North American Rugby Database

Report

The New England Free Jacks host the Chicago Hounds in the 2024 Eastern Conference Final at Veteran’s Memorial stadium in Quincy, MA.

The Free Jacks defeated Old Glory DC 33-29 in a growing rivalry to advance to the ECF, while the Chicago Hounds defeated the NOLA Gold 21-45 on the road in Louisiana in both teams’ first ever playoff game.

The game started with both teams trying to gain field position and the upper hand and both sides gave away plenty of penalties early on, but neither chose to go for points. Free Jacks’ prop John-Roy Jenkinson lasted only 13 minutes before injury sidelined him so Cole Keith would have to play almost 70 minutes in the front row. The first score of the game came after 20 minutes as Paula Balekana received a floated pass over the top and managed to offload to Reece MacDonald before going into touch for an easy finish, and the hosts were on the board. Potroz could add the two but would get another chance soon enough as MacDonald scythed through the Hounds defence to bag his 2nd in 3 minutes, but Potroz failed to add the extras again, so the Free Jacks lead was 10-0 after 23 minutes. It looked as though the score would stay that way into the half as both sides settled back in to the back and forth that defined the early game, but Nate Augspurger was able to grab one for the visitors on the stroke of half time, and Luke Carty added the two to cut the deficit to only 3pts at the break.

Potroz must’ve found his kicking boots during half-time, because he added 3 early in the 2nd half to extend the Free Jacks’ lead, but they would go down to 14 men following a yellow card to Conor Keys and Luke Carty stepped up to cancel out Potroz’s kick. The Hounds were unable to capitalise on the man advantage however, and Potroz would slot another 3 just before the 60min break. With just under 15 minutes to go, Dylan Fawsitt grabbed the ball at the back of a Chicago maul, and his patented try-scoring method didn’t let them down. His 14th of the season brought the visitors within 1 before Carty added the two to give the Hounds their first lead of the game. This was short-lived however, as 5 minutes later the Free Jacks struck back through their own hooker, as Andrew Quattrin grabbed his 8th of the year to swing the lead back to the hosts before Potroz added the two.

The Chicago Hounds were unable to break the Free Jacks defence in the final 7 minutes and the 23-17 score was how things ended. The Chicago Hounds’ 2024 season comes to an end after a heroic performance against the reigning Champions, who head back to the MLR Final for the 2nd year in a row with a chance to win back-to-back shields.