This page summarises the 2025 Women’s Elite Rugby Season, the inaugural season of professional women’s rugby in the United States.
Women’s Elite Rugby (WER) is an evolution of the Women’s Premier League (WPL), an amateur pay-to-play model that was deemed unsustainable. In 2022, WPL started an ‘Ignite the Change’ campaign to professionalize women’s rugby in the United States. A board of directors was formed in mid-2023 and sought to capitalise on the rising popularity of women’s rugby in the United States thanks to the performance of the Rugby 7s teams at the Olympics, and the meteoric rise of Ilona Maher. With the 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup being hosted in the USA in 2033, getting the building blocks in place now is essential for a successful tournament both on and off the field. In April 2024, the league was announced as ‘Women’s Elite Rugby’.
In March of 2025, six founding WER teams were announced to compete in the inaugural season, scheduled to kick off later that month. The team names, logos, head coaches, and ‘Foundational Five’ players were all announced. These teams were the Bay Breakers, Boston Banshees, Chicago Tempest, Denver Onyx, New York Exiles, and Twin Cities Gemini. These 6 WER teams are based in strong WPL markets and the bulk of the WER rosters are made up of WPL players.
WER’s first game took place on March 21st, 2025. The New York Exiles hosted the Boston Banshees with the Banshees taking a hard fought 27-29 victory. Misha Green-Yotts of the New York Exiles recorded the first try in WER history. The 6 founding WER teams played a 10-game regular season from Marsh 21st to June 14th, with each team playing all five other teams twice, once at home and once away. At the end of this 10-game regular season, the top two teams would face each other for the Legacy Cup, held at TCO Stadium in Minnesota on June 29th, 2025.
Regular Season
Teams earn four (4) points for a win and zero (0) points for a loss
Tiebreakers are applied in the following order: (1) head-to-head, (2) bonus points, (3) road wins
Bonus points are earned according to the following criteria:
One (1) try bonus point (TB) is awarded when a team scores four (4) or more tries in a single game
One (1) losing bonus point (LB) is awarded when a team loses by seven (7) or less points
As mentioned above, the 2025 WER regular season consisted of a 10-game schedule across 13 Rounds, with each team facing the other five teams twice, both at home and away. Three teams finished the 2025 regular season with a 6-4 record: The New York Exiles, Bay Breakers, and Boston Banshees all finished within 3pts of each other, a testament to how equally matched these sides were. The Denver Onyx were the powerhouse of the 2025 season, finishing with a 9-1 record and +367 points differential and earning 46 of a possible 50pts in the standings. Their only defeat came in Round 11 at the hands of the New York Exiles.
At the other end of the table, the Twin Cities Gemini, the evolution of the WPL’s Twin Cities Amazons, struggled with a 3-7 record in 5th place, 13pts back of 4th place. They finished ahead of the Chicago Tempest however, who failed to record a victory in 2025 and finished with a 0-10 record, despite coming close a number of times.
Despite the Denver Onyx locking up a spot in the Legacy Cup relatively early in the season, their opponents were not confirmed until the very last game of the season. The New York Exiles recorded a bonus point victory over the Chicago Tempest to move into 2nd place, 1pt ahead of the Bay Breakers who faced the Onyx in the final game of the season. The Breakers, who would have won the tiebreaker with the Exiles, fell to the Onyx and failed to record a point in the standings and so the Exiles clinched a spot to play for the Legacy Cup.
Legacy Cup
Battling for the first ever WER Legacy Cup were the Denver Onyx, and evolution of the Colorado Gray Wolves WPL side, and the New York Exiles, an evolution of the New York Rugby Club (NYRC) WPL side and the only team to defeat the Onyx in the regular season. Despite the Exiles running out to a 0-10 lead, the Denver Onyx did what they had done all season: Dominate. an 8-try performance that included a try in the 83rd minute gave the Denver Onyx a 53-13 victory to claim the first ever Legacy Cup!
2025 Player Leaderboards & Accolades
Scoring Leaderboards – Top Points Scorers & Try Scorers
| Pos. | Player | Team | Points | Separator | Pos. | Player | Team | Tries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jetta Owens |  | 72 | 1 | Yeja Dunn |  | 12 | |
| 2 | Yeja Dunn | | 60 | 2 | Erica Coulibaly |  | 8 | |
| – | Mckenzie Hawkins | | 60 | – | KB Slaughter | | 8 | |
| 4 | Erica Coulibaly | | 40 | 4 | Scout Cheeks | | 7 | |
| – | KB Slaughter | | 40 | – | Eden Kilgour |  | 7 | |
| 6 | Scout Cheeks | | 35 | 6 | Isla Alejandro |  | 6 | |
| – | Rachael Harkavy | | 35 | 7 | Kennedy Feasby | | 6 | |
| – | Eden Kilgour | | 35 | 8 | Rachel Johnson | | 6 | |
| 9 | Kristin Bitter | | 33 | 9 | Kapoina Bailey | | 5 | |
| 10 | Justine Perl | | 31 | 10 | Naomi Carrillo | | 5 |
NOTE: 7 players finished the 2025 season with 5 tries scored, tied for 9th. The players not included on the list above are: Monique Coffey (DON), Misha Green-Yotts (NYE), Kailynn Hampton (TCG), Gianna Solomon (DON), and Mona Lisa Tupou (BBR).
End of Season Awards
It is not known if Women’s Elite Rugby will have any formal End of Season awards for Player of the Year, Forward/Back of the Year, etc. If and when these awards are announced, this section will be updated to reflect these.
For the timebeing, WER’s Top Points Scorer and Top Try Scorer for the 2025 season are listed below.
| Award | Player | Team | Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top Points Scorer | Jetta Owens | | 72pts |
| Top Try Scorer | Yeja Dunn | | 12 Tries |