Ever since Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) was founded in 2019, rugby fans in the Americas have been wondering if there is a way for Major League Rugby, the top flight in North America, to collaborate with their South American counterparts to create a ‘Cup of the Americas’, a Champions/Challenge Cup equivalent for the New World. How realistic is that dream, and what lies in the way of making it a reality?
Now rebranded as Super Rugby Americas (SRA), the South American competition is the natural comparison for MLR, with the two competitions being roughly the same age and (arguably) a similar level of competition. This article hopes to explore the possibility of a collaborative competition between MLR and SRA, what that competition may look like, and will dig into some potential obstacles standing in the way.
History of SLAR/SRA
For those of you less familiar with South America’s Top competition, here’s a history lesson. For those of you who want to skip school, there’s a table at the end of this section that summarises each season of SRA to date.
SRA follows a franchise format that differs slightly from MLR in that teams are owned and operated by their country’s respective Unions, and their explicit purpose is to create a pathway to the National Teams, rather than exist as private entities as they do in Major League Rugby. The easiest comparison for MLR fans is that each team exists similar to Anthem RC, fueling the national team rather than aiming to win or turn a profit.
Súper Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) was first announced in April 2019 and aimed to field between 6-8 teams from around South America for their first season in 2020, with two teams each from Uruguay and (perhaps surprisingly) Brazil, as well as one each from Argentina and Chile with plans to add two additional teams in 2021. The competition was officially sanctioned by Sudamérica Rugby and was launched in November 2019. Officially, the competition launched with 5 teams: Ceibos from Argentina, Corinthians from Brazil, Olimpia Lions from Paraguay, Peñarol from Uruguay and Selknam from Chile. There was also plans for a 6th team, Colombia’s Cafeteros Pro, to join at the end of the regular season and play a 2-game series against the 5th placed finisher. SLAR’s inaugural season began on 4th March 2020 and only completed 2 rounds before it was cancelled on 17th March due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, a day before the Corinthians were set to play their first game.
The Competition stayed intact and was able to return for it’s first full season in 2021 with some changes. Argentina’s Ceibos (who topped the league during the short-lived 2020 season) withdrew from SLAR after the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) decided to enter the Jaguares XV into the competition instead following the Jaguares withdrawal from Super Rugby after they weren’t named in either Super Rugby Aoteroa or Super Rugby AU. Additionally, Brazil’s Corinthians franchise was rebranded as Cobras, and Colombia’s Cafeteros Pro officially entered the competition, creating a 6-team league. Following a 10 game regular season, the Top 4 teams qualified for the semi-finals, with the winners advancing to the final. The Jaguares XV, who went undefeated during the regular season, became the inaugural SLAR Champions with a 36-28 victory over Peñarol. The league structure would remain the same for the 2022 season, and Peñarol were able to get their revenge, finishing as the top team in the regular season with an 8-2 record and 40pts and advancing to the final where they defeated Chilean franchise Selknam (who also recorded an 8-2 record) 24-13 to claim their first SLAR title.
Ahead of the 2023 season SLAR rebranded as Super Rugby Americas (SRA), and even then there were rumours of expansion and cooperation with USA Rugby (who did not formally sanction MLR at the time) and even Rugby Canada, but it is unclear if this was to be part of the league itself, or a separate cup-style competition. The 2023 SRA season saw an expansion to 7 teams, as well as a shake-up of the teams taking part. The Paraguayan franchise rebranded from the Olimpia Lions to Yacare XV (named after the Yacare Caimen), the Argentinian Jaguares XV, SLAR’s inaugural champions, dissolved in December 2022 after UAR split their franchise into two new teams due to the momentum of the competition, Pampas XV in Buenos Aires, and the Ceibos team was resurrected in Cordoba as the Dogos XV. The biggest shock to rugby fans across the Americas, however, was the announcement that the American Raptors would join the competition for the 2023 season. The Raptors, a continuation of the MLR franchise that finished as runners-up in 2019, were based in Colorado and had been in the rugby wilderness since their withdrawal from MLR in April 2020. They became the first North American franchise to play in SRA, and finished 6th of 7 with a 2-10 record. The regular season was again dominated by the Uruguayan outfit Peñarol, who finished with a 10-2 record and dispatched Yacare to earn their 3rd SRA Final appearance in a row where they narrowly defeated the Dogos to claim their 2nd title in a row.
The 2024 SRA season began with the exact same 7 teams that had finished the 2023 Campaign, with no changes to the format or season structure. Each team would play each other team home and away for a 12 game regular season. Unlike 2023 however, Peñarol took a step back finishing 4th with a 5-1-6 record, and it was the Argentinian team Pampas that dominated with a 11-1 record in the regular season, recording the most wins ever in a SRA season. Pampas easily saw off the 2x Champion Peñarol, and advanced to their first final to face the Dogos in an all-Argentinian final and despite a dominant season, the Dogos came out on top with a 23-37 victory to claim their first (and Argentina’s 2nd) SRA Title.
The Dogos, along with all South American teams from SRA’s 2024 season would return for the most recent 2025 campaign. The US-based American Raptors however, would not. In October 2024, Maggy Wolanske wrote an article for Denver7 stating that the team would no play professional rugby in 2025, instead shifting to focus on youth rugby programs. In an article for this site it mentions that the Raptors’ nearest opponents in SRA were over 5,000 miles away, which is unsustainable given the state of pro rugby in North America. As of writing, the Raptors have not re-emerged as a professional team. Taking the Raptors’ place in SRA for the 2025 season was a 3rd Argentinian franchise, the Tarucas. Named after a species of Andean deer, the Tarucas ensured that SRA would remain a 7-team competition for 2025. The 2025 SRA season was arguably the most competitive to date. Just like the season before, Pampas finished as the top regular season team, but with a 8-1-3 record just 2pts ahead of the 8-4 Peñarol. The Uruguayans would see off Chilean team Selknam to advance to their 4th Final where they would face the Reigning Champion Dogos, who saw off Pampas in the Semifinals. In the end, Peñarol just about held off a late comeback attempt by the Argentinian side, and emerged with a 35-34 victory to claim their 3rd SRA Championship.
| Year | # of Teams | Champions | Runners-Up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 5 | Cancelled | Cancelled |
| 2021 | 6 |  Jaguares XV  |  Peñarol  |
| 2022 | 6 | Peñarol |  Selknam  |
| 2023 | 7 | Peñarol |  Dogos XV |
| 2024 | 7 | Dogos XV |  Pampas XV |
| 2025 | 7 | Peñarol | Dogos XV |
Differences between SRA & MLR
As you can see from the above just like Major League Rugby, SRA has also gone through it’s fair share of team turnover with teams leaving, re-joining, re-branding, etc. but the bottom line is that it is growing and has expanded from 5 teams in 2020 to 8 in 2026 with a fourth Argentinian team, the Capibaras XV, announced just a few weeks ago on September 29th, 2025. Yes, SRA is expanding far slower than MLR (who peaked at 13 teams in 2022), but the bottom line is that they will enter 2026 with more teams than the 7 confirmed for MLR in 2026, and these teams are arguably more stable. For the RWC2027 qualification campaign, 78% of Uruguay’s national team played with Peñarol and 82% of Chile’s national team played with Selknam. This is in part because teams in SRA are owned by the respective Unions rather than private enterprises, so the priority is on player development rather than turning a profit. SRA sides are happy to lose money at club level if it improves the national game (although profits are a happy side affect if they can get them). This is in stark difference to MLR, where owners losing money has been front page news in recent months, and has been a significant contributing factor as the league has contracted from 11 teams to 7.
Anthem RC, a partnership between MLR, World Rugby, and USA Rugby which has the worst record in MLR history, is modelled in the same way as SRA teams and is probably the least likely team in MLR to withdraw because of this. Vague rumours of a new Canadian franchise on the back of Canada’s RWC2027 qualification would also follow this model. North America however, only has 2/3 unions to draw from unless you start bringing in Caribbean nations, and rugby in the Carribbean is almost exclusively limited to the Sevens game. SRA has teams from 5 different nations competing, so this model works better down there and as a T1 rugby powerhouse, Argentina has the resources to maintain 4 teams in the competition, whereas the US or Canada cannot.
Having just completed it’s 5th season and 4th full Campaign (after the 2020 Campaign was sidelined due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, much like MLR’s season that year), It’s hard to argue that SRA has not improved the quality of rugby in South America. Just look at the rise of Chile, who were ranked outside of the Top 30 in 2018 but now rank 17th (at time of writing) and have qualified for two Rugby World Cups. It is foolish to doubt the quality of competition in SRA so having explored the history and one of the key differences, can a Cup Competition with Major League Rugby work?
Potential Format & Obstacles
For simplicity’s sake given player contracts and having rosters all in one place, any Cup Competition would have to take place shortly after the end of the MLR & SRA seasons as having it take place during the season doesn’t make sense given the huge travel distances between markets and required rest-periods between games. One fun format would include all 4 finalists from both MLR and SRA, creating a 4 team, 3-game competition over the course of two weeks where the MLR Champions play the SRA Runners-up, the SRA Champions play the MLR Runners-up, and both winners face off in a final the following week. Taking 2025 as an example, this would pit the New England Free Jacks against Dogos XV, and the Houston SaberCats (RIP) against Peñarol in a bracket that could look a little something like this:
However, the most straightforward format for a Cup competition would be a one-off match between the MLR Champions and the SRA Champions. For the 2025 season, this would mean that the New England Free Jacks would take on Peñarol. A mouth-watering prospect for rugby fans, but making that happen isn’t that simple.
For starters, the SRA season has been shorter than MLR seasons in the past, with only 12 regular season games and 2 weeks of playoffs. Although the 2025 SRA and MLR seasons both kicked off on the same weekend in mid-February, Peñarol were crowned SRA Champions on June 13th (a Friday, strangely), while the New England Free Jacks lifted their 3rd consecutive MLR Shield just over 2 weeks later on June 28th. Assuming that the ‘North v South’ Cup game is played 1 week later, this means the SRA Champions would be sat waiting for about 3 weeks before jumping into a game against the best team in North America. Likewise for the MLR Champs, they will have just finished a gruelling MLR campaign only to jump into a fight against the completely rested SRA Champions.
However, this is where MLR’s contraction could work in favour of a Cup Competition. Now that MLR is down to a 7-team competition and SRA is planning an 8-team competition for 2026, if MLR moves to a 12-game regular season and keeps a 6 team playoff format (which would be silly in a 7-team league but bear with me), while SRA increases to a 14 game regular season and 2 weeks of playoffs, it is likely that the leagues will finish around the same time in mid-June. This leaves a couple of weeks before the July Test window to fit in a two-week Cup Competition, or a one-off Champion v Champion match at the end of both seasons with a bye beforehand.
Unfortunately, this is where the issue of cost rears it’s ugly head. Any team featuring in a cross-continental Cup competition is guaranteed to lose money just from travel costs, accommodation, and the cost of holding the event which, being a Final of sorts, will likely be a bigger event than the average MLR or SRA game. Knowing how big of a boogeyman costs are for MLR teams, why would they be interested in this? And even though profit is not the main driver for SRA teams, the prospect of losing money can’t sit well with the South American Unions. What would any team (MLR or SRA) have to gain from it that they haven’t already earned from a successful domestic campaign?
Next up is the issue of the venue. Who will host this one-off match and how will that be determined? MLR and SRA markets are thousands of miles apart so a truly neutral venue wouldn’t work due to the sheer distances and relative rugby void in Central America and the Caribbean. The crowd turnout at a neutral venue would likely only be triple figures or low 1000s at best. Even with a full stadium in or close to the host team’s market, the number of travelling fans will be negligible and a sell out at even a smaller venue would be unlikely.
Perhaps the solution is for some combination of SRA and MLR themselves, Rugby Americas North and Sudamérica Rugby, or USA Rugby and the respective union of the SRA Champion, along with World Rugby to pool their resources and host the event together as an ‘MLR All-Stars’ v. ‘SRA All-Stars’ matchup. More of a showcase than a Cup competition. Additionally, that path seems quite messy and would rely on a lot of different parties working together. Is the risk and the cost really worth the reward? My bet is a firm ‘no’ from MLR and it’s teams who are trying desperately to control costs, and in a world where there isn’t a huge crossover in fanbases between MLR and SRA like there is in Europe with the URC, PREM, and Top14, the demand isn’t there yet.
A Possible Solution?
As mentioned repeatedly in this article, SRA teams are owned by their respective unions with the team roster making up the majority of the national team roster with the exception of Argentina. MLR teams all exist within the USA although there is not really one team that boasts an abundance of USA Eagles.
Given that both the MLR and SRA season finishes a few weeks before the July Test window, could it be an option for one of the USA’s July tests to be against the national team of the SRA Champion’s country? For example, Peñarol were the 2025 SRA Champions out of Uruguay, so perhaps the USA (currently ranked 15th) face Uruguay (currently ranked 19th) as one of their July tests. If Selknam are crowned SRA champions, the USA could face Chile in a test match, etc. The one exception to this may be Argentina who may perfer to face Tier 1 opponents than the Tier 2 USA, but perhaps a match against an Argentina XV is a suitable replacement.
It may not be possible to plan a test match that quickly and this is far from a perfect solution as, just like a MLR All-Stars’ v. ‘SRA All-Stars’ matchup, is not a ‘club level’ Cup Competition but it is better than nothing. USAR working closer with South American Unions is a positive for rugby in the Americas, and may in time lead to an opportunity for cooperation between MLR and SRA.
In Conclusion
For those rugby fans hoping for a ‘Cup of the Americas’ competition, it’s not going to happen any time soon. Even a one-off Champion v Champion grudge match doesn’t seem likely given that any team involved would certainly lose money and MLR is currently at the very beginning of a ‘reset and rebuild’ phase after a dreadful off-season so far.
That being said, if a Cup Competition was realistic and feasible I believe it would happen. In the meantime, daring to dream about these things is, if nothing else, a fun thought experiment. Keeping the conversation alive around a MLR/SRA collaborative competition ensures that the idea is still in the back of people’s minds, should an opportunity arise in the future. I would love to see collaboration between North and South America and to anyone who shares that view I would say: Don’t hold your breath, but don’t give up hope.
Thank you very much for reading! If there are any other reasons for, or obstacles to, a SRA/MLR collaborative cup competition, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Finally, if you’re looking to jump into the End of Season sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!
