The hits just keep coming for Major League Rugby’s newest team. After giving up a historic 11 tries last week, the Dallas Jackals failed to score against the Toronto Arrows and notched another historic loss.
The 57-0 Arrows victory marked the highest score in a shutout match in MLR history. The Jackals are now only the second team this season to be shut out in a game.
The Jackals showed they could play hard throughout the contest, but the team could not avoid costly mistakes near the try line. Toronto had seven players score tries on the day, with two scores coming from Jack McRogers.
The Arrows’ Will Kelley hit seven of eight conversions and a penalty kick for an additional 17 points.
The Jackals’ struggles began early as the Arrows used power in the scrum to drive the maul forward, punishing Dallas and exploiting openings. Toronto opened up a 43-point lead in the first half that saw Dallas with few opportunities to make progress at an attempt.
The team’s best chance came on what turned out to be the final play of the match when a driving Jackals assault eventually lost the ball about 5 yards from the touchline.
One of the primary reasons Dallas struggled so much against Toronto was due to a heavily depleted roster. According to announcers at the game, the Jackals were short 11 players who were denied admittance to Canada due to visa or COVID-19 vaccination issues.
An area of play the Jackals have continuously struggled with this season has been inopportune penalties. This game was a showcase for these mental mistakes, as several of the early tries by the Arrows were set up by penalties against the Jackals.
The first Arrows score of the game was set up on a restart penalty at the six-minute mark as the Jackals tried to take the ball away. Ross Braude took the restart himself, diving the last meter into the touch zone for the first score. Kelley hit his first penalty kick at 14 minutes to put the Arrows up 10-0.
Nearing the 21-minute mark, Toronto used a line out set up by a Dallas penalty to generate a driving maul that seemingly walked over the Jackals’ defenders for another score, this one by James O’Neill. Toronto had a try denied minutes earlier due to a penalty of their own.
Another Jackals’ penalty for offsides gave Toronto a lineout that they used effectively to start a maul. Then Braude quickly fired a pass to a streaking Giuseppe du Toit, who casually split two unaware Jackals defenders for a try.
Two minutes later, at the 28-minute mark, a stout Jackals defensive effort nearly stalled an Arrows drive, but a quick pass out of the tackle led to a foot race down the field. Adrian Wadden fed a pitchout perfectly to Ronan Foley with only one defender to beat, adding another score for the Arrows.
Gaston Mieres made the next Arrows try when an error by Dallas allowed Toronto to spring free. The conversion kick by Kelly gave the home team a 36-point lead. The try was the first for Mieres this season. More penalties by the Jackals gave a restart to Toronto, who caught Dallas unaware. Lolani Faleiva made easy work of the try, and the conversion gave Toronto the 43-0 halftime lead.
Both of McRogers’ tries came in the second. The first was initiated by a Dallas penalty that gave Toronto a lineout throw. McRogers pushed from the backside, carrying the maul into the touch zone. Late in the match, McRogers took another lineout and, similar to the first score, used the back end of the maul to drive forward. Dallas failed to move a guard up on the right side, allowing McRogers to dive through and score the final try of the day.
Dallas will next face off against the LA Glitinis at Choctaw Stadium. The Glitinis are currently sitting in second place in the Western Conference and are one game behind the division-leading Austin Gilgronis.
