Arrows dominate Gilgronis in Texas rain

The Toronto Arrows got their season off to a flying start with a dominant 38-10 win over the Austin Gilgronis at Bold Stadium on Sunday evening. A constant drizzle made for slippery conditions but didn’t prevent the visitors from scoring five tries and picking up an important bonus point on the road.

There was hardly a minute gone when Manuel Diana slid over for the opening score. Lino Saunitoga disrupted an Arrows throw-in but Richie Asiata was there to pick up the loose ball. Just a couple quick recycles later and Diana had his first Major League Rugby try.

Marcelo Torrealba responded with a penalty goal at the nine minute mark but that was all Austin could muster in the opening half. Toronto’s scrum pulverised the Gilgronis who were hit with the late withdrawal of second row Rikus Zwart and were already absent heavyweight front rower Wilton Rebolo.

A collapse on the Austin goal line saw the referee appropriately award a penalty try, and after dropping the ball twice over the line the Arrow settled for a Sam Malcolm penalty goal. Dan Moor was on the end of a Tayler Adams skip-pass to finish off a long attacking sequence. Malcolm nailed the sideline conversion to make it 24-3, a score that would hold to halftime.

The conditions proved more trying to start the second half and it took nearly ten minutes after the restart for Toronto to score again. Another scrum penalty gave Jamie Mackenzie an opportunity to go quickly and the defense was too slow to prevent the try.

To their credit the Gilgronis stayed in the game and were finally rewarded on the hour mark. Torrealba’s quick tap pinned the Arrows back and Chris Schade went low and hard to scrape over the paint.

The last quarter was a stalemate until the 78th minute when the Arrows scrum steamed through on Austin’s put-in, the balling spilling out the side. Peter Milazzo was on hand and ran untouched all the way to the tryline. A late skirmish between Milazzo and Potu Leavasa resulted in the Gilgronis flanker receiving a yellow card and time expired shortly after.

Toronto will take their show to Las Vegas next weekend for a Sunday game against the Houston SaberCats. Austin will play the day before at the same venue against Rugby United New York.

SCORING

AUSTIN 10
Tries – C. Schade (59′)
Cons – M. Torrealba 1/1 (60′)
Pens – M. Torrealba 1/1 (9’)
Yellow cards – L. Saunitoga (17’), P. Leavasa (79′)

TORONTO 38
Tries – M. Diana (1’), Penalty try (14’), D. Moor (27’), J. Mackenzie (49′), P. Milazzo (78′)
Cons – S. Malcolm 3/3 (2’, 28’, 50′), T. Adams 1/1 (79′)
Pens – S. Malcolm 1/2 (25’)

TEAMS

AUSTIN GILGRONIS
1 LaRome White (18 Mason Pedersen 62′), 2 Chris Schade (16 Tiaan Erasmus 64′), 3 Juan Echeverría (17 Skyler Adams 79′), 4 Maikeli Naromaitoga (20 Moe Abdelmonem 62′), 5 JP Novak (19 Erik Jacobson 51′), 6 Potu Leavasa, 7 Dominic Akina, 8 Lino Saunitoga, 9 Marcelo Torrealba (21 Colby Stevens 75′), 10 Zinzan Elan-Puttick (capt.), 11 Alex Faison-Donahoe (22 Alex Rees 73′), 12 Sione Fangaiuiha (23 Gabe Farley 77′), 13 Peni Tagive, 14 Corey Jones, 15 Rodrigo Silva

TORONTO ARROWS
1 Richie Asiata (18 Tyler Rowland 70′), 2 Andrew Quattrin (16 Steven Ng 58′), 3 Cole Keith (17 Pat Lynott 58′), 4 Mike Sheppard, 5 Paul Ciulini (19 Kolby Francis 51′), 6 Tomás de la Vega, 7 Lucas Rumball, 8 Manuel Diana (20 Peter Milazzo 58′), 9 Jamie Mackenzie (21 Andrew Ferguson 58′), 10 Tayler Adams, 11 Gastón Mieres, 12 Guiseppe du Toit (22 Mitch Richardson 70′), 13 Ben LeSage, 14 Dan Moor (capt.), 15 Sam Malcolm (23 Leandro Leivas 58′)

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Lex Weiner (USA)
Assistants: Scott Green (USA) & Butch Neuenschwander (USA)