MLR marked by run-away wins

Former national club champions Hayward have racked up one of the biggest wins in Major League Rugby competition with a 100-12 pummeling of El Paso in the latest MLR action.

Eagles pair Mose Timoteo (scrumhalf) and Olo Fifita (eightman) were multiple try-scorers in a game that saw Hayward touch down an incredible 16 times. The Bay area side grabbed 5 points in the Group Ten competition in its first MLR match of 2001.

Tempe leads Group Ten with 12 points on the merit table after three games, while El Paso (0-3) has yet to register a point on the table.

In the Midwest, the St Louis Bombers continued a red-hot September run by trampling the Kansas City RFC 73-10. The Bombers proved too mobile for wounded KC who lost five players to injury in last week's win over Dallas.

St Louis moved the ball wide early and often, putting away winger Hamilton Hinton for multiple tries and knocked over the 70-point barrier for the second week in a row.

Hooker Hoyt Moore posted the only try for Kansas City, while Mark Dunning added a conversion and penalty goal. St Louis sits atop Group Seven with 10 points and a game in hand on second-placed Kansas City.

Meantime, Oregon Sports Union, carrying a traveling squad featuring twelve starters under 26 years of age, fought to a happily taken 18-18 tie against the favored Tempe Old Devils. ORSU fullback Eric Brooks, on a recent scoring tear, tallied all of his club's points on two tries, a conversion and two penalty goals.

Tempe jumped to a 15-6 lead at the turnaround on tries from fullback Loren Broussard and Scott Chambers, an Aaron Jones conversion and a drop goal off the boot of flyhalf John Coady. The Old Devils looked for more in the second stanza employing fresh legs with five substitutions, but could muster only a penalty goal from Jones against the determined ORSU defense.

Brooks streaked for two second-half tries to even the score and ORSU mounted a five-minute goal line stand to preserve the tie.