North American Rugby Database

Report

The Seattle Seawolves travel to Houston to face the SaberCats in a Western Conference clash between two MLR founding members in Round 3 of the 2025 season. Houston come into this game having had a quick turnaround from their first victory of the season against RFCLA in Round 2, while the Seawolves are fresh off a bye week and looking for their first win.

These teams have met 13 times previously, 11 times in the regular season and twice in the playoffs. The Seattle Seawolves hold a 9-4 series lead including a 2-0 record in the post-season, however the last meeting between these two sides saw the Houston SaberCats take a narrow 28-25 bonus point victory at home, and by coincidence, the SaberCats scrape another 3pt victory at home over the Seattle Seawolves for a big win in the Western Conference.

The hosts got off to a flying start, with Dom Akina continuing his impressive run of form to give the SaberCats an early lead before controversial new signee Rufus McLean scored his first MLR try after 10 minutes. Houston held a 14-0 lead until Huw Taylor struck back for the Seawolves shortly after the first hydration break, and 14-7 was how the score would stand at the half, following over 15 minutes of back and forth. The guests came out of the halftime break sharper. Kerron van Vuuren added his first MLR try after 47 minutes to even the score, and although ex-Seawolf AJ Alatimu would add 3pts for Houston shortly after, Seattle kept coming and managed a 3rd try from Devin Short to give the visitors their first lead of the game.

The Seawolves seemed to sit back and defend their 17-21 lead behind the famous ‘Sea Wall’ and it took until the 70th minute for that wall to break. Pago Haini was handed the first red card in Seattle Seawolves history, before Pita Anae-Ah Sue bundled over for Houston’s 3rd try to retain the lead, before Alatimu added the extras for a narrow 24-21 lead. Things went from bad to worse for Seattle, however. Just 5 minutes later, Juice Gumede was shown Seattle’s second red card of the game to reduce them to 13 men, and that was that. The SaberCats saw out the final few minutes to take a closely contested victory, and improve their season to 2-1. The Seawolves limp back to Seattle, still looking for their first victory of the season.