Utah
Utah Warriors tie franchise record with 10th win in season finale
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With nothing to gain but pride after a stunning late loss to the Chicago Hounds in last week’s home finale that eliminated the team from the playoffs, the Utah Warriors traveled to New York for season finale against the postseason-bound Ironworkers.
But pride can be a funny thing — as well as the chance to match a club record.
Cliven Loubser scored two tries, and Joel Hodgson added a try and four 2-point conversion kicks to help the Utah Warriors wrap up the season with a franchise-best 10th win of the season with a 43-33 win over the New York Ironworkers in Mount Vernon, New York.
With the win, the Warriors (10-6) snapped a two-match losing skid and tied the 2021 team for the most wins in the franchise’s six-year history. Yet in many ways, they did it the hard way.
New York (7-8-1) held over 50% of possession, but the Warriors gained more territory, forced four turnovers, and took advantage of New York’s 10 penalties to end the season on a high note after last week’s bitter disappointment.
With no playoffs in sight, Utah doubled its win total from a year ago under first-year head coach Greg Cooper, and beat four of the six teams in Major League Rugby’s playoff field that include a 26-24 home win over the No. 1 seed from the East, New England Free Jacks.
The Warriors also tied third-place Houston with identical 10-6 records, but a regular inability to accrue bonus points, as well as key losses like the one to Chicago a week ago, sent the team with the fifth-most points in the table into the offseason with 3 fewer points than the SaberCats for the final playoff berth from the Western Conference.
Henry Bell opened the scoring early for Utah, dotting it down in the fifth minute to take a 5-0 lead.
The Warriors exchanged tries with the Ironworkers with a pair of scores from Loubser before Jason Emery gave New York a 19-17 halftime lead with a try in the 37th minute.
With Saia Uhila saddled in the Sin Bin, Utah responded with a shorthanded try when Hodgson dotted it down from just outside posts before Calvin Whiting sprinted for an automatic-7 under the posts five minutes into the second half to go up 33-19.
Ishmail Shabazz dotted it down in the corner in the 50th minute, scoring the Ironworkers’ critical fourth try for a bonus point that clinched a home playoff game in the first round of the playoffs against Old Glory DC.
“Those boys fought hard,” Shabazz told The Rugby Network of visiting Utah. “It was physical; we knew it was going to be physical.”
But Jurie Van Vuuren scored in the 65th minute to push the Warriors’ lead back to 38-26 on Hodgson’s 2-point conversion kick, and Jesse Hamilton scored the first try of his rookie season to keep the 10-point win.
San Diego’s 40-19 win over Seattle later Sunday wrapped up MLR’s 2023 regular season, with the Legion and Seawolves advancing to the six-team playoffs alongside Houston, New England, New York and Washington D.C.