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After two weeks of home cooking the Houston SaberCats take to the road to play the Seattle Seawolves on Sunday. While the defending champions haven’t quite been as dominant as they reputation just yet, their performances have been markedly superior to that of the struggling SaberCats.
Houston squeaked by Austin in the first round but since then it’s been rough goings, with their one-sided loss to New York last week a particularly tough pill to swallow at Constellation Field. Turning things around against the Seawolves on their home paddock is about as tough as ask as it gets.
The SaberCats are still without injured duo Jason Harris-Wright and Charlie Hewitt, while Uruguayan pair Mateo Sanguinetti and Santiago Arata will return from the Americas Rugby Championship next week. Alejandro Nieto and Diego Magno will be in the lineup, however, with the former handed his first Major League Rugby start and the latter on the bench.
Cecil Garber returns to the starting lineup at openside flanker after being a replacement against RUNY, and Connor Murphy is fit to play after limping off near the end of the game. Otherwise it’s a familiar lineup for Houston with their all-Irish front row of Jamie Dever, Pat O’Toole, and Charlie Connolly set to face formidable opposition.
Olive Kilifi is on the Seawolves bench after subbing for the Eagles on Friday. Kellen Gordon and Dan Trierweiler get their first starts of the season in the front row with Stephan Coetzee swapping to the reserves. Second row backup will come from Jérémy Lenaerts this week in place of Taylor Krumrei.
There are three changes to the backs that started against New York two weeks ago. Phil Mack sits out after playing for Canada against the USA so JP Smith runs out at scrumhalf. William Rasileka is a straight swap for George Barton, and Sequoyah Burke-Combs comes in for Mat Turner, the former starting on the wing with Peter Tiberio switching to fullback.
The additions of Nieto and Garber to the pack are helpful but without Arata their fate again lies largely in the boot of Sam Windsor and the attacking flair of Osea Kolinisau and Josua Vici. They struggled to find success against RUNY, however, and on the narrow Starfire pitch the half-gaps become even smaller.
Seattle meanwhile are starting to get their swagger back and with back-to-back wins over Toronto and New York, the obvious conclusion is that this is the home team’s game to lose. Look for the Seawolves to make it three in a row against a Houston side desperate to make an impact.
Kickoff is set for 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern. Local broadcasts will be available on Root Sports and KUBE57. ESPN+ will broadcast nation-wide, while those located outside of the USA can access the live stream on the official MLR Facebook page.
SEATTLE SEAWOLVES
1 Kellen Gordon, 2 Dan Trierweiler, 3 Tim Metcher, 4 Api Naikatini, 5 Brad Tucker, 6 Cam Polson, 7 Eric Duechle, 8 Riekert Hattingh (capt.), 9 JP Smith, 10 Ben Cima, 11 Sequoyah Burke-Combs, 12 Shalom Suniula, 13 William Rasileka, 14 Brock Staller, 15 Peter Tiberio
Replacements: 16 Stephan Coetzee, 17 Olive Kilifi, 18 John Hayden, 19 Jérémy Lenaerts, 20 Aladdin Schirmer, 21 George Barton, 22 Dion Crowder, 23 Scott Dean
HOUSTON SABERCATS
1 Jamie Dever, 2 Pat O’Toole, 3 Charlie Connolly, 4 Robert Meeson, 5 Matt Trouville (capt.), 6 Luke Beauchamp, 7 Cecil Garber, 8 Alejandro Nieto, 9 Connor Murphy, 10 Sam Windsor, 11 Malacchi Esdale, 12 Conor Mills, 13 Osea Kolinisau, 14 Josua Vici, 15 Zach Pangelinan
Replacements: 16 Amro Gouda, 17 Jake Turnbull, 18 Matt Almeida, 19 Chris Parker, 20 Diego Magno, 21 Ayron Schramm, 22 Chris Saint, 23 Max Tacket
Date: Sunday, March 10
Venue: Starfire Stadium, Seattle
Kickoff: 17:00 local (20:00 Eastern)
Referee: Paul-Henri Courbier (USAR)
Assistants: Luke Rogan (USAR) & Denny Russell (USAR)
Broadcasts: ESPN+, Facebook, Root Sports, KUBE57
