Seawolves Short of Comeback, Utah On Top 30-27
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Seattle Seawolves eightman Riekert Hattingh lunges into the try zone in the 59th minute of a match against the Utah Warriors on March 22, 2025. The Seawolves would go on to lose to the Warriors, 30-27. Credit: Punkus Arnett/Seattle Seawolves [/caption]
A not-releasing call here, a missed tackle there, a slip of the fingers elsewhere. The Seattle Seawolves looked like a much better team than they have all season, but in the end, it mattered little. The Utah Warriors pulled away from Starfire Stadium with a 30-27 victory over Seattle, and the Seawolves dropped to 1-4-0 to start 2025.
Aside from a few critical sections of the match, Seattle looked like a real contending side on Saturday. Mostly missing from the match were the flubbed passes, bad lineouts, and disorganized rucks that dogged the Seawolves early in the season. But there were still issues at the goal, with Seattle having totaling seven promising drives into the Utah zone — four to the try line — that did not result in any points being scored. In addition, much of the Warriors’ tally came on the heels of Seawolves errors, most prominently a 30th-minute giveaway that went the other way for a try.
“We were dominating most of the facets [of the game], especially in the first half. A couple of unforced errors let them in,” the Seawolves’ Riekert Hattingh said. “A defensive unforced error there in the first half that let one straight through and a couple disciplinary issues in our half gave them the opportunity to kick for post and eventually get it in.”
Before the match, the Seawolves celebrated Women in Rugby Night, which kicked off in the afternoon with two games between women’s rugby sides: The first, at 4 p.m., between two high school Oregon sides, the Valley Panthers and the East County Grackles; the second, at 4:30 p.m., between the Seattle Orcas and Portland Pigs — two adult amateur teams.
The game started at 7 p.m., on Utah’s terms. After a few kicks for possession, the Warriors put together a couple of phases before flyhalf Joel Hodgson broke past JP Zeiss and flew to the try zone in the 4th minute. Inside center D’Angelo Leuila easily sunk the conversion. It was 7-0 Warriors.
Despite this, the Seawolves dominated possession for the rest of the first half but came up with little to show for it besides two penalty kicks. In the 9th minute, Duncan Matthews and Divan Rossouw combined to drive the ball forward into Utah’s half of the pitch. After several phases where Seattle slowly pushed forward, a Warriors offsides call gave the Seawolves a penalty, which Eddie Fouché kicked through the uprights to make it 7-3.
Seattle recovered possession after a few minutes of inconclusive play and made a promising drive starting in the 13th minute. The Seawolves had good cohesion and strong near-breaks, hauling forward to the try line by the 14th minute. But Seattle failed to release the ball on the ruck, ending the chance.
Again, the Seawolves immediately regained possession. Divan Rossouw showed his prowess under pressure, taking the ball through the left middle of the field to within the 22. The ball stayed deep in Utah territory, with a Seattle scrum, then a short run from Devin Short and another Seattle scrum bringing the ball to less than ten meters away. Seattle once again lost cohesion at the line, with Rhyno Herbst obstructing his own engine room counterpart Malembe Mpofu five meters away.
Within a minute, Seattle recovered the ball and brought it down the field with a penalty kick and a lineout into phases. Toni Pulu ran forward with the ball almost to the try line and the Seawolves won a penalty. Fouché sent the kick through the uprights for another three points. Utah’s lead was down to one.
Over the next few minutes, the ball exchanged hands a couple of times — punctuated by a crushing hit by Joe Mano that knocked the wind out of Duncan Matthews — before Seattle was awarded a scrum around midfield in the 30th minute. The Seawolves won the scrum and immediately phrased through to Divan Rossouw, who barreled forward before attempting a risky offload to Fouché — an offload that Hodgson intercepted. The Warriors’ flyhalf flew to the try zone, and Leuila converted once more to give Utah a 14-6 lead.
Once again, Seattle had a chance near the try line, as Utah muffed the kickoff return, allowing Huw Taylor to lurch forward almost to the line – but the Warriors recovered and drove him into touch to win a lineout, which became a penalty kick after Seattle jumped the gun on the lineout.
The Seawolves had an ugly start to the second half following more missed opportunities late in the first, getting called on not releasing the ball in the ruck in the 41st minute to give Utah a penalty. Leuila kicked for three and sent the ball through the uprights to bring the Warriors lead to 11. Seattle quickly lost the ball after the return and got dinged for not rolling away on a Utah ruck, allowing a corner kick. The Warriors brought the lineout into maul and crushed through the Seawall, with hooker Liam Coltman landing the try in the 45th. Leuila easily landed the conversion to make it 24-6.
While the Warriors did not quite maintain the thunder as the 50-minute mark crossed, the Seawolves struggled to regain the momentum. Both teams had a series of competing scrums, but Seattle’s perfect record in home scrums ended in the 53rd as the one-ton Warrior forward pack trucked through the Seawolves front eight to win a scrum penalty. Leuila took the ball through the uprights once more, giving Utah a full three-try lead.
After this penalty, Seattle finally woke up. Finally, in the 59th, Hattingh powered past Utah flanker Kalisi Moli and landed the try. Fouché hit the conversion to make it a two-try game.
The Seawolves roared back into the game soon after as replacements came on in the 60th: Malacchi Esdale for Duncan Matthews and Dewald Kotze for Kerron van Vurren. In the 62nd, Seattle took a lineout into phases, sending it to Huw Taylor who passed to Mika Kruse who dumped it off to Malacchi Esdale along the touchline about 20 meters out from the try zone. Esdale thundered up the line and scored his third try in as many matches. Fouché hit the corner conversion to bring the score to 27-20.
After that, the Seawolves again had a strong chance and again let it slip. Utah took an ensuing lineout into phases near the 22-meter line, won an advantage, and used that to set up for a penalty kick. Hodgson easily sent it through in the 72nd, bringing the Utah lead to 30-20.
It was now crunch time for the Seawolves. Fouché sent a short kickoff that Esdale recovered halfway up the Warriors half. Phases of passing followed before Utah was dinged for not rolling away, allowing Seattle a corner kick. The Seawolves took the lineout through a few more phases before an Esdale pass to Rossouw up on the sideline was intentionally knocked on by the Warriors’ Spencer Jones a few meters from the try line in the 74th. Referee Luke Rogan awarded a penalty try and conversion to the Seawolves, 30-27.
Seattle won a 76th-minute penalty after Utah collapsed the scrum. The kick went well within the 22-meter line. But as the phases got started, Fouché flubbed his touch on the ball, allowing Utah to kick it back to around midfield. Seattle got the ball back with a scrum in the 79th, with one more chance to end the deficit. They passed the ball quickly down the line, with Kruse thundering forward along the side, but once again, the ball slipped out — this time from the fingers of Olajuwon Noa. The Warriors ran out the clock, and the Seawolves lost, 30-27.
Despite the struggles with getting the ball across the try line, that likely would have been enough against most of the teams in MLR. But the Warriors are shaping up to be one of the best teams in the league this year, and they eked out a victory by the skin of their teeth.
It is a frustrating loss for a team that seems like it just cannot get anything to go right. The defending Western Conference champions are in a three-loss hole with three of those losses being winnable, one-score matches. The fact the Seawolves went toe-to-toe with the Warriors — a championship contender — should be a very encouraging sign. But a 20% win rate is not.
The team has to put Saturday’s outcome behind them, however, there are still 11 matches left in the season.
“Utah are a good outfit to play against … so credit to them,” JP Smith said. “I think for us, it’s getting the basics. And there’s some errors that creep into the game, and we just need to be better.”
