> ## 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. # Hounds Domesticate Seawolves in Chicago with 57-17 Beatdown - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-seawolves-chicago-hounds-domesticate-beatdown/ - Published: 2026-05-26T01:34:09.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T06:14:39.000Z - Author: Callaghan Bluechel - Tags: News, Analysis, Seawolves, Ezekiel Lindenmuth, Davy Coetzer, JP Smith, Dan Kriel, Ina Futi, André Warner, Divan Rossouw, Mason Pedersen \[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="690"\] ![ Chicago Hounds flyhalf Santiago Videla stiff-arms Seattle Seawolves lock Callum Botchar to secure a try in Chicago’s 57-17 win over Seattle on May 24, 2026. Image credit: Chicago Hounds/Instagram. ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/hounds-seawolves-5-24-26-format-original.png) Chicago Hounds flyhalf Santiago Videla stiff-arms Seattle Seawolves lock Callum Botchar to secure a try in Chicago’s 57-17 win over Seattle on May 24, 2026\. Image credit: Chicago Hounds/Instagram. \[/caption\] With the Seawolves taking on the undefeated Chicago Hounds on Sunday, there were only two ways the game was going to go. Either the Seawolves would hand the best team in the MLR a complete stunner on their own turf, or the Hounds would take care of business in front of their own fans and go to 8-0 on the 10-game season. The clearly more likely outcome was the one that wound up happening. Although the Seawolves put in admirable effort and relatively limited their mistakes (especially in the first half), the same energy deficit that sunk them quickly at home against the Hounds sunk them on the road against that same team, only a little slower, steadier, and without a red card on Seattle. When Seattle had the ball, things looked a little bit more even. Progress was slow but clear, but they pushed forward slowly and grinded out the occasional holes. The backfield especially had moments of electricity, while Ezekiel Lindenmuth’s return from red card suspension went well in the front row. > [View this post on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYr-a--lLSl/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) > > [A post shared by Seattle Seawolves Rugby (@seawolvesrugby)](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYr-a--lLSl/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) It was a very different story on defense. Chicago was relentless up and down the pitch, and they managed to shove Seattle back ruck after ruck and drive after drive. The Hounds’ forward pack outweighed Seattle’s, 1,997 pounds (906 kilograms) to 1,971 (894 pounds), but it was entirely a matter of work rate and energy, even when Seattle went to their substitutions in the second half. > [View this post on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYp020-B8Ur/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) > > [A post shared by Chicago Hounds (@chicagohoundsrugby)](https://www.instagram.com/p/DYp020-B8Ur/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) ### Seattle showed a bit of promise in the first half but didn’t capitalize enough to keep up with the Hounds. Despite the lopsidedness in the final score, the path to victory for Seattle was clear; it was just one of those “simple and very hard” things. They needed to keep Chicago out of the 22 and be clinical with the ball on offense and produce enough tries to maintain pace. But against a team who only conceded four penalties all game, there wasn’t much room for error. After two minutes of rucking and kicking around midfield, the first whistle of the match went against the visitors and Chicago found itself well within Seattle’s 22 meter line. The Seawolves managed to hold the maul back, but as Chicago rucked forward, Seattle was pushed back meter after meter under the posts. Home eightman Jake Kinneeveauk lurched into the try zone right in the center of the pitch, Chicago flyhalf Chris Hilsenbeck converted, and the Hounds led 7-0 in the fourth minute. Possession flipped back and forth a couple of times before Chicago fullback Brock Webster darted forwards up his team’s left touchline and began a series of offloads that ended with the Hounds at Seattle’s 22 once more, but a forward pass from Chicago finally eased the pressure. André Warner knocked a box kick towards midfield and Marno Redelinghuys brought it down for the Seawolves; once the ball got out to the openside, JP Smith found a lane with support by Duncan Matthews and Divan Rossouw. The final man in that chain handed the ball back to Davy Coetzer, who landed the 13th minute try. The touchline conversion kick, however, went wide, so it was a 7-5 score. Seattle was playing a dangerous game with territory kicks, however. Chicago’s energy and power on offense meant that any possession for the home side could easily become a try line drive and a desperate defense for Seattle. The Hounds broke up their left side in the 16th minute and nearly scored a try were it not for Redelinghuys’ hold up in the zone, but as they were playing with advantage, they had another opportunity to go for their second try, clinically executing a push up the middle and a fly out wide for winger Noah Brown. Hilsenbeck missed the conversion, so Seattle was only down seven, but some attempts to get the ball past the 22 with the boot didn’t end up working. Ina Futi chipped it forward on a touchline run only for the ball to go back to the Hounds and the home side to nearly break away were it not for a knock-on right on the edge of a breakthrough. Matthews found a hole for another chip, this time to himself, but he had no onside support as he carried upwards and Seattle lost the ball. Chicago, as they have done against every side in the league, turned possession into attack with incredible speed. The Hounds flyhalf redeemed himself with a chip kick on the heels of a takeaway that wound up perfectly placed for winger Peyton Wall to dart down the line. Under pressure, Wall offloaded to scrumhalf Ruben de Haas, and Chicago had their third try, with Hilsenbeck converting to bring the score to 19-5\. Even down early, the Seawolves applied quite a bit of pressure. Living and dying by the connection of the backs, they got a corner lineout and surged forward on the maul, but it was the application of enough pressure there that allowed Warner to fly it out wide for his fellow halfback, who sent it to Matthews, who found Futi on the touchline for the try. The game remained at 19-10 as Coetzer missed the conversion from the other touchline. But despite continued pressure, their backline connection failed them as the half got closer to its expiration. The team phased past the attacking 22 and the halfbacks whirled it back out to the openside, but a pass intended for Futi went wide as the recipient wasn’t wise to it and Matthews was well out of backup position. What was nearly a try drive for Seattle became an 80-meter chip kick and chase that the Seawolves barely kept a handle on, but as the Hounds exerted pressure against the visitors, they got the ball back and, with regulation time expiring right as he got the ball, Maclean Jones burst past Coetzer and Dan Kriel to finish the first half with Chicago’s fourth try. ### The match slowly but surely slipped out of Seattle’s grasp, and a late push wasn’t enough for even a bonus point. Seattle needed to break out quickly in the second half in order to come back from their deficit. But as had happened against Chicago the first time these two teams had met this year, the pure vigor of the Hounds overworked the Seawolves as the game went on. Seattle was plainly more tired in the second half, with the Hounds getting three more tries directly from breakaways in addition to one on a pick and go and another on a breakaway plus assist. The Seawolves, meanwhile, could only respond with one try near the end of the half, finishing the game without any bonus points and down by 40. The second half began with Seattle pressing forward a bit past midfield, gaining meters on successive rucks, but as the ball went out to the openside for Smith, he lurched forward for meters and got jackaled in the breakdown. Seattle was penalized, Chicago won the lineout and went back across the pitch, and Noah Brown - the same man who had stolen the ball from Smith - zoomed past Rossouw and Nolan Tuamoheloa to find a half field of green grass and Chicago’s first try of the second half. Hilsenbeck converted to bring the score to 33-10\. Brown stole a ball from a second attacking zone Seawolf in the 46th, this time flanker Paddy Ryan. A following defensive penalty against Seattle allowed Chicago to get a lineout within Seawolves territory, and after just a bit of phasing, the second Hounds breakaway try of the half came through from Santiago Videla. Hilsenbeck missed the extra two points, but the game was still escaping Seattle’s grasp much quicker than anyone on the visiting side would have liked. Seattle managed to keep the Hounds off the board for 12 minutes beyond Videla’s try, mostly by keeping possession and keeping the ball out of dangerous spaces. Warner and Coetzer had a needle to thread with their boots: they needed pressing contested kicks to gain space and possession but couldn’t afford to allow Chicago the ball because of their opponents’ attacking energy. Coetzer threaded that needle in the 54th with a kick across half the field into an area where Seattle was immediately able to apply pressure, and a big tackle from Kriel sucked out any Hounds momentum and forced a box kick that went right back to the Seawolves. A rare Hounds penalty resulted in an attacking lineout in the 22. With four tries to make up, however, they needed more than just the solid kicks - they needed consistent finishing once they got into the 22, and that didn’t happen. Twice it was the lineout, such as when Sean McNulty overthrew the ball in that minute and the Hounds got their possession back, but the first go around allowed Seattle a mulligan as Warner sent forth a beautiful kick and the two halfbacks pressured Webster enough to force a turnover. Both teams forced the other to give it back for lineouts in turn, but when Dewald Kotze and his lifted recipient had a disconnect in Seattle’s 59th minute set piece, Chicago promptly shut the door. The Hounds had a lineout right out of the second half hydration and powered past the 22\. It wasn’t one particular run or break that gave Chicago their following try; rather, it was a series of breakdowns where one Hound lurched over several Seawolves and gained plenty of post-contact meters. A valiant Kotze tackle to ease the pressure did not prevent the space behind the line of white jerseys from collapsing, and de Haas landed the try to fully cement the home side’s revamped momentum. Perhaps Chicago themselves underestimated how much they overmatched Seattle in attacking play, as a territory kick after the try allowed Seattle to have some possession, though the visitors were unable to capitalize and land a try in the ensuing minutes. When the Hounds won a 71st minute scrum, however, yet another lightning attack materialized. Once Chicago got within the 22, it was one line break that gave them yet another try, this time by a Reece Botha that blew past Warner and Dewald Donald. By this point in the match, all Seattle could reasonably achieve was a four-try bonus point, and although they managed to get their third - Coetzer made a clever kick to space that pressed Webster against his own try line, and Seattle got a penalty, some pick-and-go phases, and a try from Pedersen - they didn’t make enough of an opportunity to build off of that and the last try of the game was scored by the Hounds’ Emmanuel Albert in the 79th minute. ### Seattle is still in control of their own destiny, but they will have to find an energy fix for the final two games. The Seawolves remained at 21 points on the table with their less, but as the California Legion won their nightcap on Sunday against Old Glory DC, they jumped to 24 points to reclaim the second home playoff spot. The two sides will not meet in the penultimate game - California faces Anthem and Seattle faces New England - but when the early June regular season final arrives in Starfire, it will be the Seawolves and Legion battling it out. Given Anthem’s skid, Seattle likely needs a win against the Free Jacks in order to keep in the running for a home playoff game. New England hasn’t quite started the engine yet in 2026, but is still in a playoff spot with 16 points, so there is still plenty to play for on that side. Against the Legion, whose Gonzalo Bertranou-powered offense proved to be Seattle kryptonite on the road in California for very similar work rate-related reasons as the Hounds crushed them on Sunday, the Seawolves will have to find a way to maintain energetic play for all 80 minutes.