NEWS

Colton’s Corner: End of the Regular Season & Playoffs

Colton’s Corner will be a weekly feature on five topics from around MLR.

Houston’s Strong Finish

“It would be 4-0 if we are able to beat Utah as well. That would be enormous. We’ve got such a talented squad. The facilities now have been done and it’s awesome. It would be such a positive thing to finish off the season and in my opinion, it would really carry into next year. Just to have a lot of confidence going into the preseason and then obviously into the regular season come February. I think it would just be a huge thing for the playing group, and the coaching staff and owners and everything. It’s hard to put into words. It would be a very big deal for us that’s for sure.”  – Houston SaberCats’ captain Matt Trouville

The Houston SaberCats look like an entirely different team under interim head coach Paul Emerick. Their 36-15 wire-to-wire victory over Austin Elite Rugby on Saturday afternoon marked their second-straight victory and their first in the brand new AVEVA Stadium. Everything is trending up in Houston. They have the opportunity to finish the season on a four-match win streak, but it will not be easy. They’ll welcome the Glendale Raptors to town on Wednesday evening and will then have to travel to Utah on Saturday to take on a Warriors side that gave the Seattle Seawolves a tough test in Week 18. That match will mark the fourth match that the SaberCats have played in 14 days. Based on Trouville’s comments above, an undefeated fourth quarter of the season is something that the SaberCats have their sights set on and something that is certainly not out of the realm of possibility with the way that Houston is playing.

RUNY Outlasts NOLA

This match had all of the potential to be the best one of Week 18 and it lived up to all the hype. It featured two teams that needed victories. NOLA needed a victory to lock up a playoff spot while RUNY needed one to stay in the hunt. Sunday’s fixture saw two of the best teams in the MLR scratch and claw their way to the final whistle. The difference in the 24-22 match that RUNY ended up winning ultimately came down to a conversion and those two points are ultimately the reason that NOLA finds themselves on the outside of the playoff picture with one match to play. NOLA’s last match of the season will be anything but easy. They will have to snap their three-game slide in San Diego against the first-place Legion. If the Gold can win, they are in. If RUNY can go up to Toronto and knock off the red hot Arrows, something only NOLA has done this season, they are in. The objectives are clear enough, now let’s see who rises to the occasion.

Arrows Eliminate Raptors

Sunday afternoon was a great measuring stick for a Toronto Arrows side that is one of the two newcomers in the MLR’s second season. Not only did the Arrows extend their win streak to six matches with their 40-12 victory over the Raptors, but they also knocked last year’s runner ups out of playoff contention at the same time. What better way to show that you belong? The Arrows can’t spend too much time patting themselves on the back, though. They’ll have to take on the other half of 2019’s addition to MLR in RUNY on Sunday, June 2 in a match that could make a break each team’s season. Nothing would be sweeter for either side than to knock the other one out of playoff contention in the final week of the season. While there are scenarios that would allow both teams to advance to the postseason, no one wants to back in. Win, and you’re in.

Seawolves – Warriors Draw, Throw Gas on the Playoff Race Fire

This match just had to end in a draw. Of course, it did. On a day where playoff scenarios were pumping through all different corners of the internet, the Seattle Seawolves and the Utah Warriors had to throw us a curveball. What a match it turned out to be, though. It perfectly summed up the season that the Warriors have had. They have shown flashes of greatness all year long but just haven’t been quite consistent enough to parlay that into anything just yet. They are trending in the right direction, and a win over the Houston SaberCats in their final match of the season would be the perfect way to head into the offseason. It was a tale of two halves for the Seawolves. They held Utah scoreless in the second half and came back from a 10-point deficit to come away with a massive two-point draw. They join the logjam of teams gunning for the last three spots in the MLR Championship series with 53 points and will need to hold off a winless Austin Elite Rugby side at Starfire Stadium in Week 19 to punch their ticket to the postseason. Could we see a postseason without either of last year’s championship contestants? It seems unlikely that Austin knocks off Seattle in Week 19 but this league proves week in and week out that nothing is impossible.

They All Count

The way that this season has shaken out to this point has been unbelievable.

Every piece of the puzzle has been completely unpredictable. Before the season started, who would’ve guessed that only one team would have their place secured in the MLR Championship Series heading into Week 19? Who picked Glendale to miss the playoffs entirely? Who picked Toronto and RUNY, the newcomers in 2019, to both have a chance to make it?

What about NOLA? After their redhot start to the season, who would’ve guessed they’d be on the outside looking in with one match to play. As a fan of one of the four teams battling for one of the three playoff spots, it’s probably a little difficult to appreciate the drama that this season has created heading into the final week, but as a rugby fan and a fan of sports in general, how can you not appreciate this? The unpredictability of Major League Rugby’s second season is what makes sports great, and I’m happy to be along for the ride.

Every match matters this weekend. Only two, Glendale at Houston and Houston at Utah, don’t have any effect on the playoff picture, but how can anyone read SaberCats’ captain Matt Trouville’s quote at the top of this piece and think that match isn’t important to them?

The last thing anyone would want would be to head into the final week of the season with everything locked up and laid out. That’s not fun. What we have on our hands in Week 19 is fun, so why not enjoy it?

What did you think about this week’s action? What did I miss? I would love to hear from any and all MLR fans as the season moves along. Feel free to shoot me an email at colton@usmlr.com with any MLR related topic that might be on your mind. I’ll address any emails in the next week’s Colton’s Corner.