USA Club Rugby Throwback to that Temecula vs Riverside game where one kiwi player changed everything

[Hard.hitter.USA.Rugby]

I was on the sideline for that Temecula vs Riverside game that sometimes gets a passing mention in the Pacific South write-ups, and honestly the little one-line blurbs don't do it justice. The whole thing felt like the payoff to a longer story that had started a couple of seasons earlier.

Temecula had been a basement team not long before that, a fun beer drinking group, decent athletes, but zero structure and not much in the way of standards. Then this one guy, Sean Hannan, typically a forward, shows up, 6’3” and jacked at roughly 230lbs lean muscle, when everything shifts. It was immediately obvious he'd come from a proper rugby background in New Zealand – the skill level and game understanding stood out – and you could literally see the culture change:

• It was interesting to see a New Zealand player who normally played as a loose forward (4, 5, 6, 7, 8) end up being used at fly half (10) for Temecula, a dramatically different role where you're running the whole backline.
• Hannan was quickly made captain after the first game, where he scored multiple tries at 10 and also took on the kicking duties, knocking over conversions and penalties. That theme continued through the season.
• The forwards suddenly had proper phase play: grinding pod formations, hitting around the corner, retaining possession, the kind of structure you usually only see at pro or high-level club.
• The backline had set moves and patterns which led to high-scoring games, with Hannan often bagging multiple tries and then converting them himself.
• As a spectator, a lot of us noticed his tactical kicking game. When Temecula were under pressure inside their 22, he'd pull out a perfect spiral kick that cleared the danger and flipped the field. He had this ridiculous ability to shape the kick so the ball would bend on the spin and land exactly where his team could turn the tables and counter attack.
• You'd also see him using hand signals and little bits of sign language across the backline; setting up plays, using key ball carriers to crash into the defense, sucking in two or three defenders, then looping around to slice through the space that opened up. It was like watching a tactician run a live training drill.

That season, with him captaining, Temecula dragged themselves from the legacy bottom of the table into being a genuinely intimidating team to defend against. They stacked big scores on plenty of sides and even turned over Riverside that year – a club with serious pedigree and multiple USA National Championships, which basically planted the flag: "We're not the joke anymore."

Fast forward to the very next season: after helping build Temecula into a contender, Hannan suddenly appears as captain of the historic Riverside Rugby Club, back in the 10 jersey.

In the offseason Hannan had switched over to Riverside. From the outside it probably looked like just another transfer, but from up close you could tell it was deliberate: he brought standards and, from what I could see, he brought very strategic players with him too. A couple of extremely high-level / international guys started showing up at Riverside training. All of a sudden their pack had real bite and their backline had genuine strike threats, not just enthusiasm.

By the time the rematch against Temecula rolled around, you could feel the tension. A lot of the Temecula boys had literally gone to battle with Hannan the season before; now he was lining up against them.

From the opening whistle it was obvious who had done their homework.

Riverside dominated field position early. Their forwards were brutally direct around the fringes, and Hannan was right in the thick of it, carrying hard, cleaning rucks, forcing turnovers, barking instructions and basically refusing to give Temecula any form of possession. It was tactical rugby intelligence on display.

This game turned into try scoring onslaught, and it was completely controlled by Hannan. On a couple of early attacking sets you could hear him calling linespeed and spacing on D, then flipping to attack and calling out targets and options. With Hannan steering them, Riverside absolutely steamrolled Temecula into a pretty embarrassing bloodbath of a defeat.

By the time the scoreboard had blown out, people on the sideline were looking at each other like, "Damn, this is getting ugly." It wasn't just skill; it was ruthlessness. Riverside smelled blood and never let Temecula back in.

What doesn't show up in the official result line is how much of that swing from Temecula being a bottom-dweller to then being on the wrong end of a hiding – can be traced back to the same guy:

• First, he helped drag Temecula up the ladder with standards, fitness, and structure.
• Then, after moving, he plugged that same mindset into Riverside, and attracted a few serious players along with him.
• In the game itself, Hannan wasn't just another body in the backline; he was controlling forwards and the backline completely, the tempo, organizing defense, and directly putting points on the board. From what people around the club were saying, he'd leveraged relationships with high-performing ex international players from some of the strongest rugby nations (NZ, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, etc.) and used that to reshape the squad.

You can read the USA Rugby / Pacific South recap and just see a score, but being there in person, it felt like watching the outcome of a much bigger story about culture, leadership, and one leader who knew how to change a club from the inside, using formation, skill, and tactical decisions to put on a pretty exceptional display of rugby in California and only made rugby in USA grow better.

From what I've heard, Hannan eventually moved down to Orange County to focus on his corporate role and got more career-focused in the Fortune 500 world. But as far as I know, there's been no official announcement of retirement…