By Aaron Wilson
Standing on the field together after shaking hands with the Dallas Jackals, the SaberCats reflected on being eliminated in the opening round of the Major League Rugby playoffs.
Falling behind at halftime after briefly holding a lead in the first half, the top-seeded SaberCats were outscored at a 2-1 rate in the second half and, ultimately, absorbed a 34-22 defeat to the fourth-seeded Jackals.
There were open-field turnovers, breakdowns on defense and a failure to capitalize as aggressively as the visiting Jackals on Saturday night at SaberCats Stadium. The SaberCats’ season is over under the single-elimination playoff format.
“Sport can be so unforgiving at times, especially in the playoffs if you don’t show up and you don’t play the brand of rugby you’ve played all year,” Christian Dyer said. “Results like tonight can haunt you, and they did. I do give Dallas a lot of credit. At the end of the day, I don’t think we played our version of rugby, SaberCats rugby, that got us here.
“Unfortunately, we’re going to look back at this game and realize there we so many things we wish we had done different. But that’s the reality of today. All we can do now is take a hard look at ourselves and do our best to get better wand wish everyone else in the league good luck.”
In the playoffs for the third consecutive year after finishing the regular-season with a league-best and franchise-record 14-2 record, the SaberCats fell short against a Jackals squad that won its first playoff match.
There’s a lot of soul-searching going on now with the SaberCats after an unexpected loss.
“We took all the necessary steps to get here, to prepare ourselves to be champions,” Seimou Smith said. “We brought in Marcus Luttrell, the Lone Survivor, to give us a speech. We studied all the analytics and data.
“We knew what we needed to do. That’s the nature of sport. Once you get out there, it’s on you. It’s just tough. We had all the pieces.”
The SaberCats narrowly defeated the Jackals twice during the regular season, including a 29-28 victory heading into the playoffs.
“It’s part of the game,” Nathan Den Hoedt said. “When you get to playoff time, it’s all about execution. You get to the playoffs and you have to play at your best. We made errors. There were bad calls. Dallas capitalized, credit to them.
On Saturday night, the Jackals came out on top despite tries from Smith and Andre Warner, off a pass from Gideon van Wyk, and Louritz van der Schyff.
The SaberCats trailed Dallas 20-15 at halftime and then were outscored 14-7 in the second half. A missed kick from Tautalatasi Tasi was taken off his foot and led to a breakaway score for the Jackals at a key juncture late in the match.
“Just a credit to Dallas,” Tasi said. “They came out with the want to win. They gave it their all, credit to them and good luck to them next week. To our boys, hell of a season. Just got to prepare for next year. Coulda, woulda, shoulda, but there’s always next season.”
The SaberCats reached the Western Conference finals in 2022 before losing to Seattle and then lost in the first round last year to the Seawolves, too.
“It always comes down to discipline,” Pono Davis said. “We just didn’t execute. We had opportunities and just didn’t finish all the way. That’s just how it goes in sports. We have to keep our heads high. It’s a tough one to swallow. There’s a lot to look forwad to, but it’s hard to think about that right now.”
The Jackals came out aggressively and beat the SaberCats in close quarters, winning scrums and open-field situations.
“I think they came out and were just physical from the get-go,” van Wyk said. “We certainly didn’t underestimate them. We knew what they were capable of. They executed very well and they beat us to the punch. At the end, they got the win. It’s tough to swallow.
“It’s obviously very fresh. It’s very frustrating. I think this team is capable of a lot more than what we did, but it’s just the way it goes sometimes. Sometimes, it’s not mean to be. This club is very proud. We’ll take this loss pretty hard. In a few months, it’s time to start looking forward to next season.”
Davy Coetzer, the SaberCats’ leading scorer, plans to take a few weeks off and then start preparing for next season.
“Every year, we’ve gotten better as a team,” Coetzer said. “It’s just unfortunate and disappointing to not get to the next stage. I think we’ve done so well in the regular season, but that’s a lesson.
“In playoff games, you have to be on your game. There’s no second chance. Dallas really stepped it up. They were physical. They executed and we didn’t. All kudos to them.”
