I was wrong, wrong, wrong on the New England Free Jacks. No one in the Eastern Conference of the Major League Rugby could beat them, I predicted. They would surely be in the July championships against the Seattle Seawolves. And if beaten in regular season play it would come from Western Conference teams, and maybe, just maybe, from the New Orleans Gold in the East.

Then on Saturday, the Old Glory from Washington, D.C., beat them, 35 to 34.

The first half hour went as I expected: Free Jacks dominant and ahead 17-0 with a try from Fijian winger Paula Balekana, a penalty kick from New Zealander Jayson Potroz and then a heads-up retrieval by another New Zealander, fullback Reece MacDonald, off a high kick from Potroz.

After that, it became obvious that the Free Jacks did not know how to stop a maul, or how to stop Martin Vaca, a 22-year-old Argentine hooker, who scored three tries in various fashions: filling a spot in the back line, from a maul and then off a ruck at goal line.

Four minutes into the second half, New England had regained a 10-point lead (watch the highlights of the game on The Rugby Network at that point to see some excellent back plan and amazing offloads).

Jason Robertson, another New Zealander playing scrum half for Old Glory, reaches backhanded into the try zone to bring the score to 29-21.

More great back play at 53 minutes brings the Free Jacks to a 15-point lead.

But at 61 minutes, Vaca gets his try off the back of the rugby right next to the post. The conversion is good, and Old Glory is within a converted try to win the game, 34-28.

That try doesn’t come until 83:13 on the clock, another pushover maul (this time with Vaca out of the game – he could have had four tries!). At 84:222 on the clock, Robertson kicks the conversion, and Old Glory wins, 35-34, and my previous predictions look like yesterday’s whine.