Gold Mine Blues: Seawolves Drop 44-36 Slugfest to New Orleans

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="660"]

Seattle Seawolf Divan Rossouw carries the ball during a 2024 match against the New Orleans Gold. Although Rossouw scored on Sunday, Seattle lost 44-36. Credit: Bayou Rugby Coverage/NOLA Gold Rugby. [/caption]

METAIRIE, La. – There is a house in New Orleans they call the Gold Mine; it sees the fall of northern sides that come from time to time.

It was a tough, physical rumble, and the exhausted Seawolves fell to their own mistakes in New Orleans. After a 90-minute delay due to a thunderstorm rolling through, the sun came out, but the Seawolves struggled in the humidity. Despite a decent enough early start, the Gold took advantage of three Seattle yellow cards in the first half to grow a hearty lead going into halftime. Although the Seawolves made it interesting in the second half, the team lacked quality on set pieces and three missed conversion kicks cost the visitors a chance at a last-second comeback.

Each side had a player going against their former squad. Seattle’s starting flyhalf Rodney Iona spent the first two years of his MLR career with the Gold before joining the Seawolves for the 2025 season. New Orleans had Joe Taufete’e – whose 2024 season with Seattle was the best of his career – as the substitute hooker, and he scored a win-sealing try late in the second half.

The match was a big setback for a Seawolves side that had been making serious progress in the table coming out of the bye week – and it means that the team will have to buckle down and grind out the rest of the year if they are going to find their way into the playoffs.

New Orleans Opens Wide Lead in First 40

The first half set a physical tone to the match, with hard tackles and tough play – though it was all New Orleans for much of it. To say Seattle had a rough first half would be an understatement, but it was punctuated by catharsis both personal and communal for the Seawolves. Seattle was docked for ten penalties during the first half and had three players sent to the sin bin – spending 23 minutes shorthanded and nine minutes playing 13-on-15. During that time, the Gold took the opportunity to pummel Seattle, ripping through the line for 24 points. But the half was bookended by Seattle tries, one by Jade Stighling – his first of the year – and one by JP Smith.

New Orleans opened the scoring in the fifth minute after winning a penalty off a collision between Gold left wing Nikolai Foliaki and Seawolf fullback Duncan Matthews. Home flyhalf Dorian Jones took the ball through the uprights to give his team a 3-0 lead.

Seattle came right back a few minutes later, winning a scrum in the fifth minute and taking the pill down to the openside, where Iona tried to find Stighling. NOLA fullback Julian Roberts intercepted the pass but knocked it on to give the Seawolves another scrum in the 7th. Smith took the ball out of a following ruck and went to center Dan Kriel, who went to Stighling. The Seawolf wing stiff-armed one defender – outside center Isaac Te Tamaki – and batted away two more on his way to the try zone. Iona made the conversion kick to bring the Seawolves lead to 7-3.

The Seawolves had another chance on the goal soon after. The crew took a 12th minute lineout into maul inside the New Orleans half before bringing it out to the openside. Iona found right wing Ina Futi with an excellent pass to the touchline. Futi took a squib kick along the line into the try zone and rushed past Roberts and Foliaki to chase, but Jones charged into the corner of the try zone and prevented Futi from getting to the pill.

Soon after, Seattle lost control of the match. Disciplinary issues went to the fore, with the visitors committing penalty after penalty and falling shorthanded for most of the remainder of the half. In the 15th, New Orleans began a drive a little past midfield with a lineout, pushing a few meters further on a couple rucks before Rhyno Herbst was sent to the sin bin in the 16th for head contact on a tackle.

The Gold soon drove the ball to within ten meters of the goal, but a knock-on by Gold eightman Jonah Mau’u gave it back to the Seawolves with a scrum. Smith sent it to touch to get a few meters, but Mau’u broke free from the 19th minute lineout and charged up the try line. Stighling and Seawolf eightman Riekert Hattingh tackled him down, but head contact on the part of Stighling sent him to the sin bin – and Seattle was playing with 13 players against 15.

New Orleans then pounced, working up the pitch with two lineout mauls in quick succession. In the 20th, scrumhalf Ruben de Haas took it out of the maul, sent it to inside center JP du Plessis, who went further down the line to Te Tamaki. The latter found a hole between Futi and Seawolf outside center Divan Rossouw and ran through it and under the posts for the automatic conversion. The score was now 10-7 in New Orleans’ favor.

The teams took a water break, but Seattle’s discipline did not improve afterwards. Iona sent a box kick on the kickoff that Futi worked his way towards, but he reached up and knocked the ball on in the aerial, returning New Orleans the ball for a scrum. De Haas picked it out of the scrum and charged forward up the blindside, first running and then chasing his own squib kick before running some more, making it to the 22 meter line before Matthews took him down – though he got called for not rolling away and so the Gold took a penalty for a corner lineout.

The home crew took it through quick passes and pick-and-go play for about half a minute before Mau’u picked from a ruck and lunged into the try zone at the beginning of the 24th minute. Jones’ conversion kick went straight through the posts to extend the lead to 17-7.

Seattle got a couple of short spells of possession in the next few minutes, starting with two passes off a 26th minute scrum before openside flanker Aidan King took down Kriel on a potential break and took the ball for the home side. NOLA brought it to the openside where right wing Xavier Mignot ran forward to the halfway mark and sent a squib kick for Te Tamaki to chase down, but Seattle recovered. The second short spell of possession ended with a penalty on the ruck, and a few seconds later an offside penalty by Smith sent the Seawolf scrumhalf to the naughty chair due to repeated team infractions.

The Gold took the kick to the corner and then took the following 29th minute lineout into maul, shoving at the try line before whipping the ball down to the openside. First Foliaki went for it but was stopped by three blue jerseys, but Mau’u took the pass from de Haas and leapt into the zone for his second try of the game. Jones once again made the kick and New Orleans was now up by seventeen.

The Seawolves tried multiple times to recover during the next few minutes, but the absence of any scrumhalf on the pitch meant that they struggled to get balls out of the rucks or organize any sort of attacking structure. Meanwhile, knock-ons and other errors continued, and New Orleans again threatened the goal in the 33rd. Seattle recovered due to a late tackle on the home side but immediately knocked on the lineout and the Gold returned the ball toward the Seawolf try line. Although the Seawall held the home side from another try, the visitors conceded a penalty and Jones took it through the uprights to bring the score to 27-7.

But Seattle kept themselves in the game with a drive in the last few minutes of the half. In the early 38th minute, Stighling had a potential chance to get to a loose ball and threaten the try zone, but he was not able to get his footing in time. After several distance kicks and midfield passes by both teams, Seattle won a scrum in the 40th and Smith – returned from the sin bin – sent it rapidly through Iona to Rossouw, who passed to Matthews, who broke the line and went to within the 10 meter line. As tacklers approached, Matthews gave it to Smith, who landed it in the zone a little past the 40 minute mark. Iona converted to bring Seattle to within 13.

Second Half Comeback Attempt Falls Short

The second half was better for Seattle, but the team’s general lack of discipline remained in spite of the momentum the visitors were building. The team did not lose any players to cards, but still suffered penalties and became sloppier on the lineouts. The biggest issue of the half, however, was three missed conversion kicks from flyhalf Eddie Fouché, who had subbed on early in the half for Rodney Iona.

It was the Gold who struck first in the second half – as the Seawolves’ best chance in the first ten minutes, a Matthews run up the touchline, had been squandered due to a knock-on and a bad lineout. In the 48th, Mau’u picked the ball out of a home scrum in Seattle territory and charged upfield, passing to King, who was downed five meters out. The Gold phased through the line until, in the 49th, Jones flipped the ball to Mignot, who broke the line and made the try. Jones converted to bring the score to 34-14.

Despite the rough score and the boys’ extreme tiredness – though fresh legs were added with flanker Devin Short coming on for Hattingh and OJ Noa moving to the eightman spot – Seattle regained the momentum. 

Seattle won a scrum off the kickoff in New Orleans territory, phasing it back and forth across the field looking for a gap until winning an offsides penalty in the 53rd. Smith kicked for corner and Seattle took the lineout into a maul before phasing across and back about five meters out. Finally, Fouché found Futi near the edge with an opening, and the Seawolf wing ran into the zone to dot it down for the try. Fouché missed the conversion, but Seattle had clawed back a bit to be down 34-19.

The Seawolves did what they needed to do in the next few minutes and doubled down with another, as Matthews ran a kick return in the 58th down to the 22 meter line and, after a few rucks, Fouché sent a squib kick into the try zone and chased it down himself to score. He missed the conversion on his own try, but Seattle was now only ten points down.

After the water break, the Seawolves began to run out of gas a little bit, conceding a scrum penalty in their own half in the 61st that Jones took through the uprights in the 62nd to edge his team’s lead further to 37-24.

Down thirteen points with about fifteen minutes remaining, it was crunch time for Seattle, who started an attack in the 69th with a scrum in NOLA territory. They took it through a succession of rucks – mostly trying to crash the line through the middle – before Gold substitute back row man Chase Jones got sent to the sin bin for a no arms tackle. Fouché sent the kick to the corner for the lineout.

However, the Seawolves lost the ball on the lineout and a battle of kicks began for a minute or so before making it past midfield and winning a penalty in the 73rd that became another corner lineout. The pack began a maul, being stopped at the goal line by the Gold until the home side’s substitute flyhalf Luke Carty was sent off with a yellow. Seattle won another penalty and another corner lineout off of this, but the possession was saved only by a clutch Fouché counter-ruck after the lineout reception was botched.

The visitors crashed again and again at the try line – a sequence of ruck, pass, crash, over and over, inching forward. Matthews almost sank it late in the 75th, but the ball came back across the try line. Finally, in the 76th, Brock Gallagher – in for Smith – took it out of the ruck to Fouché who sent it to Rossouw, who dodged a tackle and dotted it down to cut the deficit to 37-29.

Now more than ever, the Seawolves needed an accurate kick to bring the deficit down to six points and have a chance to inch over New Orleans. Fouché lined up his kick and fired – outside the right post.

Still playing for the close loss bonus point and up two men on the field, Seattle still had reason to fight. The visitors won a lineout deep in their own territory and got it out to Gallagher. The scrumhalf’s only option was to send it to Fouché so the latter could whip it down to the openside for a chance at a break, but Joe Taufete’e – a former Seawolf stalwart in at hooker for the second half – stole the pass and jumped into the try zone for the dagger. The conversion was made, and the score was 44-29.

The game ended on a positive note for Seattle, however, as the team took a run of possession that ended with a Devin Short line break for a try under the posts for seven. The final score was 44-36 after a valiant comeback effort.

Short Rest Showed for Seattle

Sunday’s match was the third in ten days for the Seawolves, and there had not been much rotation in the lineups for any of the games. This showed on Sunday. The team looked worse in many aspects than they had in a while.

Some of these issues – the penalties – are things that Seattle has struggled with often during the season, but it was cranked up to 11 on Sunday. The penalties piled up so much during the first half that the Seawolves suffered a yellow card for volume of infractions.

The kicks off the tee, too, are a nagging issue for Seattle that keeps showing up from time to time. Frustratingly, it seems hard to predict which of the two flyhalves will get the accurate boot in any given match. Sunday, it was Iona who could kick and Fouché who could not. It must also be said that Fouché was excellent in the field and was one of the reasons Seattle was in position for his conversions to matter in the first place – but this compounds the frustration.

And some of these issues, such as the lineouts, are things that had been solid for most of the season aside from a few early matches. Here the tiredness showed in full – twice, Hattingh was lifted up in the lineout and knocked the ball on, and it seemed like the issue there fell both on the hooker (once Kerron van Vuuren, once Dewald Kotze) and on Hattingh. Around the 70th, there were two lineouts five meters out from the try line that the team botched on the reception.

Speaking of Hattingh, his tiredness was evident from the fact that he was taken off near the 50 minute mark, a rare occurrence for the Seawolf captain. He was less powerful or threatening on the field than he had been all year, sometimes absent from the goal line pick and runs where he thrives. More than almost any other player, Seattle will need him rested up for Friday’s match against Los Angeles.

New Orleans gave Seattle a fair amount of chances with errors of their own, and although Seattle took advantage of some, they did not pounce in the reliable way they had against Chicago or Anthem and were stuck on the back foot for much of the game. Taufete’e’s try coming with the home side short two men was perhaps the starkest example of failing to take advantage of the opponent’s openings.

Compounding the short rest was the climate of the Gold Mine. It is a hot, humid place where the Seawolves usually struggle (with Sunday’s match bringing them to 1-2 all time at that stadium and 2-3 in road games against New Orleans). Seattle’s one win at the Gold Mine, a 36-35 victory in the 2023 season, was a miraculous come-from-behind win where the bad luck flew NOLA’s way.

Do or Die Against RFCLA

Sunday’s loss sends Seattle to 4-6-0 on the year, still last in the Western Conference with 25 table points.

The Seawolves’ next match is on Friday, May 2 at home against RFC Los Angeles, who are two points ahead of the Seawolves in the Western Conference standings. If Seattle wins, the four (or five, given four tries) points would bring Seattle into fourth place and a prospective playoff spot – allowing Seattle to control their own destiny for the first time since opening day.

But if Seattle loses, the team will be at least four – and probably six or seven – points below L. A. in the standings with games against the heavy-hitting SaberCats, Warriors (on the road for that one), and Legion on the docket. Reliant on a Los Angeles collapse is not where the Seawolves want to be during the last five games of the year.