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.
After a broadcast deal with DAZN failed to deliver in their first season, WER’s second season would be broadcasted for free on the Women’s Sports Network. It 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. Despite this relative stability when compared to the men’s side in Major League Rugby, the run up to the 2026 WER season was not without it’s controversy. In February 2026, USA Rugby updated it’s eligibility requirements, banning trans athletes from competing. This caused outrage within the growing rugby community within the United States, with many teams and players announcing their intention not to play without their trans teammates. Transgender pioneers have played at club level up the WPL, and even in the inaugural season of WER last year, but have been dumped by a league that claimed to be a bastion of inclusivity. While the WER did post a statement announcing their opposition to USA Rugby’s decision, many players and fans think they should have done, and should be doing, more to oppose this. For more information on this topic, we encourage people to check out these excellent articles from Frankie de la Cretaz for The Guardian, and Wendy Young of YSC Rugby.
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.
The parity improved somewhat from the inaugural 2025 season, with the Chicago Tempest picking up their first franchise victory in Round 2 against the Boston Banshees, and the points difference from 1st to 6th falling from 44pts in 2025 to 38pts in 2026. Although the standings from 2025 to 2026 suggest that there was greater parity in WER in 2026, the league former two clear groups, with the Denver Onyx, Bay Breakers, and TC Gemini dominating at the top of the standings, 14pts clear of the 4th placed New York Exiles, who battled with the Boston Banshees and Chicago Tempest in the second group. At the end of the regular season, 4 of the 6 teams finished in a different spot than they did in 2025, with only the Denver Onyx in 1st and the Chicago Tempest in 6th not having moved.
Legacy Cup
While there were scattered rumours about adding a semifinal round to the WER playoffs, WER stayed with the postseason format from their inaugural season. The top two teams during the regular season face off in the Legacy Cup final in August, 2026. On 16th July, WER announced that the 2026 Legacy Cup would be held at Infinity Park in Glendale, CO, home of the Denver Onyx.
At the end of the 2026 regular season, the Denver Onyx were once again the #1 seed. Despite losing their first game of the season, the defending champions rattled off 9 wins in a row to finish in 1st for the second successive season. The Onyx finished 4pts ahead of the 2nd placed Bay Breakers who finished the season with a strong 8-2 record and 41pts. The Breakers were the only side to defeat the Denver Onyx during the regular season meaning that for the 2nd year running, the only team to defeat the Onyx would face them in the Legacy Cup game, following the New York Exiles last year.
Although they raced out to a strong 24-5 lead by half-time, the Denver Onyx didn’t have it all their way in the final. They were shut out in the second half as a valiant Bay Breakers comeback pushed the defending champions right to the final whistle. The Onyx held on to claim a 24-17 victory in front of a home crowd, sealing back-to-back WER titles. A full recap of the 2026 Legacy Cup can be found here.
2026 Player Leaderboards & Accolades
Scoring Leaderboards – Top Points Scorers and Try Scorers
| Pos. | Player | Team | Points | Separator | Pos. | Player | Team | Tries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chloe Headland |  | 111pts | 1 | Megan Ahnen | | 11 | |
| 2 | Alyssa Cunningham |  | 79pts | – | Soraia Parr | | 11 | |
| 3 | Makayla Wilkins | | 69pts | 3 | Gracie Anderson |  | 7 | |
| 4 | Soraia Parr | | 63pts | – | Saher Hamdan | | 7 | |
| 5 | Olivia Bernadel-Huey |  | 59pts | – | Joanna Kitlinski | | 7 | |
| 6 | Megan Ahnen | | 55pts | – | Laura Thacker | | 7 | |
| – | Laura Bocek | | 55pts | 7 | Chloe Headland | | 6 | |
| 8 | Jetta Owens |  | 51pts | – | Nikki Lynch | | 6 | |
| 9 | Amanda Wild |  | 40pts | – | Jade McGrath | | 6 | |
| 10 | Gracie Anderson | | 35pts | – | Caoimhe O’Sullivan-Roche | | 6 |
Please Note: As well as Gracie Anderson, Saher Hamdan, Joanna Kitlinski (both Denver Onyx) and Laura Thacker (Bay Breakers) also finished T-10th in scoring with 35pts. Melisa Rios Mena (TC Gemini) and KB Slaughter (Denver Onyx) also scored 6 tries and were T-10th in try scoring.
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.
| Award | Player | Team | Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top Points Scorer | Chloe Headland | | 111pts |
| Top Try Scorer | Megan Ahnen / Soraia Parr | / | 11 |
| Legacy Cup MVP | Alyssa Cunningham | | – |
| Kathy Flores Heart of a Champion Award | Mary Swanstrom Assistant Coach & Athletics Trainer | | – |