Hounds fall to Warriors

CHICAGO, I.L.- The Hounds fell to 0-2 in front of a packed SeatGeek Stadium during Week Three action of the 2023 Major League Rugby season. It was the first home game for the Chicago Hounds and the Utah Warriors came away victorious, 14-10.

Chicago got started early with a penalty kick from flyhalf Luke Carty in the sixth minute. Just moments later, starting hooker Hugh Roach had to exit the game due to injury. Lindsey Stevens came off of the bench to earn his second cap and went the remaining 72 minutes.

The next twenty minutes were a back and forth affair with both teams playing committed defense. But the Hounds were the first team to score a try on the day. Chicago had a scrum deep in the Utah zone and worked through a few phases before a Utah penalty stymied the attack.

They tapped the ball to restart play and moved the ball wide for a few phases. Wing Julian Dominguez, on Hounds’ debut, picked up an erratic pass from scrumhalf Michael Baska. Baska sent the ball right and quick hands, highlighted by a nice pass from fullback Chris Mattina, got the ball onto the wing. Caleb Strum attacked the arms of some would-be tacklers and made his way into the corner of the try zone. The difficult conversion was dead-on and it was 10-0 after half an hour of play.

A few minutes later, Warriors’ hooker Henry Bell dotted the ball down off of the back of a maul for the first Utah score of the day. Right before halftime, Chicago found themselves just five meters out of another score, but another Utah penalty resulted in a Lance Williams yellow card. The Hounds couldn’t take advantage of the situation and went into the sheds up 10-7.

The lone score of the second half came from a Joe Mano try for the Warriors. The conversion kick was good and it was suddenly 14-10. Despite multiple chances for Chicago, they weren’t able to erase the deficit and fell to 0-2 with the result.

They look to bounce back in Week Four against the Toronto Arrows. Tickets can be purchased here.