'One that got away': Upset bid escapes Utah Warriors in home loss to San Diego

HERRIMAN — Plenty of moments during an 80-minute rugby match determine a result, but in the Utah Warriors' 26-16 loss to the league-leading San Diego Legion, two definitely stood out.

The first came immediately after halftime when San Diego's Matias Freyre scored the visitors' first try of the match to turn a 10-6 deficit into a 13-10 advantage just 90 seconds after the break in front of a crowd of more than 3,600 fans at Zions Bank Stadium.

Joel Hodgson tied it up with a penalty conversion for Utah just five minutes later, but the Warriors were held without a try in the second half en route to their second-straight defeat — and possibly the most disheartening of the season that included a recent four-match winning streak.

"I think that's one that got away," Utah Warriors coach Greg Cooper said. "I think we defended a side with so much attacking potential brilliantly. But we gave them an easy try after halftime, and then we lost an easy try underneath the goal post. The reality is, that's the match."

Cooper said the team's lineout and maul was "superb," but they "we coughed up a little too much possession, and our contact area could've been a little bit better as well."

"But these were two quality sides going head-to-head, two tries apiece, and probably a couple of moments that we'll look back on and say that score would've been different."

Both sides struggled to score in the second half, but the Legion (10-1, 49 points) used a 14-point swing with a 3-point edge midway through the period to pull away for 10-point win and an eighth-straight victory.

"By the stats, they are the best team," Cooper said of San Diego, which leads its next closest contender by 10 points. "They own most of the stats. They have the best defensive lineout in the competition, but our lineout was better today. That's great. Defensively, they get the most gain line, the most line breaks, and they put four tries on Houston with no possession — and yet I feel like, defensively, we shut them down."

After Freyre's try in the 41st minute, the Legion and Warriors (6-4, 28 points) exchanged penalty kicks en route to San Diego's 19-16 lead with 15 minutes to play.

Utah had a chance to take control when Calvin Whiting found Caleb Makenne in the 69th minute. The former BYU center from South Africa who prepped at Lone Peak dished a pass to the native New Zealander, but Makenne couldn't corral it en route to a turnover in what would've otherwise been an automatic-7 under the post.

Less than 10 minutes later, Michael Smith sealed San Diego's key road win with his first try of the year, scoring under the post for an automatic 7 and the 26-16 final margin.

Utah opened the scoring just eight minutes in through Logan Tago, who dotted it down in the corner before San Diego took a 6-5 edge on consecutive penalties before Makenne scored in the 37th minute to give the hosts a halftime advantage.

The Legion suffered two of their three yellow cards in the first half, playing for long stretches down a man. But one of the most penalized teams in the league that also leads Major League Rugby with 49 points has grown accustomed to playing shorthanded, and did so admirably Saturday night with a plus-8 margin with a player in the Sin Bin.

Utah will try to bounce back from its two-game slide next Saturday, May 13 at the Dallas Jackals before returning home May 20 to host the Houston Sabercats in a match between two of the top-four teams in the Western Conference. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. MDT on KMYU and The Rugby Network.

"A lot of confidence out of that, but I think we've got to look back on this one and see a couple of moments, and we've got to control possession better," Cooper said. "If we control possession better and hold the ball, we probably score another 2-3 tries. That's the disappointing thing; the scoreline does not reflect the fact that could've gone either way. And it's a credit to them, too."

Related topics