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Rugby ATL’s Pathway 404 cruised to a 61-21 win over the Utah Warriors Selects in a Major League Rugby development match on Saturday. A significant advantage in professional experience saw the home side dominant up front en route to an insurmountable 40-7 halftime lead.
Within moments of kickoff 404 were already in for seven points as Martini Talapusi snatched a loose pass from Tosh Wilcox to score untouched. He would be in for a double soon after, this time a more traditional attack. A third try came just a couple minutes later as Kurt Coleman’s inch-perfect grubber put Marcos Young into the corner.
Coleman himself was next to cross on the right side, with further scores from Alex Maughan and John Scotti. The only reply from Utah in the first half came via James Mocke, who finally crashed over after multiple attempts from the forwards to break 404’s goal-line defense.
The second half continued as the first ended. Maciu Koroi had an easy run-in from the back of the completely dominant 404 scrum. A first try in ATL colors for Lincoln Sii was next, with Coleman’s sixth conversion pushing the score to 54-7.
Replacements entered the match, with the arrival of Lance Williams providing Utah a significant boost in morale. The Warriors star, in his first match back from ACL surgery, made his presence felt immediately with a strong support line that ended with the loose forward powering in for a try.
Two more scores went up before full-time. Replacement lock Alex MacDonald scored for the home team at one end, with the visitors getting the last say in near-identical fashion as Mocke picked up his second try. Utah will host the Northeast Academy next weekend with ATL scheduling an intra-squad match.
SCORING
ATL 61
Tries – M. Talapusi 2 (1′, 10′), M. Young (14′), K. Coleman (24′), A. Maughan (33′), J. Scotti (*38′), M. Koroi (44′), L. Sii (52′), A. MacDonald (75′)
Cons – K. Coleman 7/8 (2′, 11′, 25′, 34′, 45′, 53′, 76′)
* – tries scored between the posts were awarded an automatic 7 points for the match
UTAH 21
Tries – J. Mocke 2 (28′, 80′), L. Williams (59′)
Cons – D. Christensen 2/2 (29′, 60′, 80′)
TEAMS
RUGBY ATL PATHWAY 404
1 Chance Wenglewski, 2 Alex Maughan (capt.), 3 Jonas Petrakopoulos, 4 Harry Higgins, 5 Jason Damm, 6 Daemon Torres, 7 Jalen Tatum, 8 Vili Helu, 9 Eamonn Matthews, 10 Kurt Coleman, 11 Marcos Young, 12 Martini Talapusi, 13 John Scotti, 14 Tito Bautista-Vargas, 15 Tommy Wallace
Replacements: 16 Carl Ratcliffe, 17 Lincoln Sii, 18 Sam Chaney, 19 Alex MacDonald, 20 Mike Matarazzo, 21 Maciu Koroi, 22 Sidney Shoop, 23 Ryan Britain
UTAH WARRIORS SELECTS
1 Samuel Ciancutti, 2 Michael Payne, 3 Zephir Lambert, 4 Kal Kistner, 5 James Mocke, 6 Thomas Tu’avao, 7 Mike Gieselman, 8 Charlie Hola, 9 Danny Christensen (capt.), 10 Tosh Wilcox, 11 Joseph Mano, 12 Dom Toluono, 13 Peter Makalio, 14 Logan Tago, 15 James Vaifale
Replacements: 16 Sesili Tauki’uvea, 17 Dawson Ruegger, 18 Elijah Hayes, 19 Lance Williams, 20 Tyler Goss, 21 Jacob Klingelsmith, 22 Aaron Wade, 23 Tomasi Tonga
