MLR Preseason – Glendale beat Houston in final tune-up

The last weekend of the Major League Rugby preseason is now behind us and there are only a few days left until the second regular season kicks off. Five teams took to the field between Thursday and Saturday, but only two were going head-to-head. A sixth team – Austin Elite – was due to play the Dallas Reds but some venue issues caused the game to be cancelled.

SEATTLE SEAWOLVES 74 vs 3 SEATTLE SARACENS
Thursday, January 17, Starfire Stadium

It was more of a training exercise for the Seawolves as they hosted their main feeder club in a match that doubled as a fundraiser for the Saracens and the Seattle Slam – the local wheelchair rugby side. The Seawolves are currently operating without coach Anton Moolman who is currently playing the waiting game in South Africa due to visa delays, with Phil Mack again acting as stand-in headmaster.

On the field the Seawolves were in complete control. Api Naikatini touched down just a couple minutes into his first appearance for his new club with Stephan Coetzee also finding the tryline. A handful of MLR trialists suited up for the Saracens, most notably former SaberCats midfielder Joey Iosefa and Central Washington flyhalf Scott Dean.

Next up for the Seawolves it’s the Glendale Raptors in their home opener on Sunday.

SEAWOLVES
1 Kellen Gordon, 2 Stephan Coetzee, 3 John Hayden, 4 Api Naikatini, 5 Taylor Krumrei, 6 Eric Duechle, 7 Vili Toluta’u, 8 Brad Tucker, 9 Phil Mack, 10 Ben Cima, 11 Peter Tiberio, 12 Shalom Suniula (capt.), 13 William Rasileka, 14 Brock Staller, 15 Mat Turner

Replacements: 16 Mike Shepherd, 17 Dan Trierweiler, 18 Tim Metcher, 19 Jérémy Lenaerts, 20 Cole van Harn, 21 Nakai Penny, 22 JP Smith, 23 George Barton, 24 Dion Crowder, 25 Sequoyah Burke-Combs

SARACENS
1 Matt Duncan, 2 Louie Henson, 3 Ryan Youngman, 4 Justin Stevens, 5 Eric Soto, 6 Jacob Flores, 7 Ryan Snider, 8 Maile Taufa, 9 Isaiah Chinen, 10 Jonny Reid, 11 Will Stowers, 12 Joey Iosefa, 13 Matt Brennan, 14 Tristan Ingold, 15 Moses Lalasava

Replacements: 16 Solomon Sa’u, 17 Giuseppe Semararo, 18 Alfred Tafuna, 19 Anthony Caffee, 20 Ben Gustafson, 21 Andrew Nelson, 22 Scott Dean, 23 Driu Neori, 24 Mike Nelson, 25 Martin Vakamoce, 26 Penisoni Leua, 27 Jope Motokana, 28 Hannibal Vaivao, 29 Jasper Bowen-Shephard, 30 Cecil Ala

HOUSTON SABERCATS 21 vs 36 GLENDALE RAPTORS
Saturday, January 19, Constellation Field

It was another tough week for the SaberCats in Sugar Land as the Raptors took a convincing win by 36-21. Glendale got two tries apiece from Chad Gough and Hanco Germishuys. The Cats handed a first start to Uruguayan scrumhalf Santiago Arata and again leaned on West Houston to fill out the bench with Liam Andrews, Irving Carcamo, and Rodrick Waters all present.

Glendale started new recruit Marco Fepulea’i at tighthead prop and welcomed back veteran second row Casey Rock. Jason Damm got a start in the back row and new Australian loose forward Will Munro joined the team for the first time after arriving last week.

Houston head to Round Rock to play Austin Elite on Saturday, with Glendale off to Seattle on Sunday.

SABERCATS
1 Jamie Dever, 2 Pat O’Toole, 3 Charlie Connolly, 4 Luke Beauchamp, 5 Matt Trouville (capt.), 6 Chris Coyle, 7 Cecil Garber, 8 Alex Elkins, 9 Santiago Arata, 10 Sam Windsor, 11 Joe Kelly, 12 Conor Mills, 13 Osea Kolinisau, 14 Josua Vici, 15 Kieran Farmer

Replacements: 16 Liam Andrews, 17 Jake Turnbull, 18 Matt Almeida, 19 Chris Parker, 20 Ayron Schramm, 21 Connor Murphy, 22 Irving Carcamo, 23 Rodrick Waters

RAPTORS
1 Blake Rogers, 2 Chad Gough, 3 Marco Fepulea’i, 4 Kody O’Neil, 5 Casey Rock, 6 Brendan Daly, 7 Hanco Germishuys, 8 Jason Damm, 9 Shaun Davies (capt.), 10 Will Magie, 11 Harley Davidson, 12 Chad London, 13 Mika Kruse, 14 John Ryberg, 15 Dylan Taikato-Simpson

Replacements: 16 Luke White, 17 Max Lum, 18 Kelepi Fifita, 19 Will Munro, 20 Dwayne Pienaar, 21 Carlo de Nysschen, 22 Robbie Petzer, 23 Nick Johnson

TORONTO ARROWS 47 vs 7 CANADA SELECTS
Saturday, January 19, Westshore RFC

After making the best of an unfortunate situation in Buffalo last week, the Arrows took to the air to spend some time training at Rugby Canada HQ in Victoria. They had time to fit in a 60-minute game against a Canada Selects side made up of some domestic internationals and a few uncapped academy players.

The Arrows showed their class with a one-sided result while giving Steven Ng and Theo Sauder to the Selects. Cole Keith and Kolby Francis played for both teams with Canada coach Kingsley Jones casting his eyes over the talent. Toronto will play their first ever MLR regular season match on Saturday against the Gold in New Orleans.

ARROWS (unofficial)
Rob Brouwer, Morgan Mitchell, Cole Keith, Andrew Quattrin, Paul Ciulini, Mike Sheppard, Tom van Horne, Kolby Francis, Peter Milazzo, Lucas Rumball, Marcello Wainwright, Andrew Ferguson, Jamie Mackenzie, Sam Malcolm, Guiseppe du Toit, Spencer Jones, Jack Evans, Kainoa Lloyd, Aaron McLelland, Dan Moor, Johnny Sheridan

SELECTS (unofficial)
Noah Barker, Ryan Kotlewski, Liam Murray, Djustice Sears-Duru, Steven Ng, Luke Campbell, Dustin Dobravsky, Cole Mosychuk, Kevin O’Neill, Jake Thiel, Brock Gallagher, Cooper Coats, Will Kelly, Patrick Parfrey, Nick Blevins, Doug Fraser, Ben LeSage, Jared Stephens, Josh Thiel, Brennig Prevost, Theo Sauder

UTAH WARRIORS 35 vs 5 UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY WOLVERINES
Saturday, January 19, Zions Bank Field House

The Warriors squeezed in another indoor scrimmage, this time against the local Utah Valley University side. As expected they were dominant but the Wolverines managed to dot down once. After losing Maika Hafoka for the season last week the team was playing without Saia Uhila who injured a bicep in training.

New Eagles additions Gannon Moore and Calvin Whiting got time in the midfield with New Zealander Tim O’Malley also getting a look. Fijian lock Puna Vuli started alongside Matt Jensen in the absence of Uhila with John Cullen at No8. There was a surprise run-out for new backs coach James Semple in the flyhalf jersey, suggesting he may be assuming a player-coach role.

Utah could yet pick up another warm-up match as they have next weekend off before playing their season opener on the road against Austin on February 1.

WARRIORS (unofficial)
Angus MacLellan, Alex Tucci, Franco van den Berg, Alex Vorster, Matt Jensen, Puna Vuli, John Cullen, Ara Elkington, Kenny Scott, Ian Luciano, Joseph Nicholls, Josh Reeves, James Semple, Tim O’Malley, Iniki Fa’amausili, Gannon Moore, Calvin Whiting, Vernon Ale, Josh Anderson, Tonata Lauti, Nolan Tuamoheloa, Fetu’u Vainikolo