This page summarises the 2026 Women’s Elite Rugby (WER) Campaign, the 2nd season in WER history.
The WER returns for its 2nd season following a dominant inaugural campaign from the Denver Onyx, recording a 9-1 regular season record with 490pts scored and an almost unbelievable points difference of +367. Their only defeat came at the hands of the New York Exiles in Round 11 of the inaugural season. The Onyx and Exiles would face off for the inaugural Legacy Cup after finishing 1st & 2nd in the regular season, and the Onyx blew the Exiles away with a 53-13 victory at home to claim their, and WER’s, first title.
WER’s 2nd season would involve the same 6 franchises as the inaugural season: the Bay Breakers, Boston Banshees, Chicago Tempest, Denver Onyx, New York Exiles, and Twin Cities Gemini. While the inaugural 2025 season kicked off in March, the 2nd edition would shift to May in order to accommodate the Pacific Four Series of Internationals in April. The 2026 season kicked off on 2nd May 2026, with the Boston Banshees hosting the New York Exiles at Veterans’ Memorial Stadium in Quincy, MA, a reverse of WER’s first ever game to kick off the inaugural 2025 season.
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 2026 WER season kicked off in early May with the Boston Banshees taking on the New York Exiles. The regular season will follow the same format as WER’s inaugural season, with each team facing the other 5 teams both home and away, for a 10 game regular season for each team and 30 games in total.
Legacy Cup
While there were rumours floating around about adding a semifinal round to the WER playoffs, NARDB understands that at time of writing, the top two teams during the regular season will face off in the Legacy Cup final in early August, 2026. More information on the 2026 Legacy Cup will be added as it is released.
2026 Player Leaderboards & Accolades
Scoring Leaderboards – Top Points Scorers and Try Scorers
| Pos. | Player | Team | Points | Separator | Pos. | Player | Team | Tries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | – | 1 | – | |||||
| 2 | – | 2 | – | |||||
| 3 | – | 3 | – | |||||
| 4 | – | 4 | – | |||||
| 5 | – | 5 | – | |||||
| 6 | – | 6 | – | |||||
| 7 | – | 7 | – | |||||
| 8 | – | 8 | – | |||||
| 9 | – | 9 | – | |||||
| 10 | – | 10 | – |
End of Season Awards
Women’s Elite Rugby did not have any formal End of Season awards for Player of the Year, Forward/Back of the Year, etc. in 2025. If and when these awards are announced for 2026, this section will be updated to reflect these.
For the timebeing, WER’s Top Points Scorer and Top Try Scorer for the 2026 season will be listed below.