Tag: San Diego Legion

A Seawolves win to dispel all doubts

Reasonable doubts were had about this past weekend – round one in the Seawolves’ campaign to reach the playoffs. With fourth-place team, RFCLA, facing 0-11 Anthem and Seattle against 8-3 Utah, some doubters may have thought Seattle, fifth place in the Western Conference of the Major League Rugby and parked outside of the playoffs, might fall further behind.

Those doubts were not dispelled until the 80th minute of the Monday night’s game. Despite tries by Malembe Mpofu (under the post for seven points), Lauina Futi and Toni Pulu plus two successful conversion kicks by Rodney Iona (in winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour), the Seawolves were down 21-24 going into the last two minutes of the game. Just before time expired, Rhyno Herbst picked up the ball from the back of a goal line ruck and dived over for a try, giving Seattle a 28-24 win, with another conversion by Iona.

That leaves Seattle still in fifth place, two points behind LA, who notched a 45-17 four-try win over Anthem on Saturday. Anything but a four-try Seattle win would have left the Seawolves further behind LA, like seven points behind in the standings if they had lost to Utah.

Round 2 starts at 6 p.m. Saturday at Starfire Stadium when Seattle meets San Diego, who are 7-6 including a 40-26 win over Seattle in the first game of the regular season back in February. They are in third place in the Western Conference.

LA follows up on Monday against the Chicago Hounds, who are 8-4 and in second place in the Eastern Conference behind New England.

Looking for a win and a loss, no doubt about it.

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.

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

In bye week, Seawolves have much work to do

The Seattle Seawolves rugby team has no game next weekend, which means they will have plenty of time to work on things. There are plenty of things to work on.

When they departed San Diego Sunday afternoon, they left behind a 40-26 defeat administered handily by the Legion. It could have been worse. The Seawolves, down 28-0 at halftime, did not get on the scoreboard until 57 minutes into the match. That was helped along by San Diego serving two yellow cards at once, leaving only 13 Legion players on the field.

Seven minutes into the game, San Diego had two tries and two conversions. Another converted try at 13 minutes and once more at 27 minutes as the Seawolves could not figure out how to stop the overlaps the San Diego backs were putting together.

Once Cameron Orr opened the scoring for the Seawolves, they rolled on for 21 more points in the second half with tries by Eddie Fouché and two by Jesse Mackail. Fouché kicked two conversions, and Rodney Iona had one.

It could have been 28-21, within seven of the winner and a bonus point in the standings. But that would mean the Seawolves needed to stop San Diego from scoring. They did not, as the Legion added 12 points for the 40-26 final. The Seawolves come away with one bonus point for scoring four tries.

Next Seawolves game is in Houston against the Sabercats, who lost Saturday to the Chicago Hounds, 25-22.

A Seawolves’ loss that begs a question

Win or lose, the Seawolves game Saturday against San Diego changed nothing. Seattle is still in the playoffs, and they play San Diego on Sunday, July 21, at 5:30 p.m. at home.

But the 45-33 loss to the Legion Saturday raises this question to another level: Can the Seawolves beat San Diego on July 21 to advance to the second round of the playoffs?

San Diego’s four-try win (they had six) and the five points in the standings were not enough to overtake Seattle, who finished second behind Houston in the Western Conference. For Seattle, you could call it a “meaningless” game. A game to rest players who needed it. A game to hold out some players with injuries. Not a game to display new tactics before the playoffs.

But the way the game played out brought that nagging question from above to center stage for Seawolves supporters.

Seattle dominated the first half hour of the game with tries from Divan Rossouw, Ina Futi and Mahonri Ngakuru, putting the Seawolves ahead 21-3. But before halftime arrived, the Legion had scored two tries off mauls to bring the score to 21-17 “before the teams went into the shed” (love that bit of rugby language).

Still, some halftime chatter would bring the boys back in fine form with nothing to worry about. That happened for a brief shining moment, with the Seawolves edging up to San Diego’s goal line before they lost possession, were called for a penalty and the Legion successfully juggled the ball among three or four players before one of them found themselves in Seattle’s end zone. At two minutes into the second half, the dominance had switched sides. From there, San Diego scored four tries, and  41-year-old Matthew Giteau kicked two penalties. Seattle answered with two tries, from Jeremiah Sio and an after-80-minute quick penalty try from Monate Akuei, who did not look too bad at the No. 8 spot. But the Seawolves could find no way to turn things around, to get the dominance back on their side.

San Diego ends their regular season with wins over the two teams ahead of them in the Western Conference, Houston and now Seattle. That’s gotta feel good.

Seattle ends with a 29-12 win over RFC Los Angeles and a loss to San Diego that raises questions.

Looking for another rematch against Houston

The Seattle Seawolves will have another go at the Sabercats. The best way for that to happen is for Seattle to win three games: against Los Angeles on June 22, against San Diego on June 29 in San Diego, and then again against San Diego in the playoffs on Sunday, July 21. And then the Seawolves return to Houston for the Western Conference finals on Sunday, July 28.

The must-win game in that scenario is the playoff match on July 21. Lose that game and the season is over without the rematch against Houston, which beat Seattle Saturday, 28-25, at Sabercats Stadium.

Three of Houston’s tries started from mistakes the Seawolves made: an overthrown lineout toss, a rare knock-on by Divan Rossouw at fullback and a quick penalty that caught the Seawall defense still in neutral. Houston’s fourth and “you can’t blame me” try came with wing forward Keni Nasoqeqe busting through Seattle’s back line.

Seattle’s offense relied heavily on Mack Mason’s foot. Not just for the conversion and two penalty kicks he made, but for his kicks ahead that resulted in tries for Toni Pulu (who outran the Houston winger to touch down in the corner) and Jade Stighling, who gathered in Mason’s kick right at the try line. Even with the Seawolves at 14 men after a high tackle yellow card on Rhyno Herbst, the Seawolves found a way to keep scoring.

The other Seattle try came from a heads-up play by Sam Matenga, who regained his feet at a goal line ruck, saw the ball in front of him, picked it up and dived over for the score.

That totals 25 points. Houston had 28, winning by a penalty kick that can be blamed on A.J. Alatimu, a former Seawolves, who had two of them in the game.

The surest way to a rematch with Houston is for the Seawolves to win, win, win. That will give the Seawolves the hometown advantage in the first playoff game before heading to Houston for the conference final. Assumption here is that Seattle will play San Diego in the playoffs, which is how the standings now line up. But that could change in the last two weeks of the regular season. Looking ahead:

San Diego plays Chicago Hounds on Monday night, June 17, then Houston on June 23 and Seattle (in San Diego) on June 29.

Besides the Legion on June 29, Seattle plays Los Angeles on June 22 in Seattle.

Besides the San Diego game, Houston plays Dallas, now in the fourth spot in the standings, on June 29.

Besides the Houston match, Dallas plays Utah on June 22.

Utah has to win today against New England and then finish their season at home with wins against Dallas and LA. That would give Utah 12 points in the standings (with no bonus points). If Dallas loses against Houston and Utah and picks up no bonus points, the Warriors would be in the playoffs, outranking Dallas in the standings, 40 points to Dallas’ 39.

Rather be Seattle.

How San Diego stayed in Top 4, and Utah did not

How San Diego (4-1-0) got down 17-0 at the half against New Orleans (3-2-0) seemed unlikely. But they did on Sunday. The Legion was dancing with the threat of falling out of the Top 4 in the Western Conference, where you need to be for getting in the playoffs. Then at 40 minutes, San Diego and New Orleans each received yellow cards, and the Legion found their 14 men were better than NOLA’s.

San Diego scored two converted tries in the first 13 minutes of the second half, allowed a miserable penalty kick to NOLA and then added two tries and a penalty kick to win 33-20. San Diego is at 24 points in the standings, right there with Houston and behind the Seawolves by five points.

NOLA stays at third in the Eastern Conference, behind New England (24 points) and Chicago (18).

The remembered Utah Warriors team is not the one on the field this year. In a game with five lead changes and Utah up by three at 68 minutes, the old Utahans would hang on to win. Not so in the present age as Dallas scored a try in the 80th minute to win, 22-20.

That puts Dallas in fourth place in the Western Conference with 19 points, ahead of Utah’s 14. The Jackals have one more game played than Utah, and the competition for that fourth playoff spot should be worth watching. Would the present No. 1 team in the Western Conference (guess who) rather play Dallas, winning 34-32 previously, or Utah, beating them 23-13.

Chicago 59, Anthem 26: Someone have mercy! (But not the Seawolves.)

Seawolves, Legion tied at 19 points in standings

San Diego must have tried to sleep in the cargo hold of the plane taking them to their game against the Sharks in Miami. The Legion did not awake up until there was only 20 minutes left in the game. Down 21 to 5, San Diego scored two tries and a penalty kick to sneak by the Sharks, 22-21.

San Diego had only three tries, but the four points for the win was enough to tie them with the Seawolves at 19 points apiece in the Western Conference standings, four back from the Houston Sabercats.

Old Glory DC, 46, Anthem 32: Depending on which team Old Glory DC showed up with (the one that beat New England or the one that lost two and tied one), Anthem might have a chance at a win. But DC showed up strong, beating Anthem, 46-32.

Game to game, Anthem is scoring more points and former Seawolves Jake Turnbull continues to account for some of them.

Seawolves fall to 3rd place in Western Conference

After three games without scoring four tries and the extra bonus points in the standings, the Seattle Seawolves racked up four tries Friday night.

So did thier opponents, the Houston Sabercats.

Besides the four tries (20), the Seawolves added two more tries (10), two penalty kicks (6) and two conversions (4) for 40 points on the scoreboard.

The Sabercats (is that a cartoon character?) added a penalty try (7), three penalty kicks (9) and three conversions (6) for 42 points. All those kicks came from our old friend AJ Alatimu, who departed for Houston after two years in Seattle.

Seawolves come away with two bonus points for four tries and for being within seven points of the winner. Houston gets four points for the win and a bonus point for four tries. That puts them on top of the Western Conference with 18 points.

San Diego’s 27-11 victory Saturday over Old Glory DC gives them five points (four for the win, one for four tries scored) and a second place in the standings with 15 points.

Seattle is third with 14 points.

Look for the top two teams in the Western Conference to pick up more four-try bonus points this next weekend with Houston at Dallas on Friday night, March 29 at 5:30 PDT, and San Diego at Miami on Sunday, March 31 at 3 PDT.

Seattle plays Chicago there on Saturday at 3 PDT. A win and four tries in the Seawolves’ Easter basket? That would be nice.

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?