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The New Orleans Gold have their first match in the history books as they defeated the Capital Selects by 68-15 at Gretna Park on Saturday afternoon. Ten tries in all came from the home side with JP Eloff contributing 23 points including a nine-from-ten kicking performance from the tee.
Both teams struggled with continuity at times but the individual talent in the NOLA arsenal proved too much for a slightly disjointed Selects defense. The Gold ran up a 35-nil lead with two tries each from John Sullivan and Sebastián Kalm and one for Taylor Howden before the Selects got on board. CJ Burnes found the corner on his opposite just before halftime to give the visitors something to cheer about heading into the intermission.
Yellow cards to Howden and later on Derrek van Klein left New Orleans playing shorthanded for a good portion of the second half. That didn’t stop them from adding another five tries to their ledger with Eloff, Vincent Jobo, and Eric Howard grabbing singles and replacement winger Joey Sok crossing for a double. Jake Humphrey added one for the selects and Brian Mulloy had the final say with a consolation effort just ahead of full time.
Kalm was named Man of the Match despite coming off early in the second half with a knock to the head. Thankfully his post-game interview with Ian McNulty of GiftTime Rugby showed no signs of concussion.
“We’ve been working really hard for four weeks now. We knew the Capital Selects were coming with a strong side, but we were still going to stick to our own system. We wanted to bring tempo and aggression. It’s our first game so we’re trying to bring what we’ve been able to work with in these last four weeks and I think we accomplished that so we’re very happy with that.
“It’s really encouraging to see how the boys are coming together. A bunch of them came from teams that knew each other. There’s a bunch of Ohio boys, guys coming in that played in the same conference, a few new guys. They’ve all tied in very well. That gives us a platform to build on.”
The Selects move on to face Stars Rugby next weekend before a tilt with the Houston SaberCats on February 3. NOLA’s next scheduled game is also against the SaberCats albeit not until February 24.
SCORING
NOLA GOLD 68
Tries – J. Sullivan 2, S. Kalm 2, T. Howden, J. Eloff, V. Jobo, J. Sok 2, E. Howard
Cons – J. Eloff 9/10
Yellow cards – T. Howden, D. van Klein
CAPITAL SELECTS 15
Tries – C. Burnes, J. Humphrey, B. Mulloy
Cons – J. Humphrey 0/1, C. Johnstone 0/1, N. Kuhl 0/1
TEAMS
NOLA GOLD
1 Ben Tarr, 2 Eric Howard, 3 Cam Falcon, 4 Nikola Bursic, 5 John Sullivan, 6 Vince Jobo, 7 Matt Hughston, 8 Sebastián Kalm, 9 Holden Yungert, 10 Taylor Howden (capt.), 11 Joeli Tikoisuva, 12 Zack Stryffeler, 13 Moni Tonga’uiha, 14 Peceli Rinakama, 15 JP Eloff
Replacements: 16 Derrek van Klein, 17 Matt Wirken, 18 Joey Sok, 19 William Waguespack, 20 Myles McQuone, 21 Michael Baska, 22 Bobby Johns, 23 Melvin DeSouza, 24 Amro Gouda, 25 Michael Al-Jiboori
CAPITAL SELECTS
1 Doc Irey, 2 Adam Floyd, 3 Evan Harkum, 4 Tyler Barberi, 5 Matt Holsopple, 6 Vili Siale, 7 Alex Diegel (capt.), 8 Josh Brown, 9 Sean Hartig, 10 Jake Humphrey, 11 CJ Burnes, 12 Campbell Johnstone, 13 Brian Mulloy, 14 Blake Carroll, 15 Nick Kuhl
Replacements: 16 Eric Sweeney, 17 Guy Lopresti, 18 Zack Jessell, 19 Mike Fletcher, 20 Kevin Jackson, 21 Zach Schell, 22 Calvin Storey, 23 Ted Sheedy
