This page summarises the 2025 Major League Rugby Season, the 8th in MLR history. It kicked off on February 15th, 2025 with the Championship Final being held on the last weekend of June, 2025. Here you can view the regular season standings for each conference, as well as the Championship Series structure and results, including links to all 2025 Playoff Games. This page also summarises the All-MLR teams of 2025, and the recipients of the League’s End of Season Awards.
Shortly after the end of the 2024 MLR season, the league and Dallas Jackals announced that the Jackals was in the process of being sold. This sale would not be complete in time for the 2025 season, and so Dallas was withdrawing from MLR. As will many cases of teams withdrawing in MLR’s short history, players and staff were not aware of just how dire the situation was at the top. Following this announcement, MLR held a dispersal draft to help Jackals players onto rosters for the 2025 season. This left MLR with an 11-team competition in 2025.
Regular Season
Eastern Conference
Western Conference
Standings will be updated on a weekly basis following each round. Points are awarded based on teh following:
PF = Points For
PA = Points Against
+/- = Points Difference
Points
4 points for winning a match
2 points for drawing a match
0 points for losing a match
1 losing bonus point for losing by 7 points or fewer
1 try bonus point for scoring 4 tries or more
Despite contracting to 11 teams for 2025, the season format remained largely similar when it was announced on November 19th, 2024. Each team would play 8 home and 8 away games for a total of 16 games in the regular season across 18 weeks. The West, having only 5 teams since the withdrawal of the Jackals, would play an even 8/8 split of cross-conference & in-conference games, while the Eastern Conference teams would play 8-10 in-conference games, and 6-8 cross-conference.
Championship Series
The format of the 2025 Championship series followed the same structure as the 2024 season, with the top 4 teams from each conference qualifying to the Conference Semifinals, where the #1 seed would face #4, and #2 against #3. The winners would advance to the Conference Finals, and the Conference Champions would then fight for the 2025 Shield. With an 11 team league split into conferences, this means that 2 teams in the Eastern Conference will not qualify for the post-season, while just the 1 team will miss out in the West.
All-MLR Teams
| Number | All-MLR First XV | All-MLR Second XV | Honorable Mention XV |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 3 | |||
| 4 | |||
| 5 | |||
| 6 | |||
| 7 | |||
| 8 | |||
| 9 | |||
| 10 | |||
| 11 | |||
| 12 | |||
| 13 | |||
| 14 | |||
| 15 |
2025 Player Leaderboards & Accolades
Scoring Leaderboards – Top Points Scorers & Try Scorers
| Pos. | Player | Team | Points | Separator | Pos. | Player | Team | Tries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christian Leali’ifano |  | 40 | 1 | Joe Mano |  | 5 | |
| – | D’Angelo Leuila | | 40 | 2 | Tomas Aoake |  | 4 | |
| 3 | Davy Coetzer |  | 37 | – | Gonzalo Bertranou | | 4 | |
| – | Jason Robertson |  | 37 | – | Ryan James | | 4 | |
| 5 | Eddie Fouché |  | 32 | – | Maclean Jones |  | 4 | |
| 6 | Joel Hodgson | | 31 | – | Axel Müller | | 4 | |
| 7 | Martin Elias |  | 29 | 7 | Nic Benn | | 3 | |
| 8 | Joe Mano | | 25 | – | Liam Coltman | | 3 | |
| 9 | Luke Carty |  | 24 | – | Malacchi Esdale | | 3 | |
| – | Chris Hilsenbeck | | 24 | – | Joel Hodgson | | 3 |
Other Leaderboards – Tackling & Meters Gained
| Pos. | Player | Team | Tackles | Separator | Pos. | Player | Team | Meters gained |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cory Daniel | | 81 | 1 | Damien Hoyland | | 488m | |
| 2 | Brad Wilkin | | 80 | 2 | Jordan Trainor | | 442m | |
| 3 | Dylan Nel | | 80 | 3 | Rory van Vugt | | 341m | |
| 4 | Jason Damm | | 79 | 4 | Cooper Coats | | 335m | |
| – | Frank Lochore | | 79 | 5 | Divan Rossouw | | 320m | |
| 6 | Joe Johnston |  | 71 | 6 | Axel Müller | | 311m | |
| 7 | Manuel Ardao | | 66 | 7 | Manuel Ardao | | 299m | |
| 8 | Sam Golla |  | 66 | 8 | Andrew Coe | | 285m | |
| 9 | Christian Poidevin | | 66 | 9 | Davy Coetzer | | 276m | |
| – | Makeen Alikhan | | 64 | 10 | Santiago Videla | | 265m |
End of Season Awards
| Award | Recipient | Team |
|---|---|---|
| MLR Player of the Year | ||
| MLR Forward of the Year | ||
| MLR Back of the Year | ||
| MLR Rookie of the Year | ||
| MLR Coach of the Year | ||
| S. Marcus Calloway Award | ||
| Top Points Scorer | ||
| Top Try Scorer | ||
| Top Tackler | ||
| Top Meter Eater |