SaberCats claw back to beat Legion in Houston thriller

The SaberCats earned a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the Legion in Houston on Sunday afternoon. It was a see-saw battle from start to finish with the result in doubt until the very end, with the scoreboard reading 31-26 to the home side at fulltime.

A late change to the Houston lineup saw Danny Barrett ruled out, with Nathan Den Hoedt taking over the captaincy and Keni Nasoqeqe starting on the blindside flank. Emmanuel Albert took Nasoqeqe’s place on the reserves list.

San Diego wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. Ben Grant pinched a lineout throw, and after attacking wide left the ball came all the way back right where Christian Poidevin was loitering with intent. The flanker cut back inside to touch down just two minutes in.

The disaster start continued for Houston when Marcel Brache cut clean through the midfield on a first phase attack from a lineout. It was the simplest of finishes for a trailing Richard Judd as he took the scoring pass from Brache in under the posts.

Houston regained their composure and fired back immediately. Dom Akina and Christian Dyer made up for the defensive lapse by creating a try. Akina made a half-break and offloaded to Dyer for the finish, with Davy Coetzer tacking on the extra two.

Coetzer closed the gap further with a penalty goal after Dyer broke upfield from his own end. Both teams would then lose a starting halfback as Carlo de Nysschen was replaced by Nick Boyer, and Josh Henderson by Will Hooley. A frantic exchange just before halftime fizzled out with no points for either side.

A deadlock to start the second half ended with a breakaway try for Houston. Ma’a Nonu tore upfield for San Diego, but when the ball was recycled Gerrie Labuschagne picked off a no-look pass from Mikey Te’o and sprinted 90 meters against the run of play to score a seven-pointer.

Sama Malolo thought he had scored a try soon after but it was instead a penalty against the hooker for hurdling over a ruck. The Legion would jump back ahead in any event after an Isaac Ross offload freed Dan Pryor. Nate Augspurger was there in support to take the inside pass in under the sticks, giving the visitors a four-point lead just ahead of the hour mark.

Lineout inaccuracy cost Houston possession on the other side of the hydration break, and Grant crashed over for the bonus-point try. The towering lock took a short behind-the-back pass from Judd and there was no stopping him from close range.

A turning point game in the 69th minute when Djustice Sears-Duru was sent to the sin bin for a swinging-arm tackle. Two minutes later Poidevin joined him after a deliberate knock-on, leaving San Diego with just 13 players on the pitch. Gideon van Wyk tapped and charged ahead, and it was Akina who blasted over with Robbie Povey’s conversion making it a two-point game.

Discipline again plagued the Legion but Povey turned down a kickable penalty in favor of the corner. Andrew Tuala cleaned up a messy lineout connection, and then Boyer took a page from Judd’s book and hit van Wyk on his inside for the go-ahead try. Povey’s quick conversion pushed the lead to five points with only a minute left on the clock.

Just when it seemed as though Houston would run down the final seconds San Diego won a turnover . Now back to 14 men, they launched a furious attack and created the space they needed but the final pass from Shilo Klein came off Pryor’s fingertips. The partisan crowd erupted as the final whistle sounded.

Both teams face a short turnaround with games on Saturday. San Diego return home to host the Dallas Jackals, while Houston hit the road to take on the also-unbeaten Seattle Seawolves.

SCORING

HOUSTON 31
Tries (4) – C. Dyer (12′), G. Labuschagne (50′), D. Akina (72′), G. van Wyk (78′)
Cons (4) – D. Coetzer 1/1 (13′), No kick (50′), R. Povey 2/2 (72′, 79′)
Pens (1) – D. Coetzer 1/1 (23′)

SAN DIEGO 26
Tries (4) – C. Poidevin (2′), R. Judd (10′), N. Augspurger (57′), B. Grant (65′)
Cons (3) – J. Henderson 1/1 (3′), No kick 2 (10′, 57′), W. Hooley 0/1
YC (2) – D. Sears-Duru (69′), C. Poidevin (71′)

TEAMS

HOUSTON SABERCATS
1 Rob Cobb (17 Alec McDonnell 57′), 2 Axel Zapata (16 Andrew Tuala 57′), 3 Morgan Mitchell (18 Pono Davis 67′), 4 Siaosi Mahoni (20 Marno Redelinghuys 48′), 5 Nathan Den Hoedt (capt.), 6 Hanco Germishuys, *7 Keni Nasoqeqe (*19 Emmanuel Albert 51′), 8 Gideon van Wyk, 9 Carlo de Nysschen (21 Nick Boyer 35′), 10 Davy Coetzer (22 Robbie Povey 57′), 11 Vereniki Tikoisolomone, 12 Dom Akina, 13 Christian Dyer, 14 Gerrie Labuschagne, 15 Drew Wild

Not used: 23 Zach Pangelinan

*Keni Nasoqeqe actually wore 19 and Emmanuel Albert wore 7, but their numbers have been switched to reflect their actual game positions

SAN DIEGO LEGION
1 Faka’osi Pifeleti (17 Djustice Sears-Duru 55′), 2 Sama Malolo (16 Shilo Klein 60′), 3 Chris Baumann (18 Fred Apulu 55′-77′), 4 Ben Grant, 5 Isaac Ross (19 Chris Turori 74′), 6 Christian Poidevin, 7 Blair Cowan (capt.), 8 Tupou Afungia (20 Dan Pryor 52′), 9 Richard Judd (1 Faka’osi Pifeleti 71′-79′), 10 Josh Henderson (22 Will Hooley 35′), 11 Nate Augspurger, 12 Ma’a Nonu (23 Ryan Matyas 63′), 13 Marcel Brache, 14 Tomas Aoake, 15 Mikey Te’o

Not used: 21 Malakai Latu

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Chris Assmus (Canada)
Assistants: Brian Dusablon (USA) & Jono Cooper (USA)
TMO: Austin Reed (USA)