Category: MLR

MLR, USRPA, and a CBA: What does it all mean?

NARDatabase

James Deeley

On 11th February 2026, Major League Rugby (MLR), the United States Rugby Players Association (USRPA), and the Major league Rugby Players Association (MLRPA) announced that they had unanimously ratified the first ever Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in American Rugby history!

This is undoubtedly a huge step for MLR and for professional rugby in North America, but what exactly is a CBA? What does the CBA contain/involve? and what does this agreement mean for the players and for fans? This article intends to tackle all of the acronyms and jargon, and lay out why this is such a big deal, especially going into a critical 2026 season. This article will cover CBAs as they apply to sports specifically, rather than in the wider employment market.

What is a CBA?

Starting off with the basics, A CBA or Collective Bargaining Agreement is a contract between a union (in this case, USRPA) and an employer (in this case, MLR) that guarantees certain standards and securities. In sports, this most commonly affects the players within a certain league. Players will choose to work with the league in a group (collectively) on these agreements as their bargaining power is far stronger as a group than as individuals. A league will be less likely to accept an individual’s request (however reasonable) even if it means that player not signing in the league, but if a large group of players present a reasonable set of demands the league is more likely to take notice as without players, there is no league.

CBAs almost always have an ‘expiry’ date’, in that they are negotiated between a league and their players for ‘X’ number of years. For leagues that have a CBA in place, when it comes to negotiating a new CBA ahead of the expiry date of the current CBA, things can get tense. If no agreement can be found between the players and the league to either instate a CBA or ratify a new agreement, this can become a labour dispute and can result in a lockout, shutting a league down. Across the ‘Big 4’ North American leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL) there have been numerous strikes or lockouts due to a failure to agree on a new CBA. Notably, the 2004/05 NHL lockout cancelled the entire season, and roughly half a season was lost in 2012/13 due to labour disputes, but this is not unique to hockey. The NFLPA strikes in 1982 & 1987 affected those seasons, the 1998/99 and 2011/12 NBA seasons had to be shortened due to lockouts, and more recently, a lockout in the MLB in 2021/22 didn’t cancel any games, but forced Opening Day of the 2022/23 season to be pushed back a week.

While this may seem extreme to some, a CBA means a great deal to the athletes that put their bodies on the line in these sports during what is a relatively short career even for stars. If an athlete is going to risk their health and well being in a professional sports league, they will need certain guarantees. For example, if a player gets injured during the season, will they still earn an income even if they are unable to play? Will healthcare costs be taken care of to recover from that injury? If a player is traded, will relocation costs be covered by the league, Players’ Association, or team(s)? Who owns a player’s Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the ability to profit from the commercial use of that? A CBA provides all kinds of basic rights and protections for the players within a union or Players’ Association, even covering basic issues like minimum compensation and access to healthcare.

To summarise, in a sporting landscape a CBA provides members of a Union or Players’ Association with basic rights and protections to guarantee that they can live while playing in a professional league, and make a decent career while doing so. Generally speaking it improves conditions for the players and can serve as an incentive or attraction for players considering a career in that sport or pro league. As mentioned earlier, a professional sports league cannot exist without it’s players, and a CBA ensures that these players can exist. With that being said, let’s move into the specifics of this historic CBA between MLR and the USRPA.

The MLR x USRPA Collective Bargaining Agreement

Before digging into the details, some clarification may be necessary. This historic CBA is between MLR and the USRPA. Some more ‘in the know’ fans may be wondering what the difference is between the USRPA, and the Major League Rugby Players’ Association, the MLRPA. With former MLR player and USA Eagle Chris Mattina at the helm of both as Executive Director, it seems that the MLRPA is simply a bargaining unit of USRPA. To alleviate any concerns that the USRPA may not include any foreign players within MLR, their statement regarding the new CBA confirms that ‘The bargaining committee of over 20+ Players consisting of USA Eagles, Canadians, Internationals, and Player leaders were the heart and voice of this agreement.’ so this agreement affects all players within Major League Rugby regardless of eligibility.

With that cleared up, let’s dive into the weeds of what we know about the CBA so far. This was by no means a quick process. The USRPA was founded in late 2016 (prior to the start of MLR) with it’s MLRPA bargaining unit formed in mid-2023, but was only formally recognised by MLR in January of 2024. In June 2025 the USRPA announced that Chris Mattina had been named as Executive Director, and that his ‘initial priorities include leading the MLRPA through it’s first-ever Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations with Major League Rugby’. In the roughly 6 months since Mattina’s appointment, the USRPA and MLR have been in constant negotiation through labour group Sports Solidary and it’s president, Harry Marino in order to get this first-ever CBA in place prior to the 2026 campaign, and congratulations to everyone involved in making this a reality.

‘This CBA formalized key protections and provides stability so Players can focus on performing at the highest level’ – Chris Mattina, USRPA Executive Director

Although the announcement from MLR was short on details, Alex Goff of Goff Rugby Report (who broke the news of this CBA first) was able to provide a bit more information in his article. Goff writes that ‘this CBA provides every MLR Player with increased salaries alongside several other new rights and protections, including rights for injured players and free agents, health and safety protections, and the establishment of a clear discipline policy and neutral grievance procedure‘.

The USRPA themselves were the first to provide some concrete details about what is included in this new CBA, and divided it into 4 categories: Economic, Health & Safety, Player Rights & Representation, and Fair Discipline & Grievance Procedures. The USRPA revealed that the new CBA secured Economic wins such as an immediate $2,000 lump sum payment for every player, as well as an increase to the minimum weekly compensation for all players and a team assistance to help players find housing in their new cities, if needed. On the Health & Safety front, the new CBA ensures that injured players will remain under contract and continue to earn their full salary and enjoy full benefits as if they were fully fit, with guaranteed access to doctors, trainers, medical health clinicians, and a surgeon of the player’s choosing if required and full compliance with World Rugby safety protocols such as minimum rest periods between matches and Graduated Return to Play (GRTP) protocols for head injuries. In regards to player rights and representation, the CBA also guarantees certain rights to Free Agents not currently under contract and although the release does not specify what these rights are, it’s hard to view that as a negative in any way. This is in addition to returning core NIL rights, allowing players to profit and benefit of their own images which in turn may help to promote bigger personalities that the North American sports landscape loves so much. And finally (at least, publically), the CBA ensures that written notice is required for any disciplinary action against any player, and that any fines are stayed (paused) during grievances, with those grievances settled by a neutral and impartial arbitrator.

Per Irving Mejia-Hilario’s article in the Sports Business Journal, the new CBA is valid for 2 years and covers the 2026 & 2027 MLR seasons. Considering it took the best part of 6 months to negotiate, this is relatively short when compared to other CBAs around North America. The most recent NHL CBA, ratified in July 2025 for the 2026/27 season, will run through to September 2030 (4 seasons). NFL’s current CBA was ratified in 2020 and also runs through the 2030 season. the NBA CBA runs from the 2023/24 season through (you guessed it) 2029/30, and the MLB CBA covered 5 seasons from 2022-2026. Even within the sport of rugby, the Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA) in Australia ratified a CBA that would run from January 2023 to November 2026, and in England, there is a ‘Men’s Professional Game Partnership’ (MPGP) between the RFU, PREM Rugby, and the Rugby Players’ Association (RPA) from 2024-2032, 8 years in total. So the question is, why is the first ever CBA between MLR and USRPA so short?

As you may have noticed, MLR has had a rough time of things lately, contracting from 11 teams in the 2025 season to just 6 in 2026. With the league in such a precarious state, the 2026 season is critical and it’s in the best interests of both MLR and the USRPA that it recovers, and so there is no point negotiating a 5-10 year agreement when the MLR landscape is in turmoil. A longer term CBA is far better negotiated when the league has regained stability and bounced back financially. This short term CBA helps to stabilise the league, and will contribute to the success of MLR whcih will put the USRPA in a better position to negotiate in 2 years time. To put it simply, if this CBA was for 10 years (an extreme case), but by 2030 MLR is profitable and growing ahead of the 2031 home RWC, the Players’ Association would potentially be losing out on securing more benefits for their members until they were able to negotiate once again. When you remember that prior to this, there was NO CBA and very little guarantees for players in the league, a short, 2yr first CBA is a very savvy move given the present state of MLR. What’s more, the details released by USRPA highlight the ability for the Union to ‘reopen economic terms next offseason if the League’s finances improve’. Meaning that should MLR enjoy a wildly successful 2026 season (fingers crossed!) and meet financial goals (that have not been disclosed), USRPA can renegotiate player compensation to adjust for that during the 2026/27 offseason. the Players’ Association have put themselves in a great position, and they have done so by working in cooperation with Major League Rugby who, to their credit, seem to understand that without the players they have nothing.

What does this mean for MLR?

It seems approriate to reiterate that this is the first CBA in Major League Rugby history, and the first CBA for rugby in North America at all. Prior to this, there was no guaranteed welfare, financial, or represensational rights for players. Yes, there were vague ‘industry standards’ prior to this agreement, but nothing set in stone. As a result, players could be dropped, wages may not be paid to injured players, traded players would have to relocate themselves, and all sorts of other potential nightmares that doesn’t even touch on the worst-case scenario of teams folding, which MLR knows a little bit about, unfortunately. This historic CBA changes that. It lays that foundation for player rights, securities, and guarantees that all future CBAs between MLR and the USRPA can build on. As mentioned above, the USRPA announced that the CBA contains a clause that allows the Union to ‘reopen economic terms next offseason should league finances improve’, which more closely ties player salaries and compensation to the success of the league. It means that both sides are rowing together to achieve the same goals: The success of professional rugby in North America.

‘Make no mistake – this is a momentous achievement for the sport in the U.S., as reaching the first CBA for American rugby provides clarity heading into the 2026 season and demonstrates a commitment to finding common ground as MLR seeks to grow the game in the U.S.’ – Graeme Bradbury, MLR Co-President

For fans, this doesn’t really change anything in practice, but it means a huge deal and show the commitment from both MLR and the USRPA to pro rugby in the US. It should settle some nerves following the worst offseason in league history full of chaos that has filled not only fans, but also players and executives with uncertainty ahead of a critical 2026 season, the announcement of this new CBA is a refreshing sign of co-operation between MLR and it’s players. It serves as a commitment from both sides to their mutual success and while lockouts were touched on early in this article, this historic CBA ‘was a really good-faith negotiation with the league’ said Chris Mattina to the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly. From a fan perspective, there really is no downside to the players improving their conditions within the the MLR environment. Given the short duration of this CBA, it’s likely that we will hear more on this subject following the 2026 season but for now, both MLR and the USRPA are shoring up the foundations of the league, stabilising ahead of what must be the most important season in league history so far.

Can a Cup Competition between Major League Rugby and Super Rugby Americas work?

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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 TeamsChampionsRunners-Up
20205CancelledCancelled
20216
Jaguares XV
Peñarol
20226
Peñarol
Selknam
20237
Peñarol
Dogos XV
20247
Dogos XV
Pampas XV
20257
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:

A concept of a 4-team ‘Americas Cup’

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!

The Most Carded Active Teams in MLR

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Last week, NARDB posted a graphic and article analysing the overall number of cards shown per Major League Rugby season, identifying trends and offering explanations for the reasons behind them. That article can be found here. As promised, this is a continuation of that. We’ll be breaking down the most carded teams in MLR, both all-time and per season, while also highlighting some of the most carded teams and games in Major League Rugby history.

As identified last week, MLR put in place a new Match Official Management Team ahead of the 2024 season. This was a contributing factor to the huge increase in cards handed out this year and this article will focus on the 2024 season above others, as it is (obviously) the season most likely to influence how carding in the 2025 season will unfold.

The below graphic shows how many cards in total each active MLR team has received all time, as well as each team’s Yellow Cards per Game (YCpG) and Red Cards per Game (RCpG) and their most heavily carded seasons:

How often each active MLR team are shown yellow & red cards. Table is sorted by YCpG

There are only two active teams in Major League Rugby that are averaging over 1.0 yellow card per game, and both of those enjoyed their inaugural season in 2024. The Miami Sharks averaged 1.13 YCpG, and Rugby FC LA lead the league in this unenviable category, with a huge 1.38 YCpG. Both Miami and RFCLA are head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the league, with the San Diego Legion sitting third with only 0.75 YCpG. This means that RFCLA average an additional yellow card than the Legion every 2 games, and Miami average an extra yellow every 3 games. In fact, with 3 red cards and a whopping 22 yellow cards for 25 cards total in 16 games, RFCLA‘s inaugural season this year was the most cards a MLR team has ever received in a single season.

The caveat to this is that with the Miami Sharks and RFCLA competing in their first MLR season in 2024, the sample size for these two teams is far lower than most other teams in the league. However, the Sharks and RFCLA were not the only expansion teams in 2024. MLR’s partnership with USA Rugby and World Rugby, Anthem RC, have the same sample size and ARC are sat right in the mid-table on a 0.69 YCpG. Nice. This is level with the 2024 regular season leaders the Houston SaberCats, and the 2024 Champions the New England Free Jacks. Anthem RC received literally half as many yellow cards as RFCLA in as many games. This will not be the record that Rugby FC LA’s players and coaches enjoy, and I’m sure their new coaching team for 2025 will be working hard to not see a repeat of this.

As mentioned in last week’s article, the 2024 Major League Rugby season saw a big jump in the number of both yellow and red cards shown compared to previous seasons. As a result, in addition to the 3 expansion sides, four active MLR teams received a season high in total cards in 2024. The San Diego Legion, NOLA Gold, Seattle Seawolves and Old Glory DC. A fifth team, the Utah Warriors, tied their most carded season with 14 yellows and a red, level with their 2023 season.

The Seattle Seawolves are worth mentioning for a couple of reasons. Firstly and most impressively, they have played the most games of any team in MLR, at 105 in total since 2018 and In that time they have only received 56 yellow cards in total. This is tied with Old Glory DC for the lowest YCpG among active teams, at only 0.53, roughly 1 yellow card every two games. Old Glory DC have received 4 red cards total, however. The Seattle Seawolves, remarkably, have never had a player red carded. They have gone 105 games without seeing a red card, the only other active team in MLR to have never received a red card is the Miami Sharks, who have only played 1 season. 56 yellow cards in 105 games is excellent discipline from the 2x MLR Champions. However, in 2024 they received the 2nd highest number of yellow cards among active teams with 20, and are just the 2nd team in league history to have been shown 20+ cards in a season (behind RFCLA, also in 2024). The Seawolves received 35.7% of every yellow card they’ve ever had in the 2024 season alone.

As mentioned above, Rugby FC LA were the most carded team in Major League Rugby in 2024, setting a new record for the number of cards received by a team in a single season. Despite the jump in cards in 2024, last season did not see the most carded game in MLR history. That honour goes to an infamous game between the Dallas Jackals and the Chicago Hounds in the final round of the 2023 regular season. This match, a nail-biting 28-29 victory for the visiting Hounds, saw a brawl shortly after half time, resulting in five red cards, two for the Jackals and 3 for Chicago. Add this to the 4 yellow cards the Hounds received throughout the match and this becomes the most carded game in MLR history at 9. Unsurprisingly, the 9-card punch-up contributed significantly to Round 18 of the 2023 season becoming the most carded round in MLR history with 13 yellows and 6 reds handed out in total.

Proportion and amounts of Yellow & Red Cards in the Western Conference in 2024

Last week’s article went some way to explaining why (in theory) 2024 saw a noticeable jump in cards. That explanation can be found at the bottom of that article, and centres around MLR’s introduction of a Director of Match Officials, and a Match Official Management Team. As mentioned at the start of this article, the 2024 season, being the most recent, will give us the best idea of how the 2025 season may unfold, so let’s jump into how regularly each team was carded last season.

The above graphic shows the breakdown of cards for the 2024 Western Conference. This includes the Dallas Jackals, who unfortunately will not compete in 2025. Of the 180 yellow cards shown in 2024, 105 were shown to Western Conference teams, that’s 58%. Of those went to the top 3 most yellow carded teams, Rugby FC LA & the Seattle Seawolves (as mentioned earlier), and the San Diego Legion. Even the best regular season team in MLR, the Houston SaberCats, recorded close to 1 yellow per game (0.81 YCpG) and four of the six teams in the Western Conference had a YCpG over 1. The picture looks similar when we turn to red cards. A record 17 reds were shown in 2024, and 9 of those (53%) were shown to Western Conference teams. When remembering that the Seattle Seawolves received 0 red cards, that evens out to almost 2 reds for each of the five remaining Western Conference teams. Unsurprisingly, the most carded team in 2024 received the most red cards in the West, averaging around 0.19 RCpG, over double the Western Conference average of 0.09 RCpG. Is there something about the way that Western Conference teams play that causes them to be carded more? Possibly. If I knew the reason/s why this was the case I would probably have a much higher paying job, but I believe there is value in identifying these patterns.

Moving over to the Eastern Conference, after a quick look at the below graphic a couple of things should stand out almost straight away. Firstly, the lack of red (with one obvious exception). The Eastern Conference received 8 of 2024’s 17 red cards, with five of those going to the NOLA Gold. The Gold received more red cards than any other team last season and recorded a whopping 0.29 RCpG, significantly higher than even RFCLA. NOLA’s indiscipline counteracted the three teams in the East who didn’t see red (the Chicago Hounds, Miami Sharks, and the Champions, the New England Free Jacks), bringing the RCpG in the east to 0.08, essentially identical to the West.

Proportion and amounts of Yellow & Red Cards in the Eastern Conference in 2024

The second stand out, when looking at the above a little deeper, should be the numbers of yellows shown to teams in the east. The Western Conference teams were all in the teens and above, but the East only saw one team in the teens: The Miami Sharks on 18. The remaining 5 teams received between 10-12 including Old Glory DC, a historically low-carded team (0.53 YCpG, level as lowest among active teams in MLR). Old Glory DC received 12 cards in total (10y, 2r), the joint-least carded team in 2024 with Anthem (11y, 1r), Chicago (12y, 0r), and New England (12y, 0r). with the Sharks collecting almost a quarter of the yellow cards in the east, and the NOLA Gold collecting almost two thirds of the reds, there’s room for improvement on both sides, and with the Gold bringing in a new Head Coach in Danny Lee for 2025, will we see a decrease in reds down in Louisiana? For the remaining four teams in the east, while I’m sure all coaching teams would rather see fewer cards shown to their squads, they’re being carded a whole lot less than the Western Conference, and are all below the YCpG average of 0.73 for the East.

As mentioned earlier and last week, while I have presented a theory as to why the number of red & yellow cards increased across the league generally in 2024, the reasons for certain teams being carded more than others could be down to ‘over-zealous’ individuals, it could be down to the way certain teams play (giving away more penalties generally likely results in more yellows from repeat infringements, for example), or it could even be down to the officiating team on the day. There aren’t numbers available (publicly, anyway) for which officials hand out the most cards, but if there is an interest in that then NARDB will happily dig into that. In the meantime, for any questions or comments, feel free to leave them under this article or reach out to @MLRStats on Instagram and Threads, or either @JamDelay or @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X.

Breaking Down the Number of Overall Cards in MLR: 2018-2024

NAR Database

James Deeley

Although still a young league by global standards, Major League Rugby is entering it’s 8th season in 2025 and has come along leaps and bounds since that inaugural season back in 2018. While enjoying the 2024 season unfold as a real neutral for the first time, one recurring thought kept coming to me: ‘Wow, another yellow card?’. It felt like almost every game had at least 1 card, and the majority had a few. So, now that the off-season has freed up some of my time, I decided to crunch the numbers on this, and see how 2024 compared with previous MLR seasons in terms of the amount of cards shown.

Obviously, there are a few caveats to list. Firstly, the 2018 season only had 7 teams that played 8 regular season games total. Including playoffs, this is only 31 games in total so the total yellow & red cards awarded in 2018 will be far lower than other seasons. Similarly, the truncated 2020 season saw each team only play 5 games each for a total of 30 games. To help overcome these caveats, I also calculated the average yellow & red cards per game for each season.

Historical Carding

Lets begin by taking a look at the number of red & yellow cards per season, from MLR’s inaugural season in 2018 to the 2023 season. It should be no surprise that 2018 saw the fewest yellow (30) & red (3) cards in MLR history. Also unsurprisingly, once we see the league expand to a 16 game regular season with more than the 7 teams in MLR, we see more cards. As you can see from the bar chart below, we have seen a general increase in both red & yellow cards from season to season.

A bar chart visualising the increase in the number of yellow & red cards in MLR over the years. The tables on the right show the YCpG & RCpG, and the YoY increase.

Worth noting is the 2020 season. As mentioned in the introduction, the season was cut short by COVID-19 after each team played only 5 games, totaling 30 games that year. While this makes it tricky to compare with 2019, or 2021-2024, it’s only 1 game fewer than the 2018 season and while there was only 1 red card that season (fewer than the 3 in 2018), there were 45 yellow cards. This is FIFTEEN more yellows than in the 2018 season. While it’s impossible to know how the 2020 season would’ve played out, it’s almost a guarantee that there would have been more than the 68 yellow cards and 3 reds in 2019.

The average number of yellow cards per game (YCpG) hovered just below 1 between 2018-2019, but rose to 1.5 during the 2020 season and although this is the smallest sample size we have, the average has not fallen back below 1 YCpG since 2019. Moving forward in time slightly, the 2021 MLR season saw almost twice as many total cards (129) as the previous full season in 2019 (71). The 2021 season had 99 games in total, a significant jump from the 75 in 2019 and this can be explained by the increase in teams from 9 to 12. Roughly a 33% increase in games matches up with a 33% increase in the number of teams. The YCpG and Red Cards per Game (RCpG) both increased from 2019, but the YCpG fell from 1.5 in 2020 to 1.23 in 2021.

The change between the 2021 season and the 2022 season in interesting. While the overall number of cards increased ever so slightly (129 to 131), 2022 is the only Major League Rugby season that saw fewer yellow cards handed out than the season before (not counting 2020), a slight decrease from 122 to 120. Interestingly, the 2022 season was the first MLR season to feature a Television Match Official (TMO) for every game, and had the most teams in league history, with 13 teams competing for the Shield that was ultimately won by Rugby New York following a dramatic end to the regular season. Consequently, there were 10 more games in 2022 than in 2021 for a total of 109 games in the season, the most games in a MLR season to date. Although red cards rose above 10 for the first time ever, the total number of yellows went down and as a result, so did the YCpG. Falling from 1.23 in 2021 to 1.10 in 2022, the second season in a row that the YCpG fell.

This wouldn’t last into 2023 however, as the YCpG rose to 1.29 and the RCpG reached a high of 0.12, with 130 yellows and 12 reds in 101 games for a total of 142 cards. All three of these were all-time highs. Even though there was an increase in cards in 2023, it wasn’t a significant jump despite reaching all-time highs across the board. Generally speaking, cards were around the same level for the three MLR seasons between 2021-2023, averaging 124 yellows and 10 reds per season. Both yellow and red cards increased by under 10% from 2022 to 2023, by far the lowest Year-over-year (YoY) increases in MLR history.

Pie Charts of Yellow & Red Cards per MLR season from 2018-2024.
Last Season – 2024

Remember that thought that kept coming to me during the 2024 season: ‘Wow, another yellow card?!‘. After crunching the numbers, it seems like there was something to that thought.

The 2024 season had 103 games in total, around normal for full seasons in the ‘Conference Era’ (2021-2024). In those 103 games, a massive 180 yellow cards were shown, and 17 red cards. This is around a 40% increase to both yellows and reds from 2023,. In numerical terms: FIVE more red cards and FIFTY more yellows. The YCpG and RCpG for the 2024 MLR season skyrocketed to all time highs of 1.75 and 0.17 respectively. More games had at least two yellow cards than just one, and almost 1 in 5 games had a red card shown. The only area that stayed roughly level was the number of red cards as a percentage of total cards, which has stayed roughly level for three seasons now, around 8-9%. So the numbers and charts clearly show a huge jump in cards handed out in the 2024 season, but why? What is the reason or the explanation for this increase? While I don’t have the answer, here’s my theory:

In February 2024 MLR and USA Rugby announced a collaboration on referee development. ‘This collaboration is aimed at solidifying a pathway for domestic referees into MLR in the lead up to Rugby World Cup 2031’. As part of this collaboration, former IRFU National Referee Manager David Wilkinson was appointed as Director of Match Officials, a role which will ‘manage all aspects of officiating in MLR’. With a new man in charge of officiating, MLR’s first Director of Match Officials, it’s possible that Wilkinson has tightened up officiating on a lot of things that may have been missed in previous seasons. Additionally, as MLR grows the quality of the game improves and, by necessity, the general quality of officiating improves with it.

The Officials for the 2024 MLR season.
Source: Major League Rugby

It seems possible to me that the addition of MLR’s Match Official Management Team has resulted in a jump in the quality of officiating generally in order to match the improvement of the quality of play in MLR over the next 5 years. Teams and players were caught short by this jump in 2024, hence the large increase in the number of cards. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the number of cards for 2025 stay around the same level, or even drop as they adapt to playing with Wilkinson’s Match Official team.

This article identifies general trends in the overall number of cards per season in Major League Rugby between 2018-2024. For a breakdown of which teams receive the most cards overall and per season, and the highest number of cards in a single game, you’ll have to wait for next week’s article.

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