San Diego Legion’s forwards were “marched over” by the Seattle Seawolves’ forward pack. Source: https://aedelhard.com/blogs/stories/seattle-seawolves-home-debut-something-special

Seattle welcomes Glendale to Starfire Stadium with the momentum of last weekend’s 39–23 victorious march over San Diego Legion at the same venue, which Major League Rugby podcaster Victor from www.earfulofdirt.com affectionately coined, “Penalty Try: The Motion Picture”. He alone at EOD predicted the opener as a W for SEA. Coming in From the Side Rugby podcast also foresaw the W.

Overview

With depth and a talented roster, MLR pundits such as Curtis from www.thisisamericanrugby.com see the Seawolves as the only team right now that can challenge the Raptors; while true, the reality is the home side is actually ranked #1 above 2018 MLR Title favorites Glendale. In other words, Glendale might be the only team right now that can challenge the Seawolves. As such, the match this weekend is essentially a clash of the titans in MLR.

Standings

Seattle ranked number one in Major League Rugby standings as of Friday, April 27, 2018. Source: https://www.usmlr.com/stats-standings

Team News

Still without an official head coach, Seattle Seawolves earned MLR Team of the Week recognition after marching over San Diego Legion last weekend 39–23. Player coach/scrum half (№9) Phil Mack — a.k.a. the only coach — for Seattle also earned Player of the Week, but to the dismay of fans (as evidenced in a Seawolf Pod Twitter poll) was not named to MLR First XV of the Week despite his comparably better performance over Shaun Davies at Glendale who instead earned the recognition. (MLR claims the picks were made by an Earful of Dirt member based on league stats who I now know is an SD Legion fan; however, Earful of Dirt would not comment and simply claimed the picks are an MLR product.) Without clarification, Player of the Week shall be assumed a greater recognition than First XV of the Week. In more recent news, former San Francisco Golden Gate, current Korea XVs and 7s rugger Andre Jin Kim Coquillard signed with Seawolves. According to their website, “…his height in the line outs and well-seasoned decision making will add another dynamic backrower to the Seawolves forward park.” I think they meant forward pack, not park? Open to corrections.

An obscene lack of tackling discpline in Glendale’s astonishing 12-man victory over Austin Elite led to red cards and three week suspensions for both Raptors’ loose forward Connor Cook and their second rower Ben Landry. They were completely unable to score until a penalty at 20 and their coach admitted at the half even with a strong lead that they weren’t playing their best rugby. The two forwards on suspension will obviously not be available for the Seattle showdown, raising doubts about Glendale’s ability to challenge Seattle’s scrum — possibly the strongest scrum in MLR as it stands after the penalty tries awarded to Seattle last weekend. As a backrower, Cook wouldn’t necessarily be a critical factor in the scrum but Landry is considered one of if not the best second rower in American rugby and will surely be missed when the forwards pack down at Starfire Stadium tomorrow evening. Nevertheless, three players from Glendale earned MLR First XV of the Week mention: scrum-half Shaun Davies, fly-half Will Magie, and blindside wing Harley Davidson. Our backs didn’t have their best show last weekend, and as a result we can expect this news to speak to the challenge we will face against Glendale’s backline. Also, no word if captain and eight man Hattingh and winger Misailegalu will play as they both took head knocks in the Seawolves victorious march over Legion.

Key head-to-head

The fly-halves: Will Magie versus… Will Holder? A.k.a. the Williams. We still don’t have starters posted for Seawolves, but I believe Holder is likely to get the start against Glendale given his one for one performance that included a nice pop pass to Staller into a gap and try. This head-to-head is key because Magie is a threat having experience at №10 for Eagles XVs, whereas our best look at Holder was last weekend in a less than overwhelming performance from the backs. To be clear, Holder is capped for the Eagles as well, but only seven times whereas Magie has twelve caps with the Eagles. Holder brings an additional six caps with Eagles 7s but the jury isn’t out on how that translates to Rugby Union XVs. The boot of Magie promises to present a serious challenge to any team as seen in their Austin Elite match featuring a grubber from Magie for their first try. Unfortunately for Magie, Seawolves fullback (№15) Mat Turner isn’t messing around in the back three fielding kicks having earned MLR First XV of the Week from his performance in our home opener. I could’ve easily written the head-to-head as scrum-halves (№9) Shaun Davies with Glendale and Phil Mack with Seawolves, so keep an eye on them as well. I think this match promises to be a battle of the half backs for that reason, while we will no doubt see dominance from our forward pack over that of the Raptors.

Key stats

These teams have played each other zero times. Yes, zero is a stat.

Seattle is 2–0 including both exhibition and season matches, which were both at home.

Glendale is 4–0 including both exhibition and season matches, two of which were away.

Odds

I have Seattle as 1/3 favorites to beat Glendale (thus, Raptors as 3/1). Slide into my DM’s for an actual wager?

Weather

Prediction

The match will end 36–30 good guys with an again dominant forward pack from Seattle. Magie’s boot and the Raptors backline will put on enough pressure for some out wide tries, conversions, and penalties. Ultimately, Seawolves scrums and mauls will send the Glendale side packing with a better show as well from our backline compared to last weekend. In particular, our backline will execute better downfield kicks into space or refrain from kicking when the Raptor’s back three is ready to defend. Staller’s place kicking boot will ensure the difference in a game that is sure to be exciting.

How to watch

For international viewers: MLR Facebook live. For everyone else:

Replay will be on MLR YouTube the day following the match.