New York claims first MLR title with win over Seattle

Rugby New York have captured their first Major League Rugby title with a comprehensive 30-15 victory over the Seattle Seawolves at Red Bull Arena on Saturday. Fatigue was a factor early for the visitors due in parts to travel, the early kickoff time, and the heat at pitch level. Several critical errors saw opportunities missed while while the home side showed greater composure at key moments.

It was a fast start with the visitors grabbing the first try with under five minutes on the clock. James Malcolm and Mzamo Majola made ground in heavy traffic, and after several phases the defense was stretched and Martin Iosefo sliced through a gap for the try. AJ Alatimu couldn’t find the posts with the conversion but the Seawolves had the lead.

Iosefo turned from hero to villain when he dropped a box kick from Andy Ellis. From the resulting scrum New York plowed ahead until Will Tucker crashed over, running low and hard through two would-be tacklers. Jason Emery added the extras and the home side pushed ahead.

A high tackle from Chance Wenglewski on Mat Turner gave Alatimu a shot at the posts which he obliged to restore Seattle’s lead. At the other end JP Smith went too high on Andrew Coe and Emery had a shot to put his team back in front but the kick sailed wide of the uprights.

Emery redeemed himself in open play with a perfectly-weighted grubber that forced Turner into touch in the corner. The lineout drive was stopped but illegally and the referee awarded a penalty try with Rhyno Herbst singled out for a spell in the sin bin.

It was almost a second try soon after but Antonio Kiri Kiri was held up by Alatimu. Seattle cleared but it was only temporary relief. Ellis dummied to the open side and came back to the left where there was a four-on-one overlap for New York. Simple hands put Jack Heighton in space, and after drawing in the last defender the return pass went back inside to Ellis for the finish.

Early in the second half it was another near-miss for New York as Kalolo Tuiloma came within inches of scoring, only for Travis Larsen to win a turnover at the breakdown. Another effective Emery grubber produced an attacking lineout. Seattle stole the throw-in, but Smith was pinged for playing the ball on the deck and Emery slotted three points to stretch the lead.

The decisive score was a highlight-reel try involving four New York forwards. Tucker cut through the line on a short ball from Ellis, and dribbled a pass along the floor to Nic Mayhew. The prop scooped it up and popped it up to Brendon O’Connor. A switch put Dylan Fawsitt away, and his scoring pass while being tackled from behind went back to Mayhew for a superb score.

Seattle showed a hint of life when an attack down the short side made ground and Sam Matenga barged through to defenders to score. Reid Watkins injected pace at scrumhalf and his line break resulted in a yellow card to Will Tucker for cynical play. His brother Brad on the opposite side reached out of a tackle to score but the replay showed he regathered while still on his knees and the try was waved off.

Handling plagued further Seawolves advances and with time winding down a drop-goal from Sam Windsor closed out the scoring. The visitors had the ball in the 80th minute and appropriately it was Ellis who disrupted to cause a knock-on, the former World Cup winner named man-of-the-match in his last performance before retirement.

 

SCORING

NEW YORK 30
Tries – W. Tucker (8′), Penalty try (24′), A. Ellis (35′), N. Mayhew (56′)
Cons – J. Emery 1/3 (9′), No kick (24′)
Pens – J. Emery 1/2 (50′)
DG – S. Windsor 1/1 (73′)
YC – W. Tucker (66′)

SEATTLE 15
Tries – M. Iosefo (4′), S. Matenga (61′)
Cons – A. Alatimu 1/2 (62′)
Pens – A. Alatimu 1/1 (13′)
YC – R. Herbst (24′)

 

TEAMS

RUGBY NEW YORK
1 Chance Wenglewski (17 Nic Mayhew 54′), 2 Dylan Fawsitt (16 Kaleb Geiger 63′), 3 Wilton Rebolo (18 Kalolo Tuiloma 30′-68′), 4 Benjamín Bonasso, 5 Nate Brakeley (capt.) (19 Nick Civetta 48′), 6 Will Tucker, 7 Brendon O’Connor, 8 Antonio Kiri Kiri (20 Joe Basser 73′), 9 Andy Ellis (21 Conor McManus 59′-68′), 10 Jack Heighton (22 Sam Windsor 63′), 11 Andrew Coe, 12 Jason Emery, 13 Fa’asiu Fuatai, 14 Waisake Naholo (23 Quinn Ngawati 75′), 15 Nehe Milner-Skudder

SEATTLE SEAWOLVES
1 Mzamo Majola (17 Kellen Gordon 73′), 2 James Malcolm (16 Sean McNulty 55′), 3 Sam Matenga (18 Taniela Tupou 68′), 4 Samu Manoa (20 Tommy Clark 59′), 5 Rhyno Herbst, 6 Andrew Durutalo (19 Brad Tucker 45′), 7 Travis Larsen, 8 Riekert Hattingh (capt.), 9 JP Smith (21 Reid Watkins 59′), 10 AJ Alatimu, 11 Martin Iosefo, 12 David Busby (22 Tavite Lopeti 45′), 13 Dan Kriel, 14 Ross Neal, 15 Mat Turner (23 Lauina Futi 66′)

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
Assistants: Mike Lash (New Zealand) & Cisco Lopez (USA)
TMO: Nick Hannon (USA)

 

Attendance: 1,979