Seawolves headed back to the Final with win over SaberCats

The Seattle Seawolves are headed to their third Championship Final after a dominant 46-27 win over the SaberCats in Houston on Saturday. A 25-point first half put the visitors on the front foot and after weathering a brief reversal of fortunes early in the second half, an explosion of three tries in six minutes put the result beyond doubt.

It was an awkward start to the game for the Seawolves. A JP Smith pass slipped through the fingers of Duncan Matthews, and Davey Coetzer hacked the ball ahead. The Seawolves did not pursue and Coetzer was allowed to pick up and score under no pressure.

AJ Alatimu slotted a penalty to calm the nerves, but there was a stunning response from Gerrie Labuschagne who delivered a 51-meter kick that cleared the bar with meters to spare. An offside penalty offered three points to Seattle but Alatimu instead kicked for the corner, and the gamble paid off as James Malcolm was driven over at the lineout.

After uncharacteristically missing the conversion, Alatimu redeemed himself with a successful shot after the forwards had won a scrum penalty. Danny Barrett limped off and then JP Smith added insult to injury as he slipped in between the posts after Louritz van der Schyff had been pulled out of line by David Busby’s decoy run.

A high ball from Coetzer was caught by Alatimu inside his own 22, but instead of clearing he stepped back inside a drifting van der Schyff and speed up the field with the defense all at sea. Matthews was there in support for the finish. The SaberCats were then dealt a hammer blow as a knock-on with the line at their mercy left them with nothing on the final attack before halftime.

Whatever was said at halftime seemed to spur on the SaberCats. Riekert Hattingh took out Dillon Smit at the breakdown and Coetzer plugged the corner. When the lineout drive slowed Smit looked to the short side and Labuschagne stepped through to score the try.

Labuschagne was again involved on the next try. Matthews kicked deep and Coetzer countered, sweeping around the outside with Labuschagne cutting back across the grain to break the line. It was a simple two-on-one with nobody left to tackle Christian Dyer, and Coetzer’s conversion made it a three-point game.

The SaberCats looked certain to score again soon after as Gideon van Wyk collected a spilled ball and sprinted free. Somehow Martin Iosefo had the speed to catch him just before the line, and Alatimu was the next man there to win the turnover.

Smith sent a low raking kick deep into Houston territory and the Seawolves stole the throw-in. The ball went wide where Ross Neal cut back in on a switch play. Dan Kriel almost made it himself on an outside-in line, and Mzamo Majola finished the job from close range.

As Alatimu set up the conversion Malon Al-Jiboori was stretchered from the field with what appeared to be a back injury, though the replay did not reveal any particular incident causing him to collapse. When play resumed Alatimu combined with Kriel on a counter-attack to free Neal down the right side and Houston’s shoulders began to drop.

Matthews scored a long-range solo effort that first saw his chip-ahead deflected, and then hacked downfield with the bounce popping up perfectly for the fullback. Dyer would get his double in the dying minutes of the game, regathering his own chip ahead but it was too little, too late for the SaberCats.

Seattle now await the winner of Sunday’s Eastern Conference Final. They will travel to either Boston or New York next weekend with a chance to lift the MLR Shield for the first time since winning back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.

 

SCORING

HOUSTON 27
Tries – D. Coetzer (6′), G. Labuschagne (42′), C. Dyer 2 (47′, 75′)
Cons – D. Coetzer 2/4 (7′, 48′)
Pens – G. Labuschagne 1/1 (13′)

SEATTLE 46
Tries – J. Malcolm (17′), J. Smith (29′), D. Matthews 2 (31′, 60′), M. Majola (54′), R. Neal (57′)
Cons – A. Alatimu 4/5 (32′, 55′, 58′, 61′), No kick (29′)
Pens – A. Alatimu 2/2 (9′, 24′)

 

TEAMS

HOUSTON SABERCATS
1 Alec McDonnell (17 Frikkie de Beer 62′), 2 Dean Muir (capt.), 3 Juan Pablo Zeiss (18 Aaron Mitchell 62′), 4 Marno Redelinghuys, 5 Siaosi Mahoni (20 Emmanuel Albert 55′), 6 Danny Barrett (19 Gideon van Wyk 27′ {5 Siaosi Mahoni 68′}), 7 Wynand Grassmann (23 Keni Nasoqeqe HT), 8 Malon Al-Jiboori (16 Axel Zapata 55′), 9 Dillon Smit, 10 David Coetzer, 11 Gerrie Labuschagne (21 Nick Boyer 62′), 12 Louritz van der Schyff, 13 Christian Dyer, 14 Matai Leuta, 15 Robbie Povey (22 Zach Pangelinan 62′)

SEATTLE SEAWOLVES
1 Mzamo Majola (17 Kellen Gordon 77′), 2 James Malcolm (16 Sean McNulty 66′), 3 Sam Matenga (18 Taniela Tupou 66′), 4 Samu Manoa (19 Brad Tucker 59′), 5 Rhyno Herbst, 6 Andrew Durutalo, 7 Travis Larsen, 8 Riekert Hattingh (capt.) (20 Tommy Clark 77′), 9 JP Smith, 10 AJ Alatimu, 11 Martin Iosefo, 12 David Busby (22 Tavite Lopeti 66′), 13 Dan Kriel (23 Lauina Futi 73′), 14 Ross Neal, 15 Duncan Matthews (21 Reid Watkins 74′)

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Scott Green (USA)
Assistants: Luke Rogan (USA) & Kahlil Harrison (USA)
TMO: Derek Summers (USA)

 

Attendance: 2,341