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It’s back home for the San Diego Legion after their impressive road win over Seattle. On Sunday they’ll roll out the red carpet for Austin Elite at Torero Stadium but the pleasantries will end at the opening whistle as every point counts in what is quickly becoming a fascinating playoff race.
The Legion will be without Keni Nasoqeqe after his red card earned him a suspension. Jasa Veremalua’s forward experiment continues in the second row as Devin Short returns to start at openside flank with Psalm Wooching moving to his more traditional blindside position.
Only one change is made in the backs as Conor Kearns misses out with Save Totovosau starting for just the second time this season, the first opening weekend against New York. Nate Augspurger wears the No9 jersey for the fifth straight game as Nick Boyer is forced to settle for a reserve role.
Austin have made three changes to the starting side that came up short in San Antonio. Kyle Breytenbach rotates back in on the blindside flank with Rikus Zwart moving to the bench. Second row Maikeli Naromaitoga has arrived on loan from the Utah Warriors and he is set to make his Austin debut from the bench.
A significant change in the halfbacks sees the South American pairing of Marcelo Torrealba and Rodrigo Silva restored and Mickaël Romera swapped to the bench. JP Aguirre drops out of the midfield with Doug Fraser handed his second start. Zinzan Elan-Puttick is fit again to take up a spot among the replacements.
With zero wins from nine attempts the odds will continue to favor everyone but Austin. They have shown improvement in recent weeks but a result must come soon or talk will soon tilt towards a whitewash. Winning on the road against a confident San Diego side will take an extraordinary effort from the Elite, particularly given the one-sided result from their previous meeting in Round Rock.
Kickoff is set for 7:30pm local time, 9:30pm Central, 10:30pm Eastern. The match will be broadcast on the CBS Sports Network, with a live stream available on Facebook for international viewers.
SAN DIEGO LEGION
1 Faka’osi Pifeleti, 2 Dean Muir, 3 Paddy Ryan, 4 Louis Stanfill, 5 Jasa Veremalua, 6 Psalm Wooching, 7 Devin Short, 8 Jordan Manihera, 9 Nate Augspurger, 10 Joe Pietersen (capt.), 11 Ryan Matyas, 12 JP du Plessis, 13 Dylan Audsley, 14 Savenaca Totovosau, 15 Mike Te’o
Replacements: 16 Kapeli Pifeleti, 17 Nathan Sylvia, 18 Aaron Mitchell, 19 Siaosi Mahoni, 20 Drew Gaffney, 21 Nick Boyer, 22 Tai Enosa, 23 Kyle Rogers
AUSTIN ELITE
1 LaRome White, 2 Tiaan Erasmus, 3 Juan Echeverría, 4 Ben Mitchell, 5 Josh Larsen, 6 Kyle Breytenbach, 7 Moe Abdelmonem, 8 Travis Larsen, 9 Marcelo Torrealba, 10 Rodrigo Silva, 11 Sione Fangaiuiha, 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 Doug Fraser, 14 Aidan McMullan, 15 Soheyl Jaoudat
Replacements: 16 Dom Bailey, 17 Chris Schade, 18 Brendan Rams, 19 Maikeli Naromaitoga, 20 Rikus Zwart, 21 Mickaël Romera, 22 Zinzan Elan-Puttick, 23 Reece Czarnecki
Date: Sunday, April 7
Venue: Torero Stadium, San Diego
Kickoff: 19:30 local (21:30 Central, 22:30 Eastern)
Referee: Paul-Henri Courbier (USAR)
Assistants: Derek Summers (USAR) & Lee Bryant (USAR)
Broadcasts: CBS Sports Network, Facebook
