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The New England Free Jacks are Major League Rugby champions for a second straight year. A league record crowd of just over 12,000 watched the team from Boston defeat the Seattle Seawolves 20-11 in San Diego, with the suffocating Free Jacks defense ultimately proving the difference.
Seattle had the edge in the scrum early which led to a promising attack, but a run down the left side by Toni Pulu was snuffed out when the winger was ushered into touch. Instead it was the Free Jacks who struck first, with Jayson Potroz landing a routine penalty goal just shy of the 10-minute mark.
A turnover at the breakdown won by Devin Short gave Mack Mason an immediate opportunity to even the scores but his kick from 40 meters out drifted wide right. The Seawolves conceded a penalty at the scrum and from the ensuing maul Andrew Quattrin broke to the left, popping back inside to Toby Fricker and pinning Seattle back on their line. Le Roux Malan was waiting on the short side and when the ball was spun to the right he delivered a highlight-reel dive to ground the ball just inside the touchline.
The line speed of the New England defense pushed Seattle backwards, but after the Free Jacks had temporarily regained possession a turnover delivered another chance for Mason. This time his aim was true to get the Seawolves on the board. Just as quickly however a New England turnover resulted in Potroz cancelling out Mason’s kick with a clean strike of his own.
Few penalties were conceded by the Free Jacks in the first half but one proved consequential. The Seawolves kicked to the corner and set the lineout, but instead of going for the driving maul the ball came off the top from Jean Droste to Rhyno Herbst. The big lock attacked a weakly-guarded blindside and offloaded from the tackle to Joe Taufete’e, who had only to barge through Potroz to score.
Again the Free Jacks slowed Seattle’s advances and a frustrated JP Smith kicked the ball away to a waiting Potroz, who returned it with interest to land a 50-22. After winning the throw-in Herbst turned to villain with a no-arms tackle on Wayne van der Bank that allowed Potroz to stretch New England’s lead to 14-8 heading into halftime.
The sun may have played its part when a box kick from Oscar Lennon was dropped by Seattle five minutes into the second half. Mason was then too slow to roll away from a ruck, giving Potroz a fourth shot at the posts. A gust of wind blew the ball off the tee but the New Zealander calmly placed the ball back on its perch and just before his time expired snapped over another three points from 40 meters.
Mason redeemed himself with his own penalty goal after the Free Jacks were caught offside shortly after the restart. Again the defending champions had a rapid response. After multiple phases a desperate tackle from Pulu just knocked Fricker into touch before he could score in the corner. New England were on advantage, however, and Potroz wasted no time taking points after Tavite Lopeti was shown yellow for a high shot on Malan.
Hopes of a comeback for the Seawolves faded when Taufete’e limped off after a heavy collision. Further substitutions came at the hour mark. Seattle threw all their might at New England’s line but time and again they were turned away, with the Free Jacks winning several turnovers. Fittingly the game would end with the champions defending their own line, again stealing away possession with captain Potroz given the honor of kicking the ball dead into touch.
| SCORING |
SEATTLE 11
Tries (1) – J. Taufete’e (31′)
Cons (0) – M. Mason 0/1
Pens (2) – M. Mason 2/3 (25′, 48′)
YC (1) – T. Lopeti (52′)
NEW ENGLAND 20
Tries (1) – L. Malan (14′)
Cons (0) – J. Potroz 0/1
Pens (5) – J. Potroz 5/5 (9′, 28′, 40’+1′, 45′, 52′)
| LINEUPS |
SEATTLE SEAWOLVES
1 Cameron Orr (22 Sam Windsor 70′), 2 Joe Taufete’e (16 Jackson Zabierek 54′), 3 Sam Matenga (18 Koby Baker 60′), 4 Rhyno Herbst, 5 Mahonri Ngakuru (19 Taylor Krumrei 63′), 6 Jean Droste (17 Chance Wenglewski 68′), 7 Devin Short (20 Pago Haini 52′), 8 Huw Taylor, 9 JP Smith (capt.) (21 Ryan Rees 60′), 10 Mack Mason, 11 Toni Pulu, 12 Tavite Lopeti, 13 Divan Rossouw, 14 Jade Stighling (23 Conner Mooneyham 63′), 15 Duncan Matthews
NEW ENGLAND FREE JACKS
1 Malakai Hala-Ngatai (17 Tevita Sole 63′), 2 Andrew Quattrin (16 Foster DeWitt 73′), 3 Cole Keith (18 Kaleb Geiger 58′), 4 Kyle Baillie (19 Josh Larsen 9′-18′, 52′), 5 Conor Keys, 6 Piers von Dadelszen (20 Ethan Fryer 64′), 7 Jed Melvin, 8 Seta Baker, 9 Oscar Lennon (21 Holden Yungert 58′), 10 Jayson Potroz (capt.), 11 Paula Balekana, 12 Le Roux Malan (22 Ben LeSage 63′), 13 Wayne van der Bank, 14 Toby Fricker (23 Mitch Wilson 68′), 15 Reece MacDonald
| MATCH INFO |
Date: Sunday, August 4
Venue: Snapdragon Stadium, San Diego
Kickoff: 13:15 local
Weather: cloudy, 80°F (26°C), wind W 11-16mph (18-26km/h)
Attendance: 12,085
| OFFICIALS |
Referee: Luke Rogan (USA)
Assistants: Federico Anselmi (Argentina) & Amelia Luciano (USA)
TMO: Cam Russell (Canada)
