Warriors fall to RFCLA on the road

LOS ANGELES — Too many soft moments and not adjusting well to high winds contributed heavily in the Utah Warriors 36-32 heartbreaking loss to RFC Los Angeles on Sunday.

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Despite a quick start out of the gate, too many mental lapses, along with several untimely dysfunctions in executing effective lineouts gave Los Angeles just enough of a window to jump through for the win.

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“I thought we looked like the better team, other than the fact that we gave them soft points,” said Warriors coach Greg Cooper. “...It’s just basic errors (we made), so it’s a game we probably should have won, but we didn’t. The best way to describe it is that we just gave up too many soft points.”

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As mentioned, Utah got off to a very fast and promising start, with Isaia Kruse staying just inbounds along the sidelines to touch the ball down in the try zone in the game’s sixth minute. Kruse received an effective off-load from Michael Manson for the early score, giving Utah a 5-0 lead after a missed conversion kick.

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Two minutes later Los Angeles was forced to play a man down after being issued a yellow card, which the Warriors looked poised to take advantage of. But an unforced passing error deep in Los Angeles territory gave way to a long runout and relatively easy, or soft score in the 12th minute.

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LA then added to its lead with a penalty kick in the 19th minute to take an unlikely 10-5 lead at the first water break.

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As has too often been the case in the early season, Utah’s lineout execution was lacking, with the high winds accompanying the match compounding the issue. Two notable missed line-out opportunities preempted prime scoring opportunities during the ten minutes when the Warriors had a man advantage.

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“Unfortunately our lineout didn’t function, so that’s obviously something we have to rectify,” Cooper said.

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Los Angeles added to its lead with another try in the 27th minute, extending the lead to 17-5 before a penalty kick and try scored by Joe Mano closed the lead to 17-13 at the half. Mano showed off all the skill that made him Utah’s leading scorer a season ago, deftly evading defenders with two stiff-arms en route to touching the ball across the try line for his first score of the season.

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Although Utah looked poised to take control of the match after the break, the first ten minutes of the second half proved otherwise. Los Angeles again took advantage of its opportunities, scoring tries in the 43rd and 48th minutes to take a commanding 31-13 lead while taking back whatever momentum Utah had gained considerably.

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Utah closed the score to 31-18 in the 56th minute, scoring a try off a successful maul following one its few well-executed line-outs of the afternoon before LA extended the lead to 36-18 in the 68th minute after scoring its fifth try of the game.

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“I think we gave them at least three of those five tries that they scored,” Cooper said. “They didn’t have to work for them. We gave them to them. We need to shut down those moments and, I think, we’ll get better.”

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But Utah made certain not to come away from the match completely empty during a resilient final 10 minutes of the match.

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Nic Souchon scored a try in the 74th minute for Utah’s critical fourth try of the afternoon before Manson used his superior lateral quickness to score a thrilling try in the 80th minute to cut the lead to 36-32. Souchon’s try earned the Warriors one bonus points with Manson earning another bonus points due to cutting LA’s lead to less than seven points.

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“Michael was playing out of position at fullback, and I thought he was outstanding today,” Cooper said of Manson. “And Joe (Mano) was outstanding, too, and he hasn’t been playing rugby that long since his injury.”

With the loss Utah falls to 1-0-3 on the early season, which certainly has Cooper’s attention in not wanting his team to dig too big of a hole.

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“It’s still early in the competition and we got two points out of it,” Cooper said. “It’s not what we came here to get, so the next (set of games) is very important for us.”

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Utah will have a bye next weekend before returning home to take on Anthem RC.

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