RUNY Notches Second Win Over Utah

Controversial Call Negates A Try By Warriors

(New York, New York) – Rugby United New York survived a hard fought game against the Utah Warriors, prevailing 24-22. New York moves to 8-2 on the season and is currently ranked third in the league. The Warriors drop the second match of the season to RUNY and move to 1-8-1 on the season The teams have 37 and 11 table points respectively.

The Warriors went toe-to-toe with RUNY in the first 40 minutes, going into halftime tied 12-12. The Warriors defense stood strong and overcame a season long dynamic of giving up more points within the first 20 minutes of each match than any other quarter of time. RUNY scored in the 25′ minute, with Gannon Moore responding in the 29′ with the Warriors first try. RUNY came back again in the 35′ and was answered three minutes later by Don Pati try in the 38′. Timothy O’Malley was 2 of 3 on conversion kicks.

The start of the second half looked promising with the Warriors scoring first in the second half, with a Johnny Ika try in the 41′. The next score was by the Warriors’ Franco Van den Berg won a penalty and gave the Warriors and opportunity for extra 3 points that put the Warriors in the lead. RUNY responded with a try and conversion in the 59′ and took the final score to 24-22.

Controversy struck in the 65′ when Fetu’u Vainikolo, coming in from the reserves, scored what looked to be a try but he was called down and the potential go-ahead try negated.

“Our defense came to play today, and I am proud of the overall effort. We made major improvements over our last performance against New York. This is one of the best teams in the league, and we proved we can go round for round. We just needed a little more luck today.” said Head Coach Alf Daniels.

The Warriors next match is April 27th versus the Austin Elite, the lone victory for the Warriors this season. The Austin match will also be the CBS Sports Network Game of the Week. The match starts at 7:00 pm MST at Zions Bank Stadium.

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