North American Rugby Database

Report

The Houston SaberCats host their Western rivals Rugby FC LA at SaberCats Stadium in the 2nd of two Western Conference Semifinals!

With a bonus point win in their final game of the regular season, the Houston SaberCats leapfrog RFCLA to secure home advantage in the postseason with a 10-6 record and 54pts. This is Houston’s 3rd playoff appearance in a row, and they will hope it’s third time lucky as they still hunt for their first playoff victory. Their opponents are the 3rd seeded Rugby FC LA, making their playoff debut after a franchise best 8-7-1 record and 51pts, pushing the SaberCats all the way to the final game of the regular season. They will hope to play spoiler.

These teams have met 4 times in the past but never in the postseason. The Houston SaberCats hold a 3-1 series lead, but LA took the most recent meeting between these sides, with a 22-24 victory…at SaberCats Stadium. The teams arrived ready for battle on June 15th, 2025, but the weather had other plans. After kick off was pushed back from 8pm ET to 9, then to 10pm with no sign of the torrential downpour coming to a stop, MLR declared that the match would be postponed, to be played on June 16th, 2025 with a 7pm ET kick-off. The game finally got underway at 7:30pm on June 16th after another weather delay, and resulted in a muddy affair.

The early game was dominated by the home side, with an AJ Alatimu crossfield kick to Rufus McLean opening the scoring after 10 minutes. Houston would double-up through Pita Anae-Ah Sue roughly 10 minutes later at the back of a fearsome SaberCats rolling maul to give them a 12-0 lead at the first half water break. In the second 20, Rugby FC LA began to grow into the game. Tim Anstee scored the first playoff try in RFCLA team history after 24 minutes and, despite some ferocious defending from the SaberCats, a bit of Reece MacDonald magic from a crossfield kick of their own drew LA level on the stroke of halftime. Leali’ifano converted to give the visitors a slender 12-14 lead at the break.

Unfortunately for MacDonald, his 2nd half would start very differently from how the first half ended. He bobbled the ball in the tricky conditions and MLR Draftee Max Schumacher jumped on it, showing great rugby IQ to give Houston back the lead in the 43rd minute. Anae-Ah Sue and the Houston pack would strike from another rolling maul just 5 minutes later to extend that lead to 10pts as the SaberCats lineout continued to click while LA’s really struggled. Both teams then settled into a back and forth in the midfield for the next 15 minutes before Alatimu slotted a penalty to take the score to 27-14. The last 10 minutes was all-out attack from RFCLA, and extraordinary defence from Houston. The game was camped in the SaberCats 22 for the majority of the final 10 minutes after Michael Scott was shown a yellow card but between handling errors and lineout issues, Houston just about kept LA out. Marno Redelinghuys was shown another yellow in the 76th minute in a case of mistaken identity (the card should have gone to Louritz van der Schyff), reducing Houston to 13 men for the final 4/5 minutes, and that gave LA the opportunity they needed to blast through. Ben Houston the scorer to bring LA within 6, but it was too little too late.

A final score of 27-21 to the SaberCats gives Houston their first ever playoff victory, and they will face the Utah Warriors in the Western Conference Final. An excellent season for Rugby FC LA falls short, but they have shown the league that they are not to be messed with. They head to the offseason, and begin planning for 2026.