By Aaron Wilson
The time is now for the Houston SaberCats.
As the top seeded team in Major League Rugby, the 14-2 SaberCats manufactured a successful regular season with the most victories in franchise history and the best record in the league.
While all of that is nice, it wasn’t their primary goal at all.
As the SaberCats prepare for Saturday night’s home playoff game at SaberCats Stadium against the Dallas Jackals, their focus is clear heading into a Western Conference semifinal.
“Obviously, the standings are great, but we’ve got a lot of unfinished business,” Ronan Murphy said. “We’ve gone two seasons in a row getting knocked out of the playoffs, so we want to set the ship in the right direction this time.”
The SaberCats defeated the Jackals, 29-28, to cap the regular season.
The playoffs are a new chapter, though, in single-elimination format.
“We’re definitely proud to be in the position we are in, but we’re so far from our goal,” Christian Dyer said. “And that’s Aug. 4, raising the shield. That’s where all our attention now.”
Scrum half Carlo de Nyscchen is proud of how the SaberCats have gone about their business all season long.
“We worked hard for it, it didn’t just happen,” he said. “Fourteen-and-two is a great record.”
And the playoffs means a slightly different approach and higher intensity.
“Our game plan stays very similar,” Murphy said. “We just focus on ourselves. Whoever’s in front of us, we’re going to go out and smash.”
For Andre Warner, it’s been about compartmentalizing and staying in the moment.
“We’re very proud of our record,” Warner said. “We’ve worked hard for homefield advantage in the playoffs. Every game is a final now. We’re just focusing one game at a time.”
Two of the hallmarks of the SaberCats has been flexibility and unselfishness.
Under the leadership of director Heyneke Meyer and coach Pote Human, the SaberCats keep the main thing the main thing.
“The good thing about this squad is it’s so competitive,” Dyer said. “Every single week it’s a fight for that starting role. When the SaberCats’ backs are against the wall, I would completely double down on us.
“I don’t think we really care about stats right now. In reality, it’s everybody putting the hard yards in together. It’s an all hands on deck kind of vibe here. No person is bigger than anyone else.”
Added lock and back row Johan Momsen: “We have a lot of confidence going into the playoffs. We had a little bit of a wakeup call the last two weeks to work on everything we’ve been lacking on a little bit. It’s a well-deserved break going into the playoffs. We take a lot of confidence for that.”
And the SaberCats have shuffled their lineups for strategy and personnel reasons constantly while dealing with a few injuries along the way and other roster situations.
“I think it’s a credit to our coaches and the whole squad,” Warner said. “Everybody has played a game and we’re actually in very good health. We don’t have a lot of injuries. That helps. It’s a very talented and big squad when guys are healthy. We’re feeling good about everything.”
