Anthem Struggle To Turn Pressure Into Points, Drop Home Match To Free Jacks 20-7

A closely contested match deadlocked for most of the first half slips through Anthem’s fingers on a rainy night in front of faithful supporters at American Legion Memorial Stadium

Saturday May 23 2026, 7:00pm ET, American Legion Memorial Stadium – Charlotte, NC – Written by Dan Brooks

If rugby were decided on territory, possession, and sheer attacking intent, Anthem would have won this one at a canter. For the best part of 30 minutes, the Free Jacks barely touched the ball in their own half. The scrum was dominant from the first engagement. Karl Keane’s box kicking was pinpoint, pressuring New England under every high ball. The set piece functioned beautifully. And yet, when the final whistle blew on a damp, drizzly Military Appreciation Night in Charlotte, it was the three-time defending champions who walked away with the points, and Anthem were left to wonder how a performance so full of promise produced so little on the scoreboard. “Our plan worked,” co-captain Johan Momsen said afterward. “We put them under a lot of pressure with our kicking game, playing in the right territory. We had way more opportunities than them. We just couldn’t finish them tonight.”

The conditions set the tone early. A light rain had left the artificial surface slick, and both sides spent the opening exchanges feeling each other out with kicks and territory play. Anthem found their rhythm first. The scrum earned an early penalty inside the New England 22, and Luke Carty elected to go for touch rather than take the three points, a decision that set the pattern for the half. Campbell Robb’s lineout throw found its target, the pack drove hard, and Anthem went through seven or eight phases right on the Free Jacks’ tryline before a handling error in the wet gave New England the chance to clear.

It was a sequence that would be repeated with agonizing regularity. Anthem won scrum penalties, kicked for touch, set up lineout drives, and worked through their phases with discipline and patience, only to lose the ball or run out of ideas at the critical moment. When a yellow card was shown to New England loosehead Nate Sylvia for repeated scrum infringements on 15 minutes, Anthem had a numerical advantage and prime field position. Again they chose the scrum over the posts. Again the attack built promisingly before a spill in contact, Johan Momsen losing his footing on the greasy surface, handed possession back to the Free Jacks. After 20 minutes of almost total territorial dominance, Anthem had not a single point to show for it.

The question of whether Carty should have taken the points will be debated. Assistant coach Brendan O’Meara was honest about the thinking afterward: “We put their scrum under a lot of pressure, kept getting penalties. We could have went for points, chose not to because of the pressure on the scrum, continued to scrum, got a yellow card advantage with the scrum pressure, but just didn’t get any points, which probably obviously hurts us in the end.” The scrum was delivering such consistent pressure that going for tries seemed the logical call, and in better conditions it might well have paid off. But on a night when the ball was like soap, there was an argument for banking the threes and building a lead that would have forced New England to chase the game. As it was, the scoreboard stayed at zero.

New England’s try, when it came, was entirely against the run of play and brutally clinical. On 30 minutes, Trainor couldn’t hold a tricky ball in the midfield, and Joel Hodgson, who had barely touched the ball in open play to that point, broke clear of the Anthem defense with the kind of footwork that reminded everyone why he is one of the most dangerous flyhalves in the league. Hodgson drew the last defender and fed Oscar Lennon on his left shoulder, and the scrumhalf did the rest. Hodgson converted, and suddenly it was 7-0 to a team that had spent the half defending.

What followed was remarkable even by the standards of a chaotic match. New England crossed twice more before the half was out, Joe Johnston diving over from a lineout maul, and Hodgson himself dotting down after a clever kick through, but both were disallowed on review. Johnston was judged to have lost control of the ball before grounding it, and Hodgson’s try was chalked off after an Anthem coaching challenge spotted Kienan Higgins in front of the kicker. It was sharp work from the Anthem staff, and it kept the deficit to a manageable seven points at the break. Had both tries stood, the game would have been over as a contest.

Coach Cuca’s halftime message clearly hit home. Anthem came out for the second half with a directness and urgency that had been missing from their finishing in the first period. The pack went back to work, Oliver Kane making an immediate impact at tighthead and Will Sherman bringing energy in the second row, and when Ollie Aylmer was sent to the sin bin on 46 minutes for repeated infringements at the breakdown, Anthem smelled blood. This time they made it count. A sustained drive from the lineout saw the ball go through six or seven pairs of hands, each runner punching just a few meters into the New England defense, keeping them moving backwards, never letting them settle. Tom Pittman and Carty both made half-breaks before the ball was recycled to the forwards for the final push, and Makeen Alikhan drove low and hard over the line to score. “Pick and go scores like that, it just kind of hit or miss sometimes,” Alikhan said afterward. “It’s more the boys getting me in to two meters out so I can go and do that.” Carty’s conversion tied it at seven apiece, and American Legion Memorial Stadium erupted. “When it was so close, it felt like it lifted the boys up and we had a foot back in the game,” Alikhan added.

For ten minutes, it felt like the comeback was on. The energy in the ground was palpable, the Anthem bench was on its feet, and New England looked rattled for the first time all night. But the Free Jacks’ championship pedigree showed. Rather than panic, they absorbed the pressure, reclaimed territory with Hodgson’s boot, and began to play the kind of patient, clinical rugby that has won them three titles. Maliu Niuafe crashed over from close range on 52 minutes to restore the lead at 12-7, and when Hodgson slotted a penalty from 40 meters on 71 minutes to make it 15-7, the mountain suddenly looked too steep.

Anthem threw everything at it. Zion Going and Malacchi Esdale came off the bench and injected pace, Julian Roberts began playing as a second scrumhalf to speed up the ruck ball, and Carty probed with kicks behind the rushing New England defensive line. But the handling errors that had plagued the first half resurfaced. A promising break from Roberts ended with an accidental forward pass, and a potential linebreak from Carty was shut down by a knock-on that drew debate over whether it was deliberate. O’Meara acknowledged the conditions but refused to use them as an excuse: “They would probably have the best line speed in the league, which is well known. The conditions and the ball being slippery obviously makes you less efficient moving it. But we knew that was going to be the case.” Momsen’s frustration boiled over late on, earning a yellow card on 78 minutes, an honest moment of indiscipline that left Anthem a man down for the closing stages. Cameron Gerlach touched down on the stroke of full time to put a gloss on the scoreline that the match did not deserve, and the final whistle confirmed a 20-7 defeat.

The frustration was written across every Anthem face. This was not a performance to be embarrassed by, far from it. The scrum was the best it has been all season. Keane’s game management at nine was excellent in his first start at scrumhalf. Pittman carried with his usual ferocity and was arguably the best player on the field. Godfrey made a real statement off the bench. And the coaching staff’s work with the challenge system, two successful interventions that took 14 potential points off the board, was genuinely outstanding. Alikhan, for his part, saw clear progress: “I thought our line speed today was unreal. From the past weeks we’ve been talking about our missed tackles and I thought the boys turned up today and we’re putting in some massive shots. We had a pretty solid performance overall defensively.” But rugby is a results business, and the result was not kind.

The lesson is clear and it is not a new one: Anthem can compete with anyone in this league, but they must be more clinical when they get into the opposition 22. Against a team as efficient as New England, you cannot afford to leave points on the field. The opportunities were there, in abundance, and they went begging. O’Meara summed up the mood with characteristic bluntness: “The effort from the group was exactly what we would have wanted game plan-wise. But our discipline has to improve. We just have to individually and collectively make better decisions.” Alikhan echoed the sentiment, noting 14 penalties and 20 turnovers on the night: “In a tight professional game like this, we’re talking about how it’s finals footy at the moment for us. You just can’t really afford to give anything away.” Momsen was characteristically honest about his own yellow card: “We got a warning. That’s when you have to just be even cleaner. The refs are looking for things. If you get caught, you’re going to get sent off. Just being smarter and more clinical around those points.” It is the kind of self-awareness that speaks well of the culture Coach Cuca is building, even in defeat, there is accountability.

The mood in the changing room afterward was, in Momsen’s words, “very disappointed, frustrated. There’s so many good parts. We just can’t put a perfect game together.” But the co-captain was quick to look forward: “We’re not out of it yet. All we can do is win the next two games and see what happens.” Next up is the final home fixture at American Legion Memorial Stadium, with California Legion the visitors. After a night like this, the squad will be desperate to put things right.

Scorers

Anthem RC: Tries – Alikhan (48′). Conversions – Carty (48′). New England Free Jacks: Tries – Lennon (30′), Niuafe (52′), Gerlach (80′). Conversions – Hodgson (32′). Penalty goals – Hodgson (71′). Anthem RC A Heaney (O Kane 57), C Robb (S Smith 75), A Maughan (E Garza 74), J Momsen (capt), S Golla (capt) (W Sherman 57), T Tonga’uiha (B Godfrey 57), M Fuala’au, M Alikhan; K Keane (Z Going 72), L Carty, E Storti (M Esdale 72), T Pittman, J Roberts, C Mooneyham, J Trainor. Also: D Akina.

Referee Luke Wilkinson. Cards: Yellow – Sylvia (NE, 15′), Aylmer (NE, 46′), Momsen (ARC, 78′).

Match in numbers

• Scrums won: Anthem 13 from 13 (100%) vs New England 6 from 8 (75%)
• Lineouts won: Anthem 15 of 20, New England 13 of 16
• Tackles made: Anthem 154, New England 144
• Tackles missed: Anthem 17, New England 9
• Turnovers conceded: Anthem 20, New England 16
• Carries: Anthem 109, New England 118
• Meters made: Anthem 193, New England 400
• Clean breaks: Anthem 4, New England 8
• Penalties conceded: Anthem 14, New England 13
• Kicking meters: Anthem 645, New England 852
• Points: Hodgson 5 (NE); Gerlach 5 (NE); Alikhan 5 (ARC)