Tag: NOLA Gold

Time for Seawolves to show who’s boss

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.

Time to advance your argument, Seawolves.

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.

A bye, then many games in few days for Seattle

Let’s pause slightly to applaud Toni Pulu and Riekert Hattingh for scoring tries and to Eduard Fouche for making one of two conversion kicks in the 29-12 defeat at the hands of Old Glory DC. Then let’s move on to what’s ahead for the Seattle Seawolves.

This coming weekend, Seattle has a bye, which means they will fall further behind as other teams in the Western Conference all have games. The Utah Warriors found out what a bye weekend can do: They fell behind the RFCLA in the standings and are right now the team Seattle needs to top in the standings if the Seawolves want to see playoff games this summer.

While Utah was resting at home last weekend, the LA club beat Houston Sabercats, 24-22, allowing them to climb two points better than the Warriors in the Major League Rugby standings – 23 to 21.

Seattle is six points behind Utah, in fifth place, the non-playoff spot in the Western Conference. A win by Seattle and a defeat by the Warriors will not be enough for Seattle to gain a fourth-place spot in the standings; they’d be at least one point behind. They will need more than that, and there are many – maybe too many – opportunities coming up in the rest of April and beginning of May.

Let’s start with the needed rest the Seawolves will get in this coming bye weekend. On Saturday, Utah will play LA, the loser relegated to the fourth-place spot in the standings – the team Seattle needs to overcome.

Starting Friday, April 18, the Seawolves will play four games in the next 15 days:

Friday, April 18 at Starfire against Chicago Hounds, the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference. 7:30 P.M. (PDT)

Rest five days.

Wednesday, April 23 at Anthem at 4:30 p.m. (PDT)

Rest four days.

Sunday, April 27 at NOLA Gold at 1 p.m. (PDT)

Five days after that, on Friday, May 2, Seattle will get a rematch against LA at Starfire.

Fifteen days, four games. Lots of games to catch up, to climb over whoever is in fourth place in the conference.

Also, lots of games to stay healthy, uninjured. Trainers and conditioning coaches, do your stuff.

Seawolves still in the playoffs – bearly

“You don’t have to outrun the bear,  just outrun the slowest  person.”

To stay in the Major League Rugby playoffs, all the Western Conference teams have to do is beat the No. 5 team in the five-team division. Right now, the Seawolves have done that  — by one point in the standings.  Despite the loss Saturday, Seattle has nine points in the standings compared to eight for Rugby Football Club Los Angeles.

Fall to No. 5 in the standings, and the grizzly bear is gobbling down your aspirations to go on to the MLR championship game.

Saturday, the Seawolves fell 35-29 to LA. But they scored four tries, worth one bonus point in the standings, and came within seven points of the winner, worth another bonus point. Add those two points to the seven points Seattle had coming in to the game and they stand at nine. LA had three points before the game and added four for the win and one for scoring four tries for a bear-eating eight points.

The Seawolves once again called on Malacchi Esdale, whose late try won the last game against New England, for a try at the 80-minute mark to come with in seven of LA and the fourth try. Add to that tries by Duncan Matthews, Riekert Hattingh and Divan Rossouw plus a penalty kick and two conversions by Eduard Fouche and one conversion kick by Rodney Iona for 29 points.

To stay out of the ursine depths of the Western Division, Seattle needs a win against Utah on Saturday, March 22, at 7 p.m. at Starfire Stadium. Utah is 3-1 with a 36-19 win Saturday against the Miami Sharks, who are 2-3.

Without wishing bad luck on another team, but a toothsome treat for the Seawolves could come if LA did not do so well against NOLA Gold on Saturday. NOLA lost, 35-31, against New England last Saturday and are in the mouth of the bear in the Eastern Conference with a 1-3 record.

This bears watching.

Major League Rugby in color: Yellow & red cards

Now that I have paid my subscription to The Rugby Network, Major League Rugby has gone absent. What’s with that?

Now dialing in to youtube.com for the weekend’s highlights, which I have not completed.

However, in looking at the minimal information on Tribe Sports, the number of yellow and red cards handed out over the weekend has colored their game summaries. In five games, there were 14 yellow cards and three red cards. New Orleans and San Diego teams led with three yellow cards apiece. The Miami Sharks, Chicago Hounds and New England had red cards.

Is this because the refs are calling rules tighter or because we have hooligans in the gentlemen’s game?

Back to youtube.

Sharks had 2 yellows and 1 red

Anthem had 1 yellow

New Orleans, 3 yellow

Chicago had 2 yellow, 1 red

Houston, 1 yellow

LA, 1 yellow

New England, 1 yellow, 1 red

San Diego 3 yellow

Speaking strictly as a fan, I’m enthralled

I didn’t cover the Seattle Seawolves game today as a journalist, so I feel like I can ignore all that stuff about no cheering in the press box. Which leads me to say that I love it when my team scores a converted try 56 seconds into the game after Vili Toluta’u jumped up to take the opening kickoff from the arms of the waiting New Orleans forward. Brock Staller and Will Holder were steady all day in kicking conversions and penalties.

I’m even happier when my team goes up 21-0 before 10 minutes into the game.

Nervous when New Orleans scores twice within three minutes before the half and then gets the first score of the second half to come within a try of the Seawolves: 31-26.

And so ended the New Orleans scoring for the day, but not the Seawolves’, who added another penalty, three tries and three conversions to take the win, 55-26.

I didn’t take any photographs today, but I did talk to Peter Tiberio, who was bloodied in last week’s victory over the Utah Warriors. I tweeted a photograph of that last week and was surprised to see him scarless after the game today while signing autographs for future rugby players and chatting to fans. Last week’s cut took eight stitches to close, he said, and was wrapped for today’s game. Give that doc kudos for keeping the lads pretty.

Tiberio
Peter Tiberio has healed from his head injury sustained against Utah last week.

The win today puts the Seawolves at the top of the standings over the Glendale Raptors, who did not play. The Seattle team will be in Texas for the next two weekends, against Houston next week and then Austin the following weekend. The regular season comes to an end on June 16 when the Seawolves play Glendale in Colorado, a game that could decide the league winner and could be a preview of playoff action on June 30 (in Glendale) for the semis and July 7 (in San Diego) for the finals.

Wherever the season goes from here, the four home games ended on a high note today, and I can’t wait for the return of the Seawolves at Starfire (or CenturyLink) in 2019.

Hoping my enthusiasm hasn’t destroyed anyone’s beliefs in my ability to be an objective journalist. When I’m on the clock, these guys are just another team (and they should have beat Utah, 41- 22, instead of 41-32, but I digress). Not on the clock? Hey, I’m human and a forever rugby fan.

 

 

 

Poor tackling? Or great running?

Peter Steinberg, CBS Sports rugby commentator, insisted during the Seattle Seawolves game against the New Orleans Gold May 12 that poor tackling on the part of the southern team led to their 31-29 defeat.

And 100 percent perfect tackling would mean no tries scored and certain victory — or nothing worse than a 0-0 tie. But poor tackling can have two causes. The defenders might be slow, weak or easily got around, as Steinberg seemed to imply about NOLA. But some players are just hard to tackle. Some players like William Rasileka, Shalom Suniula, Will Holder, Matt Turner, Peter Tiberio, Peter Smith. Those Seawolves backs cut up the NOLA defense to combine for four tries. Smith was the perfect kicker, connecting on all four conversions and a penalty. (Steinberg also rightfully pointed out that NOLA could have tied the game with one more successfully kicked conversion or won if one of their missed penalty kicks had gone through.)

None of those Seattle tries would have been scored if NOLA tacklers had been more proficient, but the quick steps, deceptive passes and well executed plays of the Seattle backs made the NOLA task daunting.

And Seattle’s game is an exciting one to watch. Major League Rugby liked this score enough to name it the try of the week:

But for my money, the Seattle movement that starts at 2:00 in the video below is a lot more fun to watch:

On Sunday, the Seawolves face the Utah Warriors at sold-out Starfire Stadium back home in Tukwila. (5:30 PDT)

The Seawolves had to hang on to the very end to get the win against NOLA, and from the MLR game report on Utah’s win last week over Austin, it sounds like Seattle better be prepared to hang around to the end again if they want a victory. Austin’s Hanco Germishuys summed it up this way: “It just came down to the end. At the end Utah had more pace than us, more passion to get that win. In the second half we had that 20 minutes but then we started falling off.”

For Seattle on Sunday, there can be no falling off.