Background & history

The Dallas Jackals were announced as an expansion side to Major League Rugby for the 2021 season, and have had one of the worst stretches of bad luck in league history since then. Firstly, after drafting MLR’s first ever 1st overall pick – Connor Mooneyham in the league’s inaugural Collegiate Draft in 2020, and signing a number of other players, the Jackals announced that they had to defer their entry into the league from 2021 to 2022 due to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This meant that a dispersal draft had to be held for players previously signed to the Jackals, during which they lost a number of exciting players including Mooneyham, who signed with Texas rival Austin for 2021, in addition to them losing their intended head Coach Allan Clarke to the Seattle Seawolves, where he has seen great success.

The Jackals’ deferral to the 2022 season meant that they were also granted the 1st overall pick in the 2021 MLR Collegiate Draft as an expansion team, and selected Eric Naposki. The Jackals had named Australian Michael Hodge as their Head Coach for the 2022 season, but visa delays ultimately forced the Jackals and Hodge to cut ties are valiantly attempting to coach virtually. In his place stepped General Manager Elaine Vassie, the first female GM and female Head Coach in MLR history. Further bad luck befell the Jackals early in the season, as a walking bridge collapsed with many of the Jackals squad on it, resulting in a significant amount of injuries that was Dallas have to bring in fringe players from other teams on an emergency basis just to field a roster. Due in large part to all this turmoil, the Jackals would finish their inaugural season in 2022 with a 0-16 record and points difference of -554, the single worst season in MLR history.

For 2023, the Jackals adopted a strong Argentinian influence, bringing in Agustín Cavalieri as Head Coach and drafted Sam Golla 1st overall at the draft (the 3rd time in as many drafts that Dallas drafted the first pick), and there was a clear step forward on the pitch. The Jackals earned their first franchise win over the struggling Toronto Arrows in Round 7 of the season, and picked up a second win and a few close results as the season progressed and they started to long journey to dig themselves out of the pit surrounding their joining MLR. In 2024, they won their opening game against Rugby FC LA and qualified for the Playoffs for the first time in their history, where they upset their Texas rivals the Houston SaberCats to score a famous underdog victory and advance to the Western Conference Final, where they came within 2 minutes of advancing to the final before a late Seattle Seawolves score ended their season.

Following the 2024 season, rumours began to circulate about the financial stability of the Jackals, and if major investors had grown tired of the rugby experiment, despite their best season to date. These rumours were exacerbated on 17th September 2024, when the Rugby Wrap Up podcast claimed that the Jackals had missed their last financial call with the league. Lots of commentators then began to claim that insiders had confirmed that Dallas would not compete in 2025, and this was announced by the league on September 19th, 2024. MLR continued to evaluate a ‘controlling interest transfer’ but this would not be in place for 2025, but they left the door open to a return in 2026. An announcement about the player dispersal process followed.

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Records and record holders

all time:

Top Scorer: Martin Elias (116pts)
Top Playoff Scorer: Juan-Dee Oliver (22pts)
Top Try Scorer: Dewald Kotze (14)
Most Appearances: Liam Murray (38)
Most Starts: Juan-Pablo Zeiss (31)
Top Tackler: Adriaan Booysen (393)
Top Meter Eater: Conrado Roura (1,373m)

Single Season

Top Scorer: Martin Elias (79pts) – 2024
Top Try Scorer: Dewald Kotze (11) – 2024
Top Tackler: Adriaan Booysen (257) – 2023
Top Meter Eater: Sam Tuifua (957m) – 2024

historical performance

2022: 0-0-16 (-554) – 4pts: 7th in Western Conference
2023: 2-0-14 (-180) – 19pts: 6th in Western Conference
2024: 6-0-10 (+32) – 43pts: 4th in Western Conference (Conference Finalist)

Overall Regular Season Record: 8-0-40
Overall Championship Series Record: 1-1
Championship Series Appearances: 1 (2024)

Head coach & captain

Head Coach:

• Elaine Vassie (2022)
• Agustín Cavalieri (2023-2024)

Captain:

• Chris Pennell (2022)
• Jero Gomez Vara (2023)
• Sam Golla (2024)

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Logo & Jersey

The Dallas Jackals logo showed the profile of a jackal, primarily in teal with black and white accents. The name and logo worked well for rugby as a ‘jackal’ is the act of a forward turning the ball over at the breakdown. The teal colour was unique in the league and ensured that the teams and jerseys stand out. Traditionally, all Jackals jerseys incorporated the teal colour, either with black (for home) or white (for away). Their early jerseys included a gradient towards teal at the bottom, and they did release a special edition teal and white hooped jersey that was a fan favourite. In 2024, they took a bold approach to their jerseys, featuring a large, repeating star pattern in teal on a black or white background (again for home/away). The star is a nod to their state of Texas, the Lone Star State.

Venue

The Jackals played their home games at Choctaw Stadium, the 48,000 seater baseball stadium that was the home of MLB’s Texas Rangers until 2019, and is still operated by Rangers Baseball Express. The team was owned by a group including Neil Leibman of the Texas Rangers, so it is no surprise that they are able to utilise the stadium, which also plays host to MLR media day every year in the run up to the beginning of the season.