New Orleans, LA – NOLA GOLD notched an important victory against the Seattle Seawolves on Saturday, May 11th, at the Shrine on Airline. This win was critical for the GOLD’s playoff chances and confidence heading into a string of difficult late-season matches.

At 4-4, the GOLD desperately needed to get back on track, losing matches to beatable teams like the Miami Sharks or the Chicago Hounds. NOLA has shown that it can hang with any team in the league when it plays its best rugby, which is a prerequisite of beating a team of Seattle’s caliber. Year in and year out, the Seawolves are near the top of a loaded Western Conference, and 2024 is no different. Heading into this match with the GOLD, Seattle was 8-1 and the leaders of the West. NOLA would have to play its best rugby to even compete.

The first half of the match suggested a tough day for NOLA — Seattle looked better in every way through the first quarter of an hour, jumping out to an early 14-3 lead. The Seawolves maintained a more rigid defensive posture and were clearly more creative on offense. NOLA returned fire in the twenty-sixth minute with a breakaway try by Jonah Mau’u, but Seattle had the last word of the first half and scored once more as well. The two teams went into the break at 24-10 in Seattle’s favor.

I’m not sure what head coach Cory Brown told his team during halftime, but it worked. The second half was all GOLD, and they needed every ounce of their improved effort to achieve victory. In the fifty-fifth minute, NOLA scored a gritty, driving try to bring it to a one-score game, 17-24. In a flash, the GOLD were back in the tryzone in the fifty-ninth minute. GOLDen back-rowers put together a crafty attacking sequence on the back of an advantage play that saw Callum Botchar score. A missed kick left the GOLD trailing by two points, but they quickly remedied this deficit and jumped to a 25-24 lead.

Now in the lead, it was all about pressure and execution. Regarding the former, NOLA was stifling in both attack and defense. Seattle was under constant threat, which produced numerous penalties that gave NOLA a meaningful advantage in the waning minutes. In the seventy-second minute, the GOLD executed a well-planned lineout and maul sequence that ended in a try to give NOLA an eight-point, two-score lead: 32-24.

In the remaining minutes, Seattle notched one more score to bring it to a one-point game, but their resilience proved too little too late. GOLD won, 32-31, in their best performance of the season. Now at 5-4, NOLA is right in the mix for a #1 or #2 seed in the Eastern Conference. Their first opportunity to build on this game comes against the Utah Warriors on Saturday, May 18th, at the Shrine on Airline.