Seattle Seawolves vs. San Diego Legion – MLR Opener

The Seattle Seawolves open the Major League Rugby season against the San Diego Legion on Sunday, April 22 in front of a sold-out Starfire Stadium in Tukwila, Washington at 5 pm. PDT.

The match will be broadcast on ESPN+ and locally on ROOT SPORTS in the Northwest and on Cox’s YurView network, available on Channel 4 to Cox and Spectrum cable customers in San Diego. For a live stream the game through YurView here: bit.ly/watch-stream-sdlegion.

The match should excite the crowd and the broadcast audience, as both teams are talented offensively. The Seawolves on paper would seem to hold the edge in the scrums and expect San Diego to be tested early as a tactical issue. Both teams have not had significant playing time together, except in practice. However, both teams have many experienced national team players who are used to coming into camps and then performing at the highest level. More will certainly be known about both teams after this match.

Seattle Seawolves

The Seattle Seawolves enter the Major League Rugby regular season having only played one pre-season match last Sunday, winning 47-7 over the Wolf Pack.

The team has had some work visa issues that negated the contracts of Connor Weyell and the head coach Tony Healy, both Canadians. For the time being, Phil Mack has assumed this role in addition to being the team’s scrumhalf. Visa issues also impacted an earlier match against the Vancouver Island Crimson Tide and led to its cancelation.

The team is deep in the forwards, but the backs have many players that have also played with national teams.

San Diego Legion

The San Diego Legion split two pre-season matches, winning 32-24 against Austin Elite Rugby away and losing 33-17 at home to the Houston SaberCats.

The team has a strong presence of USA Rugby Eagles 15s and 7s players. Several 7s players are currently part of the Mike Friday’s Singapore Sevens squad. National needs will likely create squad match changes during the season.

The team’s strength is in the attack with an array of quality backs. The question remains of how the forwards will match other teams in the scrums. Expect some high scoring from the Legion.

Seattle Seawolves & San Diego Legion Squads

Seattle Seawolves: 1 Kellen Gordon 2 Ray Barkwill 3 Tim Metcher 4 Jeremy Lenaerts 5 Taylor Krumrei 6 Cam Polson 7 Aladdin Schirmer 8 Riekert Hattingh (C) 9 Phil Mack 10 Will Holder 11 Jeremy Misailegalu 12 Shalom Suniula 13 William Rasileka 14 Brock Staller 15 Mat Turner 16 Mike Shepherd 17 Vili Toluta’u 18 John Hayden 19 Olive Kilifi 20 Eric Dueschle 21 Peter Tiberio 22 Mike Garrity 23 Dion Crowder

San Diego Legion: 1 Sione Tu’ihalamaka 2 Gil Covey 3 Aaron Mitchell 4 Lance Lamprecht 5 Albert “Jay” Harmon 6 Chris Turori 7 Devin Short 8 Cam Dolan (VC) 9 Nick Boyer 10 Ben Cima 11 Nick Evans 12 JP duPlessis 13 Anthony Salaber 14 Taku Ngwenya 15 Mike Te’o 16 Pat Blair 17 Tony Purpura 18 Tasi Toilolo 19 Derrick Broussard 20 Drew Gaffney 21 Sione Letoi 22 Naima Fuala’au 23 Austin Switzer + Head Coach Rob Hoadley

Seattle Seawolves Pre-season Record (1-0)

April 15 vs. Wolf Pack (W 47-7)

Seattle Seawolves 2018 Major League Rugby Schedule

April 22 vs. San Diego Legion Preview 5 pm PDT Network: ROOT SPORTS, ESPN+
April 28 vs. Glendale Raptors 7:30 pm PDT Network: CBSSN (GAME OF THE WEEK)
May 12 at NOLA Gold 10 am PDT Network: Cox/AT&T SportsNet
May 20 vs. Utah Warriors 5:30 pm PDT Network: AT&T SportsNet
May 27 vs NOLA Gold 5:00 pm PDT Network: Cox/AT&T SportsNet
June 8 at Austin Elite 6:00 pm PDT Network: CBSSN (GAME OF THE WEEK)
June 16 at Glendale Raptors 6:00 pm Network: AT&T SportsNet

San Diego Legion Pre-season Record (1-1)

March 25 at. Austin Elite (W 32-24) Preview
April 7 vs. Houston SaberCats (L 33-17) Preview

San Diego Legion 2018 Major League Rugby Schedule

April 22 at Seattle Seawolves Preview 5 pm PDT Network: Cox/AT&T
April 29 vs. Utah Warriors 4 pm PDT Network: Cox/AT&T
May 4 vs. Houston SaberCats 5:30 pm PDT Network: CBSSN (GAME OF THE WEEK)
May 13 at Glendale Raptors 5 pm PDT Network: Cox/AT&T
May 26 at Austin Elite 6 pm PDT Network: CBSSN (GAME OF THE WEEK)
June 9 at New Orleans Gold 1 pm PDT Network: COX
June 17 vs. Austin Elite 5 pm PDT Network: Cox/AT&T
June 23 vs. Glendale Raptors 7 pm PDT
Network: CBSSN (GAME OF THE WEEK)
June 30 MLR Semi-Finals at Glendale Sat, 5-10 pm PDT Network: CBSSN
July 7 MLR Championship at San Diego 7-9:45 pm PDT Network: CBSSN (GAME OF THE WEEK)