There has been a late change to the opening round of the American National Rugby League playoffs with the Connecticut Wildcats pulling out of their quarterfinal with Jacksonville on Saturday.
As a consequence of the withdrawal by the Cats, who were champions in 2007, the Axemen now have a first round bye and will have a home game in the semifinals on August 21.
In our first preview of the 2010 AMNRL postseason we took a look at the top four teams, which have all earned home field advantage, and in this preview we check out the road teams.
The fifth-placed Washington DC Slayers (3-3) will head north on I-95 for a Saturday night quarterfinal matchup with the defending champion New York Knights in NYC.
The Slayers have a pretty useful track record when it comes to the postseason as they’ve been there several times before. In fact, they may well have been hosting a quarterfinal had they not forfeited their opening round game against expansion team the Pittsburgh Vipers.
DC finished the regular season strongly by notching back-to-back wins against rivals the Fairfax Eagles, results that pushed them ahead of a couple of teams in the standings.
Coach Bill Weeks has marshaled his troops well this season and in general Washington has been better at executing in 2010.
The side has been led on the field in large part by Australian Tom O’Connor at fullback, who has had solid support from the likes of halfback Tai Vakatale and veteran Jaron McLaurin.
And speaking of the eighth-placed Eagles (2-4), they too head north up the freeway to New Haven, CT, to tangle with the red hot Warriors.
Fairfax started the regular season well enough and looked to be on track for a higher seed, but the wheels fell off a little bit towards the end due to fundamental mistakes like dropped balls on early tackles, knock-ons and too many penalties, things that caused coach Steve Grant no end of consternation.
The Eagles’ record belies the talent on their roster including Chris Ferezan in the backs and big Hannibal Vaivao up front, plus their star Aussie import Reece Blayney, who has injected real energy and savvy to the Fairfax game since arriving stateside.
The sixth-placed PBR Philadelphia Fight (3-3) is another team that had a shot at a home game this coming weekend if not for lapses here and there. As it is, they don’t have far to travel to take on cross-town rivals Aston for the third time this season.
There are some class players on the Fight’s team, none more so than captain Brad Kielinski, who always leads by example and who is a constant headache for opposing defenses.
He has been well backed up this season by Pat Kelly, Zack Padgett and Rich Henson to name but a few and coach Peter Illfield will have his charges ready to fire on all cylinders come Saturday.
Remember to check back right here for all the news, scores and highlights from what is sure to be a smash-mouth start to the 2010 rugby league playoffs.
Revised quarterfinal schedule (home team listed first):
New Haven Warriors v Fairfax Eagles
Aston Bulls v Philadelphia Fight
New York Knights v Washington DC Slayers
