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Toronto’s first home game at their temporary base in Atlanta was a winning one, and then some. An early kickoff time and the coast-to-coast travel seemed to leave Seattle devoid of energy as they were beaten from start to finish with the final score reading 52-7 in favor of their hosts.
It’s a record-setting margin of victory in Major League Rugby. At 45 points, the disparity is greater than the previous mark of 42 jointly held by the Seawolves (52-10 vs Houston SaberCats) and the Raptors (64-22 vs Utah Warriors) during the 2019 season.
The Arrows came flying out of the blocks, with the Seawolves still wiping the sleep from their eyes. A training ground move in the backline put Joaquín Tuculet into space and he slipped through with barely a finger laid on him to touch down before 3 minutes were on the clock.
It was a similar expansive move that produced the second try. Manuel Montero came in off his wing and went unmarked through the midfield, feeding back inside to his left to Ben LeSage for the finish.
Tayler Adams landed both conversions and added a penalty before a third try just ahead of the half-hour mark. LeSage won a turnover to stop a Seawolves attack and the backs countered with a flowing move that ended with Ross Braude, in close support, reaching out to ground the ball under the posts.
There was no respite offered to Seattle in the second half. Five minutes after the restart the Arrows were back in Seawolves territory. A flat pass from Braude missed out three forwards and hit Patrick Parfrey on a straight line that split the defense and made it 31-nil to Toronto.
What appeared to be a good Seattle try from Kieran Joyce was missed by the referee, but they would end the shutout soon after. A driving maul worked as intended with Mike Shepherd falling over the line for the try. Ben Cima was on target from a tricky angle.
That was all Seattle could muster, however, as Montero broke through and gave Jack McRogers a clear run-in soon after. A Manuel Diana intercept led to a try for Jason Higgins, and Gastón Cortes rounded out the scoring from close range in the dying minutes.
Both teams will have an extra day off to recover before their games next Sunday. Toronto will head north to Jersey City for match against East Coast rivals New York. For Seattle it’s another road trip as they face the Gilgronis in Austin.
SCORING
TORONTO 52
Tries – J. Tuculet (3’), B. LeSage (9’), R. Braude (28’), P. Parfrey (45’), J. McRogers (56’), J. Higgins (61’), G. Cortes (74’)
Cons – T. Adams 5/5 (4’, 10’, 57’, 62’, 75’), No kick 2 (28’, 45’, 62’)
Pens – T. Adams 1/1 (16’)
SEATTLE 7
Tries – M. Shepherd (53’)
Cons – B. Cima 1/1 (54’)
TEAMS
TORONTO ARROWS
1 Cole Keith (16 Pat Lynott 51’), 2 Jack McRogers, 3 Tyler Rowland (18 Gastón Cortes 51’), 4 Mason Flesch (19 Adrian Wadden HT), 5 Paul Ciulini, 6 Tomás de la Vega (20 Marcello Wainwright 59′), 7 Lucas Rumball (co-capt.), 8 Manuel Diana, 9 Ross Braude (21 Jason Higgins 54’), 10 Tayler Adams, 11 Manuel Montero, 12 Patrick Parfrey, 13 Ben LeSage (co-capt.) (23 Spencer Jones 15’-19’, 46’), 14 Gastón Mieres, 15 Joaquín Tuculet (22 Leandro Leivas 57′)
Not used: 17 Andrew Quattrin
SEATTLE SEAWOLVES
1 Djustice Sears-Duru (17 Huluholo Mo’ungaloa 52′), 2 Mike Shepherd (16 Obert Nortjé 54’), 3 Jake Ilnicki (18 Tim Metcher HT), 4 Rhyno Herbst, 5 FP Pelser (19 Les Soloai 59′), 6 Eric Duechle, 7 Andrew Durutalo (20 Tommy Clark 32’), 8 Riekert Hattingh (capt.), 9 Devereaux Ferris, 10 Kieran Joyce, 11 Sitiveni Tamaivena, 12 George Barton (22 Seta Tuilevuka HT), 13 Ross Neal (23 Juan Pablo Aguirre 66′), 14 Mat Turner (21 Aaron Matthews 75′), 15 Ben Cima
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: JP Doyle (England)
Assistants: Henrique Platais (Brazil) & Cisco Lopez (USA)
