NA Rugby Database

Recap

The Seattle Seawolves host the Dallas Jackals in the 2024 Western Conference Final at Starfire Stadium in Tukwila, WA.

The Seattle Seawolves defeated the San Diego Legion 30-28 in the latest chapter of their historic MLR rivalry to advance to the WCF, while the Dallas Jackals ran out to 22-34 victors against the #1 seeded Houston SaberCats, earning a shock victory over their Texas Rivals at SaberCats Stadium. Dallas suffered a late injury in the warm up, as star no. 8 Sam Tuifua had to withdraw at the last minute. Marques Fuala’au replaced him and travelling reserve Joaquin Horcada came onto the bench.

It was the visitors who opened the scoring through the boot of Jaun-Dee Oliver as both teams tussled for the upper hand in the opening stages. The Jackals would extend their lead thanks to a wonderful finish in the corner from Nic Benn to lead 0-10 after Oliver added the extras. The Jackals had got off to a dream start but this was about to turn into a nightmare. Dallas prop JP Zeiss was shown a yellow card for repeat offences despite no warning from referee Scott Green, and just a minute later Green awarded the Seawolves a penalty try and showed Makeen Alikhan a yellow, handing Seattle 7pts and reducing Dallas to 13 men for almost 10 minutes. Despite this nightmare scenario, the 13-man Jackals performed well and managed to extend their lead to 7-13 as the Seawolves just lacked accuracy in the red zone, and squandered a golden opportunity to take control of the game. With Dallas’ two yellow cards set to expire, the Seawolves were reduced to 14-men with Moni Ngakuru sent to the bin, before Nic Benn bagged his 2nd of the game on the half hour mark. Oliver slotted the two to give Dallas a healthy 7-20 lead. The Seawolves would hit back with a 7-pointer from USA Eagle Joe Taufete’e to reduce the gap to 6 before the break, but it was Dallas who held the lead and weathered a 13-man spell.

The second half began much like the first, but the hosts bagged the first score of the 2nd frame through captain JP Smith, and Mack Mason added the two to give the Seawolves their first lead of the game, 21-20. Smith would again make noise but for the wrong reasons. Clean through, he fumbled theball in the Dallas try zone completely unprovoked to squander another golden opportunity for the Seawolves and not long after, a Jackals maul rumbled into the try zone to give the guests a 21-25 lead with6 minutes to play. Just as with so many of their games in 2024, the Jackals could not hold on for the final few minutes, as Ryan Rees finished a wonderful run from Divan Rossouw in the 79th minute to seal the game for the hosts on the final play of the game. Windsor added the extras for a final score of 28-25, and the Seawolves once again pull off a come-from-behind playoffs victory in the final minutes. JP Smith will be relieved!

The battered and bruised Seawolves advance to the FOURTH MLR final to face the New England Free Jacks for a chance to lift their 3rd shield and first since 2019. The Dallas Jackals dream 2024 comes to a heartbreaking end, but they proved that they should never be underestimated, and silenced many critics. They head to the off-season with their heads held high.