San Diego Legion will host the defending champion Seattle Seawolves in the Major League Rugby Shield Championship at Torero Stadium on June 16 at 4 pm on CBS.
San Diego advanced to the Championship after a 24-22 comeback win over Rugby United New York. The Seattle Seawolves beat the Toronto Arrows 30-17 in the other MLR semifinal.
Match Comments
The San Diego Legion won the season series between the teams, beating the Seawolves in Seattle 28-22 on March 31 and 17-13 in San Diego on February 2. The Final pits the Number 1 defensive team in the Legion against the number 1 team on the attack in the Seawolves.
The Seawolves scored 67 tries to the Legion’s 65 but utilized the boot of Brock Staller with 29 penalty goals to 17 for the Legion. Rugby United New York would like to forget Joe Pietersen’s clutch conversion from touch that ended the Roosters season. The Seawolves average 30 points per match to the Legion’s 27, but the Legion has conceded the fewest points in the League.
Look for the Seawolves to utilize set pieces to open up their attack. Seattle is the leading team in winning their own scrum and the Legion have conceded penalties there and rank first in committing infraction in the MLR at 10.7 per match compared with the Seawolves 7.9, which ranks 9th. That has not stopped the Legion from winning, but it can at time derail their attack.
Both the San Diego Legion’s and Seattle Seawolves squads remains unchanged.
Squads with Player Article Links
San Diego Legion: 1 Faka’osi Pifeleti 2 Kapeli Pifeleti 3 Paddy Ryan (VC) 4 Lou Stanfill 5 Josh Furno 6 Jasa Veremalua 7 Psalm Wooching 8 Jordan Manihera 9 Nate Augspurger 10 Joe Pietersen (C) 11 Nick Boyer 12 JP Duplessis 13 Ryan Matyas 14 Conor Kearns 15 Tai Enosa16 Dean Muir 17 Nathan Sylvia 18 Dino Waldren 19 Siaosi Mahoni 20 Pat Blair 21 Kyle Rogers 22 Save Totovosau 23 Will Holder+ Head Coach Rob Hoadley
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 9 JP Smith 10 Ben Cima 11 Jeff Hassler 12 Shalom Suniula 13 George Barton 14 Brock Staller 15 Mat Turner 16 Dan Trierweiler17 Kellen Gordon 18 Jake Ilnicki 19 Jérémy Lenaerts 20 Eric Duechle 21 Phil Mack 22 Roland Suniula 23 Vili Toluta’u + Head Coach Richie Walker
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