Eight different players scored eight tries for the San Diego Legion in a 52-5 win over Anthem Rugby Carolina, their biggest margin of victory in team history.
It surpassed their 39-point win on the road against the now-defunct Dallas Jackals on April 30, 2022.
Fullback Ethan Grayson led the Legion with 17 points after he scored his first try of the season and made 6 of 8 conversion attempts.
Grayson took the kicking duties after fly-half Lincoln Mcclutchie had done so in the Feb. 16 match. After Mcclutchie left Friday’s match to begin the second half, Grayson assumed the fly-half position where he scored the final try in the 78th minute.
“I think I’m liking fullback the most now,” Grayson told MLR color commentator and former Legion fly-half Will Hooley on the TV broadcast. Grayson played inside and outside center for the Legion last season.
Tavite Lopeti, Tomas Aoake, Djustice Sears-Duru and Ryan James scored in the first half that saw the Legion gain a 26-5 lead and another first-half bonus point for four tries scored.
Vili Helu, Christian Poidevin, Richard Judd and Grayson scored in the second half.
James scored his third try of the season after he scored twice in San Diego’s season-opening win on Feb. 16. It was Poidevin and Aoake’s second tries of the season.
San Diego trailed in possession at half despite having a 21-point lead and while Anthem couldn’t find the endzone, the Legion defense wasn’t perfect in the opening half.
“I thought Anthem came at us really hard that first 20 minutes. We thought they would, obviously their home opener, they’ll be really wrapped up for it and I think a bit loose in defense from us that first 20,” Grayson said in the postgame interview on the TV broadcast.
Anthem’s only points came on outside center Erich Storti’s try in the 26th minute that tied the match at that time.
The San Diego defense held them off for the rest of the night.
Outside center Marcel Brache exited in the 35th minute after an apparent head injury sustained when his tackle attempt of Storti led to him getting hit on the side of the head by Storti’s knee. Tiaan Loots re-entered the match and took Brache’s spot after Loots had replaced Tavite Lopeti for seven minutes earlier for an injury.
Mcclutchie had also limped on the pitch at times during the first half before he was replaced to begin the second half.
There was no immediate update on the status of any potentially-injured players after the match.
Up next: The Legion return home for a week of training before they go back out to the east coast on Saturday, March 1 when they visit Old Glory DC in Boyds, Md., less than 40 miles from the nation’s capital.