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Rugby United New York earned a shutout win over the Houston SaberCats on Sunday evening. The final score read 21-0 in favor of the home side, with conditions not facilitating much flowing rugby as the rain and wind swirled around MCU Park.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for RUNY, with the difficulties beginning before kickoff as John Quill was ruled out, Alex MacDonald taking his place in the run-on side. Houston were dealing with the mid-week coaching change and under the circumstances competed as well as could be expected.
The forwards have set the standard all season for New York and again were the center of attention. Pat O’Toole was binned for killing the ball in a scoring position. From the subsequent lineout the drive was on until Dylan Fawsitt peeled away and drove under two tacklers for the try.
Alejandro Nieto received his 10-minute timeout at the restart after taking out Nate Brakeley in the air. That left Houston with only 13 men on the pitch and another score was inevitable. This time it was Paddy Ryan who crossed, bouncing off two and barreling through a third to set up another easy conversion for Harry Bennett.
The next hour saw the two sides scrapping for dominance but unable to reach the line. A knock-on scuppered Houston’s best scoring opportunity, and New York fired back. Fawsitt again broke off the back of the maul and the result was the same as earlier in the game.
A late yellow card to Josua Vici for cynical play nearly gave RUNY a shot at a fourth try. It looked to be coming but Victor Comptat managed to knock the ball out of Fawsitt’s hands to prevent the hat trick and the bonus point.
It’s another home game for New York on Saturday as they host Samu Manoa and the Seattle Seawolves in a match with huge playoff implications. Houston return to their new AVEVA Stadium and will hope the turf holds up when they take on the Glendale Raptors later that day.
SCORING
NEW YORK 21
Tries – D. Fawsitt 2 (14′, 70′), P. Ryan (18′)
Cons – H. Bennett 3/3 (15′, 18′, 71′)
HOUSTON 0
Yellow cards – P. O’Toole (13′), A. Nieto (16′), J. Vici (77′)
TEAMS
RUGBY UNITED NEW YORK
1 James Rochford (17 Anthony Parry 71′), 2 Dylan Fawsitt, 3 Paddy Ryan (18 Chris Sullivan 62′), 4 Trevor Cassidy (19 Matt Wirken HT), 5 Nate Brakeley, 6 Alex MacDonald (16 Sean McNulty 56′), 7 Kyle Sumsion (20 Gavan D’Amore-Morrison 71′), 8 Ross Deacon (16 Sean McNulty 21′-34′), 9 Mike Petri (capt.) (21 Marcus Walsh 68′), 10 Cathal Marsh (22 Marcus Satavu 77′), 11 Connor Wallace-Sims (23 Luke Hume 66′), 12 Will Leonard, 13 Mark O’Keeffe, 14 Mike St. Claire, 15 Harry Bennett
HOUSTON SABERCATS
1 Mateo Sanguinetti (18 Jake Turnbull 56′), 2 Pat O’Toole, 3 Charlie Connolly (17 Jamie Dever 56′), 4 Matt Trouville (capt.) (19 Victor Comptat 65′), 5 Diego Magno (20 Cecil Garber 69′), 6 Luke Beauchamp, 7 Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz, 8 Alejandro Nieto (21 Chris Parker 77′), 9 Connor Murphy (23 Joe Kelly 76′), 10 Sam Windsor (22 Zach Pangelinan 71′), 11 Malacchi Esdale, 12 Thretton Palamo, 13 Josua Vici, 14 Deion Mikesell, 15 Osea Kolinisau
Not used: 16 Amro Gouda
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU)
Assistants: Gavin McCandless (USAR) & Butch Neuenschwander (USAR)
