Raptors Travel to Austin to Wrap Up Preseason against the Herd

The Colorado Raptors are heading down to Austin, Texas to wrap up their preseason training with an exhibition match against the Herd.

After starting the preseason on the right foot with a 36-26 win over Rugby ATL last weekend, the Raptors will look to keep the momentum rolling against a Herd team that went winless in 2019.

While and 0-16 isn’t a pretty record by any stretch of the imagination, the Herd were far more competitive than their record indicated. The Raptors beat Austin 24-13 and 38-19 in both of the matches they played last season. You can be sure that they will use their less than ideal performance in 2019 as motivation in 2020.

The Raptors will face a team that believes to have made the proper adjustments heading into their third Major League Rugby season. They’ll take the pitch with a new head coach Brent Semmons, a new director of rugby in USA Eagle veteran Todd Clever, and heaps of returning talent on their roster.

As for the Raptors, they will look to build on the performance they put forward in their scrimmage against Atlanta and their joint training session with the Toronto Arrows that took place in Las Vegas a week prior. You can bet that they’ll receive Austin’s best effort when the two teams meet on Saturday afternoon.

The Herd and the Raptors will be the grand finale in what is a day packed full of rugby. The day will begin with DIII, DII, and DI matches between the Austin Huns and the Austin Blacks, a high school match, and a match between BYU and the University of Texas before the Raptors and the Herd kickoff.

Austin and Colorado will kick off at 3 PM MST. This is the last time in 2020 that you will not be able to watch a Raptors match.

The lineups for the match are listed below.

Austin Herd

1) LaRome White

2) Wilton Rebold

3) Juan Echeverria

4) Rikus Zwart

5) Potu Leavasa

6) Dominic Akina

7) Moe Abdelomen

8) Lino Saunitoga

9) Marcelo Torrealba

10) Zinzan Elan-Puttick

11) Reece Czarnecki

12) Sione Fangaiuiha

13) Ratu Peni Tagive

14) Corey Jones

15) Rodrigo Silva

 

16) Skyler Adams

17) Chris Schade

18) Mason Pedersen

19) Maikeli Naramaitonga

20) Tiaan Strauss Erasmus

21) Colby Stevens

22) Gabe Farley

23) Roderick Waters

 

Colorado Raptors

1) Xendy Tatibouet

2) Chad Gough

3) Kelepi Fifita

4) Luke White

5) Kody O’Neil

6) Brendan Daly

7) Connor Cook

8) Michael Curry

9) Carlo de Nysschen

10) Ata Malifa

11) John Ryberg

12) Robbie Petzer

13) Chad London

14) Mason Emerson

15) Seth Halliman

 

16) Steve Karas

17) Marco Fepulea’i

18) Sam Slade

19) Michael Stewart

20) Sean Yacoubian

21) Tomas Quinlan

22) Mika Kruse

23) Nick Boyer