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The San Diego Legion assured their spot in the Major League Rugby Semi Finals with a 31-17 win over Austin Elite at Torero Stadium. It’s a welcome relief for the Legion who have had some shaky moments during the season and also faced the prospect of having to earn their spot against the unbeaten Glendale Raptors had they failed to succeed on Sunday.
An early exchange saw the two kickers opening the scoring for their respective sides. Tadhg Leader struck first with Timothée Guillimin not far behind. For Austin that would be their only score of a half that saw San Diego control possession and territory.
A lineout drive put the Legion into scoring position and Nick Boyer was quick to recognize a half-gap on the post, throwing a dummy and diving over for the first try. Leader snatched another three points from the kicking tee and on the last play of the half hard work from the forwards drove a maul over the line with Nathan Sylvia taking the credit.
Austin were determined not to go out with a whimper but a yellow card to Ben Mitchell for team infringements gave Leader an easy shot at the sticks. The captain obliged but almost immediately following the restart a line break from Pedrie Wannenburg was followed up by Junior Naruma with the big Fijian striding in under the posts to breathe life back into his side.
Finding more points proved problematic, and it was Leader again who took three for the Legion. Austin finally got another on the board when Sani Taylor broke through the middle on a set move on a scrum. All hope of a comeback was erased, however, when the Elite were forced to play out of their own end and Ryan Matyas pounced on a loose pass to secure the victory.
San Diego now host Glendale with the only question their final seeding position for the Semi Finals. Austin meanwhile are forced to sit and wait for the outcome of Utah’s match against the Houston SaberCats. If the Warriors win it will be season over for the Elite.
SCORING
SAN DIEGO 31
Tries – N. Boyer (15’), N. Sylvia (39’), R. Matyas (77’)
Cons – T. Leader 2/3 (16’, 78’)
Pens – T. Leader 4/4 (4’, 24’, 46’, 55’)
Yellow cards – A. Barton (27’)
AUSTIN 17
Tries – J. Naruma (48’), S. Taylor (71’)
Cons – T. Guillimin 2/2 (49’, 72’)
Pens – T. Guillimin 1/1 (10’)
Yellow cards – B. Mitchell (45’)
TEAMS
SAN DIEGO LEGION
1 Faka’osi Pifeleti (17 Sione Tu’ihalamaka HT), 2 Pat Blair, 3 Nathan Sylvia (18 Aaron Mitchell 68’), 4 Nick Grass (19 Sam Peri HT), 5 Chris Turori, 6 Alec Barton, 7 Derrick Broussard, 8 Drew Gaffney (16 Pat O’Toole 59’), 9 Nick Boyer, 10 Tadhg Leader (capt.), 11 Nick Evans, 12 Anthony Salaber, 13 Ryan Matyas, 14 Taku Ngwenya, 15 Conor Kearns
Not used: 20 Gil Covey, 21 Nick Lupian, 22 Maceo Brown, 23 Kyle Rogers
AUSTIN ELITE
1 Chris Schade, 2 Mike Brown (17 Siaosi Finau 49’), 3 Mason Pedersen, 4 Ben Mitchell, 5 Victor Comptat (23 Junior Naruma HT), 6 Kyle Breytenbach, 7 Ross Deacon, 8 Pedrie Wannenburg (19 Louis Stanfill 59’), 9 Mickaël Romera, 10 Timothée Guillimin, 11 Sani Taylor, 12 Andrew Suniula (capt.), 13 Roland Suniula, 14 Ned Hodson, 15 Zinzan Elan-Puttick (20 Alex Faison-Donahoe 59’)
Not used: 16 David LeMasters, 18 Robert Drummond, 21 Marcus Walsh, 22 Zac Mizell
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Paul-Henri Courbier (USAR)
Assistants: Josh Houston (USAR) & John Neiss (USAR)
