NA Rugby Database

Recap

The Second instance of the 2024 Cali Cup sees the San Diego Legion travel down teh I-5 to Los Angeles to face Rugby FC LA at Dignity Health Sports Park.

The hosts were faster out of the gates and spent the early game on the front foot. An errant pass from the Legion fell at the feet of LA’s Will Leonard who fly-hacked it through for speedster Jack Shaw to jump on the end of to open the scoring. Scrumhalf and Captain Niall Saunders made no mistakes with the conversion and LA were up 7-0 around 12 minutes in. Shortly after, LA were forced to make some early substitutions as Andrew Coe went off for an HIA (he would return) and Theo Vukasinovic left early with an injury. Just as Coe returned having passed his HIA, the Legion were given a yellow card to put them down to 14 men and almost immediately after, a cynical foul from SD hooker Hugh Roach put him in the bin too. With the Legion now down to 13 men for almost an entire 10 minutes, Semi Kunatani burst through to extend LA’s lead to 12. The Legion, rattled early in the game, seemed to find their footing as their yellow cards expired, and Tiaan Loots got them on the board. The gap now 5pts after Matt Giteau nailed the conversion, but this wouldn’t last long as Kunitani would rumble over for a 7pt try, his 2nd of the game and 7th of the season right before half-time to give the hosts a comfortable 19-7 lead.

Whatever Legion coach Danny Lee said to his squad in the break seemed to work, as they came out flying. Christian Poidevin just about made it over for the first score of the 2nd half, before big lock Jay Tuivaiti added a 3rd try about 10 minutes later. Both conversions missed which meant that LA still lead 19-17, but the momentum had very clearly shifted to the visitors. The next 20 minutes was a back and forth of thunderous collisions and ill-discipline was beginning to creep into LA’s game as their defence struggled to contain the Legion. At the 75th minute mark, Giteau split the uprights from the tee to give the Legion their first lead of the game, 19-20 with 5 minutes to play. Minutes later, Connor Tupai secured the try BP for San Diego off a beautiful play from Danny Christensen, and Alex Horan’s successful meant that LA would miss out on the losing BP, falling 19-27 to their California rivals.

The San Diego Legion secure the 2024 Cali Cup with a season sweep of Rugby FC LA, and move to 3rd in the Western Conference.