Warriors mistakes haunt them in loss to DC

LEESBURG, VA. — To say the Utah Warriors 22-21 to Old Glory DC on Friday was heartbreaking may not do it enough justice.

Desperate for a win, Calvin Whiting lined up a potential game-winning penalty kick in the game’s 80th minute. Not the regular kicker for the Warriors, Whiting filled the role admirably throughout the night, but had his potential game-winner fade just right as Old Glory celebrated its first win of the season.

As for the Warriors, the loss marked their fourth straight of what has been a challenging season, to say the least.

“The boys are hurt. The boys are hurting big time,” said Warriors assistant coach Shuan Davies. “We know that we’re a better team than this, and we know we’re going to bounce back and trust the process.”

Things started well enough for Utah on the night, with a Caleb Makene try coming off a brilliant assist from Mikey Te’o in the game’s fifth minute accounted for an early 7-0 lead.

6’ – Try time Makene for automatic 7 points under the posts. #ForTheNation / #RiseOfRugby pic.twitter.com/WB6cx5nx2S

— Utah Warriors Rugby (@utwarriorsrugby) April 16, 2022

“We started fairly well,” Davies said. “But we seem to be a team of the moment, and when errors pop through we end up giving (a lot of advantages) to the opposition.”

Old Glory took advantage of Utah not being completely out of a ruck situation to score a try in the 22nd minute, cutting the lead to 7-5 after an unsuccessful conversion kick.

Whiting then extended the lead to 10-5 just two minutes later on a penalty kick before Old Glory scored another try in the 34th minute to tie things up at 10-10. Just prior to the try was Te’o being forced to leave the game with an apparent head injury.

Utah closed the first half with another Whiting penalty kick to take a 13-10 lead into the break.

The Warriors appeared to be in route to taking over the match early in the second half, with Te’o taking advantage of an unsuspecting Old Glory defense out of a ruck situation, extending the lead to 18-10. They then extended the lead to 21-10 on another Whiting penalty kick in the 47th minute.

But a yellow card issued to Warriors flanker Thomas Tu’avao in the 59th minute seemed to change the momentum back toward DC for the remainder of the evening.

“The yellow cards were tough, but the discipline…the boys just weren’t disciplined tonight,” Davies said.

DC capitalized soon after the yellow card was issued, scoring a try accompanied by another failed conversion kick to cut the lead to 21-15.

Another yellow card issued to Utah was followed up quickly with another DC try in the 75th minute for a 22-21 lead, which proved to be the final, following Whiting’s heartbreaking miss on a penalty kick.

The loss for Utah came after a bye week in which the team worked through the dismissal of head coach Shawn Pittman, on top of several notable injuries to standout players such as Niall Saunders, Paul Lasike and Cliven Loubser.

“It’s been a tough week, but we’re not a team that makes excuses,” Davies said. “We look at the process and we look at the result today and how we can be better. It’s been a tough week and there’s been a few distractions, but that’s just not good enough. We know we’re better than this.”

Tough…#ForTheNation pic.twitter.com/3xg98bxiks

— Utah Warriors Rugby (@utwarriorsrugby) April 16, 2022

With the loss Utah falls to 2-7 on the season and will look to rebound a week from Saturday when taking on the Seattle Seawolves at home.

Brandon Gurney is the Utah Warriors Team Reporter. With nearly two decades of experience covering BYU Football in print and on radio, Gurney brings a wealth of experience to the Utah Warriors beat. You can read all of Gurney’s stories on the Utah Warriors throughout the 2022 Season at WarriorsRugby.com