Tag: Riekert Hattingh

Easy does it against Utah, but Hattingh injured

Never thought beating Utah would be easy, a feeling that swelled at 57 seconds into the game when Captain Riekert Hattingh was walked off the field injured. Hattingh took the opening kickoff, ran forward and hit his head on the right arm of a Utah forward, who fell backwards but had ripped the ball from the Seawolves’ Number 8.

         (My totally unprofessional diagnosis is head injury assessment. Hope Riekert gets better and rejoins Seawolves on the pitch soon.)

         But sing praises for Pago Haini and Reid Davis who took over the No. 8 duties for the rest of the game, which the Seawolves won, 23-13.

         Seattle forwards dominated the Utah pack with a low front row (Orr, Taufete’e and Matenga), huge push from the second row (Herbst and Droste) and smart play by the back row. Mack Mason missed his first kick of the season on a conversion after a try by Toni Pulu in the corner. But by then Mason had added two penalty kicks and the Seawolves led, 11-3.

         Forward domination? Further proof of that at 29 minutes into the game when Joe Taufete’e’s peeled off a maul after a lineout to overpower Utah’s scrum half. That lineout near the Utah goal line resulted from a booming kick from Divan Rossouw on a penalty choice.

         Utah knocked the ball on when receiving the second half kickoff. After a scrum, several rucks and some well-connected passes by Seattle’s backs Jade Stighling added another try. One more try would earn the Seawolves a bonus point for scoring four tries in a game. But it was not to be. Instead, the rest of the second half scoring came with 81:42 left on the clock when the Warriors found an overlap and scored a try – not enough to pick up the bonus point for coming within seven of the winner as Seattle won, 23-13.

         There are two unbeaten teams in the Major League Rugby, and they will meet at Starfire Stadium in Tukwila on Friday night, March 22, at 7:30 when the Seawolves take on the Houston Sabercats, who lead the Western Conference with 13 points. Seattle, with no four-try games, has 12.

Other games:

Houston Sabercats 28, Miami Sharks 19: Maybe Houston thought the Sharks would be easy to overcome, but they were not. Houston was ahead 15-12 at the half and had to pick up their fourth try of the game with 80:37 left on the clock. Houston wins 28-19. Expect to see the return of AJ Alatimu, who now plays fly half for Houston, next week when the Sabercats come to Starfire.

New Orleans Gold was my only choice to beat the New England Free Jacks in the Eastern Conference. That was wrong as Old Glory DC won over the Free Jacks last week, and NOLA was lucky to get within seven points of New England with a try at 82:22 left on the clock. New England wins, 27-21, and leads the Eastern Conference with 11 points over New Orleans’ 10.

Old Glory DC and Chicago Hounds also missed out on bonus points with three tries a piece and enough penalty or conversion kicks to end in a tie at 22 points. They each get 2 points in the standings for drawing a match.

San Diego 19, Los Angeles 18: Could this develop into a California rivalry? Right now, it looks like evenly matched teams. The scores went like this through the match:

0-3 LA

0-8 LA

7-8 LA

7-11 LA

10-11 LA

Then San Diego depended on three penalty kicks to get a 19-11 lead before LA scored a try and conversion to close to

19-18 in favor of San Diego.

They meet again on May 26.

Dallas 68, Anthem 28: Ugh. It got worse for the Carolina team. Anthem captain and former Seawolves Jake Turnbull scored a try in this lopsided game.

Glendale to face Seawolves without 2 of their best

Scrum
The Seawolves’ scrum is close to scoring a try and all the San Diego Legion could do was collapse and wheel, prompting the referee to award Seattle a penalty try, one of three last Saturday.

When the Glendale, Colo., Raptors show up at Starfire Stadium to face the Seattle Seawolves this Saturday (April 28), they’ll be without two of their dominant players.

Ben Landry, second row, and Connor Cook, wing forward, have both been suspended for three weeks by Major League Rugby. Both Landry and Cook received red cards last Saturday for dump tackling – upending a player and driving him head first into the ground – during the Raptors’ 41-26 win over the Austin Elite.

Both Landry and Cook had scored tries before they were ordered out of the game, not to be replaced.

Landry has played for the U.S. national team, and when his MLR season ends, he’ll head off to England to play for the Ealing Trailfinders.

Cook played for the Waimea Rugby Club in Hawaii, for Arkansas State University and might have the best dreadlocks in rugby.

While not having these two players on the field might seem advantage Seawolves, Seattle fans might be wise to hold their glee in check. Despite losing Landry, Cook and then another player who received a yellow card at 73:35, the Raptors were able to prevent the Elite from scoring. Playing 12 men to 15 and keeping the 15 out of the try zone for almost 10 minutes indicates some defensive prowess.

Reikert
Riekert Hattingh

The Seawolves’ lineup will probably be missing Riekert Hattingh this week. He took a blow to the head during the first half of the 39-23 win over the San Diego Legion last week that left him staggering to the sideline with the help of medical staff. Before that, he had startled the San Diego backs and thrilled Seattle fans when he burst out the back of a San Diego ruck that seemed to have the ball well protected and ran 50 yards up the field before passing to his backs. He’s a thrill to watch, but safety says to keep him out for the week.

The Seawolves come into Saturday’s game riding a positive wave of good tidings. They were named the team of the week by Major League Rugby. Both Seawolves’ props, Kellen Gordon and Tim Metcher, made the league’s rep side of the week as did fullback Matt Turner. Player coach Phil Mack didn’t make the team of the week but he was named player of the week.

How does that happen?

Nonetheless, the league had nice things to say about Mack, who took over head coaching duties only a couple of weeks before the first game:

“Mack’s duties over the past few weeks have increased,” the league said. “Stepping into the lead coaching role, he built a game plan based around the Seawolves strength in the scrum. His agility and ball speed out of the ruck put the ball in the hands of his fly-half Will Holder for quick-play. Mack’s timely box kicks took the pressure off the Seawolves when they were within their own half.”

Seawolves’ management says the fan experience will be even better this week at Starfire. Twice as many beer and wine stands. More bathrooms. Another food truck. Lines on the field made more visible (they’ll be the blue ones).

But they promise the sunshine from last week?

Gates open at 5:30, and there is a curtain raiser between two youth clubs: Budd Bay vs. Liberty Club.

The game is sold out, but it’s the game of the week on CBS Sports Network. Kickoff and broadcast at 7:30 p.m.

(See last week’s game coverage in The Seattle Times.)

Seawall
Eric Duechle, Seawolves’ back row, called the Seattle defense “the Seawall,” which did not break in the game against San Diego. The Seawall appears to be built on numbers. Here the Seawolves have four men at the tackle.