Glendale earn remarkable comeback win over Houston

Recap

A 32-point deficit wasn’t enough for the Houston SaberCats as the Glendale Raptors completed a remarkable 52-44 win at Infinity Park on Saturday evening. It was the largest come-from-behind result in Major League Rugby history as the Raptors staved off what appeared to be certain defeat to earn a crucial 5-point victory.

The first half hour was the stuff of nightmares for Glendale. Their scrum’s reputation was poor entering the match and it would contribute to an incredible haul of 32 unanswered points, with 14 directly from two penalty tries by the 13-minute mark.

Another collapse gave Sam Windsor an easy shot at goal and landed Kelepi Fifita in the bin. The SaberCats smelled blood with Glendale shorthanded and struck for two tries in rapid succession.

Malacchi Esdale ripped around the outside for the first, showing the defense a clean pair of heels. The second came when Kelly Kolberg pounced on a loose ball after Diego Magno cleaned out Shaun Davies, the scrumhalf caught leaning on the ruck.

It was up to John Ryberg to breathe life back into the home side. The league’s leading try scorer scored on a signature run from halfway. A second was of a shorter distance but there was still plenty of work for the bruising winger to do. Magno would be shown yellow in the process for a cynical foul mid-way through the attack.

Within moments of the restart Glendale had their third try. Harley Davidson used his footwork to keep the ball alive in the midfield, and then new signing Murphy Taramai tore through a gap. It was an easy pass to Peter Dahl to finish the try and close the gap to 13 points.

Taramai made good yardage off the back of a scrum before a rampaging Luke White crashed through the line, his offload finding Robbie Petzer for a fourth try in ten minutes and suddenly Glendale were right back in the game. Magno returned to the pitch with the score radically different.

The comeback was delayed slightly by an individual effort from Deion Mikesell, the winger taking an inside pass from Connor Murphy all the way to the try zone with a brilliant sidestep leading Ryberg sprawling in the dirt. Windsor’s conversion attempt sailed wide, however, leaving the door ever so slightly ajar.

Will Magie sent over a penalty goal to set the stage for a dramatic score. As he had a week before against New Orleans, Malon Al-Jiboori made good on his first touch of the ball. From a lineout he broke to the blindside and sold a dummy, showing pace and power to make the line and close the gap to but one. Magie’s conversion was inch perfect and gave Glendale the lead for the first time.

Houston weren’t quite finished yet, however, and a mistake from Dylan Taikato-Simpson allowed the SaberCats back in the game. Windsor’s kick ahead took a wicked bounce that the fullback couldn’t contain and it was Windsor himself on hand to collect and touch down for a seven-pointer.

The telling blow would come appropriately from Ryberg. Once again he proved too much for the Houston defense and his hat trick, converted by Petzer, pushed Glendale back in front. An ironic twist of fate saw one final score come with the SaberCats scrum under pressure. Alejandro Nieto was left isolated and the counter-ruck earned the simplest of tries for a wide-open Harley Davidson.

SCORING

GLENDALE 52
Tries – J. Ryberg 3 (35’, 39’, 75’), P. Dahl (41’), R. Petzer (44’), M. Al-Jiboori (66’), H. Davidson (79’)
Cons – W. Magie 5/5 (36’, 40’, 42’, 45’, 67’), R. Petzer 2/2 (76’, 80’)
Pens – W. Magie 1/1 (61’)
Yellow cards – K. Fifita (27’)

HOUSTON 44
Tries – Penalty try (6’), Penalty try (13’), M. Esdale (29’), K. Kolberg (32’), D. Mikesell (54’), S. Windsor (69’)
Cons – S. Windsor 2/4 (30’, 70’)
Pens – S. Windsor 2/2 (23’, 28’)
Yellow cards – D. Magno (39’)

TEAMS

GLENDALE RAPTORS
1 Blake Rogers (17 Max Lum 72’), 2 Chad Gough (16 Zach Fenoglio 49’), 3 Kelepi Fifita (18 Marco Fepulea’i 49’), 4 Will Munro, 5 Luke White (20 Malon Al-Jiboori 65’), 6 Brendan Daly, 7 Hanco Germishuys (19 Peter Dahl 21’), 8 Murphy Taramai, 9 Shaun Davies (capt.) (21 Carlo de Nysschen 62’), 10 Will Magie (22 Ata Malifa 70’), 11 Harley Davidson, 12 Robbie Petzer, 13 Chad London, 14 John Ryberg, 15 Maximo de Achaval (23 Dylan Taikato-Simpson 61’)

HOUSTON SABERCATS
1 Mateo Sanguinetti (17 Jake Turnbull 65’), 2 Pat O’Toole (16 Amro Gouda 70’), 3 Charlie Connolly (18 Jamie Dever 49’), 4 Diego Magno (20 Chris Parker 65’), 5 Matt Trouville (capt.) (19 Victor Comptat 62’), 6 Luke Beauchamp, 7 Cecil Garber (21 Chris Coyle 62’), 8 Alejandro Nieto, 9 Connor Murphy, 10 Sam Windsor, 11 Malacchi Esdale, 12 Max Tacket, 13 Osea Kolinisau, 14 Kelly Kolberg (23 Deion Mikesell HT), 15 Zach Pangelinan (22 Conor Mills HT)