Utah Warrior rugby doesn’t get much better than what fans were able to witness during the final 40 minutes of the home team’s 41-31 comeback win over the Chicago Hounds on Saturday.
Down 31-12 at the break, Utah came out with purpose on top of a phenomenal amount of aggression and precision en route to scoring 29 straight points to the delight of a packed Zions Bank Stadium.
“It was probably the best 40 minutes I’ve seen from the Warriors,” observed Warriors Coach Greg Cooper. “The boys just threw everything they had into that second half, so it was quality. It was a quality second half under pressure and they responded.”
Leading off the second half barrage was Tuvere Vugakoto scoring a try off of a maul situation in the 47th minute. Joey Mano followed it up with another try in the 53rd, courtesy of a tremendous run-out and off-load from Joel Hodgson to cut the lead to 31-26.
Utah didn’t let up from there, but worked to push the gas pedal even harder.
Mano scored another try in the 60th minute off of an offload from Jordan Trainor to give Utah a 33-31 lead before Nic Benn made a physical run to the try line where he dotted it down in the 63rd minute after receiving an offload from D’Angelo Leuila for a 38-31 lead.
The teams battled back and forth for much of the next 15 minutes before Hodgson put the game on ice by making good on a long penalty kick to increase the margin to 41-31, which proved to be the final.
“It was pressure rugby,” Cooper said. “For Joel Hodgson to step up in the 78th minute and kick that pressure goal which probably took the game away. Anything can happen in two minutes and he took the game away from them. He's an absolute fighter. That took a lot of courage.”
Utah’s 29-0 run in the second half came on the heels of a 31-0 run by Chicago to end the first half, prompting Cooper to get after his boys a bit at the break.
“There were some pretty stern words, to be honest,” Cooper related. “We started the game so well, and then just had those moments again, so we were pretty honest. We asked, ‘Is that us? That last 20 minutes. Was that us?’ And then we just agreed that wasn’t us. We then asked what we’re going to do about it, and we did something about it.”
Cooper didn’t change much with regards to strategy, but simply challenged his players to get back to what they do well.
“It was just sort of getting back to the basics and getting back to the style of rugby we want to play,” Benn said. “We just knew that if we got back to that we’d be safe from there.”
Helping save things was again Mano, who had three tries for the hat trick while proving as physical and allusive from his outside position as ever.
“It’s pretty special to be on the field with someone like that who can just turn it on,” Benn said.
Also proving special was Angus MacClellan who logged his 100th cap with the Utah Warriors and was greeted with an emotional ceremony, which included a Haka performed in his honor.
“I’ve coached a lot of players in my career around the world…and Gus is just a special player,” Cooper stated regarding MacClellan. “He really is a true blue warrior. The Warrior blood runs through his veins and I love coaching someone I know is so aligned with this team.”
With the win the Warriors improve to 7-2 on the season with 36 points in the standings and will next take on the visiting San Diego Legion on Wednesday. Chicago drops to 7-3 on the season with the loss.
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