North American Rugby Database

Report

The San Diego Legion host the Seattle Seawolves in the Western Conference Final at Snapdragon Stadium, adding another chapter to the most storied rivalry in Major League Rugby.

These teams had met 13 times prior to this match. San Diego lead the regular season series (6-4), but the Seawolves are undefeated in Championship Series match ups (3-0). The Legion looked to get that monkey off their backs and punch their ticket to join the Free Jacks in Chicago for the MLR Championship Game next weekend.

The home side dominated in the first half having the lion’s share of both possession and territory, but the famous Seawall held. Just. All Blacks legend Ma’a Nonu opened the scoring 11 minutes in with a drop goal, the 3rd DG in Championship Series history, and the 2nd playoff DG for the Legion! The score held at 3-0 through the first water break and it took a line break from Legion prop Faka’osi Pifeleti to put a real hole in the dam. He was brought down but the Legion cycled through the phases and Pifeleti finished the move he started. Will Hooley landed the conversion shortly after slotting a penalty kick, and the Legion extended their lead to 13-0. Jordan Chait struck back with a penalty to get the Seawolves on the board just before the half, and this score held almost to the 2nd half water break. The unstoppable force of the Legion offence meeting the immovable object of the Seawolves defence.

The Seattle sea wall soon began to falter, and Tomas Aoake was able to capitalise on a Marcel Brache break and score in the corner to extend the Legion lead. Shortly after the hydration break, Brache got one of his own on a Michael Smith fly-hack that bounced right under the posts for an automatic 7. The Seawolves found a spark of hope through a Ben Landry try converted by Jordan Chait, but this was extinguished almost immediately, as Tomas Aoake caught the Legion restart cleanly and ran in unopposed for his 2nd of the afternoon. this took the score to 32-10 with just over 10 minutes to go, and this proved unassailable for the Seawolves, who end a solid season on the wrong side of the Western Conference Final.

The Legion will represent the Western Conference at the MLR Championship Game next weekend in Chicago, where they will face the Beast from the East, New England Free Jacks.