USRN

Glendale were on the front foot from the very start with a couple of chances to score a try even within the opening 5 mins. The early on pressure paid off for the Raptors and on the 9th minute John Ryberg collected a wonderful flat pass from Ata Malifa to send him in for the try un touched.

After this try was scored Glendale has a period of serious dominance in which they almost looked like they were playing a training game cutting through Austin Elite’s defence at will and offloading at every given opportunity.

Glendale Raptors crossed over again on the 18th minute with flanker Brendan Daly bulldozing through the AER defence to touch down. This seemed to be the reality check that Austin needed and on the 22nd minute after a period of sustained pressure pinning Glendale in their own half, Austin forced a penalty in the Raptors 22 and a quick tap and go resulted in Rodrigo Silva touching down in the corner. Austin continued with their intensity levels for the remainder of the half but they could not add to their points tally. Instead, the Raptors were the team to get the final points of the half through the boot of Robbie Petzer who slotted over a penalty for the 3 points.

Glendale Raptors started out quick off the mark at the start of the second half to add to their tally. A fantastic no look pass from the electric Dylan Takaito-Simpson put winger Harley Davidson into some space. Davidson’s finish was exceptional and he beat 3 players to go in under the posts making for an easy conversion for Robbie Petzer.

Austin Elite Rugby were doing their very best to stay in the game and on the 50th minute Mohamed Abdelmonem touched down from a maul off the lineout to make the score 24-12 with 30 minutes to play.
Just after the final water break, Chad London gathered the ball and cut against the grain of defence to quite easily run in to score Glendale Raptor’s 4th try and bonus point.

Glendale Raptors essentially sealed the game on the 71st minute when substitute Chad Gough barrelled over after not being held in the tackle to touch down to make the score 38 – 12 with just over 7 minutes to play.
Austin mounted one last surge when they crossed the line after a terrific break to leave the score at 38 – 19.

Austin were desperate to try and salvage something for the game and get a losing bonus point but time was not on their side and game ended 38 – 19 to Glendale.