Jackals hold on to stun Seawolves in Texas

The Jackals captured the biggest win in their short history as they held on to take a 14-7 win over the Seawolves on Sunday. It was an improbable victory for Dallas given they played nearly half the match down a man with four yellow cards conceded. Meanwhile the loss was doubly painful for Seattle as they lost captain Riekert Hattingh to a suspected Achilles injury late in the first half.

There was already bad news for the visitors before kickoff when Sam Matenga was forced to pull out, with Olive Kilifi instead starting at tighthead prop. A handful of minutes into the game Seattle found themselves down by seven points. Tomás Cubilla made ground with a charging run upfield and when the ball was recycled a wide pass from Martín Elías found Nic Benn in space for the finish.

The Seawolves pressed but the Jackals defense was up to the task with a turnover while parked on their own goal line. Again Cubilla made his presence felt, this time attacking the short side, and Daemon Torres reeled in the offload with one hand to score a second Jackals try. Elías was on song with the extras to make it 14-nil for the home side.

An opportunity to kick points was turned down by Seattle but the throw-in at the ensuing lineout was skewed. Hattingh then left the field in clear dismay when his right ankle buckled in the turf. Torres was binned after a string of penalties conceded by Dallas, but what might have been a try for Conner Mooneyham was wiped off the board for a knock-on earlier in the play.

Before halftime arrived Kyle Steeves intercepted a pass that led to a penalty for Dallas. They opted for the corner and Dewald Kotze broke from the maul. The hooker busted through one tackle attempted and offloaded to Tomás Malanos, but again the TMO interjected and ruled the pass forward.

Just a minute into the second half Rhyno Herbst saw yellow for a high shot on Cubilla but nothing would come from it. The two sides went back and forth until more Dallas penalties saw Kotze sent to the bin. Seattle threw everything at the Jackals defense but they couldn’t find a way through and the ball was knocked-on as points again went begging.

With Kotze still off the pitch Elias cynically took JP Smith out on the wrong side of a ruck, leaving the Jackals down two men. Somehow they still managed to with a scrum against the head with midfielder Mitch Richardson stepping in as a makeshift flanker.

A score finally came for the Seawolves when Dan Kriel barged into traffic and offloaded from the deck to Danie Rossouw for the finish. Pago Haini limped off forcing Smith to move into Seattle’s back row. Another yellow card was brandished to Dallas, this time to Kyle Breytenbach for slowing the ball down, giving the Seawolves a chance at a draw. It wasn’t to be, with a knock-on foiling an initial attack and an obstruction call adding to their day of frustration.

Dallas can take some time to celebrate with a bye week ahead. They return to action with a road game against the New England Free Jacks on Sunday, June 2. Seattle will have to regroup quickly before hosting Old Glory DC with a very short turnaround this coming Friday night.

 

SCORING

DALLAS 14
Tries (2) – N. Benn (6′), D. Torres (24′)
Cons (2) – M. Elías 2/2 (7′, 25′)
YC (4) – D. Torres (34′), D. Kotze (57′), M. Elías (63′), K. Breytenbach (75′)

SEATTLE 7
Tries (1) – D. Rossouw (68′)
Cons (1) – M. Mason 1/1 (69′)
YC (1) – R. Herbst (41′)

LINEUPS

DALLAS JACKALS
1 Joaquín Horcada, 2 Dewald Kotze, 3 Kyle Steeves (17 Tomás Bekerman 61′-67′) (18 Liam Murray 67′), 4 Daemon Torres (18 Liam Murray 57′-67′) (19 Kyle Breytenbach 67′), 5 Lucas Bur, 6 Jerónimo Gómez Vara (capt.), 7 Makeen Alikhan, 8 Ronan Foley, 9 Pedro Imhoff (21 Brock Gallagher 67′), 10 Martín Elías, 11 Nic Benn, 12 Tomás Cubilla, 13 Mitch Richardson (22 Manuel Covella 67′), 14 Tomás Malanos, 15 Nazareno Valentini

Not used: 16 Connor Grindal, 20 Marques Fuala’au, 23 Jarek Szopinski

SEATTLE SEAWOLVES
1 Cameron Orr, 2 Dewald Donald (16 DaQuan Perry HT), 3 Olive Kilifi (17 Chance Wenglewski 47′), 4 Rhyno Herbst, 5 Jean Droste, 6 Reid Davis (19 Taylor Krumrei 44′), 7 Huw Taylor, 8 Riekert Hattingh (capt.) (20 Pago Haini 32′ {21 Ryan Rees 73′}), 9 JP Smith, 10 Mack Mason, 11 Toni Pulu, 12 Dan Kriel, 13 Tavite Lopeti (22 Sam Windsor 60′), 14 Conner Mooneyham (23 Jade Stighling HT), 15 Divan Rossouw

Not used: 18 Kellen Gordon

MATCH INFO

Date: Sunday, May 19
Venue: Choctaw Stadium, Arlington
Kickoff: 18:00 local
Weather: sunny, 91°F (33°C), wind S 16-23mph (26-37km/h)

OFFICIALS

Referee: Andrew Cole (Ireland)
Assistants: Marquise Goodwin (USA) & Juan Pablo Parra (Colombia)
TMO: Derek Summers (USA)

HIGHLIGHTS