North American Rugby Database

Report

The Denver Onyx host their nearest geographical rivals the Bay Breakers at Infinity Park during Round 8 of the 2026 WER season!

This is the second meeting of the season between these two teams after meeting at Heart Health Park in California during the opening Round of the season, where the Breakers handed the Onyx just their second ever defeat in WER, but Denver still hold a 2-1 lead in this match up all-time after sweeping the 2025 series. The Breakers and Onyx enter this game in 1st & 2nd place in the standings respectively, both on a 6-1 record and separated by a single point. Whoever emerges victorious in this game will be leading the league.

The visiting Bay Breakers came out of the gates quickest. They opened the scoring early through Roxelle Thomas in the 3rd minute and although the Onyx would hit back 6 minutes later and took a narrow 7-5 lead after the conversion, these 7pts would be all the Onyx managed in the first half. The Breakers however, would add another 3 tries between the 16th and 24th minutes to take a commanding 26-7 lead into the half-time break.

Whatever Onyx head coach Sarah Chobot said to her team during the break definitely worked though. After roughly 15 minutes of stalemate to start the second half, Sheila Decker pulled one back for the hosts and another 10 minutes later KB Slaughter bagged another score. The Onyx were slowly chipping away at the Breakers’ lead, now trailing 19-26. The Breakers would push the gap back to 14pts with a 67th minute score from Laura Thacker however but the Onyx didn’t let that get to them. With under 10 minutes left to play, Denver stepped up. Tahlia Brody scored in the 73rd minute, making it a 1 score game after Makayla Wilkins added the extras, before Wilkins herself scored just 3 minutes later and nailed the conversion to tie the game at 33-33 after the 80. Having never seen a game go to WER’s Golden Point prior to this weekend, this match was the second in Round 8, and thanks to Makayla Wilkins, this one didn’t last long. The fullback received a pass from Carson Hann and ran in an easy score in the 83rd minute to seal the win, 38-33.

With their 7th win of the season, the Onyx now take the lead at the top of the WER standings from the Bay Breakers, who fall to 3rd despite salvaging a pair of bonus points due to the TC Gemini’s victory yesterday.