RUGBY: Chicago moves into contention in U.S. Super League

The Chicago Lions have moved into playoff contention with an impressive win in Week Five of the Super League season.

It rained tries in the match between Chicago and Boston, but Chicago bagged the lion’s share of them to run out winners by 46-27. In good conditions in beantown the Lions dotted down seven times to earn a bonus point and move into fourth place on the Eastern Conference points table with a record of 2-1. Boston also earned a bonus point by scoring four tries of their own to remain in second place on the table.

In the other Eastern Conference matchup of the round, Life College traveled to Virginia to tackle the Washington RFC. The Eagles maintained their unbeaten record with a 34-17 victory that keeps them atop the Conference. Life scored five tries including a deuce by speedster Nkuleleko Skweyiya. Coach Mel Smith said there were a lot of stoppages during the game, “There were 34 penalties in the game. It was a stop-start affair and neither side could play to their full potential.”

Washington’s Ron McCready said it was a tough game, “They went out fast and we were playing catch up all day. We played hard, but we’ve got to get better.”

Over in the Western Conference, front-runners OMBAC of San Diego racked up another big win with a 40-13 defeat of San Francisco Golden Gate. Playing their last home game of the regular season, Beach scored five tries, two of which went to winger Dave DiSorbo. Fly-half Alistair Steele booted three penalty goals and three conversions for a personal tally of 15 points. OMBAC dominated with its outside speed scoring four of its tries out wide.

In Los Angeles, home team Belmont Shore hosted an in-form Aspen in the final game of the round. The Gents from Colorado were on top of their game for most of the 80 minutes and won 36-8. Aspen notched five tries to Shore’s solitary 5-pointer. The first quarter of the game was stop-start, then Aspen got its mojo going and mounted wave after wave of attacks.

Aspen coach Ian Jones said he was a little disappointed with his team’s performance, “I thought that we played well in patches, but we didn’t really put it all together.”

Victorious skipper Chris Morrow said the unity is returning to the team after its first round loss to OMBAC, “We’re going right for this time of the season. We’ve got good depth with guys fighting for positions and no one’s relaxing. We want to make amends for last year’s Super League final.”

The result drops Belmont Shore to 1-4 on the season and dents the team’s post season aspirations. A disappointed captain Greg Alley said his side was taught a lesson on the day, “They were tight and we weren’t getting to the breakdowns. They have a sense of urgency and they use it, but we’ll go hard out in our next two games and give it our best shot.”

Half of Super League’s sixteen teams had a bye this week, but Life and Boston remain one and two in the East, while OMBAC and Aspen lead the way in the West.