Tag: Malacchi Esdale

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.

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.

Esdale’s try keeps Seattle from sinking further

Malacchi Esdale

The game’s not over until Seattle winger Malacchi Esdale scores. Saturday night against Anthem Rugby Club that did not happen until 73 minutes into the match. Esdale’s try was the fourth for the Seawolves, giving them a bonus point plus the four for the 25-17 win.

The four-try win keeps Seattle from falling further behind the RFCLA team, which beat Old Glory DC, 54-44, in a game with six yellow cards and a red. That game finished before Seattle and Anthem kicked off at Starfire Stadium, and any Seattle fan who knew of LA’s four-try win – no, make that eight – must have felt uncomfortable with Seattle’s first half when Rodney Iona’s lone penalty kick put them behind, 7-3, at halftime.

Sinking deeper in the standings of Major League Rugby’s Western Conference looked like a very real possibility until Toni Pulu found open space on the wing for a try at 50 minutes and Iona connected on the only conversion of the night for Seattle. Game tied 10-10.

Toni Pulu

Then Divan Rossouw had his five minutes of fame, scoring two tries between the 60th and 65th minutes for a 20-10 Seattle lead. Three tries, one penalty kick and one conversion. Not enough to keep from falling further behind LA, who stood at 18 in the standings.

Divan Rossouw

Esdale had not scored; the game could not be over. In the past two games, he scored the try that beat New England and helped Seattle to stay within seven points against LA a week ago, a bonus point that left the Seawolves three points behind LA. A fourth try would keep them there. That came with seven minutes left in the game when a long pass out to the wing put Esdale over for the fourth try.

Seattle is still out of the running for the playoffs, fifth in the Western Conference standings, behind 3-3 LA, 18-15. Four teams advance, vying to play in the championship. One team stays home when the season ends in June.

The Anthem team is 0-6, well out of the playoff chase in the Eastern Conference. But on Saturday night, Anthem fielded a team with all American players, a first for the MLR.

Next Saturday, Seattle plays 3-3 Old Glory in Maryland while LA faces 5-1 Houston Sabercats. If LA can beat Old Glory, 54-44, can Seattle, now 2-4, do something similar to keep pace with LA? Or, maybe put LA back in the cellar?

Too soon to talk playoffs? Seawolves are in

With 13 season games to go and a long way until the last of them on June 8, talk of playoffs may seem premature. But right now, the Seawolves are in.

Major League Rugby is using the same playoff format as in 2024. Top four teams in each division are in the playoffs. The No. 1 team plays the No. 4 team. No. 2 vs. No. 3. The No. 5 and 6 in the Eastern Conference and the No. 5 team in the Western Conference are eaten by the Bear, as in  . . . when running away from a hungry grizzly it’s not as important to outrun the Bear as it is to outrun the slowest person trying to escape the jaws and claws of Mr. Griz.

Right now, Mr. Bear’s Happy Meal is the Rugby Football Club of Los Angeles in the Western Conference. Seawolves (seven points) are ahead of RFCLA (three points) by four points in the standings. This is setting a low bear for the season, and I doubt coach Allen Clarke is promoting it.

But the Seawolves will have a chance to push RFCLA farther down Mr. Bear’s throat when Seattle visits the Southern California club at 7 p.m. this coming Saturday, March 15.

Right now, Coach Clarke should be feeling happy about having captain Riekert Hattingh, out for a year with a torn Achilles tendon, back on the playing field and about the team finding the right moment to take the lead in the March 8 game against New England, and the right man to do it.

That moment did not come at the start of the game against the Free Jacks, the team that beat the Seawolves in the 2024 MLR’s championships. By 11 minutes from the opening whistle, Seattle was down, 0-14.

Cam Orr tried to be that man who could gain the lead, scoring two tries, but missed conversions left Seattle down, 10-14. Three minutes after Orr’s last try, the Free Jacks were up another three points on a penalty kick by Jayson Potroz, who returns to the Free Jacks for the first time this season. Half an hour into the game and a try by Divan Rossouw had Seattle within two of New England. A conversion would have tied it, but it was not the right moment.

The kickoff back to the Seawolves after Rossouw’s try was a lesson in why a kick should be caught and not left to dribble, tempting someone to try to grub it through the oncoming defenders. Which is what happened. That ricochet ended up in the hands of a New Englander who cruised on for another try, topped by another conversion by Potroz. Anything set on a tee, Potroz can kick it through the uprights: three conversions and one penalty kick for a halftime score of 24-15.

But that was it for New England. The return of the Seawall defense kept the Free Jacks from scoring in the second half, which included a rare missed penalty kick by Potroz.

A try by Mikaele Kruse and a conversion kick by Rodney Iona (yes!) came close to a lead, 22-24. A Seattle penalty kick would have meant a one-point win. It went wide.

The right moment and the right man came with less than two minutes left in the game when sub Malacchi Esdale rumbled down the sideline for a try (no conversion), the only Seawolves’ lead of the game, a win (27-24) and we’re on the way to the playoffs.

Seattle scored five tries (worth one bonus point in the standings) and one conversion.