Gold to Face Off Against Warriors

The NOLA Gold turn their sights to the first road game of the season when they head to Salt Lake City, Utah, to face the Warriors at Zions Bank Stadium this Saturday night. This game looks to be a new sort of challenge for the Gold as temperatures at kick off are reported to be 35 degrees and a chance of light snow. A far cry from the weather we have had during our four home-game stretch.

The Warriors are coming off the first draw in Major League Rugby’s history. After getting off to hot start and entering half time with a 16-0 lead, they looked poised to secure a victory in front of their home crowd. Glendale had other plans for the night and fought back to narrowly avoid a loss, and a win for that matter.

For the Gold, Kevin Sullivan gets his first start of the year and MLR debut.  Other notable members pulling on the Gold jersey for the first time in the 2019 campaign include Tesimoni “Moni” Tongauhia, Kevin O’Connor, and New Orleans legend Bobby Johns. Moni was tremendous for NOLA last season and is a player to watch not only in this game, but as the season progresses.  Eric Howard returns to Captain the line as he returns from International duties with Canada. JP Eloff steps in as Vice Captain this week as well. General manager Ryan Fitzgerald spoke highly of these two men saying, “they have done an outstanding job in preparation and focus from the bye week and preparing the team to make the trip to Utah.”

When asked about the Warriors, Fitzgerald said, “Utah is a tough, physical team that has some big play makers. They are a dangerous team that can jump out early if you get complacent. Their Captain, Tim O’Malley, is a tremendous player who checks all the boxes from a player that you want at that 10 or 12 position. Tough guy with good foot work and gets everyone lined up well on the attack.”

Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. Central Time and can be watched on Cox Sports Television (CST) as well as streamed on ESPN+.

Photo credit: CST