North American Rugby Database

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The Miami Sharks host Eastern Conference leaders the New England Free Jacks at Autonation Sports Field in Fort Lauderdale during Round 13 of the 2024 season.

A typical late May day in Miami provided hot and humid conditions with which both teams struggled. The ball was slippy and proven very tricky to hold on to, bogging both teams down into a more attritional, low scoring affair. The game did not start that way, however. New England’s Seta Baker barrelled over with the Free Jacks’ maul after only 4 minutes, and Jayson Potroz added the extras to give the visitors an early 0-7 lead. The teams would then settle in to a back and forth, before Miami fly-half Santiago Videla slotted a penalty kick to get the guests on the board and almost immediately after that, the Sharks won a turnover in the Free Jacks 22 to let Roelof Smit through with some great passing to give the Sharks an 8-7 lead, which would remain until the half-time whistle.

There was a threat of lightning in the area at half-time but fortunately that passed and the second half got underway, still in extremely humid conditions. Once again the guests got on the board early, through the boot of Potroz this time to give the Free Jacks a narrow 8-10 lead before the game settled back into the back and forth that was familiar from the first half. Handling errors and penalties swung the momentum almost endlessly. Avery Oitomen received a yellow card to put the Sharks down a man but only a minute later, Kyle Baillie received a yellow of his own and the teams played 14v14 for almost 10 minutes. Just as the teams returned to full strength with no change to the scoreboard, Manu Ardao received a yellow card (his 4th of the season) to put the Sharks back down to 14. Entering the final 2 minutes, the Sharks gave up a costly penalty with which Potroz made no mistake, extending the guests’ lead to 5pts and meaning the Sharks had to score a try just to tie the game. Enter Tomas Casares.

With the clock in the red, some great Sharks passing opened a gap in the Free Jacks line through which Casares thundered to score under the posts for an 7pt try to secure the win for Miami against the team that had drafted him! The Sharks snatch possibly their best win in the young history of the team, 13-15. This is the first time that an Expansion Team has defeated the reigning MLR Champions since the LA Giltinis defeated the 2019 Champion Seattle Seawolves in 2021 (2020 Shield not awarded)!