Austin Elite Rugby & San Diego Legion

Austin Elite Rugby defeated the San Diego Legion on Friday, May 25th 31-5 at Round Rock Multipurpose Complex. The match was shown nationally on CBS Sports Network as the Game of the Week.

This was a critical win by Austin Elite Rugby and could jump-start the team as they move up Major League Rugby standings to third place. Despite their 2-3 record, they are undefeated at home and hope to extend that streak next week as they play the Utah Warriors. The San Diego Legion are now 2-3 and slip to fifth place in the standings as they enter a bye week.

The USA Men’s Eagles also open camp on Sunday. Hanco Germishuys is part of the squad for Austin Elite Rugby and will miss the remainder of the regular season. That will be a huge loss, as he is the League’s leading try scorer with six tries.

San Diego has sevens players selected to the Eagles 31 man squad. Tony Lamborne, Siaosi Mahoni, Cam Dolan, Nate Augspurger, Ben Cima, Ryan Matyas and Dylan Audsley are part of the squad. The loss of these players, as well as commitments to the Eagles Sevens, will make it difficult for the team to contend for the playoffs.

Match Recap

The San Diego Legion were penalized early and flyhalf Timothée Guillimin took advantage of giving Austin Elite Rugby a 3-0 lead. Austin increased their lead to 10-0 after a Hanco Germishuys break from a lineout and an offload to Siaosi Finau for a try, which was then converted by Guillimin.

After working the ball through phases, Germishuys then finished with a try and after Guillimin slotted the kick the lead was 17-0.

Austin Elite had another opportunity to add to the lead but knocked the ball on crossing in-goal. This led to an attack by San Diego, as Nate Augspurger took a quick tap and broke to midfield. A high tackle by Germishuys had him being sent to the bin. The Legion needed a try, so Tadhg Leader attempt to kick to touch went through in-goal, giving Austin Elite a 22-meter drop.

Austin Elite took a 17-0 lead into the break.

Austin had an opportunity to increase their lead at the beginning of the half, however, Guillimin’s kick was short. San Diego then attacked in Austin territory before losing possession with a kick ahead.

The Legion attacked again, however, a grub kick by Leader bounced into Zinzan Elan-Puttick’s hands and he scored a long distance try. Guillimin added the conversion increasing the score to 24-0.

With 20 minutes remaining in the match, the Legion got on the scoreboard. Leader executed a high ball and Cody Melphy leaped and brought the ball under control and offloaded to Drew Gaffney for a try. Dylan Audsley then missed the conversion from touch.

Austin Elite added a fourth try in the 70th minute as scrumhalf Marcus Walsh dummied off the breakdown and went in for a bonus point try. After Guillimin’s conversion, the score was 31-5.

That’s the way the match would end with Austin getting five points in the standings for the win. That gives them 12 and puts them into third place, while San Diego with 11 points, slips into fifth. Austin will be seeking to maintain a top-four position in the standings to make the playoffs. Next week they face the Utah Warriors at home, while San Diego enters a bye week.

Austin Elite Rugby & San Diego Legion Squads

Austin Elite: 1 Siaosi Finau 2 Chris Schade 3 Paddy Ryan 4 Ben Mitchell 5 Victor Comptat 6 Kyle Breytenbach 7 Hanco Germishuys 8 Pedrie Wannenburg 9 Marcus Walsh 10 Timothée Guillimin 11 Sani Taylor 12 Andrew Suniula 13 Roland Suniula 14 Sione Fangaiuiha 15 Zinzan Elan-Puttick 16 Mike Brown 17 Mason Pedersen 18 Robert Drummond 19 Todd Clever 20 Ross Deacon 21 Knute O’Donnell 22 Ned Hodson 23 Zac Mizell + Head Coach Alain Hyardet (Replacement #s not identified)

San Diego Legion: 1 Sione Tu’ihalamaka 2 Pat Blair 3 Rudolph Botha 4 Lance Lamprecht 5 Siaosi Mahoni 6 Chris Turori 7 Devin Short 8 Cam Dolan (VC) 9 Nate Augspurger (C) 10 Ben Cima 11 Ryan Matyas 12 JP du Plessis 13 Anthony Salaber 14 Taku Ngwenya 15 Dylan Audsley 16 Gil Covey 17 Tony Purpura 18 Faka’osi Pifeleti 19 Derrick Broussard 20 Drew Gaffney 21 Nick Boyer 22 Tadhg Leader 23 Cody Melphy + Head Coach Rob Hoadley

Austin Elite Rugby Pre-season Schedule

March 25 vs. San Diego Legion (L 32-24) Preview
March 31 at New Orleans Gold (L 48-17) Preview
April 7 vs. New Orleans Gold (L 38-10) Preview with March 31 recap

Austin Elite Rugby 2018 Major League Rugby Schedule

April 21 at Glendale Raptors (L 41-26) Preview CBSSN (GAME OF THE WEEK)
April 28 at Houston SaberCats (L 50-38) Preview AT&T
May 3 vs. New Orleans Gold (W 30-17) Preview AT&T
May 11 at Utah Warriors (L 42-21) Preview CBSSN (GAME OF THE WEEK)
May 25 v. San Diego Legion (W 31-5) Preview CBSSN (GAME OF THE WEEK)
June 1 vs. Utah Warriors 8 pm CDT Network: AT&T
June 9 vs. Seattle Seawolves 8 pm CDT Network: CBSSN (GAME OF THE WEEK)
June 17 at San Diego Legion 7 pm CDT Local Network: Cox/AT&T

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 (L 39-23) Preview Cox/AT&T
April 29 vs. Utah Warriors (W 31-24) Preview Cox/AT&T
May 4 vs. Houston SaberCats (W 35-32) Preview CBSSN (GAME OF THE WEEK)
May 13 at Glendale Raptors (L 31-27) Preview Cox/AT&T
May 26 at Austin Elite (L 31-5) Preview 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)