Express blow past the Rush

Sacramento pinched a vital bonus-point victory on Sunday as they overwhelmed a scrappy San Francisco side 43-19 at Boxer Stadium. There was plenty of endeavor from both sides but it came at a price with accuracy at a premium and a litany of handling errors marring an otherwise entertaining match.

The first half was played in two clearly marked periods, with Sacramento dominating the opening and San Francisco remarkably firing back in the second. Cameron Falcon scored first as he drove in from close range. The second score was a beauty. Langi Haupeakui made a huge break from deep in his own end and the ball was recycled and thrown right to Cody Jerabek to finish off his first professional try. Haupeakui did the honors himself for the third, bursting through a giant hole with no cover defense in sight to score a breakaway from the half-way line against the run of play.

A fourth try went to Kyle Sumsion after hard work from the forwards put them within inches of the line. The flanker picked and went under the defense to make it 26-0 and the outlook went from bad to really bad for San Francisco.

Somehow the Rush stayed in the game, however, and after Jerabek was binned for a cynical breakdown infringement, David Tameilau powered over on a hard line following a rare dominant scrum from San Francisco. Orene Ai’i was next up, with the sneaky New Zealander pouncing on a wide-open blindside to score a second try in two minutes.

Ai’i found the gap on a lovely switch play with Volney Rouse near half-way and found big Tongan no8 Bill Fukofuka streaking up the middle to race in under the posts. The conversion from Rouse reduced the gap to only a single score at the break.

San Francisco would have no such resurgence in the second half. Haupeakui was at it again, this time flying off the back of a scrum against the head, fending two defenders, and striding over for another impressive individual effort. Bergamasco was good on the conversion, and added a penalty to to bring the gap to three scores and out of reach of the home team.

A late penalty try was awarded for a pushover scrum that was collapsed before Sumsion could touch down, and pushed the score past 40. The final minutes ticked away with the Rush at the end of another disappointing one-sided scoreline.

San Francisco will look forward to a week off to recuperate and iron out their problems. Sacramento head home with their second win under their belts, but will have to front up against league leaders Ohio at Bonney Field on Saturday.

SAN FRANCISCO 19
Tries – D. Tameilau (32), O. Ai’i (34), B. Fukofuka (39)
Cons – V. Rouse 2 (33, 40)

SACRAMENTO 43
Tries – C. Falcon (5), C. Jerabek (10), L. Haupeakui 2 (20, 44), K. Sumsion (25), Penalty try (70)
Cons – M. Bergamasco 5 (6, 21, 26, 45, 71)
Pens – M. Bergamasco (57)
Yellow cards – C. Jerabek (29)

SAN FRANCISCO RUSH
1 Niko Lolohea 2 Patrick Latu 3 Fancy Namulau’ulu 4 Brendan Daly 5 Jérémy Lenaerts 6 David Tameilau 7 Sam Finau 8 Bill Fukofuka 9 Devereaux Ferris 10 Volney Rouse (capt.) 11 Pila Iongi 12 Orene Ai’i 13 Mils Muliaina 14 Jake Anderson 15 Martini Talapusi

16 Neil Barrett 17 Codi Jones 18 Saimone Laulaupea’alu 19 Nick Grass 20 Siupeli Sakalia 21 Michael Reid 22 Michael Haley 23 Jack O’Hara

SACRAMENTO EXPRESS
1 Valdemar Lee-Lo 2 Cameron Falcon 3 Estephan Tuamasaga 4 Robert Meeson 5 Matt Doubek 6 Kyle Sumsion 7 John Quill (capt.) 8 Langi Haupeakui 9 Jope Motokana 10 Harry Bennett 11 Ryan Thompson 12 Mirco Bergamasco 13 Nemia Qoro 14 Cody Jerabek 15 Alex Hodgkinson

16 Ray Barkwill 17 Toke Kefu 18 Olive Kilifi 19 Ryan Koewler 20 Kali Tavake 21 Ronald Dwyer 22 Pate Takiveikata 23 Garrett Brewer

Referee: Derek Summers
Assistants: Leah Berard & George O’Neil