Tag: Mack Mason

No penalty tries against Dallas, please

Never a question that the Seawolves would beat San Diego Legion in the first round of Major League Rugby’s Western Conference playoffs.

Seattle scored four tries (one of them a penalty try), Mack Mason connected on two penalty kicks and a conversion for 30 total team points. San Diego led early with penalty kicks by Matt Giteau, first 3-0 and then 6-3, but another PK was all the Legion could score in the first half. They never led again after that 6-3 score at 11 minutes.

Loved Seattle’s kicks ahead through the San Diego back line. First by Divan Rossouw that resulted in Duncan Matthews touching down at 13 minutes (leaving San Diego behind forever), and then another by Mason that ended in the penalty try.

Rhyno Herbst dives over for a try. Punkus Arnett photo

Smart plays by Rhyno Herbst as he dived over (some would say “like a back”) for a try at 28 minutes and the pickup by Pago Haini at the back of a ruck at 74 minutes to land a try, bringing Seattle to 30 points.

Pago Haini makes it 30. Punkus Arnett photo

Allow one question, please: What was going on at the 80th minute? A yellow card against Seattle (Seawolves had two, the Legion one) and a penalty try for San Diego, leaving them two points shy of a victory. Giteau missed a penalty kick and a conversion. Add in those lost points, and the Legion wins 33-30.

That’s the kind of gift Seattle can’t afford against Dallas, the next playoff foe (Sunday, July 28 at 1 p.m. at Starfire Stadium). The surprise of the past weekend starred the Dallas Jackals, 6-10 in the regular season, traveling to the home grounds of Houston Sabercats, with the best record in the league at 14-2, and coming away with a 34-22 win. The Texas teams played a scrappy game won by the one that could scrape together something that led to a try. Dallas did that more than Houston.

On Sunday, the Seawolves should expect a strong Dallas defense, one that mostly smothered Houston’s back line. The Dallas forwards found their way to Houston’s try zone with persistence rucking deep in Sabercats’ territory. Three of the Jackals’ five tries came off rucks within 10 yards of the goal line.

Strong forward play, Seawall defense at its best, varied back line play, no yellow cards and NO penalty tries. A Seawolves’ win against Dallas sends Seattle on to the MLR championship on Aug. 4 in San Diego.

Without a question.

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

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.  

It wasn’t easy for the Seawolves Saturday

Mack Mason

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.

Mason and Lopeti make Week 1 MLR first 15

Mack Mason and Tavite Lopeti named to Major League Rugby’s Week 1 first 15.

What MLR said about Mason:

Fly-half,  mack mason – Seattle seawolves
  • 20 Points Scored
  • Seven Kicks in Play
  • Five Tackles Made

And on Lopeti:

Outside Center, Tavite Lopeti – Seattle Seawolves
  • One Try Scored
  • 63 Meters Gained
  • Five Tackles Made

Also note this New England Free Jack, who had a helluva game:

Fullback, Reece MacDonald – New England Free Jacks
  • Three Tries Scored
  • 221 Meters Gained
  • 14 Ball Carries Made

Seawolves will meet up with him and the rest of the Free Jacks on April 15 in Quincy, MA, and then again in the July championship, following my prediction.

Back to this blog’s beginnings: Rugby

This blog started because of rugby, and I think it is time for it to return to the great game. Maybe we can earn press credentials for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.

But for now, let’s stick with the Major League Rugby here in the USA.

Let’s start with a prediction: In the league finals in July, it will be the Seattle Seawolves against the New England Free Jacks, who won it all in 2023.

The Free Jacks might have some competition in the Eastern Conference from the New Orleans Gold, but other than that they’ll beat everybody east of the Mississippi: Chicago Hounds, Miami Sharks, who seem to think adding cheerleaders might make them winners, Old Glory DC and the Anthem Rugby Club, “a comprehensive partnership between the league, World Rugby and USA Rugby.” Not sure who thought that would turn into a competitive side.

Despite being dressed as little tin Revolutionary War soldiers, the Free Jacks play big, winning 46-13 against Anthem, not sure why anyone thought that would be a competitive side.

The Hounds win over the Sharks, 23-19, looked amateurish especially if we note the out-of-place cheerleaders.

NOLA Gold 18-6 victory over Old Glory DC showed some hope that the Gold could give the Free Jacks a tussle.

In the Western Conference, I’m all for the Seattle Seawolves. Sorry if you came to this blog for objective sports reporting. I’ve been a season ticket holder since the beginning. I wrote some stories on the Seawolves for The Seattle Times, but I have since retired (best career move ever, as Carberry, sitting across the Starfire aisle, says). There’s no cheering in the press box, but I’m not there anymore. So . . . Go, Seawolves!

About the 25-19 victory over the San Diego Legion on Saturday: Thank God for Mack Mason and Tavite Lopeti.

Mason, 28, comes to Seattle from the Austin Gilgronis, a team kicked out of the league for having a stupid name. He’s from Queensland, Australia, started playing professionally for Queensland Country in the National Rugby Championship, an Australian rugby union competition. He also played for teams in Sydney and New South Wales. If you look on the Seawolves roster you will learn that Mason plays fly half, is 5 foot 10 and weighs 185 pounds. Nothing said about his kicking. As there should be.

Saturday night he accounted for 20 of Seattle’s 25 points, kicking a conversion and six straight penalty kicks, collecting 18 points from the Bad Boy tactics of the Legion players, who also received a yellow card and a red card. Despite the Legion being down to 14 players after the yellow card, the Seawolves could not find their way to the try zone. That has to improve. Same with the red card.

I, along with many in the crowd, thought the ref could not count the Legion players, letting them play with 15 players after the red card. However, some research shows that “a red card will no longer mean a team is down to 14 players for the rest of the match. The new law will see a red-carded player reduce a team to 14 men for 20 minutes. After that time has passed, the team will be able to replace the player with someone from their bench. The red-carded player cannot return to the field and will face disciplinary action.”

So sorry, ref, for calling you a blind, mathematically deficient idiot.

But a good call on Lopeti’s try in the last two minutes of the game, which took the Seawolves from being down 19-18 to winning 25-19. The try resulted from what looked like a knock-on to me, but as Wallis (sitting next to me at Starfire) says, the ref is much closer and probably has a better view than someone sitting in the top row of the stadium. Go to The Rugby Network and view the highlights of the game (you can slow it down to 25% to see what really happened). You will see, as the ref saw, that the Legion second row knocks the ball out of the hands of a Seawolves’ back toward the SD side of the field. Lopeti charges forward, from an onside position, catching up with the ball and nothing but grass ahead of him to the goal line. Seawolves win.

Probably no pity for the San Diego Legion in the Starfire Stadium, but they are a hard luck team. Go back to the 2019 championship when they lost the shield to the Seawolves’ maul on the last play of the game. Or last year in the championship game when they lost by one point to the Free Jacks. And then a loss Saturday on Lopeti’s dash to the win. Let’s hope the Legion’s luck never changes.

Getting to the championship game in July will be tougher for the Seawolves than for the East Conference winners. The Dallas Jackals were not the joke I expected, using on a last-minute drop goal to win 32-29 over the RFC Los Angeles, who spent part of the second half with two yellow cards, reducing the on-field squad to 13 players. Is that a reflection of the way LA plays the game? Could be.

Houston SaberCats scored four tries and a win over Utah Warriors, 22-15, collecting five points in the standings to lead the Western Conference.

I don’t see any “easy” games for the Seawolves against the other five teams in the Western Conference, but coming up Saturday, March 9, at 7 p.m. look for the Miami Sharks to swim ashore. Cheerleaders, too?