After 3-game home losing streak, time running short on Utah Warriors' playoff push

HERRIMAN — For the second time in the first eight matches of the 2022 season, the Utah Warriors are on a three-match losing streak.

The most recent one — the one that came in front of a home crowd — hurts the most.

The state's professional rugby outfit never led after the 21st minute, falling to the San Diego Legion 40-25 Friday night at Zions Bank Stadium, and leaving the Warriors with just a 2-6 record and in sixth-place in the seven-team Western Conference at the midway point of the season.

There were a handful of bright spots, like Caleb Makene giving Utah a 6-3 lead with two penalties in the first 19 minutes, two tries from Tyler Fisher in his return from a two-match suspension, and a burner by former BYU star Calvin Whiting in the 60th minute.

But those highlights were few, and the result was the same during the current three-match losing streak: another loss to cap a disappointing homestand with just one point in the standings.

"Three home losses is never great as a team," said Fisher, the 28-year-old South African center. "We want to put on a show, and unfortunately we've come out with losses. But the season's not over."

After opening the season with a three-match losing streak that showed flashes of promise, Utah returned home to a 69-22 win over the expansion Dallas Jackals in their home opener and followed up with a 28-19 road victory over the defending champion Los Angeles.

That Giltinis team sits 6 points ahead of Utah in fifth place in the Western Conference.

A return to Herriman for a three-match homestand felt like an opportunity to turn around the season's rough start. Instead, Utah will take just one bonus points from its last three contests via a 27-24 loss to the Toronto Arrows on March 19 that included an officiating error in the final stages of the match.

Follow it up with a thorough 28-12 loss to the Houston Sabercats and Friday night's second loss to the Legion, and the 3,000-plus crowd that has flocked to Zions Bank Stadium four times in 2022 can't help but feel disappointed.

"Our crowd is great, and they fully get behind us. We've had a lot of support with three home games in a row," Utah forwards coach Robbie Abel said after the most recent defeat. "To come away with three losses, that's got to hurt.

"If it doesn't hurt, you haven't put your heart in it. The next step for us is how do we turn that into something positive, and how do we move forward."

The next step includes a bye week and a trip to the east coast to play Old Glory DC on April 15. The Warriors won't play at home until April 23 against Seattle, their first of four home matches over the final two months of the regular season.

If there is solace, it's that DC recently fired its head coach after an 0-7 start. Utah isn't in a much better position, but a win could start a run and climb back up the standings quickly. Each win in Major League Rugby is worth 4 points (teams split two points apiece for a draw), and bonus points are available for losing by 7 or fewer points and scoring four or more tries — win or lose.

That means the Warriors' 8-point deficit behind third-place Seattle (21 points), or even Austin (23) or San Diego (26), is hardly inaccessible.

"The boys are still fighting," Fisher said. "We never go into a game without a mindset to give everything we've got.

"We're still going to continue, and we're still in it as far as we're concerned."

Still, time is short.

One year after winning six of their final seven matches to clinch a berth in the then-four-team Major League Rugby Championship Series, the Warriors look like a shell of themselves. Not even the return of former club legend and ex-BYU football fullback Paul Lasike from England to lead off the homestand could add fortune to the most recent homestand.

​​"There were some glimpses of some really good rugby. But I feel like if anything, we're kind of static at the moment," said Lasike, 31, before missing Friday's match with an injury. "It wasn't necessarily a step back today, but we've been pretty static the last couple of weeks. We haven't taken that next level to click on all cylinders.

With eight matches remaining, half of them on the road, and that gulf to the final playoff spot in the West, there's urgency to fix the team's struggles. In essence, even with eight matches to go, it's now-or-never.

Just one year after Mikey Te'o won league player of the year and Shawn Pittman was named MLR Coach of the Year that preceded having the interim tag removed from his title, the Warriors are floundering again. The team brought those two back, but lost dynamic players like scrumhalf Michael Baska and 255-pound lock Aston Fortuin, and haven't had a player step up in their absence.

Utah fired its coach after a 2-2-12 season in 2019 that preceded the COVID-19-curtailed season of 2020 and last year's rejuvenation. Are the Warriors headed down the same path in 2022?

"I'm frustrated, and I know the boys are, too," Pittman said after the loss to Houston. "That was a big one for us where we sit in the standings."

Related topics