Warriors Look to Snap Losing Streak in New Orleans

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MLR Utah Warriors

Warriors Look to Snap Losing Streak in New Orleans

May 24, 2025 - Major League Rugby (MLR)
Utah Warriors News Release


A desperate team can be a dangerous one, and that's exactly what Utah Warriors Coach Greg Cooper is anticipating when his team travels to take on the NOLA Gold this Saturday.

The Warriors dispatched of NOLA 55-21 back in early March at home, although much has changed since. Utah (8-5) has struggled of late, and will enter Saturday's match having lost three matches in a row while NOLA (4-9) is on the outside looking in at the postseason with just three weeks remaining in the regular season.

"They'll be in desperation mode, and desperation mode usually makes a team dangerous," Cooper said. "But it can also make a team question things if it's not going right out there. So we just have to play our game and get back to how we know we can play, and if we can get this one with two home games remaining after, it puts us in a really good spot."

Indeed Utah showed prime form in the first game against NOLA, and has maintained that same form for much of the season. But injuries, on top of a brutal recent scheduling stretch have perhaps conspired to deal the Warriors three straight losses, among other factors.

The directive now is to recapture the momentum shown for most of the season as key players work to fight their way through injury.

"Rugby is a brutal sport, and you have to deal with unfortunate injuries some years, but we're hopeful to get through it and to get our injured players back in time for the end of the season," Cooper said. "A lot of rugby really is getting lucky with injuries, and we're currently going through a bit of a bad patch, and it challenges how we can prepare."

The good news is that the Warriors know what they're capable of when relatively healthy. And while injuries can be an excuse to lean on, Cooper is encouraging his team to fix what has ailed them over the past three matches regardless of injury and weather conditions.

"What I addressed to the team on Monday is that we've gotten away from the framework we had at the first of the season," Cooper said. "Our line-out was arguably the best in the competition, and we've dropped that standard. Our maul was the best, and we've dropped that and our kicking game, too. Our standards have all dropped, and there's reasons for that, but we have to fix those things no matter the factors working against us."

Also working in the Warriors' favor is that due to the amount of wins they stacked prior to the recent three game losing streak. Due to their torrid start to the season they're still sitting in second place in Western Conference standings and in third place overall.

"We let the Seattle game slip, and we just weren't on pace last week, but we're still the No. 2 team on our side of the conference, and a positive result this week puts us right back in it," Cooper said. "All the teams in the West have a hard final number of games, so we're right there and hopeful to get a positive result this week going into our final two games of the season."

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