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The New England Free Jacks held on to claim a 38-34 victory over Old Glory DC at Union Point Stadium on Sunday. Fans were treated to a thrilling match that went down to the final play and featured a dozen tries split evenly between the two sides.
An early penalty gave New England an lineout from deep inside DC territory. Pieter Jansen found captain Josh Larsen in the lineout and the driving maul worked to perfection with the hooker getting the credit for grounding the ball.
It was the lineout that set up the second try as well. This time it was a trick play with a long ball going straight to Aleki Morris-Lome. He stepped his way to the doorstep and Vili Toluta’u was there in support to take it the rest of the way.
Old Glory had a lineout move of their own up their sleeve. Stan South took the throw in and handed it off to Cory Daniel. The flanker slipped straight through the middle and won the race to the corner to get the visitors on the board.
Yet again the lineout set the platform for New England’s third try. Jansen broke around the short side and almost made it himself. After a couple short phases his front row mate Erich de Jager barged over to add five. Beaudein Waaka’s third kick at the posts was unsuccessful leaving the score 17-5.
Daniel grabbed a double from another lineout move, this time DC shifting the driving maul to the left. Robertson’s conversion was good but moments later he would miss touch and leave New England with enough time to respond before halftime.
A penalty was won on the counter-attack and the Free Jacks kicked to the corner. The maul was making progress but Joe Johnston broke free around an unguarded blindside, passing back inside to a trailing Tera Mtembu for a seven-pointer.
Waaka looked to have created a try for Dougie Fife with a perfectly-weighted grubber early in the second half but a penalty behind the play cancelled the score. Undeterred, the Free Jacks flyhalf snagged a loose pass from his opposite number to sprint home untouched from inside his own end.
The visitors refused to wave the white flag and conjured an immediate response. After pulling the Free Jacks defense to the right, the ball was spun all the way back to the left where Sam Cusano was waiting to score with his first touch of the ball. Robertson’s kick rang off the upright but Old Glory were still alive.
Just moments later Robertson would do it all himself. Taking the ball at first receiver from the lineout, he spotted a gaping hole in the defensive line and needed no second invitation. A shimmy and a burst put Robertson clean through for the bonus point try, converting his own to close the gap just seven.
New England got back on track through their driving maul. As it hurtled towards the goal line, Api Naikatini crashed into the side to collapse the move. Without hesitation the referee awarded a penalty try and dispatched the DC lock to the sin bin.
The Free Jacks couldn’t take advantage of the overlap and instead it was Old Glory who would score next. Robertson’s huge cutout pass found D’Montae Noble, the winger showing his pace to make the corner. Again the kick proved too difficult for Robertson but the momentum was back with the visitors.
Robertson wasn’t finished tormenting his hosts just yet. A short pass put Dylan Taikato-Simpson into space and the fullback found Cusano on the outside for a double to set up a grandstand finish.
With time up on the clock a mix-up in defense left another hole for Robertson to exploit near halfway. He made it inside the New England 22 but Danny Tusitala couldn’t handle the offload off the deck with the line at his mercy. The Free Jacks kicked to touch and the final whistle sounded.
It’s a home game for Old Glory next Saturday as they welcome NOLA Gold to Segra Field. New England have an extra day to recover before their home game against the Seattle Seawolves on Sunday.
SCORING
NEW ENGLAND 38
Tries – P. Jansen (3’), V. Toluta’u (10’), E. de Jager (26’), T. Mtembu (40’), B. Waaka (45’), Penalty try (56’)
Cons – B. Waaka 2/4 (11’, 40’), No kick 2 (45’, 56’)
DC 34
Tries – C. Daniel 2 (15’, 38’), S. Cusano 2 (47’, 77’), J. Robertson (51’), D. Noble (67’)
Cons – J. Robertson 2/6 (39’, 52’)
Yellow cards – A. Naikatini (56’)
TEAMS
NEW ENGLAND FREE JACKS
1 Quentin Newcomer (18 Kyle Ciquera 73’), 2 Pieter Jansen (16 Stephan Coetzee 60’), 3 Erich de Jager (17 Spencer Krueger 76’), 4 Josh Larsen (capt.), 5 Jackson Thiebes, 6 Tera Mtembu (20 Ronan McCusker 73’), 7 Joe Johnston, 8 Vili Toluta’u (19 Evan Geist 61’), 9 John Poland (21 Tom Brusati 76’), 10 Beaudein Waaka, 11 Harry Barlow, 12 Aleki Morris-Lome, 13 Poasa Waqanibau (22 Tuidraki Samusamuvodre 68’), 14 Ewan Brumwell (23 Peceli Rinakama 76’), 15 Dougie Fife
OLD GLORY DC
1 Jamie Dever (17 Jack Iscaro 62’), 2 Mike Sosene-Feagai (16 James King 70’), 3 Steven Longwell (18 Dante Lopresti 70’), 4 Api Naikatini (19 Casey Renaud 68’), 5 Stan South, 6 Callum Gibbins (capt.), 7 Cory Daniel (20 Josh Brown 58’), 8 Tevita Naqali, 9 Danny Tusitala, 10 Jason Robertson, 11 Renata Roberts-Te Nana, 12 Ciaran Hearn (22 D’Montae Noble 58’), 13 Doug Fraser (23 Sam Cusano 46’), 14 Mike Dabulas, 15 Dylan Taikato-Simpson
Not used: 21 Danny Thomas
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Mike Lash (New Zealand)
Assistants: Amelia Luciano (USA) & Nick Tricarico (USA)
