By Aaron Wilson
Once it was over, a fun and brief celebration could begin for the Houston SaberCats.
They put an exclamation point on another winning regular season, heading into the playoffs with a 10-6 record and earned the second seed in the Western Conference division.
They earned the right to host a home playoff game next Sunday night against Rugby Football Club Los Angeles as they finished with three more points overall.
The SaberCats’ 26-14 victory over a winless Anthem RC squad positioned Houston for what it wanted: another game in front of the fans after a sold-out Fan Appreciation night.
“I feel like we played really well, but there’s always room for improvement,” said Drake Davis, a former LSU football player who showed off some explosive open-field moves on a try to open the game’s scoring. “The boys are all-in. We just need a good practice week and take it all one game at a time. We just gotta buy-in. All the boys gotta buy-in. If we play how the SaberCats can play, we’ll win every game.”
Louritz van der Schyff broke a second-half tie four minutes after Connor Robinson had tied the score for Anthem RC.
The SaberCats finished off their opponent with late tries from Jay Renton and Emmanuel Albert. A.J. Alatimu scored on a conversion after Albert’s try. Alatimu led the SaberCats with six points.
Sam Hill had a team-high 15 carries, one more than van der Schyff, who had a game-high 132 meters made.
Andre Warner led the team with 42 passes. And Albert had a game-high 23 tackles, three more than Johan Momsen.
“It’s great, but this wasn’t our best performance,” Momsen said. “Lot of work to do, but we wrestled it out. So, we’re gonna be proud of that.”
Davis’ first-half score was one to remember.
“It’s just coming from all the boys backing me, all the support off the back end,” Davis said. “It was fun.”
To be back in front of their fans next week is significant for the SaberCats.
“We love our fans,” Momsen said. “We’re glad we could get it done for them to come out here at least one more time. We can’t do it without them.”
Marno Redelinghuys was back from paternity leave. His wife gave birth to a daughter, their first child.
“Girl dad, very happy about it,” Redelinghuys said. “New dad and playoffs. It’s amazing. You look at the crowd here, it’s just massive energy. That lifts the guys’ spirit. I look forward to the playoffs and hopefully these guys can be here to support us and enjoy it all.”
Seimou Smith has seen a lot of growth from the SaberCats, who are in the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.
“Feels good,” he said. “We played physical. I think we brought SaberCats rugby. Obviously, we wanted to play a bit better in the second half. Overall, we played aggressive defensively. We got a little loose, it got a bit away from us, but we tightened up at the end. It was nice to get a home win in front of this huge crowd. They deserved it. I wanted it more for them than I wanted it for myself.”
