van der Schyff double leads SaberCats past jackals

Two tries from Louritz van der Schyff on debut highlighted a 31-6 victory for the Houston SaberCats over the Dallas Jackals on Saturday. It was a largely pedestrian affair with both sides content to play territory in the wind, and the home side proved more efficient at the set piece.

Penalties gave Houston an early attacking lineout and there was no stopping the drive with Dean Muir getting the credit. Davey Coetzer couldn’t land the conversion from a tough angle. At the other end Alejandro Torres kicked two penalties to give the visitors an unlikely lead at the hydration break.

From there on the SaberCats were in control but it wasn’t until just before halftime when they finally notched another score. Danny Barrett, who had earlier snuffed out an attacking move with a turnover, stepped through the line and showed his pace by rounding Eric Naposki to score the try. Again the wind took Coetzer’s kick but Houston had regained the lead.

An early attack in the second half saw the Jackals backed up to their own goal line. Dillon Smit broke to the short side and was tackled by Asa Carter, the flanker coming from an offside position. The referee awarded a penalty try and sent Carter to the sin bin.

Before Carter returned to the pitch van der Schyff took a short ball from Smit through for his first try. Some 20 minutes later he would do it again in similar fashion, stepping past a shooting Brendan Rams and taking the space behind for his double. Coetzer converted both to bring a close to the scoring.

Both teams are back in action next Saturday. Dallas are at home against their other Texan rivals, the Austin Gilgronis. Houston head west for a road game against the LA Giltinis.

 

SCORING

HOUSTON 31
Tries – D. Muir (6′), D Barrett (37′), Penalty try (46′), L. van der Schyff 2 (53′, 73′)
Cons – D. Coetzer 2/4 (54′, 74′), No kick (46′)

DALLAS 6
Pens – A. Torres 2/3 (14′, 20′)
YC – A. Carter (46′)

 

TEAMS

HOUSTON SABERCATS
1 Alec McDonnell (17 Frikkie de Beer 63′), 2 Dean Muir (capt.) (16 Axel Zapata 66′), 3 Juan Pablo Zeiss (18 Pono Davis 63′), 4 Marno Redelinghuys, 5 Wynand Grassmann (20 Emmanuel Albert 63′), 6 Danny Barrett (19 Will Crawford 72′), 7 Keni Nasoqeqe, 8 Jaco Bezuidenhout, 9 Dillon Smit (21 Nick Boyer 72′), 10 David Coetzer (23 Trace Bolstad 74′), 11 Gerrie Labuschagne, 12 Louritz van der Schyff (22 Zach Pangelinan 74′), 13 Christian Dyer, 14 Matai Leuta, 15 Robbie Povey

DALLAS JACKALS
1 Ryan Bower (17 Liam Murray 45′-75′), 2 Augusto Böhme (16 Brendan Rams 67′), 3 Herman Agenbag (18 Tommy Madaras 47′), 4 Carson Shoemaker (22 Adriaan Booysen 58′), 5 Charlie Hola (19 Bronson Teles 51′), 6 Mike Matarazzo, 7 Asa Carter (21 Aaron Cummings 63′), 8 Conrado Roura, 9 Carlo de Nysschen (capt.) (20 Tom Brusati 75′), 10 Alejandro Torres, 11 Cael Hodgson, 12 Chad London, 13 Campbell Johnstone, 14 Christian Adams (23 Aaron Gray 20′), 15 Eric Naposki

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Derek Summers (USA)
Assistants: Mitch Damm (USA) & Brian Dusablon (USA)
TMO: Kahlil Harrison (USA)