HERRIMAN — The Utah Warriors’ second match of three in an eight-day span didn’t lack for much drama.
But the pay off was well worth it.
Logan Crowley pinned down the decisive try with five minutes remaining, and the Warriors vaulted to the top of the table in Major League Rugby with a 38-31 win over San Diego in front of close to 3,500 fans at Zions Bank Stadium.
D’Angelo Leuila had a game-high 11 points to lead the Warriors (8-2, 41 points) in their fourth straight win to vault to the top of the Western Conference with six games remaining in the regular season.
“The important thing was how we finished,” Utah coach Greg Cooper said. “It was exactly how we wanted it to be; we had a good start again, and we probably had another opportunity to score another try that I think would’ve put a lot of pressure on them.
“But they came with a lot of energy, and a lot of desperation,” the New Zealand native added of San Diego. “We knew it was going to be like that. We lacked a bit of patience in the attack at times, and defensively we probably were about 5% off where we normally are. We weren’t at our best, but I think we did enough and showed enough character that we needed to win.”
Utah’s 41 points also put the squad ahead of East-leading New England, which handed the Warriors their last loss March 29, by six points before the club’s third match in eight days Sunday at Old Glory DC.
“As a group, we’re very happy,” Crowley said. “But we’ll move on to Sunday and try to keep the ball rolling.”
San Diego (6-5, 32 points) made 13 changes to the starting lineup that lost to the Warriors 31-18 just 11 days prior in America’s Finest City.
But the results started the same, with Nic Benn dotting one down in the corner just seven minutes in and Leuila scoring under the post for an automatic conversion to go up 14-0.
Steffan Crimp intercepted a poor pass and returned it 65 yards for a try to open the scoring for San Diego. Charlie Hewitt then added one for the Legion in first-half stoppage time to tie the match at 14-all at the break.
Utah’s Liam Coltman opened the second half scoring off a maul for his seventh try of the year, the Warriors doubled the lead with another video-reviewed try in the 53rd minute to take a 26-14 advantage.
That was a common theme on the night for Utah, which matched San Diego’s physical play in the trenches — and then some.
“After we got a win down there, we knew they would come back here to try to get a win on us,” said Coltman, the 35-year-old New Zealand international who joined Utah from Lyon in France prior to the season. “The boys had to come out and front up, and they did. There were a few periods where we slackened off a bit. But I’m really proud of the boys sticking to their guns, being physical, and making some big tackles.”
Taveti Lopeti and Vili Helu sprung the Legion back into it as San Diego scored two tries just four minutes apart to tie the match at 26-all.
But former BYU All-American Cole Semu broke the front line with a run in the 75th minute, and Tomasi Tonga found Crowley with the offload moments later to help the Warriors secure the full five points and jump in front of Houston to top the conference.
“He did all the work,” Crowley said of Tonga. “He played me the ball, and I just had to put the ball over the line.
“It’s a real shout for the team, and the win.”
Utah continues its unprecedented run of seven matches in 35 days Sunday at Old Glory DC. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m. MDT on ESPN+ before the Warriors return home Monday, May 12 to host the Seattle Seawolves (7 p.m. MDT, ESPN+).
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
