Old Glory DC falls to New England Free Jacks 33-29 to finish first .500 season
By Jack Foster
Old Glory DC’s 2024 season came to an end last Saturday with a 33-29 loss to the New England Free Jacks in the quarterfinal of the MLR playoffs. The loss caps a season in which Old Glory reached a .500 record for the first time since going 4-1 in the abridged 2020 season.
New England wasted no time taking an early lead, with winger Paula Balekana darting through the DC defensive line and offloading to fullback Reece Macdonald in the fourth minute to score a try. However, Old Glory sprang back two minutes later when lock Tevita Naqali pushed through a group of tacklers and passed to scrumhalf Connor Buckley to score the equalizer. Buckley made a living orchestrating line breaks in this game, scoring three total tries. In the process.
Neither team gave up significant ground on the scoreboard, with the lead changing hands twice. DC took its largest lead at the 21st minute when flanker and captain Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz scored a try from a maul to make the score 21-13. Not to be denied their victory, New England charged back to retake the lead before halftime with tries from flanker Jed Melvin and center Wayne Van Der Bank. Van Der Bank’s try, scored in first-half extra time, proved to be the winning score.
The kicking game proved to be a x-factor in the momentum of this game. New England Fly Half and reigning MLR Player of the Year Jayson Potroz continued his torrid 2024 campaign by scoring four penalty goal kicks and converting all of the Free Jacks’ tries to give New England the edge. Conversely, DC’s Jason Robertson only had the opportunity for one penalty goal kick and missed one conversion. The two Fly Halves were the top and second-leading scorers in MLR this season, respectively.
Although Old Glory will be disappointed with the result, head coach Simon Cross was encouraged for the future by the progress his team had made. Cross emphasized the importance of maintaining cohesion and keeping the core of players around for future building.
“It took about 10 games to completely strip out everything from last year,” Cross said. “We’ve seen consistency in our performance in the last 6 or 7 games. We’re going to keep the majority of these boys here, add a bit more quality, and we’re going to go again.”
Among the standouts that will be part of DC’s future are Scottish lock and vice captain Rob Harley. Harley played a full 80 minutes for Old Glory on 10 separate occasions, including this game, and ranked third in MLR with 189 tackles in the regular season. Harley totaled 17 tackles against the Free Jacks, his second-highest total in 2024.
“I’m really proud of the way we came together as a team and the statements we made,” Harley said after the game. “I think this gives us a good platform we can build on for next year.”
