The Seattle Seawolves host the Dallas Jackals in the 2024 Western Conference Final at Starfire Stadium in Tukwila, WA.

The Seattle Seawolves defeated the San Diego Legion 30-28 in the latest chapter of their historic MLR rivalry to advance to the WCF, while the Dallas Jackals ran out to 22-34 victors against the #1 seeded Houston SaberCats, earning a shock victory over their Texas Rivals at SaberCats Stadium. Dallas suffered a late injury in the warm up, as star no. 8 Sam Tuifua had to withdraw at the last minute. Marques Fuala’au replaced him and travelling reserve Joaquin Horcada came onto the bench.

It was the visitors who opened the scoring through the boot of Jaun-Dee Oliver as both teams tussled for the upper hand in the opening stages. The Jackals would extend their lead thanks to a wonderful finish in the corner from Nic Benn to lead 0-10 after Oliver added the extras. The Jackals had got off to a dream start but this was about to turn into a nightmare. Dallas prop JP Zeiss was shown a yellow card for repeat offences despite no warning from referee Scott Green, and just a minute later Green awarded the Seawolves a penalty try and showed Makeen Alikhan a yellow, handing Seattle 7pts and reducing Dallas to 13 men for almost 10 minutes. Despite this nightmare scenario, the 13-man Jackals performed well and managed to extend their lead to 7-13 as the Seawolves just lacked accuracy in the red zone, and squandered a golden opportunity to take control of the game. With Dallas’ two yellow cards set to expire, the Seawolves were reduced to 14-men with Moni Ngakuru sent to the bin, before Nic Benn bagged his 2nd of the game on the half hour mark. Oliver slotted the two to give Dallas a healthy 7-20 lead. The Seawolves would hit back with a 7-pointer from USA Eagle Joe Taufete’e to reduce the gap to 6 before the break, but it was Dallas who held the lead and weathered a 13-man spell.

The second half began much like the first, but the hosts bagged the first score of the 2nd frame through captain JP Smith, and Mack Mason added the two to give the Seawolves their first lead of the game, 21-20. Smith would again make noise but for the wrong reasons. Clean through, he fumbled theball in the Dallas try zone completely unprovoked to squander another golden opportunity for the Seawolves and not long after, a Jackals maul rumbled into the try zone to give the guests a 21-25 lead with6 minutes to play. Just as with so many of their games in 2024, the Jackals could not hold on for the final few minutes, as Ryan Rees finished a wonderful run from Divan Rossouw in the 79th minute to seal the game for the hosts on the final play of the game. Windsor added the extras for a final score of 28-25, and the Seawolves once again pull off a come-from-behind playoffs victory in the final minutes. JP Smith will be relieved!

The battered and bruised Seawolves advance to the FOURTH MLR final to face the New England Free Jacks for a chance to lift their 3rd shield and first since 2019. The Dallas Jackals dream 2024 comes to a heartbreaking end, but they proved that they should never be underestimated, and silenced many critics. They head to the off-season with their heads held high.

The Seattle Seawolves (#2) host the San Diego Legion (#3) in the Western Conference Final in the latest chapter of MLR’s most storied rivalry, for a spot in the Western Conference Final. This game marks the SEVENTEENTH meeting between the two original teams, and the 5th in the MLR Playoffs. The Legion held a 7-5 record in regular season meetings, but the Seattle Seawolves had the upper hand in the post season, with a 3-1 record heading into this game.

The early game scoring was an exchange of penalties, with Matt Giteau nailing two penalties, sandwiching a Mack Mason kick to give the Legion a 3-6 lead before Duncan Matthews got on the end of a kick through to give the hosts the first try of the game and an 8-6 lead. Marcel Brache was handed a yellow card for a challenge in the air just before the first water break, and Mason extended Seattle’s lead to 11-6. The Legion managed to hold off the Seawolves with a man down, but Rhyno Herbst broke through just as it expired to further extend the lead to 18-6 following the conversion. The Legion didn’t look like breaching the famous ‘Sea Wall’ at all in the first half, but Giteau added another 3 to close the gap to 9pts at the half-time whistle following around 12 minutes of bruising play from both sides.

The Second half started as the first ended. bruising plays and each team trying to get the upper hand, with both defences holding firm. A deliberate knock-on from Seattle sent Tavite Lopeti to the bin for 10 minutes at the 2nd water break, and the Legion capitalised with a rolling maul try shortly after. The hosts hit back following a great run out wide from Toni Pulu, who kicked it through for Tomas Aoake to gather which he did so illegally so the ref had no choice but to award a penalty try to Seattle and send Aoake to the bin for 10. The Legion returned to the Seawolves half after the restart and after throwing it wide, a clear and obvious deliberate knock-on was missed by both the officials and the TMO allowing Seattle to gather possession and clear their lines, with which they flipped the field and Pago Haini added a 4th for the hosts to all but finish the game, now leading 30-14 with 5 minutes to go. Aoake would redeem his earlier mistake with a great finish in the corner in the 78th minute, and with the clock in the red the Legion would score again with a penalty try of their own, but it was too little too late for San Diego.

The Seattle Seawolves advance to face the Dallas Jackals in the Western Conference Final with a spot in the MLR Championship final up for grabs. The final score of 30-28 flatters the San Diego Legion, who didn’t look like they would break the Seattle Defence for the vast majority of this game, but having faced more turnaround in their squad during the offseason than any other team in MLR, they can be happy with a successful season, as much as they would’ve liked to finish it with a Shield.

The Seattle Seawolves host the Utah Warriors at Starfire Stadium in a Western Conference clash. With RFCLA having already played and lost, the Seawolves only needed to secure a win to clinch their spot in the 2024 MLR Playoffs.

The Warriors have struggled mightily in the first half this season, and that was very true in this game. With a number of reinforcements returning from injury, the Seawolves ran riot for the first 40, scoring 6 tries and 42pts to completely blow the Warriors away. Starting the second half already down 42-10, the Warriors did put in a valiant effort for the 2nd 40, and the 2nd half score was 26-19. Unfortunately for Utah, the score still looked ugly, with the Seawolves taking a comfortable 68-29 victory to clinch their playoff spot!

Seattle winger Jade Stighling recorded 4 tries and 22pts in this game, becoming the 3rd player in MLR history to record over 3 tries scored in a single game (after Dean Muir scored 4 in 2023 and Dewald Kotze scored 5 earlier in 2024). This was also the 43rd hattrick in MLR history and the 6th in Seawolves team history! On the other hand, this was the most points ever conceded by the Utah Warriors, who’s 2024 playoff aspirations are hanging by a thread.

Anthem RC, USA Rugby’s development team in MLR, travel to the Pacific Northwest to face the Seattle Seawolves at the fortress-like Starfire Sports Complex.