Happy New Year rugby fans, and welcome to 2026!! Here’s hoping that the tumult and uncertainty of the second half of 2025 will stay in 2025, and let’s look ahead to this upcoming season which by necessity is Major League Rugby’s most important season to date. Some MLR teams are starting to come to the end of their roster announcements for their 2026 squad and as usual, that gives NARDB plenty to talk about despite a much quieter week.
Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Moves Summary series! As regular readers already know, these weekly articles aim to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season. This series only covers the players announced by the teams themselves, but that doesn’t mean that NARDB isn’t listening to any rumours that are out there. As always, the summary graphic for Player Moves announced last week between December 29th, 2025 and January 4th, 2026, followed by the re-signings section:
Re-Signings
Old Glory DC were the first team to announce a returning player last week, confirming the return of Major League Rugby draftee John Powers for his 3rd year with the team in 2026, and 6th in the competition. Powers was selected 7th overall out of Iona College by the Utah Warriors in MLR’s inaugural draft back in 2020, and is one of only two players to ever be drafted from Iona College along with Watson Filikitonga in the same draft (14th Overall). Powers was signed by the Warriors for the 2021 MLR season and made his debut from the bench in his sole Utah appearance before being traded to New York ahead of the 2022 season in exchange for a 2022 3rd Round Draft Pick that was eventually used by the Houston SaberCats to select Brandon Karnes after being traded through Rugby ATL. Powers earned 7 appearances from the bench with the Ironworkers from 2022-2023, helping the team to lift the 2022 MLR Shield before withdrawing from the competition in late 2023. Powers was selected by Old Glory DC in the subsequent dispersal draft and has represented the Flags ever since. He has carved out a solid career with Old Glory DC, earning his first 11 career MLR starts across 26 games since 2023, scoring 2 tries and 12 points while gaining 465m of his career total 626m, and completing 75 of his 82 career tackles. Powers has played at centre, fullback, and even fly-half for Old Glory DC and this flexibility will prove very useful when injuries inevitably take their toll on the roster.
Intra-League Signings
On December 29th, Anthem RC kicked off last week’s player announcements with the news that they had added 2023 MLR Draftee Marques Fuala’au to their squad for the 2026 MLR season. A Central Washington University product, Fuala’au was selected by the Dallas Jackals with the 3rd overall pick of the 2023 MLR Draft and signed with the team for his debut Major League Rugby season in 2024. He had a solid first year as a professional player, scoring a try and earning 3 starts in 16 appearances for the Jackals to help them earn their first postseason berth with over 80 tackles completed and 195m gained. Following the withdrawal of the Dallas Jackals from MLR, Fuala’au headed to Miami and signed with the Sharks for the 2025 season, where he enjoyed another solid year. He earned a career high 8 starts in 15 games for the Sharks to also qualify for the postseason for the first time in team history, recording remarkably similar numbers as his debut season. Fuala’au has averaged 6 starts in 16 games across each of his first two seasons, recording 80 tackles and 177m gained on average each year. Anthem RC will mark Fuala’au’s 3rd team in as many seasons due to team withdrawals, but that will likely change given teh stability of the MLR/USA Rugby/World Rugby owned franchise. He will have to really compete for game time in that stacked Anthem back row, however.
Not done there, the following day Anthem RC also announced the addition of former Utah Warriors fullback Jordan Trainor for his 4th MLR campaign in 2026. The New Zealander first entered Major League Rugby with the LA Giltinis in 2022, scoring 3 tries in 13 games and gaining over 800m to earn a pair of MLR Team of the Week selections before the Giltinis were disqualified prior to the playoffs, and ceased operations. Trainor then moved to the NOLA Gold and bettered his 2022 performance, scoring 2 tries and 14pts while recording over 1000m gained and earning three more Team of the Week selections. Trainor did not feature in MLR during the 2024 season, instead staying in New Zealand before returning to the states with the Utah Warriors for a career year in 2025. For the Warriors, Trainor set career highs across the board with 16 appearances (all starts) and scored 8 tries and finished 2nd league-wide with 1,117m gained while completing 55 tackles. With just shy of 3,000m gained in his 39 games in MLR, Trainor is averaging a remarkable 76m gained per game and is scoring at a 0.3 tries a game pace, 0.5 tries per game in 2025 alone. Trainor will almost certainly be Anthem’s go-to fullback in 2026.
Following a few days of New Years’ celebrations, the Chicago Hounds kicked off 2026 with the announcement that they had added South African utility back Reece Botha to their roster. Eligible for the US on residency and therefore a domestic player for the 2026 season, Botha is a product of Lindenwood University who joined the NOLA Gold academy system in the fall of 2022 before earning an MLR deal with the team ahead of the 2023 season. Botha spent 3 seasons with the NOLA Gold, contributing 4 tries and 82pts in his 32 MLR appearances, including appearing in all 17 NOLA Gold games during the 2024 season, the team’s lone playoff appearance. Along with tries, Botha has scored 6 penalties and 22 conversions from the tee, going 28/44 (63.64%) in his career including 19/25 (76%) when he scored a career high 53pts in 2024. In 2025, Botha started at both fly-half and centre for the Gold, scoring a try and 15pts in 9 games (3 starts) during a disappointing final season in Major League Rugby for the NOLA Gold. His ability to play almost anywhere across the back line will no doubt prove useful to the Chicago Hounds as the 2026 MLR season trundles on.
Later that same day, the Seattle Seawolves announced their first player of 2026, confirming that they had added former Houston SaberCats scrum-half André Warner to their roster for the upcoming season. The Cape Town native entered Major League Rugby in 2024 and spent two seasons playing with the SaberCats from 2024-2025. He enjoyed an excellent debut season with the SaberCats in 2024, scoring 8 tries in 15 games (all starts) and recording 118 tackles as a scrum-half to earn an All-MLR First XV Selection, the only Houston player to be included in the First XV that season. The following year, Warner delivered another solid season for the SaberCats, although unsurprisingly a step back from his superb 2024. He added another 4 tries in 12 games (11 starts) and recorded 68 tackles as the SaberCats claimed the Western Conference Title in 2025, advancing to the Championship Game which Warner started, a 28-22 defeat to the New England Free Jacks in Rhode Island. An All-MLR First XV selection followed by a MLR runner-up campaign and the best season in SaberCats history is far from a bad two seasons in MLR. André Warner now joins fellow former SaberCats Davy Coetzer, Ezekiel Lindenmuth, and Marno Redelinghuys in Seattle, where he will be jostling for the starting 9 jersey with another South African, JP Smith.
Wrapping Up
It seems like Major League Rugby teams were also enjoying some time off during the ‘Chrimbo Limbo’ period, as last week was significantly quieter on the Player Moves front, with only 5 announcements across the league comprised of 1 re-signing for Old Glory DC, and 4 intra-league moves including a pair of new additions for Anthem RC. Due to the season kicking off later this year, NARDB estimates that training camps should open in early to mid February in 2026 and so we should hear more from the California Legion in the next few weeks, likely revealing their full roster in one big bang.
Thank you very much for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! As we all get back into the swing of daily life, team and player news around the 2026 Major League Rugby season will be coming thick and fast, so keep an eye on socials! As regular readers will know, these article are posted on the site and on social media every Monday so keep an eye out for this week’s summary 12th January! If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site, 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 offseason sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com OR rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!