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The Houston SaberCats earned a bonus-point victory over the New York Ironworkers by a final score of 34-27 at Memorial Field on Sunday. An ugly scene that saw two coaches sent from the field mid-way through the first half took the shine off what was an otherwise competitive and entertaining contest.
An offside on the opening kickoff set up the first scrum of the game, which went decidedly in Houston’s favor. A resulting scoring was squandered and instead New York countered from deep inside their own territory. Monate Akuei offloaded to Dylan Fawsitt, who in turn freed Jason Emery down the sideline. One more pass to a trailing Conor McManus and the Ironworkers were in for an end-to-end try. The ball slipped off the tee on Sam Windsor’s approach to the conversion, so a snap left-footed drop-kick was attempted but failed.
McManus almost had a double near the 10-minute mark. Houston again shoved New York backwards at a scrum but Kara Pryor managed to tear away from the back and drive over the gainline. The ball went wide left where Teihorangi Walden was stopped just a meter short, and when McManus tried to sneak around the short side he was driven into touch by Dom Akina.
At the other end Akina put Houston on the front foot and the ball was spun out to Davy Coetzer, who connected with Christian Dyer for the finish. The would-be try was called back on obstruction, however, with two SaberCats players putting themselves in awkward positions ahead of the ball carrier.
An early engage allowed New York a chance to get away from another scrum in their end. Consecutive offloads from Emery and Nate Brakeley on the line freed McManus up the middle. He weaved his way to Houston’s 22-meter line and the SaberCats were pinged for slowing it down. Windsor tried to go quick but Siaosi Mahoni wrapped him up immediately and the referee summarily dispatched the Houston lock to the sin bin. Windsor knocked over three points and it was 8-nil to the home side.
Things took a bizarre turn at the hydration break that followed. SaberCats Head Coach Pote Human got in a verbal altercation with New York performance coach Ollie Richardson. It quickly got physical with Human slapping Richardson across the face, which was then retaliated with a punch. Players stepped in to break it up and both coaches were ejected from the field.
When play resumed Houston would score their first try of the game that started with a scintillating break from Drew Wild. On first phase from near halfway the fullback stepped past two defenders to take the outside lane, passing back inside to Coetzer in support for the finish. Coetzer’s conversion attempt rang off the right upright and the flags stayed down.
Unfortunately that would be the end of the day for Wild, who was helped off with a lower leg injury after the play. Soon after Dyer went looking for work on his opposite wing and Coetzer freed him with miss-out pass. A charging Wynand Grassmann drove over the line but he was held up. Windsor’s drop-out went straight to Coetzer who tried a drop kick from 40 meters but it fell just under the crossbar.
A scrum against the head saw Coetzer racing around the short side to within a couple meters of New York’s line. The Ironworkers defense scrambled back into position, but Carlo de Nysschen spotted just enough of a gap to slip through for the try. Coetzer had no trouble with the extras this time and the SaberCats took a four-point lead.
Just a couple minutes later the Cats were in again. A high ball from Windsor was collected by Zach Pangelinan, who quickly relayed the ball to Vereniki Tikoisolomone via Coetzer. Akina was next and he roped in both Andrew Coe and Fa’asiu Fuatai before returning the ball to a screaming Tikoisolomone who showed a clean pair of heels to the cover on a 35-meter sprint to in-goal.
The bonus point was secured for the visitors before halftime. Houston’s scrum continued to dominate and a penalty turned into an attacking lineout. There was no stopping the driving maul, with Dean Muir getting credit for the fourth try. Coetzer’s kick split the uprights to make it 24-8 to the SaberCats.
Both teams made changes at halftime with a twisted ankle forcing Quinn Ngawati off, replaced by Brooklyn Hardaker. Meanwhile Muir was given an early rest as Axel Zapata come in at hooker. Hardaker crossed for a try a dozen minutes later after Akuei freed his arms in a tackle and bended around another Houston defender to find his winger. Jason Emery bounced the kick in off the post to make it a full seven.
Walden nearly conjured another try moments later as he slipped out of two tackles on broken play. Suddenly there was space in front and the New York midfielder chipped over top of Pangelinan, only for Coetzer to arrive out of nowhere to ground the ball first.
Houston emptied their bench at the hydration break but New York kept the momentum. The scrum was steadied by replacement props Anthony Parry and Enrique Quinteros, and from the first side Walden stepped up at first receiver. Emery looped around and found Coe with him off his left shoulder with the timing of the pass fooling Akina and sending the Canadian winger in for the try. Emery’s kick was pushed well wide but it was suddenly a one-score game with 15 minutes to play.
As if woken from their slumber, the Cats responded immediately. Dyer took to the sky to win the restart and the forwards crashed ahead until winning a penalty, which Coetzer chipped over with ease. After the restart the ball was spilled at a ruck just on New York’s side of halfway. Akina was there first, tying in three defenders before flicking a back-handed offload to Dyer for a free run-in. Coetzer added two more and now the gap was 14 points to the visitors.
The result was sorted but there were still bonus points on offer for New York. Emery was subbed off for an HIA with Windsor coming back in at flyhalf. He spun it wide to Hardaker who took the corner and chipped ahead, only just coming second-best in the race to the grounding. Hardaker again interjected when he picked up a loose ball and raced into scoring territory. Nick Feakes was waiting on the right side and after a couple phases the fullback sliced through for the fourth try. Windsor’s kick was on target to grab a second bonus point on full-time.
Both teams are on the road for vital clashes next Sunday. New York head to Boston to take on the Eastern Conference-leading New England Free Jacks. Houston will play the San Diego Legion with top spot in the Western Conference on the line.
SCORING
NEW YORK 27
Tries (4) – C. McManus (3′), B. Hardaker (52′), A. Coe (63′), N. Feakes (80’+1′)
Cons (2) – S. Windsor 1/2 (80’+2′), J. Emery 1/2 (53′)
Pens (1) – S. Windsor 1/1 (21′)
HOUSTON 34
Tries (5) – D. Coetzer (24′), C. de Nysschen (32′), V. Tikoisolomone (35′), D. Muir (40’+2′), C. Dyer (72′)
Cons (3) – D. Coetzer 3/5 (33′, 40’+3′, 73′)
Pens (1) – D. Coetzer 1/1 (67′)
DG (0) – D. Coetzer 0/1
YC (1) – S. Mahoni (21′)
TEAMS
NEW YORK IRONWORKERS
1 Sam Davies (18 Enrique Quinteros 49′), 2 Dylan Fawsitt, 3 Kaleb Geiger (17 Anthony Parry 47′), 4 Nate Brakeley (capt.), 5 Hamish Dalzell (19 Charlie Hewitt 73′), 6 Brad Tucker (16 DaQuan Perry 76′), 7 Monate Akuei, 8 Kara Pryor, 9 Conor McManus (21 Cristian Rodriguez 65′), 10 Jason Emery (15 Sam Windsor 77′), 11 Quinn Ngawati (23 Brooklyn Hardaker HT), 12 Teihorangi Walden, 13 Fa’asiu Fuatai, 14 Andrew Coe, 15 Sam Windsor (22 Nick Feakes 49′)
Not used: 20 Bill Whiteside
HOUSTON SABERCATS
1 Rob Cobb (17 Alec McDonnell 59′), 2 Dean Muir (capt.) (16 Axel Zapata HT), 3 Morgan Mitchell (18 Pono Davis 49′), 4 Siaosi Mahoni (21 Emmanuel Albert 50′), 5 Nathan Den Hoedt (19 Keni Nasoqeqe 59′), 6 Marno Redelinghuys, 7 Wynand Grassmann, 8 Malon Al-Jiboori (20 Danny Barrett 59′), 9 Carlo de Nysschen (22 Devereaux Ferris 57′), 10 Davy Coetzer, 11 Vereniki Tikoisolomone, 12 Louritz van der Schyff, 13 Dom Akina, 14 Christian Dyer, 15 Drew Wild (23 Zach Pangelinan 25′)
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Mike Lash (New Zealand)
Assistants: Paulo Duarte (Portugal) & Miles McIvor (USA)
TMO: Chris Assmus (Canada)
