The Seattle Seawolves defeated the Toronto Arrows 30-17 at Starfire Stadium on Sunday, June 9. The Seawolves will travel to San Diego on June 16 to face the Legion in the Shield Final.
Match Recap
The Seattle Seawolves pinned the Arrows deep and used a lineout from close range to attack. A penalty by Toronto then led to Brock Staller slotting a penalty goal for an early 3-0 lead.
On the ensuing restart, Ben Cima chipped ahead and Mat Turner gathered, offloaded to Shalom Suniula and JP Smith finished with a try that Brock Staller converted for a 10-0 lead in the 8th minute.
It was then the Arrows turn to attack and after a Seawolves penalty, Toronto elected to kick for a lineout attack instead of for points, but the kick went long and the Seawolves had a 22-meter drop.
An Arrows penalty resulted in another Seattle penalty goal by Brock Staller to push the lead to 13-0. After some back and forth a Ben Cima offload inside to Jeff Hassler, extended the lead to 20-0 after a Staller conversion.
The first half continued to be all Seawolves as Brock Staller slotted a penalty goal to push the lead to 23-0.
Toronto attacked within the Seawolves 22-meters within the last two minutes prior to the break and Gaston Mieres finished with a try in the left corner in the 39th minute and Malcolm slotted the conversion to cut the lead to 23-7 at the break.
Ben Cima’s tactical kicking during the first half constantly had the Arrows under pressure. Api Naikatini played perhaps his best half of the season.
Second Half
The Toronto Arrows needed a huge play and Mike Sheppard intercepted a pass and ran in untouched for a try. Sam Malcolm then slotted the conversion to cut the lead to 23-14.
In the 62nd minute, the Arrows elected to take the points instead of kicking for touch to attempt a try. Sam Malcolm slotted the conversion to cut the lead to 23-17. After a dominant first half from the Seawolves, the Arrows have fired back to be within a converted try of the lead.
Seattle had their first opportunity in the second half for points, but Brock Staller’s kick was wide. A few minutes later, Seattle was awarded a penalty try and Peter Milazzo was sent to the bin for pulling down the maul. Meanwhile, Seattle now had a 30-17 lead with the Arrows needing two converted tries.
Mike Sheppard apparent try from a 5-meter lineout was ruled to have been taken prior to the ball arriving 5-meters from a lineout.
In the 77th minute, a Brock Staller drop goal was unsuccessful.
The Toronto Arrows attacked meters from in-goal, but the Seawolves prevailed and won 30-17.
With the win, the Seattle Seawolves will defend the shield in San Diego on June 16 against the San Diego Legion.
Squads with Player Article Links & Match Preview
Seattle Seawolves: 1 Djustice Sears-Duru 2 Stephan Coetzee 3 Tim Metcher 4 Apisai Naikatini 5 Brad Tucker 6 Samu Manoa 7 Nakai Penny 8 Riekert Hattingh C) 9 JP Smith 10 Ben Cima 11 Jeff Hassler 12 Shalom Suniula (C) 13 George Barton 14 Brock Staller 15 Mat Turner 16 Dan Trierweiler17 Kellen Gordon 18 Jake Ilnicki 19 Taylor Krumrei 20 Eric Duechle 21 Phil Mack 22 Roland Suniula 23 Vili Toluta’u + Head Coach Richie Walker
Toronto Arrows: 1 Rob Brouwer 2 AJ Quattrin 3 Morgan Mitchell 4 Mike Sheppard 5 Paul Ciulini 6 Marcello Wainwright 7 Peter Milazzo 8 Luke Campbell 9 Andrew Ferguson 10 Sam Malcolm 11 Leandro Leivas 12 Guiseppe du Toit 13 Spencer Jones 14 Dan Moor (C) 15 Gastón Mieres 16 Steven Ng 17 Pat Lynott 18 Cole Keith 19 Tom Van Horne 20 Kolby Francis21 Jamie Mackenzie 22 Patrick Parfrey 23 Kainoa Lloyd + Director of Rugby, Chris Silverthorn
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