The Toronto Arrows survived a Utah Warriors lead to win 28-21 at Lamport Stadium in Toronto on Sunday. It was the Arrows fifth consecutive win at home and improved the team’s record to 9-5.
The team is now in third place with 49 points and have two remaining matches at home against the Glendale Raptors on May 26 and on June 2 against Rugby United New York. All three teams are in contention for a playoff spot.
The Utah Warriors played well but lost the match on a break away try by the Arrows in the closing minutes. The Warriors record falls to 2-10-1 in the bonus point loss. They host San Diego Legion on May 18, are away at Seattle on May 26, and conclude their season on June 1 at home against Houston.
Match Recap
The Utah Warriors lead for most of the match, but the Toronto Arrows came back with a Spencer Jones try in the 77th minute for a 28-21 victory.
The Warriors struck first with an early try by Arthur Bergo and with Tim O’Malley converting to lead 7-0. Almost twenty minutes later, the Arrows leveled the match after a Morgan Mitchell try and a Sam Malcolm conversion.
The Warriors answered back with Jeremy Misailegalu scoring off an Arrows turnover to lead 12-7. O’Malley later slotted a penalty kick, pushing the lead to 15-7. Then the Arrows answered with a try by John Sheridan and a conversion by Malcolm to cut Utah’s lead to 15-14 at the break.
Early in the second half, Utah increased the lead to 18-14 after an O’Malley penalty goal. The Arrows then placed the Warriors under sustained pressure and this resulted in a penalty try as the Arrows took their first lead of the match 21-18.
The Warriors answered with their own attack, however, the team defense of the Arrows did not yield a try after four minutes of defending their goal. After an Arrows penalty, O’Malley decided to level the match at 21 all.
In the 77th minute, Spencer Jones evaded two Utah tacklers with the winning try with Malcolm converting for the 28-21 comeback win.
Squads
Toronto Arrows: 1 Pat Lynott, 2 Andrew Quattrin, 3 Morgan Mitchell, 4 Mike Sheppard, 5 Tom van Horne, 6 John Moonlight, 7 Peter Milazzo, 8 Luke Campbell, 9 Jamie Mackenzie, 10 Sam Malcolm (capt.), 11 Kainoa Lloyd, 12 Guiseppe du Toit, 13 Spencer Jones, 14 Johnny Sheridan, 15 Gastón Mieres 16 Steven Ng, 17 Rob Brouwer, 18 Cole Keith, 19 Paul Ciulini, 20 Kolby Francis, 21 Andrew Ferguson, 22 Dan Moor, 23 Patrick Parfrey
Utah Warriors: 1 Franco van den Berg, 2 Jeremy Leber, 3 Angus MacLellan, 4 Saia Uhila, 5 Matt Jensen, 6 Lance Williams, 7 Ara Elkington, 8 Arthur Bergo, 9 Johnny Ika, 10 Josh Reeves, 11 Fetu’u Vainikolo, 12 Tim O’Malley, 13 Gannon Moore, 14 Jeremy Misailegalu, 15 Don Pati 16 Alex Tucci, 17 Blake Burdette, 18 Kenny Scott, 19 Huluholo Mo’ungaloa, 20 John Cullen, 21 Josh Anderson, 22 Josh Whippy, 23 Joseph Nicholls
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