The NOLA Gold started off strong in their Major League Rugby playoff debut against the Chicago Hounds that saw a record crowd at its Metairie field.
More than 3,000 people were on hand to watch the Gold’s first playoff match, which was a close most of the way, but the Hounds pulled away late to take a 45-21 win.
The Gold were dealing with injuries before the match and saw more players get hurt in the second half as well as multiple red cards, and they ended up a man short in the final minutes.
“I’m a little bit disappointed,” Gold coach Cory Brown said. “First off, congrats to Chicago, they had a great game plan. Unfortunately, our discipline let us down today ,and it wasn’t our day. (Chicago) deserved to win.”
The Gold took an early lead after Jordan Jackson-Hope scored a dynamic try to put the home team up 8-0, but he ended up as the first of multiple Gold players to receive penalties.
“Hopefully the players learn from this,” Brown said. “Playoff games are a little bit different, more intense. You’ve got to be on 100%. Unfortunately, our discipline let us down today, but I’m still proud of the players. They tried extremely hard, they never gave up.”
The Gold were closing the gap in the second half after Jonah Mau’u delivered a highlight-worthy try to cut the lead to 26-21, but the Hounds went on to score 19 unanswered points.
“Obviously that’s not the way we wanted that to finish,” Gold prop Matt Harmon said. “We needed to clean it up, too many thoughtless mistakes. Not the way we want to play the game. Wish we could have a redo, but we’ll fix that over the offseason.”
The Gold conclude the season with a record of 10-7 and will continue building heading into next season as they look to win their first playoff game.
“I think the club’s in a really good space,” Brown said. “The supporters have been amazing and really loyal. It’s great to see a great crowd here. I’m just a bit disappointed for them because we didn’t do what we wanted to do on the field, but we’ll learn from it.”
“I’m really thankful for the crowd we had today, the supporters,” Harmon said. “The boys gave it their all. This is our best year to date, so it gives us a runway going into the offseason.”