> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Result Goes Gonzo in Cali, Bertranou’s Legion Power Through Seawolves in Final Minutes - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-seawolves-california-legion-power-through-final-minutes/ - Published: 2026-04-20T21:55:44.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T06:15:03.000Z - Author: Callaghan Bluechel - Tags: News, Analysis, Seawolves, Davy Coetzer, André Warner, Ezekiel Lindenmuth, Calvin Liulamaga, JP Smith, Divan Rossouw, Liki Chan-Tung, Dewald Donald, LaRome White, Rhyno Herbst, Harison Mataele \[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="457"\] ![ Image credit: California Legion/Instagram. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/credit-california-legion-format-original.png) Image credit: California Legion/Instagram. \[/caption\] Exhaustion and depth mean a whole lot in a rugby match. For almost 70 minutes on Sunday, the Seawolves went toe-to-toe with the California Legion on the road, withstanding the efforts of Gonzalo Bertranou, Billy Meakes, and Cassh Maluia and weathering their own propensity to penalties. But in those last 600 seconds, the Seawolves - who had been forced by injuries to keep many of their forwards in for nearly the whole game - cracked under the relentless pressure. What was a one-point lead for Seattle became a 38-29 defeat, with the lone consolation being the four-try bonus point in the table. ### Two Central Washington alumni notched inaugural tries during the first half as Seattle went out to an early lead. One mistake in this game can go a long way for the other team. Through the first 13 minutes, the Legion threatened to score quite a bit, bringing the ball deep into Seattle territory twice as they pushed for quite a few meters after contact, as is their style. Early in the game with a ton of energy, however, the Seawall held firm even as they were pushed back to the brink. In the 13th minute, Seawolves flyhalf Davy Coetzer’s attempted penalty kick to touch stayed on the pitch, giving Legion another run of possession, this time in their own territory. They went to their left and then to their right, but the South African flyhalf made a big break for Seattle. California flyhalf Coby Miln tried to pass to Legion eightman Ben Houston as the home side passed out of the ruck, but Coetzer charged forward, stole the ball, and then blasted through the open space all the way into the try zone for the first five points of the game. The Legion challenged that Coetzer had been offside, but the try stood upon further review. A very preventable 15th minute knock-on from Legion center Billy Meakes - he dropped the ball forward as he received a pass - gave Seattle the scrum 10 meters into Legion territory, and a penalty against California hooker Alex Lopeti resulted in a corner lineout for the Seawolves. Said lineout and maul led to pushes near the try line, each stopped by someone in the great red wall as they phased first in the forward pack on the blindside and next with the backfield on the openside. But as the Legion coalesced along the right side of the pitch, the Seawolves whirled it back left, with a pass to Duncan Matthews looking like a tailor-made try on the touchline. Bertranou made a miraculous tackle for the Legion, but Matthews offloaded it to Calvin Liulamaga, who touched his first pro try into the zone. Coetzer didn’t make the conversion, but the Seawolves had a 12-0 lead going into the first half hydration break. The sides traded kicks around midfield out of the break for about a minute and a half before a penalty against Seattle allowed the Legion a lineout at the attacking 22\. It was the first of two whistles immediately out of the water break against Seattle, but the second - a knock-on which came during what appeared to be a promising attack for the Seawolves - proved more deadly. California crashed forward around midfield, but the Seawall held firm in the center of the pitch. The Legion, however, have Joe Mano, 2025’s try leader, and once they got it to him on the Legion’s right touchline. JP Smith, in his third game as a winger, found himself stumped as outside center Cassh Maluia broke free, and the same happened to Divan Rossouw a split second later. Duncan Matthews made a strong tackle on Maluia, but the one winger had already sent it to Bertranou, who in turn gave it to Oscar Treacy, the other starting Legion winger. Treacy - drafted out of Central Washington University a year after Liulamaga - landed the Legion’s first try of the game. Miln perfectly split the posts to make it 12-7. ### The Seawolves suffered penalty after penalty in the final minutes of the first half, squandering a man advantage. Seattle used the referee review system (RRS) to their advantage as the first half began to come towards its close. As Duncan Matthews powered into the red mass after a kick reception, he was tackled hard. Play resumed for a bit, but with Seattle noticing a high tackle by Lopeti, they made the challenge. And when the ruling came in as foul play with a low degree of danger and no mitigation, Lopeti went to the sin bin. With the man advantage, it looked like Seattle was on the verge of taking full control of the game. Davy Coetzer nailed a penalty kick in the immediate stages of the Legion yellow, but the Seawolves found themselves dogged by the same thing that sunk their game in Carolina: penalties. A not releasing here, a no-arms tackle there, and a not rolling ding yonder - they all added up, giving the Legion extra possession and culminating in another seven points for the home side, produced as Maluia deked out Rossouw long enough to offload the ball to Legion fullback Corbin Smith, who broke through on the left touchline alongside Joe Mano in the 36th. Smith’s try (assisted by Mano, as each of the two made one pass to the other during the run) and Miln’s conversion made the match 15-14 going into halftime, but not before Ezekiel Lindenmuth got sent off for 10 minutes with a high tackle. ### California turned on some jets to begin the second half, but the game was still close through the second half water break. Seattle brought the ball forward off an early scrum in the second half and broke past the 22, but Smith having to make a hospital pass to prevent the ball going into touch and an errant Riekert Hattingh pass pushed them back quite a few meters. Even though Liulamaga lost it in a breakdown, a knock-on from the Legion led to more Seattle pressure and possession up top. But if RFCLA (and the merged Legion since) were and are known for one thing on defense, it’s their jackaling. Despite the Seawolves’ measured phasing in the center of the pitch, openside flanker Ed Timpson dug the ball out of a Seattle ruck and turned the situation on its head, and a Bertranou breakaway took the ball about seven meters into Seattle territory. Bertranou executed one of his trademark quick restarts after an ensuing penalty, surprisingly the first of the game from the aggressive Argentine scrumhalf. He sent a pass to eightman Ben Houston, who roared past Coetzer and Ryan to create a wide-open runway for a go-ahead Legion try in the 44th minute. The Seawolves called for RRS, as Bertranou’s pass looked like it went about a meter forward. The review, however, ruled that the pass wasn’t forward out of the hands, and Miln made another conversion. Despite a collapsed scrum deep in Legion territory resulting in Seattle losing about 30 meters of territory, two mistakes on a kick to touch after a California offsides penalty ended up working out for Seattle, as although Coetzer’s kick didn’t reach touch, Miln muffed the reception and Paddy Ryan got the ball on what effectively became a box kick. The Seawolves had a scrum due to a knock-on during an attempted Legion jackal on Seattle’s run of play, and as Warner took it out of the scrum for Coetzer, the flyhalf proceeded to break three tackles (including from Meakes) and reach over the try line under the posts. With the automatic conversion rule no longer in effect, Coetzer simply tapped his second conversion through the posts, giving the Seawolves a 22-21 lead in the 52nd minute. ### The Legion began using Seattle’s tiredness to push meters after contact and turn the game into one of possession rather than position. Two of the most important events of the game may have occurred in the first 20 minutes of the first half. But these weren’t the two Seattle tries; they were the exits of both starting Seawolves locks due to injury. Harison Mataele had to be bandaged up in the fifth minute and was replaced by Callum Botchar, and Rhyno Herbst exited in the 19th minute. Flanker Tiai Vavao came on as the six and Marno Redelinghuys moved up to lock, but that meant that the two guys in the engine room were on the field for basically the whole match. As you can imagine from the metaphor, if the engine room is out of gas, that’s bad news bears for the team’s energy. This began seriously showing as the second half wore on and Redelinghuys and Botchar reached their limits, but in the meantime, a muffed touchline reception from Vavao in the 54th minute sent back a potential attacking half chance. But even as Riekert Hattingh stole a potential Legion breakaway and a couple knock-ons from the home side gave Seattle the ball, this exhaustion was evident, and any time California got their hands on the ball, it became more and more trivial for them to power forward dozens of meters into dangerous position. It seemed that the Seawolves were a bit slow to adapt now that the Legion had turned the deciding factor of the game state from position to possession, trying to play for meterage with chip kicks even at points beyond the second half water break, only to find Bertranou’s Legion powering over them right to where they were. Seattle slowly worked upfield, looking to maintain a clean, methodical possession to land their fourth try and expand their lead out of the water break. But even after a jackal by Paddy Ryan and some promising phases around Legion’s 22, California blindside flanker Lance Williams powered over a Seattle ruck, took the ball away, and drew a Seattle penalty. All the exhaustion had been straining the Seawolves for a while, most evident on a 67th minute Legion maul in Seattle territory as the forwards found themselves shoved backwards and torn apart from each other. 267-pound former Seawolf hooker Joe Taufete’e, in for Lopeti, crashed through nearly to the try line, but it seemed that Seattle caught a break as Legion’s substitute loosehead Declan Leaney was dinged for not rolling, but a knock-on in the lineout brought it right back to California. Leaney picked and went about 15 meters out, startling Liki Chan-Tung long enough to offload to Bertranou, who landed the go-ahead try. Miln chipped the conversion through, and with about 10 minutes left, Seattle trailed by six. Legion tore up the field in the span of a couple of minutes, getting a scrum well past the 22 in the 72nd minute as they sought to expand their lead. California’s pack rolled Seattle back and Bertranou brought it out to begin open play. The Seawolf pack summoned the last of their defensive energy to stop California again and again inches before the try line in front of the posts, but as Bertranou sent it wide to the left touchline, the Seawolves were ill-prepared to stop Joe Mano from roaring past Matthews and scoring five more. When Miln made the conversion, the extent of Seattle’s predicament became evident, with the Seawolves needing a big push just to get two potential bonus points for four tries and for a close loss. Nick Boyer subbed on for Warner to provide an extra spark in at the death, but Seattle’s chances ended up on the heels of a Legion penalty in their own territory and a maul - the pack still had enough in the tank for a bit of offense - drove the ball over the line in the 76th. Coetzer converted to make it a six-point game once more, 35-29. But a miraculous comeback was not to be. A penalty in Seattle’s own territory allowed Miln to put three points through the posts, bringing the game to its final score, and although the Seawolves had an opportunity to end it with three points of their own, Coetzer went for the lineout and the visitors lost the close loss bonus point to a knock-on. ### Knocks continued piling up for Seattle, who might go into their match against the Hounds with thin lock depth and an unclear front row situation. Just about the only forward substitution that happened about when Seattle wanted it to was the hooker swap of Liki Chan-Tung for Dewald Kotze. Dewald Donald replaced Vavao temporarily during Lindenmuth’s sin bin, but Vavao went back in the game for Lindenmuth when the Seawolves returned to full strength, depriving Seattle of the USA international. Donald suffered a knock and had to come off for LaRome White, but this meant that starting tighthead Ignacio Péculo had to go a full 80\. The lock situation remains unclear. If both Mataele and Herbst are out, then a Redelinghuys and Botchar second row would be in order with Vavao, Ryan, and Hattingh as the back row trio with only Kalisi Moli available to substitute any of the five loose forwards. Just one absence in the engine room would be more manageable, with one impact player each for the back two rows, but it would still push the pack towards its limits in more physical contests like Sunday’s. Whether or not Dewald Donald is available will determine whether Charlie Walsh will be rostered as a substitute prop, but the team also has to keep track of Péculo’s minutes, as he has gone a full 80 minutes in two straight matches, a tall ask for a tighthead prop. To make matters worse, Seattle has to face the last remaining undefeated team on Friday night. Over the first three (four in the case of Anthem and the California Legion) games, there has been one team who has appeared head and shoulders above the rest: the Chicago Hounds. With a relentlessly solid attack and a game plan centered around pressing opposing mistakes, the Hounds dulled Anthem’s flame in Chicago’s first match of the season and sent the Legion to some combination of Cannae and Carrhae on Sunday Night Rugby with eight tries in a 48-24 thumping. Chicago followed those wins up with a 50-burger at home against the Free Jacks. That’s the team that Seattle faces next, though they return home to Starfire to take them on. If the Seawolves win, it will be a shocker to the team that has looked unmatched in MLR play so far; if the Hounds win, it will send Seattle into an early-season 1-3 hole, a near-fatal blow for their chances for a home playoff fixture in a 10-match season.