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Houston is where the second Texas derby of the season will take place on Saturday when the SaberCats square off against the Jackals. When the two sides met in the opening week of the season it was a decisive victory for the Cats at Choctaw Stadium.
Since then things have gone reasonably well for Houston though they are coming off their worst performance of the season against Utah last weekend. To their credit, they still fought back to come within a whisker of victory at the death. Pote Human’s consistency in selection continues.
The only change to the starting pack sees Gideon van Wyk recalled at the back of the scrum with Wynand Grassmann dropping out. New arrival Tomiwa Agbongbon comes straight into the squad, joining Asa Carter as loose forward options on a 6/2 bench. The only other alteration to the lineup is on the left wing with Vereniki Tikoisolomone taking over for Gerrie Labuschagne.
Gone is the losing streak for Dallas, but with that comes greater expectations heading into the second half of their sophomore campaign. They have mixed things up this week with three regular starters on the bench and one new signing in the starting lineup.
Kyle Steeves is handed his first professional start at tighthead prop with Juan Pablo Zeiss named among the reserves alongside Nicolás Revol. Matt Gordon is the newcomer, the former Old Glory forward named at lock with Sam Golla packing down on the side of the scrum. Conrado Roura is also on the replacements list this week.
There is good news at scrumhalf where Pedro Imhoff returns after a four-game absence for just his third appearance of the season. Juan Pablo Aguirre starts at inside center with Alejandro Torres moving to fullback and no sign of Marcos Moroni. Campbell Johnstone and Aaron Gray are named on the bench.
Heat as ever defines the forecast, though all concerned will be hoping the risk of thunderstorms stays distant. Dallas are not fielding their strongest lineup, perhaps with an eye to future battles. On the other hand Houston are not messing about. Quite simply the SaberCats are too strong to let another one slip after last week’s disappointment. Take the home side in convincing fashion.
Kickoff is set for 7pm local time, 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern. A local broadcast will be available on AT&T SportsNet Southwest with The Rugby Network streaming worldwide.
HOUSTON SABERCATS
1 Rob Cobb, 2 Dean Muir (capt.), 3 Morgan Mitchell, 4 Siaosi Mahoni, 5 Nathan Den Hoedt, 6 Marno Redelinghuys, 7 Danny Barrett, 8 Gideon van Wyk, 9 Carlo de Nysschen, 10 Davy Coetzer, 11 Vereniki Tikoisolomone, 12 Louritz van der Schyff, 13 Dom Akina, 14 Christian Dyer, 15 Drew Wild
Replacements: 16 Axel Zapata, 17 Alec McDonnell, 18 Pono Davis, 19 Tomiwa Agbongbon, 20 Asa Carter, 21 Nick Boyer, 22 Zach Pangelinan, 23 Emmanuel Albert
DALLAS JACKALS
1 Liam Murray, 2 Tomás Baravalle, 3 Kyle Steeves, 4 Lucas Bur, 5 Matt Gordon, 6 Jerónimo Gómez Vara (capt.), 7 Sam Golla, 8 Adriaan Booysen, 9 Pedro Imhoff, 10 Martín Elías, 11 James Vaifale, 12 Juan Pablo Aguirre, 13 Tomás Malanos, 14 Lui Sitama, 15 Alejandro Torres
Replacements: 16 Nicolás Revol, 17 Dewald Kotze, 18 Juan Pablo Zeiss, 19 Carson Shoemaker, 20 Conrado Roura, 21 Danny Christensen, 22 Campbell Johnstone, 23 Aaron Gray
Date: Saturday, April 15
Venue: SaberCats Stadium, Houston
Kickoff: 19:00 local (17:00 Pacific, 20:00 Eastern)
Broadcasts: AT&T SportsNet Southwest, The Rugby Network
Referee: Damián Schneider (Argentina)
Assistants: Justin Hale (USA) & Blair McClure (USA)
TMO: Scott Green (USA)
HISTORICAL RESULTS
2023-02-19 – Dallas Jackals 12, Houston SaberCats 33 (Choctaw Stadium)
2022-04-09 – Houston SaberCats 31, Dallas Jackals 6 (AVEVA Stadium)
2022-02-19 – Dallas Jackals 33, Houston SaberCats 38 (Choctaw Stadium)
