Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Technically the final match of the Major League Rugby regular season, the Seattle Seawolves will host Austin Elite at Starfire Stadium with a spot in the Semi Finals and potential home field advantage on the line for one team. The match will kick off 30 minutes later than the game in San Diego, leaving the Seawolves to enter the game with the attitude that nothing less than victory will be acceptable.
The defending champions were disappointed to settle for a draw against Utah last week and will be looking to bounce back strongly against the winless Elite. Three personnel changes are made to the starting lineup with a couple positional shifts.
Riekert Hattingh returns to captain the side in the absence of Shalom Suniula. He lines up at No8 with Samu Manoa moving to the blindside flank and Brad Tucker switching to lock. Roland Suniula starts for his brother in the midfield, and Jeff Hassler gets his first start for Seattle at the expense of Sequoyah Burke-Combs on the left wing.
It’s last chance saloon for Austin as they attempt the great escape from a zero-win campaign. Todd Clever was installed as the new Director of Rugby during the week and there will be more changes in the off-season, but the current group will have to roll up their sleeves for the difficult trip to Seattle.
The Uruguayan trio of Juan Echeverría, Rodrigo Silva, and Andrés Vilaseca have departed early leaving the Elite scraping for bodies at key positions. LaRome White starts at loosehead prop with Sunao Takizawa the only specialist prop named on the bench. Travis Larsen moves to the back of the scrum with Kyle Breytenbach named on the blindside.
There is an entirely new halfback duo as Colby Stevens arrives from SFGG to play scrumhalf while Soheyl Jaoudat will try his hand at flyhalf, the fourth position he has played for Austin this season. Andrew Suniula starts his final game before retirement and partners JP Aguirre in the midfield with Alex Faison-Donahoe recalled on the wing.
An Elite victory would be one of the upsets of the season, not least on account of their run of form but also with the inexperienced halfbacks. The Seawolves meanwhile have a roster designed for post-season success and have no interest in settling this week. Look for Seattle to claim their spot in the final four with a dominant win at home.
Kickoff is set for 5pm local, 7pm Central, 8pm Eastern. A local broadcast will be available on Root Sports in Seattle, with ESPN+ carrying the game nationwide. Those located outside the USA can access a live stream on the official MLR Facebook page.
SEATTLE SEAWOLVES
1 Djustice Sears-Duru, 2 Stephan Coetzee, 3 Tim Metcher, 4 Api Naikatini, 5 Brad Tucker, 6 Samu Manoa, 7 Nakai Penny, 8 Riekert Hattingh (capt.), 9 JP Smith, 10 Ben Cima, 11 Jeff Hassler, 12 Roland Suniula, 13 George Barton, 14 Brock Staller, 15 Mat Turner
Replacements: 16 Dan Trierweiler, 17 Kellen Gordon, 18 Jake Ilnicki, 19 Taylor Krumrei, 20 Eric Duechle, 21 Phil Mack, 22 Sequoyah Burke-Combs, 23 Dion Crowder
AUSTIN ELITE
1 LaRome White, 2 Peter Malcolm, 3 Mason Pedersen, 4 Ben Mitchell (capt.), 5 Josh Larsen, 6 Kyle Breytenbach, 7 Dom Bailey, 8 Travis Larsen, 9 Colby Stevens, 10 Soheyl Jaoudat, 11 Sione Fangaiuiha, 12 Andrew Suniula, 13 JP Aguirre, 14 Alex Faison-Donahoe, 15 Zinzan Elan-Puttick
Replacements: 16 Tiaan Erasmus, 17 Dylan Pieterse, 18 Sunao Takizawa, 19 Maikeli Naromaitoga, 20 Rikus Zwart, 21 Moe Abdelmonem, 22 Aidan McMullan, 23 Reece Czarnecki
Date: Sunday, June 2
Venue: Starfire Stadium, Seattle
Kickoff: 17:00 local (19:00 Central, 20:00 Eastern)
Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe (RFU)
Assistants: Derek Summers (USAR) & Denny Russell (USAR)
Broadcasts: ESPN+, Facebook, Root Sports
