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A late try from Juan Cappiello saved the NOLA Gold from an opening round defeat at The Gold Mine on Sunday. The final score would read 26-all as an aggressive Old Glory DC defense frustrated a misfiring NOLA attack and took points at every available opportunity.
Jason Robertson sent over an early penalty to get DC on the board first, but the Gold struck back with interest. Their catch and drive from the lineout worked to perfection and Eric Howard was the man to come up with the ball. Carl Meyer’s first attempt at the posts went wide of the uprights.
The home side dominated much of the territory and possession for the remainder of the half but could not take advantage on the score sheet. They opted for scrums instead of points, and were spoiled both by the DC defense and their own handling errors. Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz and Mike Dabulas came up with turnovers deep in their own end to ruin NOLA advances.
Instead it was Old Glory who crept ahead. Robertson landed penalties on either side of a runaway for Danny Tusitala. It came from another loose pass from NOLA that was scooped up by Mike Sosene-Feagai, the hooker finding his fellow Auckland representative on his shoulder for a seven-point try.
On the stroke of halftime NOLA finally got some rewards. DC’s scrum held under pressure but Holden Yungert spotted some room to run on the openside and slipped through for the try. This time Meyer found his mark to make the score 16-12 for the visitors at the break.
A sensational second try for Tusitala came early in the second half. The scrumhalf attacked the blindside and connected with Robertson, who in turn sent Renata Roberts-Te Nana streaking down the sideline. With one defender to beat the winger popped a no-look pass back inside to the trailing Tusitala to finish in the corner. Robertson’s sideline conversion was spot on target.
NOLA rung the changes with several replacements entering the match. They had a positive impact and soon Carl Meyer was in under the sticks, running an outside-in line and finishing with a step off his right foot. Again no conversion was kicked under the new trial laws.
Robertson’s fourth penalty nudged DC further ahead in the 69th minute. The Gold finally started to click and after going through the phases Cappiello would pick up a ball knocked down by D’Montae Noble and carry into the right corner for a bonus-point try. Meyer nailed the difficult kick to level the scores and the game would end in a stalemate.
Both teams play on short turnarounds this coming Saturday against first-round winners. Old Glory celebrate their home opener against Rugby ATL. NOLA stay put and will look for improvement against Rugby United New York in another all-East Conference match-up.
SCORING
NOLA 26
Tries – E. Howard (8’), H. Yungert (40’), C. Meyer (53’), J. Cappiello (76’)
Cons – C. Meyer 2/3 (40’, 77’), No kick (53’)
DC 26
Tries – D. Tusitala 2 (25’, 45’)
Cons – No kick (25’), J. Robertson 1/1 (46’)
Pens – J. Robertson 4/4 (3’, 10’, 34’, 69’)
TEAMS
NOLA GOLD
1 Matt Harmon (17 Kevin Sullivan 51’), 2 Eric Howard (16 Pat O’Toole 51’), 3 Dino Waldren (18 James Irey 67’), 4 Kyle Baillie (capt.), 5 Billy Stewart (19 Ignacio Dotti 46’), 6 Devin Short, 7 Andrew Guerra (20 Moni Tonga’uiha 46’), 8 Cam Dolan, 9 Holden Yungert (21 Damian Stevens 46’), 10 Robbie Coleman, 11 Julián Domínguez, 12 JP du Plessis, 13 Juan Cappiello, 14 Joeli Tikoisuva, 15 Carl Meyer
Not used: 22 Ross Depperschmidt, 23 Timothée Guillimin
OLD GLORY DC
1 Jamie Dever (17 Jack Iscaro 55’), 2 Mike Sosene-Feagai (16 James King 69’), 3 Steven Longwell (18 Jack Carroll 71’), 4 Tevita Naqali, 5 Apisai Naikatini (19 Casey Renaud 62’), 6 Callum Gibbins (20 Luke Campbell 60’), 7 Mungo Mason (capt.), 8 Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz (23 Josh Brown 75’), 9 Danny Tusitala, 10 Jason Robertson, 11 Renata Roberts-Te Nana, 12 Ciaran Hearn (22 D’Montae Noble 55’), 13 Doug Fraser, 14 Sam Cusano, 15 Mike Dabulas
Not used: 21 Sean Hartig
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Luke Rogan (USA)
Assistants: Allen Alongi (USA) & Rob Halcomb (USA)
