North American Rugby Database

Report

After their calamitous defeat to Old Glory last week, the Miami Sharks host the NOLA Gold in an Eastern Conference Southern Showdown during Round 2 of the 2025 MLR season.

Fresh off their healthy victory last week, the NOLA Gold started stronger, with tries from Cooper Coats and Xavier Mignot giving them a healthy early lead before Martin Elias slotted a penalty to get Miami on the board and settle things down. 5 minutes later, Alex Tucci scored his 1st try for the Miami Sharks to bring the game back to 10-12 to the Gold. Both sides would exchange penalties and a late first-half drop goal attempt from Dorian Jones sailed wide, so 13-15 was the halftime score.

The second half started slow, with both sides probing the other’s defences, before the Miami Sharks found a breakthrough via Manu Ardao, who rumbled through defenders for an Auto-7pt try, followed up by a Ben Bonasso score just minutes later to give the Sharks a commanding 27-15 lead. The Gold would respond through Cooper Coats’ 2nd of the day before Elias added another penalty as well as a drop goal attempt that rang off the upright. Jones would add another 3 with 3 minutes to go and the score at 30-25, before more drama in Miami. The Sharks won a penalty and elected to take a shot at goal to burn the remaining time off the clock, but Elias took too long and the shot clock expired, handing the ball over to the Gold for one last kick at the can, knowing a converted try could steal the victory as it had done last week. Thankfully for the Sharks, there would be no repeat of last week’s theatrics.