MLR's Winning Team Seattle Seawolves: their home final v NOLA Gold

Photostory By: Mark Janzen

Playing in their final home match of their Major League Rugby campaign, the Seattle Seawolves sent their fans home happy with a rollicking 55-26 win over NOLA Gold. With four wins from five outings, Seattle now sits atop the MLR table, while NOLA saw their record fall to 2-3 on the season.

After all was said and done, this is…What They Said.

Kellen Gordon – Seattle Seawolves – Prop

“(The crowd) was amazing. Every single time we came out here, it was energizing. I attribute a lot of our defensive stands to the crowd and the way they’re able to take us to another level.”

“We came out with an idea in mind as to what we wanted to do and we executed really well. We said we wanted to play to our system and to our strengths, which is quick ball (movement) and getting the opposition moving around and we got a lot out of it in that first 20 minutes.

Kingsley Jones – Rugby Canada – Coach
“It had a big game feel to it. I was really impressed with the whole atmosphere here. The game was a bit loose and some technicalities missing, as you would expect, but in a strange way it sort of adds to the entertainment. They’re really exciting games to watch.

“I just know it’ll take time (to get the league to an elite level). We saw some really exciting stuff today. We saw some big strong men running really hard, full of commitment, but there are lots of technicalities missing and there’s lots of turnovers, missed tackles and inaccuracies. But, ultimately, it’s vital for the Americas to get a professional system (like this) going.”

Hubert Buydens – NOLA Gold - Prop

“It was fairly competitive. To comeback like we did after being down early is a huge thing, but we need to finish it off. It was a good hard-fought game. It was lots of fun for the fans to watch. It was a great atmosphere here in Seattle. This is a good place to play.”

Brock Staller – Seattle Seawolves – Wing

“The atmosphere is amazing. Our Seattle investor Shane Skinner has done a really good job of producing all this, but more importantly it’s been about having a connection with the fans. He’s constantly getting feedback and the Seattle community has really taken to it. It’s a sport-crazy town and we just need to get a couple more thousand seats so we can have even more fans here.”

Aladdin Schirmer – Seattle Seawolves – No. 8

“It was a great showing by the guys. I thought we had a 10-15 minute stint when we let off the gas pedal and New Orleans really stuck it to us and that shows that everyone in the MLR is dangerous. But in the end, they only scored one try in the last half and we were able to pull it through.”