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.
Jade Stighling going in for one of his four tries against Utah.Photo by Punkus Arnett
Punkus Arnett, probably noticing that madcapschemes.com needed desperate help in the photography department, volunteered to let us use his photos. This is a big improvement to this blog. Thank you, Punkus.
What was the worry two weeks ago about the Seattle Seawolves being deprived of six players out for the season because of injuries? That the Seawolves might not be able to beat Utah, might not win any more regular season games and miss the playoffs?
Given the 68-29 win over Utah on Sunday night, it seems that Seattle coach Allen Clarke has met those worries and made them go away – at least for now.
It helped that Joe Taufete’e and Sam Matenga came back from injuries. But it was a smart move to start Huw Taylor at No. 8. And mixing in Devin Short, Tavite Lopeti and Andrew Durutalo bolstered the lineup. And this “new” team played remarkably well.
No stopping Andrew Durutalo when he is headed for the tryline.Photo by Punkus Arnett
Let’s start with Jade Stighling, who should get his own bonus point for scoring four tries, two of them by intercepting Utah passes. Taufete’e scored two tries off the PKTTLMGT treatment (penalty, kick to touch, lineout, maul, guaranteed try), a tactic never to be criticized in these quarters again. Lauina Futi, another two-fer, was set up by Lopeti after some razzle-dazzle passing for one try, but Futi stole the show for his next one: two fakes, a wiggle and then touching down at the feet of four would-be Utah tacklers.
Futi dives in for the try.Photo by Punkus Arnett
The Seawolves scored 10 tries (is that a record?) for 50 points, two were under the posts for four more points and Mack Mason converted seven of them for 14 points.
The Seawolves, with three regular season games left to play, have earned a playoff spot.
If there was any disappointment in Sunday’s game it would be those 29 points Utah scored, including a penalty try after Seattle collapsed a maul. That resulted in the second yellow card of the game. Utah received one in the first half for what the TV announcers called a “head-butt tackle,” one more name for a dangerous tackle, a shoulder tackle, a no-arms tackle, a high tackle, etc. In reality, it was no tackle as the Utah player was flattened and the Seawolves’ player continued on, moving the ball to spring Stighling for his first ry.
Including the penalty try, Utah had four tries, enough for a bonus point. The Warriors scored off the side of a ruck in the first half, and midway through the second half, their backs made good use of what looked like broken plays until they weren’t.
When your team is ahead by 40 points, allowing the opponents to score 29 is no big deal. But with the Seawolves playing Western Conference leading Houston at Sabercats Stadium at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 15, maybe this is something Allen Clarke should worry about.
Four Seawolves converge to bring down a Utah player.More defense should be on order for this coming Saturday against Houston. Photo by Punkus Arnett
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.
