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A little bit of history will be made at Constellation Field tomorrow when the Houston SaberCats play the Seattle Saracens in the first official match of the 2018 Major League Rugby preseason. The SaberCats have already played a few friendlies against local club sides prior to the holiday break but this will be their first of nine matches at their new home turf in Sugar Land leading into the inaugural MLR regular season.
The lineup is largely as expected with Irish props Jamie Dever and Adam Macklin featuring in the front row. Second row Justin Allen is the newest signing, a High School All-American from Ireland who stands a towering 2.08m (6’10”). Former Eagles Kyle Sumsion and Matt Trouville are in the back row with Sumsion tabbed to lead the side this season.
There is an international flavor in the backs with Irish scrumhalf Connor Murphy, Australian flyhalf Sam Windsor, and two Fijian 7s players in Josua Vici and Olympic champion Osea Kolinisau. Guam native Zach Pangelinan is at fullback, also a USA international.
Seattle are absent some senior players but have two capped Eagles in No 8 Aladdin Schirmer and inside center Mike Garrity. Schirmer is one of three players on the Saracens roster currently signed up to play for the Seawolves in MLR. Dion Crowder starts on the left wing and Louie Henson is named as a reserve prop.
Kickoff is at 7pm local time (8pm ET). Tickets can be purchased online here. There will not be a video stream of the match but live radio commentary will be broadcast on KTXF-db.
HOUSTON SABERCATS
1 Jamie Dever, 2 Diego Maquieira, 3 Adam Macklin, 4 Robert Meeson, 5 Justin Allen, 6 Kyle Sumsion (capt.), 7 Cecil Garber, 8 Matt Trouville, 9 Connor Murphy, 10 Sam Windsor, 11 Josua Vici, 12 Conor Mills, 13 Osea Kolinisau, 14 Malacchi Esdale, 15 Zach Pangelinan
Replacements: 16 Jack Riley, 17 Estevan Florez, 18 Petey Hepburn, 19 Chris Parker, 20 Pago Haini, 21 Chris Slater, 22 Kieran Farmer, 23 Dan Paul
SEATTLE SARACENS
1 Kellen Gordon, 2 Dan Trierweiler, 3 Mike Shepherd, 4 Nick McKenna, 5 Taylor Krumrei, 6 Cole van Harn, 7 Jon Valz, 8 Aladdin Schirmer, 9 Isaiah Chinen, 10 Zach Burns, 11 Dion Crowder, 12 Mike Garrity, 13 Sequoyah Burke-Combs, 14 Will Stowers, 15 Cecil Ala
Replacements: 16 Ryan Youngman, 17 Louie Henson, 18 Ben Gustafson, 19 Eric Soto, 20 Ryan Snider, 21 Jonny Reid, 22 William Rasileka, 23 Neori Driu
