Comfortable win for Gold over Elite

Recap

A try in the opening minute led the NOLA Gold to a comfortable 26-14 win over Austin Elite at Gold Stadium on Saturday. The win bumped the Gold back into first place overall and stretched the Elite’s winless streak to 14 consecutive matches.

The game was just barely underway when Eric Howard went through a giant gap in the defensive line to spring over from the 22 meter line. JP Eloff made the routine conversion to give the Gold an early seven point buffer.

Rain had pelted the ground before the match and while it held off during play, it made for a slippery surface and tricky handling. It took almost a half-hour for another score. Nick Feakes took the outside, worked a give-and-go with Eloff, and finally offloaded to Ignacio Dotti for the try.

Austin managed to get on the board just before halftime. Dom Bailey took the ball on in his own end, slipped through a tackle and showed an impressive turn of pace to sprint clear untouched from halfway for a remarkable individual effort.

New Orleans had no intention of letting the Texans back into the game and they sewed up the match shortly after the restart. Tristan Blewett nearly broke through and the pressure stayed on until Mason Pedersen was flagged for an intentional knock-on in a scoring position. A penalty try was awarded and Pedersen was sent to the bin.

The Gold struck again quickly with the man advantage. Penalties gave them field position, and from an attacking lineout they went over the top to Con Foley. Three phases later second row Billy Stewart, who came on for an injured Kyle Baillie early in the match, broke through a tackle and galloped over from 20 meters out.

With the bonus point secure, NOLA took their foot off the pedal. Austin got the shove on at a 5 meter scrum on the hour mark and makeshift scrumhalf Soheyl Jaoudat picked and fell over the line to finish the try. The final quarter would come and go with on change to the scoreboard.

SCORING

NOLA 26
Tries – E. Howard (1’), I. Dotti (29’), Penalty try (43’), B. Stewart (45’)
Cons – J. Eloff 2/3 (2’, 46’)
Yellow cards – C. Foley (70’)

AUSTIN 14
Tries – D. Bailey (38’), S. Jaoudat (60’)
Cons – A. Vilaseca 2/2 (39’, 61’)
Yellow cards – M. Pedersen (43’)

TEAMS

NOLA GOLD
1 Hubert Buydens (18 Kevin Sullivan 55’), 2 Eric Howard (capt.) (16 Alex Maughan 72’), 3 Matt Harmon (17 Cam Falcon 55’), 4 Kyle Baillie (19 Billy Stewart 11’), 5 Kane Thompson (21 John Sullivan 66’), 6 Ignacio Dotti, 7 Moni Tonga’uiha (20 Zack Stryffeler 52’), 8 Cam Dolan, 9 Holden Yungert (22 Michael Baska 66’), 10 Taylor Howden (23 Joeli Tikoisuva 79’), 11 Nick Feakes, 12 Con Foley, 13 Tristan Blewett, 14 Tim Maupin, 15 JP Eloff

AUSTIN ELITE
1 LaRome White (18 Mason Pedersen HT), 2 Peter Malcolm (16 Tiaan Erasmus 61’), 3 Juan Echeverría (17 Phil Hanson 65’), 4 Ben Mitchell (capt.), 5 Josh Larsen (19 Ronan McCusker 52’), 6 Rikus Zwart (20 Kyle Breytenbach HT), 7 Dom Bailey (1 LaRome White 49’-53’), 8 Travis Larsen, 9 Marcelo Torrealba (21 Soheyl Jaoudat 57’), 10 Rodrigo Silva (22 Simon Bienvenu 57’), 11 Sione Fangaiuiha, 12 Andrés Vilaseca, 13 JP Aguirre, 14 Reece Czarnecki (23 Aidan McMullan 68’), 15 Zinzan Elan-Puttick

*Ben Mitchell came off at 72’ with no available subs remaining