandling and not being able to stop NOLA from scoring more points that the Seawolves did.
Seattle picked up one bonus point for scoring four tries, but if one of those missed conversions had sailed between the posts, Seattle would have been within seven for another bonus point. That would have kept Seattle at the bottom of the Western Conference but only one point away from LA. Alas, none of those kicks split the uprights and Seattle goes into Friday’s match two points down from LA.
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.
What is a poor rugger to do if an opponent throws a pass that lands in our player’s outstretched hands? Try to intercept the pass and run down the field for a try, one of the most exciting events in rugby? Or, pull his arms into the alligator position and watch your opponents’ outside backs ramble in for a try?
If our back, like J.P. Smith in last week’s 32-31 loss to New Orleans, tries to intercept, but the ball is just too far out there to make a clean catch and fumbles away in front of Smith, what does he get for trying? A yellow card. Not understanding that.
When Smith’s knock on happened, the announcers on The Rugby Network sang out, “That’s intentional!” What was intentional? Smith intended to intercept the pass? Or did he intend to stop NOLA’s forward progress in a premeditated murder of the game ball? Smith alone knows what his intentions were (and as he immediately started walking to the sideline before the ref had pulled the card from his socks, Smith seemed to know that under today’s laws, a yellow card would be coming).
Smith goes off the field. Seattle is playing with 14, and NOLA collects a penalty kick, a try and a conversion, enough to eke out a 32-31 win over Seattle.
If Smith had spiked the ball, batted it to the sideline or prevented a try (not so, as there were other defenders outside of him), then that is worthy of a penalty and a yellow card for unprofessional play. That kind of play is not adding to the excitement or entertainment value of the game, which is what World Rugby in rule changes coming July 1 says it is trying to do.
But for a failed attempt at an intercepted pass? That’s a knock on. Scrum, and play on.
“As a center ref I was always told we cannot officiate intention just the outcome. I think this is the only law that has the word intention in it. How can a ref determine intention? Is it worthy of a penalty, for sure, a yellow card, I’m not so sure it does in every instance. It’s listed in the laws as unfair play, not dangerous play but two of these in a match could have your watching the match from the sideline. Yellow should be reserved for a knock on that prevents a clear try. Yellow for a fumbled interception attempt causing a team to be at 14 players could result in a 14 point punishment. In 7s I believe it would occur more often and certainly lose your team the match. I don’t see in the laws where it necessitates a YC so maybe the game management guidelines on this need a review.”
We’re all with Eric on a review of this law.
Going forward: Seawolves at Dallas on Sunday at 4 p.m. PDT. On TV at ROOT Sports and The Rugby Network.
Watch party at Trenchers Kitchen and Tap, 822 N. 10th Place, Renton.
Anyone know of a watch party in the North End? Kangaroo and Kiwi?
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.
After the Seawolves beat the Miami Sharks, 29-18, a Seattle fan passing in front of me on the way out of the Starfire Stadium, remarked, “That wasn’t as easy as I expected.”
True that.
If the Miami kickers had made all their kicks, the Sharks would have pulled within three points of Seattle. Think if Mack Mason were playing for them.
Fortunately, Mason plays for the Seawolves, who depended on him for 17 of Seattle’s 29 points.
Mason’s four penalty kicks and a dashing, under-the-posts try by Jade Stighling accounted for Seattle’s 19-3 halftime lead.
Miami had an unusual try two minutes into the second half. A cross kick by Miami’s Uruguayan fly half Felipe Etcheverry bounced in the try zone. The Argentine wing forward Benjamin Bonasso tipped the ball higher but then grabbed it and touched down for a try just inside the dead ball line. A missed conversion. Score is 19-8, still Seawolves.
A successful penalty kick by Miami. 19-11, still Seawolves.
Mason kicked another penalty with 60 minutes gone in the game.
It’s nice to have Olive Kilifi back home again,
Then it was time for the replacements to show their stuff. Daquan Perry, from Philadelphia, USA, threw the ball in for a Seattle lineout, raced around the back of the formation and drove toward the Miami goal. Then Olive Kilifi, Seattle’s own replacement prop, secured the ball in a ruck. One more ruck and the ball comes out to Mason for a skip pass to sub Sam Windsor, an Australian who has been in the MLR since the beginning, who dodges, gets his shirt tail caught from behind but not before a pass to Jeremiah Sio, a Rainier Beach grad, who touches down in the corner for a try.
The game ended on a bad note with a yellow card against Seattle and one more late try for Miami, ending the game 29-18.
Still no four-try games, which Seattle will need those bonus points to keep up with the Houston Sabercats. More tries, fewer penalties will make me and that passing fan happier.
The Seawolves are off to Utah next Saturday for a 6 p.m. game that will be shown on Fox 13 and The Rugby Network.
J.P. Smith admitted this wasn’t his best look. Will he ever play fullback again?
Other games:
Houston 27, Los Angeles 12. I thought this game would have been closer. The score was Houston 14, LA 12 at half. But then the Sabercats got control of the game in the last half. It would have been closer if two of LA’s tries had not been disallowed because the scorers started from an offside position. And is LA playing their games in a high school football field? Looks that way.
Update: Grant and Jordan pointed out that there were four disallowed tries in the Houston-LA game, two for each team. I knew about one of the whistled try for Houston but missed the other one. So in the end, that probably means Houston is 15 points better than LA.
And yes, I know that LA plays at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, CA., but the field still looks small to me. But Grant points out, “That field was recently re-built specifically for the LA Galaxy II USL team Some of the money from the rebuild came from WR so the goalpost sleeves could be built into the field for the USA to host WR XVs Series matches (an annual women’s test series). RFCLA benefits from a low cost, ~2,000 seat stadium that has lighting, access control, plenty of parking, and other typical, professionally managed stadium features.”
San Diego 30, Dallas 23. Dallas was ahead 13-11 at the half but 14 minutes later, San Diego was up 25-13. Then a San Diego Legion received a yellow card for a dangerous tackle. A chance for Dallas to come back. Could they? No. Dallas scored a try with 84 minutes gone for get a bonus point for pulling within seven points of the winner, which was San Diego, 30-23.
Utah 29, Chicago 15. Chicago Hounds scored first with a try, added a penalty kick and one more try. But the Utah backsare a dangerous bunch, too hard for the Hounds to collar. Keep that in mind, Seawolves, next week.
New Orleans 34, Anthem 19. About what I expected, but best luck to former Seawolves Jake Turnbull and Shane Barry, who scored a try on Saturday, in making this team competitive.
