Category: MLR Move Summaries

MLR Player Movement Summary: January 6-12, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

The long, dark Major League Rugby off-season is coming to an end, and players are reporting to pre-season training camps all around the league. But which players? This series of articles jumps into all of the player movement around MLR from the previous week. This week’s article covers the week from January 6th to January 12th, 2025, the first full week in a new year.

As mentioned, Pre-season training camps have opened across the league, and teams are beginning to publish content of their players in action. This content can be telling, as every year there are players photographed that we have heard nothing about over the off-season. This season, we still haven’t heard a peep out of Anthem RC, but the team is posting photos. If they don’t publish a roster soon, these photos will be all we have to go on for their 2025 squad! As always, we begin the article with a summary graphic, before diving into what could be the final few re-signings of the off-season.

MLR Player Move Summary: January 6-12, 2025 (1 of 2)

Final Wave of Re-Signings

Following the eyebrow-raising announcement from the Utah Warriors of a huge chunk of departing players ahead of the 2025 season, the Warriors seem to have calmed the heart rates of their fans with some strong additions, and bringing back stand-outs from their 2024 campaign. One of these returning stand-outs is Frank Lochore. The Kiwi forward, who can play across the back row, or as a lock, was one of only two players to record over 200 tackles completed in 2024, finishing 2nd league-wide with 221 (behind Old Glory DC’s Cory Daniel in first). He started all 16 games for Utah in 2024, scoring 5 tries on offence to round out a fantastic debut season in North America. Alongside Lochore, Warriors stalwart and capped USA Eagle Joe Mano will be returning for his 5th season with the team. With 2,882m gained in his career so far, and 25 tries scored in his 38 MLR games (33 starts) for Utah since 2021, Mano provides the Warriors with a significant scoring threat. He currently sits tied for 9th all-time in tries scored and will look to climb higher in 2025.

As with the previous few weeks, the majority of re-signings last week belonged to the NOLA Gold, who concluded their 2025 roster announcements with the return of seven back rowers, including three former MLR draftees still working towards their MLR debuts, and three NOLA Gold veterans. Idaho native Abe Turpen returns for a second season in New Orleans after the Gold traded for him from the Utah Warriors in May 2024. The multi-sport athlete plays flanker on the rugby field and was selected in the 2nd round, 22nd Overall, by the Warriors in 2023. He will look to make his MLR debut in 2025. Another member of the 2023 MLR Collegiate Draft Class is returning for the Gold in Cian Darling. The Irishman was drafted 7th overall by the Gold out of Lindenwood University, and becomes US-eligible in 2025 on residency grounds. Along with a pair from the 2023 Draft Class, 6th Overall pick in 2022 Chase Jones returns for a 3rd MLR season. Jones played with the NOLA Gold academy side in 2023 where he suffered an achilles injury that ruled him out for the entire 2023 MLR season, with the long rehabilitation also sidelining him for the 2024 season. He, like Darling and Turpen, will look to finally earn his MLR debut in 2025.

As well as three MLR Draftees, the NOLA Gold confirm the return of regular MLR starters including 2024 stand-out Jonah Mau’u, who returns for a second MLR season in 2025. The kiwi back row completed 134 tackles in his debut season in North America, running for well over 800m gained and scoring 6 tries in 12 games (all starts) for NOLA. Alongside the impressive Mau’u will be Gold regular Malcolm May, back for his 7th season with NOLA. May has 57 appearances for the Gold since 2019, starting 40 times including a career high 15 in his 16 games in 2024, where he scored a career high 3 tries to take his total to 6. On the subject of NOLA Gold regulars, the Tonga’uiha brothers are also back in the Big Easy. Osi Tonga’uiha returns for a 6th season after a career high 9 appearances in 2024, taking his career appearances to 18 while his brother, capped USA Eagle Moni Tonga’uiha, is back for an 8th year. Moni Tonga’uiha captained the Gold through their best-ever 2024 season and is their most capped player, with 70 starts in his 88 appearances since 2018 putting him 5th all-time. The Oakland, CA native has 11 tries and a huge 4,157m gained in possession, with just shy of 800 tackles completed (789). He has recorded over 125 tackles in each of the last 4 seasons, including a career high of 176 in 2022.

MLR Player Move Summary: January 6-12, 2025 (2 of 2)

‘New’ Faces

Last week saw a number of former American Raptors either enter MLR for the first time, or return to the league after a season away. This is likely due to the news that the Raptors would not be playing pro rugby in 2025, and players are turning to the only other professional option in the US, Major League Rugby. The Chicago Hounds announced the signing of a pair of former Raptors, starting with prop Koby Baker, who played with the Raptors during their 2024 Super Rugby Americas season, before joining the Seattle Seawolves for their playoff stretch. Baker earned 5 MLR appearances for the Seawolves and came off the bench in all three playoff games, including the Championship Game where Seattle fell to the New England Free Jacks. Baker had been playing with the Hounds academy side during their 2024 Fall season alongside fellow former Raptor Tavius Sykora-Matthess, who also earns a MLR contract with Chicago for the 2025 season. The 6’7 former football player and wrestler represented both the USA U23s and USA Falcons in 2022 before spending two seasons in Super Rugby Americas with the Raptors. He, like Baker, joined the Hounds academy side in 2024.

Another pair of former Raptors are also headed to the Eastern Conference with Old Glory DC. Former DC man John LeFevre will rejoin the Flags following a season in Super Rugby Americas. The Virginia native earned 16 appearances for DC between 2022-2023, scoring his two tries in 11 games (1 start) in 2023. Following John LeFevre to the nation’s capital is Hawaiian flanker Isikeli Kava, who transitioned from the front row to the flank while with the Raptors, where he has played since 2021 and earned a spot on their Super Rugby Americas roster in 2024. the 295lb, 6’2 former football player spent the off-season in Australia with the Gungahlin Eagles in the ACTRU Premier Division. Old Glory DC announced the return of another not entirely new face for 2025, Owen Sheehy. The son of former USA Eagle and OGDC Co-Founder Paul Sheehy, Owen earned 10 starts in 20 games for DC between 2021-2023, recording a career high 533m gained in 11 games in 2022. Sheehy returns after a year working in South America, where he also played in Argentina’s URBA Top 14, an amateur league that has produced a number of MLR players in the past.

Along with confirming their final re-signings, the NOLA Gold unveiled their complete roster for the 2025 campaign. This roster included both of their 2025 MLR Collegiate Draft selections, Aidan King and Dalton Musselman. Australian back row Aidan King was selected 6th Overall by the Gold out of Penn State, and college teammate Dalton Musselman was selected 18th Overall. The Pennsylvanian fly-half will be able to learn from the likes of Dorian Jones and USA Eagle Luke Carty while with the Gold.

Intra-League Moves & Departures

The news of the week, and likely the reason why many of you are reading this article, was the announcement from Rugby FC LA that they had signed reigning MLR Back of the Year Reece MacDonald on a 2yr contract through the 2026 season. This announcement left MLR fans shocked, and New England Free Jacks fans stunned. MacDonald scored 12 tries and 86pts in 30 games (28 starts) for the Free Jacks during their back-to-back Shields from 2023-2024. He recorded 10 tries and a league-high 1,535m gained in 2024 alone, a true career year for the kiwi fullback who now makes the move to the Western Conference. Although MacDonald’s contract with the Free Jacks had expired, New England still held his rights. As a result, Rugby FC LA gave up 2025 Cap Space (unknown) in order to acquire MacDonald’s rights, meaning that this move was technically a trade, but only on paper.

Moving on to departures, Super Rugby Americas teams have been announcing their complete rosters over the last few weeks, and a number of 2024 MLR-ers are heading south. The Miami Sharks will be without Uruguayan playmaker Felipe Etcheverry in 2025, with the 2023 Rugby World Cup player returning to Peñarol. Etcheverry joined Miami from the Uruguayan club for 2024, and scored 3 tries and 73pts for the Sharks in 14 games (13 starts). He now returns to the 2x SRA Champions along with Chicago Hounds hooker Guillermo Pujadas. Another capped Uruguayan who entered MLR from Peñarol in 2024, Pujadas started 2 of his 8 games for the Hounds in 2024 and will also return to the Uruguayan franchise for their 2025 Super Rugby Americas season. Pujadas will join former Hounds teammate and Dallas Jackal Nico Revol Pitt in SRA, with the Argentinian prop signing with Dogos, and former Houston SaberCat and NOLA Gold hooker Diego Fortuny also heading to Super Rugby Americas, signing with the Tarucas for their inaugural SRA season in 2025.

Makene Staying in New Zealand

One final piece of news that NOLA Gold fans should be interested in, Caleb Makene. Following the announcement that Makene would not be returning to the Utah Warriors for 2025, the NOLA Gold announced the signing of the impressive kiwi fullback on November 17th, 2024. NARDB has learned that shortly after this announcement, Makene informed the Gold that he would be staying in New Zealand with his partner as they were expecting their first child. This means that Caleb Makene, who scored 12 tries and 98pts in 44 games for the Utah Warriors between 2022-2024, will not be playing in MLR during the 2025 season. As excuses go, he has a pretty good one and we wish him, his partner, and their child all the best!

In Conclusion…

With Pre-Season camps now underway and MLR rosters all but confirmed, the 2025 season is just around the corner! With that, player announcements are likely to dry up in the next few weeks. These summary articles will continue as long as there is player movement and as we have still heard nothing from Anthem RC, and suspiciously little regarding returning players for the Seattle Seawolves, it is likely there will still be some announcements, but these will likely be more sporadic. Keep an eye on this site and social media for further news.

As always, you can follow NARDB and James across social media to stay up to date on signings as they happen. @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay and @NARDB on Bluesky! Also, we’re happy to have Rugby Now back for the 2025 season! Visit shopmlr.com to get your hands on that new Macron gear for 2025, and remember to use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off your order!

MLR Player Movement Summary: Dec 30, 2024 – Jan 5, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Welcome to 2025! Every week these MLR Player Movement Summary articles outline each roster move around Major League Rugby, whether that is a returning player, a new signing, or a departure, so that MLR fans can easily stay up to date on all the off-season activity ahead of the 2025 season. This week’s article covers the week from December 30, 2024 to January 5, 2025 and so, as mentioned already, welcome to 2025!

With pre-season camps opening today (January 6th), it could be assumed that all MLR teams have pretty much finished announcing their 2025 rosters, but considering we still haven’t heard a peep out of Anthem RC, and the Seattle Seawolves haven’t announced a single returning player, it’s likely that player announcements will continue almost right up to opening kick-off on February 15th. Last week saw another relatively quiet week but as with the week before, there is still plenty to discuss. 10 re-signings across 4 teams made up the bulk of the announcements as usual, with an intra-league move and two big names returning to MLR from overseas. As always, we start with the summary graphic and then jump in to the re-signings:

MLR Player Movement Summary: December 30th, 2024 – January 5th, 2025 (Page 1 of 1)

Re-signings

Of the 10 re-signings last week, the NOLA Gold announced four returning back three players for their 2025 roster. Samoan try machine Ed Fidow is back for his second season with the Gold after scoring 5 tries in 7 games for the team in an injury-affected 2024. A 2022 MLR Champion with New York, Fidow has a very impressive 21 tries in his 35 career MLR games with over 3,000m gained with ball in hand. Alongside Fidow will be NOLA Gold veteran Harley Wheeler, who has 8 tries in his 38 games for the club since 2020 (29 starts) and over 150 tackles completed with a high of 84 in 2022. Academy graduate Jack Webster, who can also play centre, returns for a 4th season with the Gold having earned 16 appearances since 2022. Webster also played a game for the Dallas Jackals in 2022 while on short term loan to the Texas team. Last but by no means least for the Gold is impressive rookie Julian Roberts, returning for his sophomore season in New Orleans. Drafted 6th overall by the Gold in 2023 out of Life University, Roberts started 4 of his 11 appearances in 2024, scoring 2 tries and running for over 350m gained in possession.

Staying in the Eastern Conference and heading up to Illinois, the Chicago Hounds announced a returning trio of their own last week. Kansan scrum-half and capped USA Eagle Michael Baska is back for a 3rd year with the Hounds and 7th in MLR. Baska has 8 tries and 46pts in his 58 career games (30 starts), with 10 starts in 22 for Chicago since 2023. Also returning to the Hounds back line is South African fly-half/fullback Kian Meadon for a second year in Chicago after a pair of seasons with the Houston SaberCats. Meadon has 1 try and 37pts in his 11 MLR games since 2022 with a 61% success rate from the tee, but has struggled for game time over the last two seasons with only 2 games in 2023 and 1 in 2024. Although an international player, Meadon will be hoping for some consistent game time in 2025, but will be fighting with Tim Swiel, Adriaan Carelse, and Ben Pollack for games. In the pack, MLR veteran Paddy Ryan returns for his 8th season in the front row, and 3rd with Chicago. One of three players named ‘Paddy Ryan’ to have played in MLR, the Chicago-born Irishman has 8 tries in 71 games (53 starts) since 2018, with over 360 tackles completed and 1,107m gained as a prop.

Heading over to the Western Conference, a pair of depth pieces are returning to Zions Bank in 2025. Former Portland State defensive Lineman Tonga Kofe is back for a second season with the Utah Warriors in 2025. The 6’2, 310lb behemoth earned 6 appearances in 2024, and may be the heaviest player in MLR history. A monster in the front row. Returning to the Warriors’ backline for a third season is local product Sione Mahe, who earned 2 starts in 3 games in 2024 before suffering an ACL injury that sidelined him for much of the year. Heading to California but staying on the subject of injuries, Rugby FC LA announce the return of lock Jurie van Vuuren for a second season in LA, and 6th in MLR. Van Vuuren has scored 9 tries in 55 games (47 starts) since 2020, completing 584 tackles. He spent 4 seasons with the Utah Warriors before joining RFCLA in 2024 where he earned 4 appearances before suffering an injury that rule him out of the majority of the 2024 season.

‘New’ Faces

In this section we typically cover the new players entering MLR from leagues around the world. While that is still the case this week, it’s not strictly true to say that these faces are ‘new’. Both of last week’s signings from leagues outside MLR have already played in Major League Rugby at some point in their careers. Capped USA Eagle Mikey Sosene-Feagai signs with Rugby FC LA for the 2025 season, marking the first time the California-born hooker has played in MLR since 2021. Sosene-Feagai scored 2 tries in 15 games (all starts) for Old Glory DC between 2020-2021 before signing with Toulon in the French Top 14. He signed with Agen in the Pro D2 after a season with Toulon, where he played from 2022-2024.

Over in the Eastern Conference, the NOLA Gold have negotiated a season-loan for regular USA starting 9 Ruben de Haas for 2025. The South African moved with his family from the Western Cape to Arkansas when he was young, and has been a member of the Cheetahs system since 2017. He started 4 of his 6 appearances for the Austin Gilgronis in 2021 before heading to England and playing with Saracens in the Premiership between 2021-2023. De Haas returned to the Cheetahs following his time in the Premiership, playing in the Currie Cup and Challenge Cup. He will return to the Cheetahs once again following the 2025 MLR season.

Intra-League Moves

To wrap things up for this week’s summary article, the Chicago Hounds announced the signing of Californian hooker Jackson Zabierek for his sophomore season in 2025. Zabierek was drafted 18th overall by Rugby FC LA in 2023 out of the University of Santa Cruz, but did not sign with RFCLA. Instead, he joined the American Raptors for their 2024 Super Rugby Americas season. Once the Raptors season was over, Zabierek joined the Seattle Seawolves for their 2024 playoff push where he earned 6 appearances. He came off the bench in every playoff game for the Seawolves including the Championship Game against the New England Free Jacks, finishing as MLR runners-up.

In Conclusion

That wraps up this week’s summary article for player announcements around Major League Rugby from last week! We’ve almost made it through the long, dark MLR off-season and with kick-off on MLR 2025 just around the corner, it’s likely that the majority of player announcements are behind us. Anticipate teams making final adjustments to their rosters and possibly some promotions from academy sides, but there may still be a surprise or two in store for us. Another week gone, and still silence from Anthem RC. Pre-Season camps open on January 6th, so I hope they’ve got some idea who will be turning up.

Stay up to date on all player announcements as they happen by following NARDB and James on Social Media! @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @NARugbyDB and @JamDelay on Twitter/X, or @NARDB and @JamDelay on Bluesky!

MLR Player Movement Summary: December 23-29, 2024

NARDatabase

James Deeley

The last full week of 2024 is behind us and the holidays created quite the lull around Major League Rugby. Every Monday, this series of articles from NARDB will summarise all the moves around MLR from the previous week and add a bit of detail to each move. This particular article covers the moves over the week of Christmas 2024, from December 23rd to December 29th. During that period, six teams made roster announcements and 21 players were involved in total.

Following the 3-pager just before Christmas, all of last week’s moves can be summarised on just one page. Although much quieter than the weeks before it, the trend stayed the same with 18 re-signings across four teams, with 13 of those shared between just two teams, the NOLA Gold and Old Glory DC. As always, the first (and in this case, only) page of the summary graphic is just below, and we’ll start with the re-signings. These made up the vast majority of last week’s moves:

MLR Player Moves Summary: December 23-29, 2024 (1 of 1)

Re-Signings

As with the week before, we begin with the NOLA Gold. The Gold continue to announce their returnees in batches based on position, and last week announced seven returnees. This includes their returning centres, hookers, and locks. Beginning in the back line, MLR veterans Ross Depperschmidt and JP du Plessis return for their 7th & 8th seasons in MLR, respectively. Depperschmidt has played all 7 seasons with the Gold, scoring 5 tries in his 46 games (26 starts) to date. He earned 9 starts in 15 games in 2024, completing 68 tackles. The Texan has set career highs in appearances, starts, and tackles made in every season since 2020. 2019 MLR runner-up JP du Plessis returns for his 5th season with NOLA after playing with the San Diego Legion from 2018-20. His 84 MLR appearances put him tied for 6th all-time with Holden Yungert and he currently leads the entire league in all-time meters gained, on 5,849m. Du Plessis signed a 3yr contract with the Gold in October 2023, and returns for the 2nd season of that deal in 2025.

Moving to the heavies, Ale Lopeti returns at hooker along with another veteran, Pat O’Toole. Lopeti earned 14 of his 24 appearances in 2024, completing 88 tackles and scoring 2 tries as the Gold’s go-to back-up. Entering his 7th MLR season in 2025, O’Toole has played for the Gold since 2021, making 49 of his 69 career appearances and scoring 15 of his 18 MLR tries including a high of 7 in 2021. O’Toole has over 500 tackles completed in his career and is closing in on 2000m gained. More veterans return to the Gold in the second row, in Will Waguespack and Cam Dolan. Waguespack is back for an 8th season with the Gold, earning 20 starts in his 46 appearances for NOLA, 11 of which were in 2024 where he scored his first career MLR try and completed a career high 68 tackles. Cam Dolan should be a name familiar to fans outside of the NOLA Gold. The capped USA Eagle has over 600 tackles in his 75 games (71 starts) since 2018, and has scored 15 tries and ran for almost 2,500m gained in possession. He returns for a 7th season with the Gold having represented the San Diego Legion in 2018 alongside JP du Plessis. Like du Plessis, Dolan signed a 3yr deal with NOLA in October 2023 and returns for the 2nd year of that contract in 2025.

Moving away from the Big Easy but staying in the Eastern Conference in the nation’s capital, Old Glory DC wrapped up their ’24 days of re-signings’ with the return of a bunch of household names for DC fans. Back rows and tackle machines Lautaro Bavaro and Cory Daniel return for their 3rd and 4th seasons with the Flags respectively. Argentinian Bavaro has over 350 tackles completed in just 33 games (all starts) since 2023, averaging 178 a season and 11 a game. Bavaro’s tackle total is very impressive, but is dwarfed when put next to Cory Daniel’s. The former wrestler is a 2x MLR Top Tackler with 255 in 2022 and an MLR record 276 in 2024. His total sits on 651 tackles in 42 games (37 starts). More than just a tackle juggernaut, Daniel has 12 career tries and over 1,150m gained in his career. A worry for DC fans, however, is that Daniel has historically alternated between an excellent season and an injury plagued season throughout his career (59 tackles in 8 games, then 255 in 15, then 61 in 4, then 276 in 15). Both he and the Flags will be hoping for consistency in 2025. Also returning in the Old Glory back row is Captain Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz, for a 6th season with the team and 7th in MLR. ‘JFS’ passed 3,000m gained in his career in 2024, adding 91 tackles and two tries to take his totals to 588 tackles and 12 tries. With the exception of the shortened 2020 season, JFS is a lock for around 500m gained and 2-3 tries, and his career high of 187 tackles in 2023 proves he can perform on the defensive side as well. Moving from the back row to the front, Old Glory DC’s most capped player is back for a 6th season in the district. Jack Iscaro has 60 MLR appearances since 2020 (43 starts), all with the Flags. He’s averaging 153 tackles a season over the past 3 years, relatively high for a prop.

The DC backline saw some reinforcements confirmed last week, as well. Former San Diego Legion and American Raptors scrumhalf Ethan McVeigh is back for a second season with DC after earning 9 starts and 15 appearances in 2024, part of a solid tandem with Connor Buckley, who’s return has already been confirmed. Finally for the Flags, dual test capped centre Tommaso Boni returns for his 2nd season in DC after the dual Italy and (most recently) USA capped man gained 780m in 13 games in 2024, completing 99 tackles.

Heading over to the Western Conference, the Utah Warriors continue announcing their familiar faces with 4 returnees of their own including a trio for their pack. Canadian hooker Tyler Wong is back after adding 3 appearances from the bench in 2024 to his 5 games (3 starts) for the Toronto Arrows in 2023. Wong will be competing for game time with Australian Phil Bradford. The Warriors’ go-to back up hooker is also back for a second season at Zion’s Bank after scoring 3 tries in 12 games (3 starts) in 2024. Back row Miah Noaese returns for a 3rd season in Utah following a 2024 where he spent much of the time on the sidelines. The Washington-state native has 9 appearances to date and will be hoping to stay healthy in 2025. Speaking of injury, Canadian international Spencer Jones returns for his 6th MLR season and second with the Warriors after spending much of 2024 injured. Jones still scored a try in his 2 games, starting both, and the 2023 MLR Champion will be hoping for a return to form in 2025.

Wrapping up the re-signings portion of this summary, Rugby FC LA announced the return of another Canadian 2023 MLR Champion, Reegan O’Gorman. The 6’6 lock has 22 starts in 38 MLR games since 2021, earning half of those starts for RFCLA in 2024 when he set a career high 108 tackles completed, hitting triple figures for the first time.

Intra-League Signings

Hidden among last weeks’ flurry of re-signings were a pair of intra-league moves that saw players stay within Major League Rugby, but head to a different team. The New England Free Jacks will be without Zach Bastres in 2025, as their 34th overall pick from 2021 signed with the Miami Sharks for 2025. The University of Northern Colorado alum earned 5 starts in 13 appearances across 3 seasons with the Free Jacks, helping them to back-to-back Shields. Chances of more consistent game time was likely a contributing factor in Bastres‘ decision to leave New England.

Last week’s other intra-league move saw former Old Glory DC and Houston SaberCats front row Will Vakalahi sign with the Chicago Hounds, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. The Indiana native began playing in MLR with Old Glory DC in 2020, before missing the entire 2021 season due to an injury sustained in pre-season. He fought his way back and earned 6 appearances for Old Glory DC in 2022 before heading to play with the Houston SaberCats academy in the 2022 American Rugby Premiership season. His performances with Rugby HTX earning him a shot with the SaberCats, where he earned 3 further MLR appearances in 2023 before moving closer to home and joining the Chicago Hounds academy, where he played in 2024. Although classed as an intra-league move, this is a promotion for Vakalahi from the Hounds academy side to their MLR squad.

Retirements

Wrapping up a relatively quiet week with a single retirement, as 4-season MLR-er Danny Christensen hangs up his boots. Christensen finishes with 34 appearances between the Utah Warriors (2021-22), Dallas Jackals (2023), and San Diego Legion (2024), scoring 6 tries including a hat trick for the Warriors in 2022. A fan favourite throughout his time in the league, Christensen’s stat line can be found below, and NARDB congratulates him on a fantastic career. Best of luck in your next chapter, Danny!

Major League Rugby

SeasonTeamGPGSTCPACDGMGTacklesKS/KAPts
MLR 2021Warriors41200007811010
MLR 2022Warriors1253002021447019
MLR 2023Jackals122100102533807
MLR 2024Legion62000001161300
Total-341060030661109036

Stay in Touch

That does it for a calmer holiday week around Major League Rugby. With training camps opening in just a few short weeks, we are yet to hear anything from Anthem RC in terms of players or a roster. Expect the World Rugby/USA Rugby/Major League Rugby partnership team to announce their roster all at once in the coming days. This takes the shine out of it and makes it harder for fans to get to know individual players. There is no downside to advertising your 2025 team through the off-season, but this is the way that Anthem have decided to do it. Their social media has barely been active this off-season, so here’s hoping it jumps into life soon.

To stay up to date on all the news and announcements as they happen, be sure to follow NARDB and James on social media. @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @NARugbyDB or @JamDelay on Twitter/X, and @NARDB or @JamDelay on Bluesky. Check back next Monday for the summary of this week’s roster announcements!

MLR Player Movement Summary: December 16-22, 2024

NARDatabase

James Deeley

The last week before Christmas 2024 saw a huge number of roster moves from MLR teams as they all scramble to get their last-minute shopping done in time for the holidays. Each week, NARDB summarises every single roster move around the league so fans can easily stay up to date with all the goings on during the off-season. This week, we’ll add a little detail to all the roster moves from the week between December 9th & December 16th!

20 re-signings in total across five teams, including nine for the NOLA Gold alone should give some idea of how busy the week was. This doesn’t even include the nine new faces joining MLR from other leagues around the world, or the four 2024 Collegiate draftees that were officially signed, or the three intra-league moves that saw a pair of loanees return to their clubs for 2025! It’s a busy week, and as usual we’ll start with the Page 1 summary graphic, and dive right in to the re-signings:

MLR Player Moves Summary: December 9-16, 2024 (1 of 3) – Please note that Tomy Malanos signed with the Miami Sharks, not Rugby FC LA as noted above.

Re-Signings

As mentioned, last week saw 20 re-signings in total including nine for the NOLA Gold alone, who announced their returning props and halfbacks for the 2025 season. Starting in the front row, Gold academy product Bart Vermeulen returns for a 2nd season after earning 5 appearances from the bench, and ex-Arrow Isaac Salmon (36a, 25s) also returns for a 2nd season in New Orleans alongside fellow New Zealander Jarred Adams, who returns for a 3rd season with the Gold and has over 800m gained in his 29 games (21 starts) to date. Having been with NOLA for slightly longer, Matt Harmon (73a, 45s) and James ‘Doc’ Irey (24a, 3s) each return for their 7th seasons with the team.

As well as announcing the return of five props, the NOLA Gold announced a pair each of returning scrumhalves and flyhalves, with Namibian international scrumhalf Damien Stevens the most experienced of the four, with 6 tries and 98pts in his 47 games (26 starts) for the Gold to date across 4 seasons. Alongside Stevens will be Luke Campbell returning for his 3rd season with the Gold. Campbell has 5 tries and 29pts in hs 27 games (24 starts) since 2023, and well over 125 tackles completed (high for a 9). Moving to the 10 jersey, academy product Reece Botha returns for his 3rd season with the team after a stand-out 2024 in which he scored 2 tries and 53pts, appearing in all 17 Gold games and starting 6. Fighting with Botha for starts will be welshman Dorian Jones who’s back for a 2nd MLR season in NOLA. Jones had limited game time in 2024 but still scored 1 try and 38pts in his 5 games (all starts).

Moving to the other team with mass re-signings but staying in the Eastern Conference, Old Glory DC continue their ’24 days of re-signings’ with another six returning faces. US-eligible English prop Joe Wrafter is back for a second season in the nation’s capital after earning 2 appearances off the bench in 2024, and joining him in the front row is test capped Uruguayan hooker Facundo Gattas, who has 5 tries in 25 games (9 starts) since 2022 and is back for his 4th MLR season in 2025. Moving to the DC second row, Gattas’ Los Teros teammate Ignacio Dotti is back for a 6th MLR season and 2nd with the Flags. Dotti has over 1,000m gained and 331 tackles in his 46 MLR games (35 starts) since 2019. Joining him in the engine room is capped Scotland international Rob Harley, who can also play flanker and earned 15 appearances (14 starts) for DC in 2024 and finished 5th MLR-wide in tackles completed, with a huge 189. Finally for Old Glory, a pair of speedsters are back for 2025. Sticking with the South American theme, Argentine winger Axel Müller returns after scoring 5 tries in 11 games in 2024, while also completing over 70 tackles. Also returning on the wing is another test capped Scot, Damian Hoyland, following 12 appearances and over 1000m gained in his debut season in North America.

Things were a little quieter in the Western Conference in terms of re-signings. The Houston SaberCats announced the return of stalwart Emmanuel Albert and academy graduate Aiden Kerr. A 2nd overall pick in 2021 out of Lindenwood, Albert scored 2 tries in 2024 earned 6 of his 9 career starts, and completed a career high 121 tackles. At the early stages of his development, Washington native Aiden Kerr will look to earn his MLR debut in 2025. Heading to the coast, Rugby FC LA announced a single returnee last week, but it was a good one. Test capped Canadian back row Matt Heaton returns for a second season in LA and 6th in MLR. Heaton passed his 50th league cap in 2024, scoring his 7th try and recording a hefty 166 tackles. This takes his career tackle total over 800, just the 6th player in league history to pass that milestone. Moving back inland to the Beehive State, the Utah Warriors have begun announcing their returnees, with another tackle machine, Dylan Nel. Nel recorded 128 tackles of his own in only 11 games (all starts), also racking up over 750m gained for the Warriors. Ex-Arrow Tyler Wong is also returning for Utah after earning 3 appearances off the bench for his new club, having been selected by them in the Toronto & NY Dispersal Draft in 2023.

MLR Player Moves Summary: December 9-16, 2024 (2 of 3)

New to MLR

As mentioned just above, Rugby FC LA had just the one re-signing announced last week, but boy were they busy. The fresh-look RFCLA announced five of last week’s nine new faces, including a trio from the Randwick Galloping Green to add to the two they had already announced. Maybe the ‘R’ in ‘RFCLA‘ actually stands for Randwick? 2023 Shute Shield winning Captain Ben Houston joins Nick Chan and Matias Jensen, as do fellow 2023 Champions Declan Leaney and Cronan Gleeson. Irish prop Gleeson is no stranger to MLR, having played with Rugby ATL in 2020 and the San Diego Legion the following year, earning 17 appearances total (6 starts) and 99 tackles. Another ex-pat heads to California via Australia, Ed Timpson. English back row Timpson played alongside new RFCLA teammate Ben Sugars at the University of Nottingham in the UK, and was playing with the Northern Suburbs in the Shute Shield, a favoured hunting ground for RFCLA Head Coach and Director of Rugby, Stephen Hoiles. Lastly for LA, but most definitely not least, dual-test capped fly-half Christian Leali’ifano joins for 2025 from the Moana Pasifika in Super Rugby. The Brumbies Centurion and 7th player in Super Rugby history to pass 1,000pts has test caps with both the Wallabies and Samoa, and is test debut was against the British & Irish Lions. Leali’ifano represented Australia at the RWC in Japan in 2019, and Samoa at the RWC in France in 2023.

Sticking in the Western Conference, the Houston SaberCats were also picking around Australia. The Texas team signing Scottish prop Michael Scott from the Northern Suburbs in the Shute Shield. Another addition for the ‘Cats is Jacob Merklinger, a So-Cal native prop who came up through the San Diego Legion system, and represented the San Clemente Rhinos in the World Rugby Tens before making the final jump from the SaberCats academy to the MLR side. Jumping back across the Pacific, Kiwi utility back Vilimone Koroi is headed over to the Eastern Conference and the Big Easy, signing with the NOLA Gold from the Highlanders in Super Rugby. Koroi is a capped All Blacks Sevens man, winning a Commonwealth Gold in 2018. To wrap up the new faces we’re staying in the East but in Chicago, who signed fellow Australasian Liam Fletcher from back-to-back Hospital Cup winners Brothers Rugby Club.

New Draftees Confirmed

While not completely new names in Major League Rugby, a flurry of 2024 Draftee signings hit us last week, as the Houston SaberCats confirmed their 2nd Rd Pick, signing utility back Jake Negrete, one of six draftees out of St. Mary’s College in the 2024 Draft Class. Negrete was selected 20th overall in 2024 and will be hoping to make a similar impact to 2023 rookie Max Schumacher. The remaining three draftee signings happened over in the Eastern Conference, starting with the Miami Sharks signing their 27th overall pick Lautaro Soto Ansay. Born in the US but raised in Argentina, Soto attended the rugby powerhouse Lindenwood University, from where he was drafted. Heading up to the home of the Champions in Massachusetts, the New England Free Jacks signed both of their 2024 draftees last week, penning deals with Kaipono Kayoshi and Matt Carrion. Kayoshi, a USA U18 & U20 back rower already, was selected 4th overall and is another of those six St. Mary’s College Gaels that were drafted in 2024. Matt Carrion is another US age-grade representative, having payed with the U18s before attending Life University, where the Running Eagle back row was selected 14th overall. Adding a pair of rookies to an already very crowded Free Jacks back row doesn’t bode well for their playing time in 2025, but fingers crossed both Kayoshi and Carrion can string together some minutes.

MLR Player Moves Summary: December 9-16, 2024 (3 of 3)

Intra-League Moves and Retirements

Although we still haven’t heard anything from Anthem RC in terms of who is playing for them when the season starts in under 50 days, other team announcements are giving us an idea of who isn’t returning for their sophomore season. The New England Free Jacks announced the return of Central Washington Alum Ivan Pula, another draftee who was selected 37th overall in the 2022 Collegiate Draft by the Free Jacks. the Washington prop earned 7 MLR appearances for Anthem while on loan there for the 2024 season. Pula wasn’t the only loanee returning to their team from Carolina, though. Canadian born US- eligible forward Logan Weidner was confirmed as returning to Old Glory DC. The 6’6 USA U20 player earned 2 starts in 12 appearances for Anthem RC on loan, completing a solid 81 tackles in the process. Staying in the Eastern Conference, the Miami Sharks signed Argentinian centre Tomy Malanos after two seasons with the Dallas Jackals. Malanos scored 9 tries in 29 games for Dallas, recording over 1,250m gained and just shy of 200 tackles completed (198).

Not listed on the summary graphics from last week is a lone retirement. Austin White announced the end of his professional playing career after 4 seasons in Major League Rugby. A 2021 Runner-Up, White represented Rugby ATL from 2020-2023 before following the franchise to LA, playing with Rugby FC LA for their debut season in 2024. White scored 8 tries in his 43 games (30 starts), recording over 1,800m gained and 127 tackles in his MLR career. Best of luck in your next chapter, Austin!

In Conclusion

This Player Move summary is a few days late due to the holidays. They are typically published every Monday so if you are reading this article on it’s release date (December 28th, 2024), you’ll only have to wait a couple more days for the next summary. A busy week from December 16-22 makes way for a much quieter week for the holidays, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been moves. The purpose of this article is to keep MLR fans up to date during the off-season and now that we are under 50 days away from kick off on the 2025 season, teams are hurriedly preparing for training camps, that are only a couple of weeks away.

As always, it’s recommended to follow NARDB and James on social media to stay up to date on moves as they happen. Follow @MLRStats on Instagram and Threads, @NARugbyDB or @JamDelay on Twitter/X, and @NARDB & @JamDelay on Bluesky.

MLR Player Movement Summary: December 9-15, 2024

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Another week closer to kick-off on the 2025 Major League Rugby season, and teams are still busy finalising their rosters in the run up to the holidays. This weekly article will summarise all the roster changes around the league from December 9th to December 15th, 2024. NARDB is the best place to keep up to date on all the changes, informing fans and helping to build the hype for next season!

Last week we saw 18 re-signings across 4 teams, a relatively high 10 new additions, three intra-league moves and a retirement. With so much movement this article will be on the larger side, but let’s get stuck in. As always, we will be starting with the re-signings and here is the first of the two-page summary graphic for last week’s moves:

Rapid Re-signings

As mentioned in the introduction, last week saw 18 re-signings across 4 teams. Continuing their (almost) daily announcements, Old Glory DC confirmed 6 further players for their 2025 roster including Irish pathway product Declan O’Loughlin, who was signed as a development player last year and impressed with the academy, earning a full MLR contract this season. As well as O’Loughlin, DC are bringing back prospect Charlie Overton for a 2nd season. Overton was drafted 14th overall by the Miami Sharks out of Life University in 2022, and earned his MLR debut for OGDC last season having been traded there from the Sharks. The Flags also announced the return of a pair of back three players in John Rizzo and John Powers. Rizzo scored 3 of his 5 career tries in 2024, also earning 10 of his 14 career starts and 11 of his 24 appearances. It was a breakout year for the Indiana native, who will play in his 4th MLR season in 2025. Powers, like Rizzo, also enjoyed a breakout year last season. A MLR Champion with New York in 2022, Powers scored both of his MLR tries for DC in 2024, and earned his first 9 starts, completing 51 of his 58 career tackles in his 14 games for DC. Powers returns for his 5th MLR season, but only his 2nd with Old Glory DC. The 6th returnee for the Flags is the only player in MLR history to score a hat trick in the playoffs, Connor Buckley. The 2022 Champion (alongside Powers) has 9 tries in 46 games (27 starts) since 2021, and scored 6 of those tries in 2024, and 3 in Old Glory DC’s Eastern Conference Semifinal nailbiter.

Just behind Old Glory DC is Rugby FC LA, who announced five re-signings of their own. RFCLA’s All-MLR First XV selection Semi Kunatani returns for his 2nd season in MLR, having scored 10 tries in 15 games (11 starts) in 2024, recording over 1,100m gained and 161 tackles completed. Kunatani sat just behind Ben Strang in the tackle count. Strang appeared in all 16 games for RFCLA last season scoring 5 tries and recording 170 tackles. He also returns for the team’s sophomore season. Another forward who featured in every RFCLA game during their inaugural season is Australian prop Dane Zander, who started 12 of their 16 games in 2024, and appeared from the bench in the remaining four. Zander is the third returnee for Rugby FC LA announced last week. The team also announced the return of a pair of US-eligible depth pieces, Alessandro Heaney and Lincoln Sii. Heaney earned his first 4 MLR appearances off the bench last season, and Lincoln Sii added 5 appearances to take his MLR total to 20 appearances since 2021.

Staying in the Western Conference, the Houston SaberCats continue their announcements with an additional four returning players announced last week, including the 2nd overall pick in 2023, Max Schumacher. Schumacher didn’t earn a start in his rookie season but made 14 appearances and gained over 100m in possession. Houston also re-signed kiwi scrum-half Jay Renton, who was a late addition to the ‘Cats last season, and scored one 7pt try in his 2 appearances (both starts). Also returning to the SaberCats are a pair of Smiths, although they share no relation. Seimou and Seth Smith are both back for a second year with Houston. Seimou Smith played with New York in 2019 before joining the US military. He returned for the SaberCats in 2024, scoring 2 tries in 7 games (6 starts) and running for almost 250m gained. Seth Smith, a product of the SaberCats pathway, became the youngest player in MLR history in Rd 1 of last season, at the age of 18y, 8m, 7d. He earned 1 start in 6 games, scoring 2 tries and was named the MLR Player of the Week in Rd 10, before joining the USA U20 team for a clash with Canada.

Finally for re-signings, we jump back to the Eastern Conference and to the Miami Sharks, who also announced 4 re-signings during a busy week in Florida. Three of these resignings spent the Miami Sharks’ inaugural season on the sidelines due to injury. Alex Tucci returns for a 2nd season in Miami and 7th in MLR, and has 53 appearances to date in MLR. Connor Burns is a second returning Shark who spent Miami’s entire inaugural season injured, he, like Tucci, will be hoping to earn his Sharks debut in 2025. Thirdly, Isaac Bales will be back for a second season in Miami. Bales was drafted 12th overall by Rugby ATL in 2021, and has had even worse luck with injury than Tucci and Burns. Bales has been sidelined for two entire seasons so far, in 2022 and in 2024. He earned his MLR debut in 2023 with the RATLers and I’m sure will be hoping to stay healthy for Miami in 2025. The fourth returnee announced by the Miami Sharks last week is Damian Morley, a promising US talent who has experience playing in South Africa and in France. He earned 7 MLR appearances for the Sharks from the bench in 2024.

New Faces

On the subject of the Miami Sharks, they announced the addition of a pair of Argentinian locks from Europe, Federico Gutierrez & Mauro Rebussone. Gutierrez has played with the Argentina XV side many times, and joins from Colorno in the Italian Serie A Elite, having previously played with AC Albi in the French 3rd tier, the Nationale. Fellow Argentine Rebussone did this the other way around, playing with Colorno before heading to the Nationale to play with Narbonne in France.

Moving up the east coast to Massachusetts, the New England Free Jacks announced the signing of a pair of fly-halves from the Bunnings NPC in New Zealand, both of which have played with the Samoan U20 side. Faletoi Peni joins from the Southland Stags where he played over 400 minutes in 2024, and Simon-Peter Toleafoa joins from Counties Manukau, scoring 4 tries in 11 games and over 600 minutes of play time. In addition to this pair of signings, the Free Jacks also announced the signing of Canada-eligible wing/centre Jack Reeves from Gloucester in the Premiership. Reeves isn’t a ‘new’ face to MLR or the Free Jacks, as he spent the 2022 season in New England on loan from Gloucester, making 72 tackles and gaining over 265m in posession in 12 games (6 starts) before returning to England. Since 2022 Reeves has played in the Premiership, the Prem Rugby Cup, and both the Challange and Champions Cups in Europe.

Moving back over to the Western Conference and back to Los Angeles, Rugby FC LA announced the signing of a pair of Australian centres from Randwick in the Shute Shield. 21yo Nick Chan has been knocking on the door of Super Rugby for some time, he played with the Western Force in the 2022 pre-season, and recently featured for the NSW Waratahs in an exhibition game against the Kubota Spears in Japan. Also joining RFCLA is Matias Jensen, who played with the Brumbies U19s in 2022 and represented the Super Rugby side in the 2024 pre-season trials. Both Chan and Jensen have represented the Junior Wallabies, and join a strong Aussie contingent in LA which was made even stronger by their third new addition last week, US-eligible back Robert Mapa. Born in California but raised in Australia, Mapa has played both Rugby League and Rugby Union, playing with a Queensland Reds U19 side in 2022 after stand-out performances for his club, Brothers. He was spotted by the Melbourne Storm of the NRL in 2023, and played with their U21 side in 2024.

Finally for new additions, we head up the west coast to Washington State and to Seattle. The Seawolves announced the addition of experienced South African utility back Eddie Fouché for 2025. Fouché played with the Golden Lions in the Currie Cup from 2016-19 before joining the Pumas and winning a Currie Cup with them in 2022. He joined the Griquas for the 2022/23 season before joining Seattle for his first professional season outside South Africa.

Intra-league Moves and Retirements

As we move another week further away from the Dallas Jackals withdrawal from MLR, we learned the destination of a pair of 2024 Jackals. Both Lucas Bur and Vaughen Isaacs signed with Rugby FC LA (probably MLR’s busiest team last week!) having been selected by them in the dispersal draft. Bur earned 28 appearances for Dallas between 2023-24, gaining nearly 700m in possession and completing a huge 296 tackles in just two seasons. He was selected 13th by RFCLA. Vaughen Isaacs was also selected by LA in the dispersal draft, 5th overall. Although the South African playmaker missed a huge chunk of 2024 due to injury, Isaacs still scored 3 tries and 32pts in his 8 games (all starts) for Dallas, recording 643m gained for an average of over 80m per game. NARDB is working on a graphic for all Dallas Jackals players in 2024 to show their destinations for 2025, stay tuned!

On the subject of Rugby FC LA and to wrap up the intra-league moves from last week, the Chicago Hounds announced the signing of fly-half Sam Walsh for the 2025 season. Walsh, a capped USA sevens player, earned 8 MLR appearances (2 starts) with RFCLA in his debut season in 2024, amassing 135m gained. One final signing that, frankly doesn’t fit in any other second is the Seattle Seawolves’ signing of Calvin Liulamaga, their 1st Rd draft pick in the 2024 MLR Collegiate Draft. Liulamaga, a Rudy Scholz award nominee and a Washington native, was drafted 11th overall out of Central Washington University.

And finally, we have a retirement. USA Eagles veteran (and often, Captain) Greg Peterson announced his retirement last week. Peterson only spent one season in MLR, earning 13 appearanced as the San Diego Legion Captain in 2024, and finished his career with 51 test caps for the USA. Peterson has represented the Newcastle Falcons in the Premiership, the Glasgow Warriors in the URC, and the NSW Waratahs in Super Rugby.

To Conclude…

There you have it, another player movement summary complete and another week closer to kicking off hte 2025 season. The North American Rugby Database works hard to ensure that rugby fans are able to keep up to date on all the happenings around Major League Rugby year-round, not just while the games are being played (although that’s much more fun!). Please considering supporting this site if you’re able and find it a helpful resource, even sharing an article or player page is a huge help.

To stay even more up to date on player moves and MLR news, follow James and NARDB on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay or @NARugbyDB on X/Twitter, and @JamDelay or @NARDB on Bluesky! If you’re looking for some last minute Christmas shopping, check out the shopmlr.com sales and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off your order!

MLR Player Movement Summary: December 2-8, 2024

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Faint jingle bells can be heard in the distance, the elves are hard at work, and Mariah Carey is almost completely thawed out for the holidays. Major League Rugby teams are staying busy as we move into December, with a bumper week around the league that included the unveiling of all home and away kits for the 2025 season! NARDB’s ranking of the 2025 home kits can be found here, and the away kit ranking will be coming later this week. This article, however, will focus on the player announcements from last week, December 2nd to December 8th, 2024. It will add a bit more context and detail to each move, giving fans a better understanding of the roles these players may play in 2025, and keeping them up to date on all the roster changes. The summary graphic just about stretches onto two pages, and as always here is page one:

Player Moves Around MLR: December 2-8, 2024 (1 of 2)
Returnees and Re-Signings

As you can see from the first page of the summary graphic above, the majority of last week’s player announcements were players returning to their 2024 teams. There were TWENTY re-signings announced last week across four teams, including 7 for Old Glory DC and 6 for Rugby FC LA.

Old Glory DC began their roster announcements for 2025 on December 1st, following an advent calendar type of reveal. Last week, they announced seven returning forwards from their 2024 pack. Beginning in the front row, the Flags announced the return of KoiKoi Nelligan, Martin Vaca, and Cali Martinez. A Washington DC native, KoiKoi Nelligan was drafted 34th overall by the San Diego Legion in 2022 out of the Army West Point rugby program, and traded to Old Glory shortly after in exchange for DC’s 1st Rd pick in 2023 (used to select James Rivers 10th overall). Nelligan has earned 15 MLR appearances for DC since 2023, including 13 in 2024 where he scored his first two MLR tries and set career highs across the board. Also returning at hooker is former Argentinian U20 player Martin Vaca, who scored 5 tries in 11 games (9 starts) in his debut MLR season in 2024, completing 114 tackles and amassing over 300m gained. Finally for the front row, the Flags confirmed the return of newly capped Canadian international prop Cali Martinez. Earning his test debut for Canada in a win over Romania in July, Martinez has earned 27 appearances since 2023, and was the highest drafted Canadian in MLR history when he was selected 3rd overall out of the University of British Columbia.

Moving into the second row, DC will have Tevita Naqali and Bill Whiteside returning next year. A MLR and Old Glory DC veteran, Fijian lock Naqali has scored 7 tries in his 54 appearances (51 starts) for DC since 2020, and is US-eligible through residency. He has over 550 tackles completed and 2,359m gained in posession in his career. 2022 Draftee Billy Whiteside also returns. Whiteside was selected 29th overall out of Lindenwood by New York, but did not feature in an MLR game for the Ironworkers. Following their withdrawal he joined Old Glory DC, earning his MLR debut and 12 appearances in 2024, including 4 starts and over 50 tackles. In the back row, Collin Grosse and Brady Daniel are both back for the Flags in 2025. Brady Daniel, the brother of DC standout and USA Eagle Cory, has 10 MLR appearances for Old Glory since 2022 including 7 in 2024 where he earned his first two starts and scored his first MLR try. Grosse, like Nelligan, is an Army West Poitn Alum and was drafted 15th overall by Old Glory DC in 2022. He’s scored 3 tries in 31 games (18 starts) across two seasons so far, completing an impressive 279 tackles.

Player Moves Around MLR: December 2-8, 2024 (2 of 2)

Moving away from Old Glory DC to Rugby FC LA, who began announcing their 2025 roster back in November. RFCLA announced 6 returnees of their own, all in the back line with 5 of them deemed domestic players. Rory van Vugt will return for a second year with LA and 4th year in MLR after playing with Rugby ATL between 2020-2021 before joining the Highlanders. Kiwi wing/fullback van Vugt has 5 tries and 33pts in 25 MLR games (24 starts) in his career, and scored a career high 16pts for RFCLA in 2024. Also returning on the wing is English born Canadian raised draftee Jack Shaw. Shaw was selected 22nd overall out of Bishop’s University by Rugby ATL in 2022, and followed the franchise to LA after representing the RATLers in 2023. Shaw has scored 8 tries in 24 games (22 starts) in his career, recording over 1,000m gained already.
Moving to the centre, another Canadian draftee returns in the form of Seth Purdey. A schoolmate of Shaw’s at Shawnigan Lake School in British Columbia, Purdey attended UC-Berkeley where he was drafted 4th Overall in 2022, also by Rugby ATL. Purdey scored his first MLR try for LA in 2024, earning 10 of his 17 MLR appearances and 6 of his 8 starts. RFCLA will also have newly US-eligible Irish centre Will Leonard returning for 2025. A MLR veteran, Leonard has 70 MLR appearances since 2019 between New York (2019-2021), Atlanta (2022-2023), and LA (2024), starting 65 times and scoring 13 tries. Leonard qualified for domestic status on residency, and has amassed just shy of 4,000m gained in his MLR career to date.
From the centres to the half-backs, RFCLA announced the return of US-born Australian scrum-half Tasman Smith for his 3rd season in MLR. Born in New York, Smith played with the LA Giltinis in 2022 before spending 2023 in the Shute Shield while finishing his studies at the University of Sydney. he returned to LA in 2024 and has earned 30 MLR appearances in his career to date, scoring 2 tries and completing over 120 tackles including a high of 77 in 2024. At fly-half, RFCLA have MLR Draftee Matt Anticev returning for his sophomore season. the USA national team are in desperate need of the next fly-half, so the pressure is on the Dartmouth alum and 6th overall pick from 2023. Another ATL pick, Anticev earned 6 appearances and 2 starts for RFCLA in his rookie season in 2024.

Staying in the Western Conference but moving to Texas, the Houston SaberCats continue their steady announcements for their 2025 roster. MLR veteran LaRome White will return for his 2nd season with the ‘Cats in 2025, his EIGHTH in the league. A 2018 MLR Champion with the Seattle Seawolves, White has 65 appearances under his belt between Seattle (2018), the Austin Gilgronis (2019-2022), the Chicago Hounds (2023), and the SaberCats (2024). He’s completed over 250 tackles in his career and has over 900m gained as a prop. Also returning to the Houston front row is SaberCats veteran Valdemar Lee-Lo. With the exception of 2022 that he missed due to injury, Lee-Lo has represented Houston in every season since 2020, earning 17 appearances to date and 7 starts. On the subject of injury, South African wing/fullback Gerrie Labuschagne will return for the ‘Cats after missing out on the entire 2024 season. Labuschagne scored 5 tries and 30pts in his 24 games (21 starts) between 2022-2024 and recorded over 600m gained in both seasons he featured for the SaberCats. Joining Labuschagne on the wing is Jeremy Misailegalu. A teammate of LaRome White with the Seattle Seawolves for their 2018 Shield winning season, ‘Missile‘ has 9 tries in 50 MLR appearances between Seattle (2018), the Utah Warriors (2019), Rugby ATL (2020-2021), and Houston (2024). He has over 250 tackles completed on the wing, and over 1,800m gained in his career.

Staying in the south but moving to the Eastern Conference, the Miami Sharks, like Houston, continue their steady announcements for 2025 with a further 3 returnees. USA Sevens man Chase Schor-Haskin returns for a second season in Miami after earning 10 appearances for them in their inaugural season. Schor-Haskin was drafted 6th overall in 2021 by New York before being traded to the NOLA Gold, representing them in 2022. He spent 2022-2023 in the USA Sevens program, returning to the league in 2024. The Sharks also announced a pair of depth pieces for their sophomore season in American Samoan prop Setu Vole and South African centre Josh McAdam. Raised in Hawaii, Vole was drafted 27th overall by the Sharks in 2023 out of Lindenwood, earning his MLR debut in 2024. US-eligible Saffa Josh McAdam attended Davenport University and trained with the Chicago Hounds in 2023 before playing with the USA Hawks later that year. He earned 4 appearances for the Sharks off the bench during their inaugural season.

Intra-League Moves

If you couldn’t already tell, the 20 re-signings and returnees took up a lot of the oxygen last week, but they weren’t the only moves. A handful of players are returning to MLR in 2025, but they’ll be wearing a different kit. This includes probably the biggest move of the week, with which we’ll start. Rugby FC LA announced the signing of 2021 MLR Champion, and 2021-2022 back to back MLR Back of the Year Billy Meakes from the Chicago Hounds for 2025. This move might have been jaw-dropping to the average fan, but to the hardcore MLR fanbase (such as those reading this article!), it was predictable. Meakes, who has 7 tries in 57 MLR games since 2021, represented the LA Giltinis between 2021-2022 under head coach Stephen Hoiles and Captain Dave Dennis. Fast forward to 2025, and Hoiles is the RFCLA Director of Rugby/HC, and Dave Dennis is Assistant Coach. More than that, Meakes (a new father) is an LA resident and even has a business there, Boulevard. Although an obvious move, this is a huge signing for RFCLA and Meakes, who will look to add to his 4,704m gained and 546 tackles back on the west coast.

In addition to the huge signing of Billy Meakes by Rugby FC LA, last week we learned who three more Dallas Jackals would be representing in 2025. The Houston SaberCats announced the signing of Woodlands, TX native Evan Conlon after selecting him 19th in the Dallas Jackals Dispersal Draft. Somewhat ironically, Conlon’s only appearance for the Jackals was off the bench in the Western Conference Semifinal, where Dallas stunned the 14-2 Houston SaberCats. With Conlon’s signing, the SaberCats have now signed all their picks from the dispersal draft. On that point, the Miami Sharks also complete the signings of their Dispersal Draft picks after confirming the signing of Marques Fuala’au having picked him 3rd. Fuala’au was drafted 3rd overall by the Dallas Jackals in 2023 and earned 16 appearances (3 starts) with the team in 2024, scoring 1 try and completing over 80 tackles. The Seattle Seawolves also confirmed the signing of one of their Dispersal Draft selections, newly capped Canadian international scrum-half Brock Gallagher. Selected 21st, Gallagher earned 15 appearances for the Jackals in 2024 including in the Western Conference Final against his new side, the Seattle Seawolves. Just before the 2024 playoffs, Alberta native Gallagher earned his test debut for Canada off the bench against Scotland. He earned his first test start last month against Romania.

New Additions and Retirements

Wrapping up this week’s MLR Roster Moves Summary, arguably the busiest team of last week, Rugby FC LA, announced the addition of Californian lock Mikaea Wynyard for 2025. A San Jose native, Wynyard has spent the last two years in the La Rochelle system in France, playing with their Espoirs team and being mentored by the likes of Australian Rugby World Cup Captain Will Skelton. Wynyard is no stranger to Major League Rugby as he was signed to a development contract by the New England Free Jacks for the 2022 season, but he didn’t feature for the MLR side.

At the other end of their career is another 2024 Dallas Jackal, Mitch Richardson. A fan favourite in Toronto with the Arrows, Richardson represented Canada as recently as last month, but called time on his professional career last week at the age of 28. Richardson scored 11 tries in 52 MLR games (43 starts), representing the Toronto Arrows (2019-2023) and Dallas Jackals (2024), he gained 2,122m in posession and completed 338 tackles. Richardson experienced two teams withdraw in as any seasons, but it is unclear if this had any bearing on his decision to retire.

That concludes this week’s summary of roster moves from last week. We’ve heard from all but one team so far, but maybe this week Anthem RC will begin their announcements. Which was the biggest move of the week for you? And are you happy with your team’s moves so far? Stay tuned for NARDB’s ranking of the 2025 Away kits coming later next week, and these summary articles released every Monday.

Be sure to follow NARDB and James on social media to stay up to date on player announcements as they happen. Follow @MLRStats on Instagram and/or Threads, either @JamDelay or @NARugbyDB on twitter/x, and @JamDelay or @NARDB on Bluesky.

Now that we know what the 2025 kits look like, visit shopmlr.com and use the code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off your order!

MLR Player Movement Summary: November 25-December 1, 2024

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Another week gone and another Monday rolls around, which means it’s time for your weekly summary of player moves from around Major League Rugby from November 25-December 1, 2024! As always, this article will provide a little bit more context for all of last week’s moves, as well as add a few stats and a summary graphic to keep MLR fans up to date with all of the off-season moves. Last week, two teams began their 2025 announcements, so rest assured these summaries will stay busy through the holidays! As always, here is the first page graphic of last week’s summary:

MLR Player Moves Summary: November 25-December 1, 2024 (1 of 2)
Regular Re-signings

As with all of these summaries, we begin with the players returning to their teams for another season. Last week we had 11 resignings across 5 teams, including a trio each for the Houston SaberCats, Miami Sharks, and Rugby FC LA. Starting with the Houston SaberCats, who announced the return of Keni Nasoqeqe, Drew Wild, and Louritz van der Schyff for their 2025 campaign. Nasoqeqe, a US-eligible Fijian forward who has played 7 seasons in MLR through 2024, returns for his fourth season with Houston in 2025. The 6’4 lock/back row is an MLR stalwart with 74 appearances in his career so far, starting 52 times and scoring 10 tries. He represented the USA in a non-capped game against Stade Toulousain in September 2023. Kiwi fullback Drew Wild returns for his 3rd season with the SaberCats, having scored 5 tries in his 22 games (all starts) since joining in 2023. Wild spent this offseason playing with the Manawatu Turbos in New Zealand’s National Provincial Championship (NPC), where he’s played since 2019. Finally for Houston, lethal South African centre Louritz van der Schyff returns for a fourth MLR season. Van der Schyff has scored 14 tries in his 28 games (also all starts) for the ‘Cats since 2022, completing over 200 tackles and gaining over 1,500m in possession.

Moving on to the Miami Sharks, who continue to announce their 2025 squad at a steady pace. They will have back front rows Alec McDonnell and Jonas Petrakopoulos, as well as fullback/wing Marcos Young for their sophomore season in Major League Rugby. Missourian prop Alec McDonnell is a MLR veteran, having earned 42 appearances since 2020 between New York (2020), Houston (2021-2023), and Miami (2024), setting career highs in starts (4) and Metres Gained (101) with the Sharks and recording in 3rd season in a row with over 50 tackles completed. Another MLR veteran is Dutch-born prop Jonas Petrakopoulos, who has 51 appearances and 10 starts, and was teammates with McDonnell in New York in 2020, before moving to Rugby ATL (2021-2023), re-uniting with McDonnell in Miami for 2024. The 2021 MLR Runner-up set career highs across the board in 2024, in appearances (16), starts (5), Metres Gained (76) and Tackles Completed (55). Texas born Florida raised Marcos Young will enjoy his 3rd season in MLR in 2025, having represented Old Glory DC in 2023 before joining the Sharks. Young has 6 tries in his 28 MLR games to date, earning 14 of his 23 starts with the Sharks and setting a career high in tackles last season with 82.

A third team with three returnees last week is Rugby FC LA, who began announcing their 2025 squad on Monday November 25th. Capped Canadians Andrew Coe and Conor Young will return for their second seasons in LA, as will USA Eagle Jason Damm, who followed the franchise from Atlanta. A 2022 MLR Champion with Rugby New York, Canadian 15s and 7s capped winger Andrew Coe has scored 20 tries in his 44 MLR games since 2022, including 7 in 12 games for LA in 2024! He’s gained over 3,000m in his career to date, and completed over 200 tackles. Fellow test capped Canadian Conor Young is back for a 3rd season in MLR after lifting the Shield with the New England Free Jacks in 2023. Like Petrakopoulos for Miami, Young set career highs across the board in 2024, including 103 tackles completed. Finally returning for RFCLA is stand-out forward Jason Damm, who scored 7 tries in 15 games (14 starts) and completed a very impressive 172 tackles in 2024. Damm has 48 career appearances in MLR, has gained over 2,000m with ball in hand, and completed over 500 tackles since 2019.

Finally for re-signings, the San Diego Legion continue to wrap up their roster announcements with the return of Aminae Amiatu-Tanoi for 2025. The former USA Hawk was signed with the Legion in 2023 but didn’t feature. He played with the Utah Selects in the Fall of 2023 and earned his MLR debut in 2024, making 4 appearances off the bench for the Legion. He’ll be looking to earn his first start in 2025. Over in the Eastern Conference, Old Glory DC began their roster announcements yesterday (December 1st) and are following a ‘Advent Calendar’ style to their reveals. They announced the return of MLR veteran front row Quentin Newcomer. Newcomer, who can play either side of the front row, spent 3 seasons with the New England Free Jacks (2020-2022) before being traded to Old Glory DC, and has earned 51 MLR appearances to date, scoring a try in each of his last 3 seasons.

MLR Player Moves Summary: November 25-December 1, 2024 (2 of 2)
Intra-League Moves

Just a reminder, an intra-league move occurs when an MLR player moves to a different team within MLR, rather than an inter-league move which would be a player moving to MLR from the Pro D2 or vice-versa, for example. We’ll get to the inter-league moves in a bit. There were only a pair of intra-league moves last week, but they were big! Rugby FC LA‘s first player announcement of the off-season was the signing of Houston SaberCats veteran and USA Eagle #539, Christian Dyer. A California native and UC-Berkeley alum, Dyer signed with the Dallas Jackals before they deferred their entry into MLR, and was selected by Rugby New York for 2021, but did not play in MLR until the follow season with the SaberCats. Dyer scored 19 tries in 45 games (44 starts) with Houston between 2022-2024, gaining over 1,750m and completing over 250 tackles. The utility back is a huge addition for RFCLA, and a big loss for Houston both on the field and off of it.

The second intra-league move sees another Dallas Jackal find a new home for 2025. Canadian-eligible Irish back row Ronan Foley was selected 14th in the Dispersal Draft by the Miami Sharks, who confirmed the signing last week. Foley joins another Irish ex-Arrow Shane O’Leary in Florida, although the two never represented Toronto together. Foley has scored 8 tries in his 45 MLR games to date (39 starts) between Toronto (2021-2022), Seattle (2023), and Dallas (2024), running for over 2,250m gained and completing just under 500 tackles.

New Additions

After the San Diego Legion were the busiest team for much of the start of November, the title of busiest team stays in California but moves up the I-5 to Los Angeles, as Rugby FC LA announced a trio of new signings to go along with their three returnees and the addition of Christian Dyer. 23yo English hooker Ben Sugars joins the team from the NSW Waratahs in Super Rugby, where he was playing as injury cover after helping the Randwick Galloping Green to a Shute Shield title in 2023 under RFCLA’s new Director of Rugby, Stephen Hoiles. This will be Sugars’ first full-time professional rugby contract. LA also announced the addition of veteran Argentinian international scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou, who has represented Los Pumas at the 2019 & 2023 Rugby World Cups, earning over 60 test caps to date. Bertranou joins from Cardiff Rugby in the URC, having represented the Jaguares for their entire Super Rugby tenure, as well as Benetton and the Dragons, also in the URC. In addition to Ben Sugars, RFCLA DoR Stephen Hoiles has brought in back row and former Australia Sevens player Tim Anstee for their sophomore season. Anstee played in 24 tournaments for the Aussie Sevens side between 2016-2020, during which time he worked with Hoiles. Following his time with the Sevens team he signed with Western Force, playing in 45 games between 2021-2024, also playing with Eastwood in the Shute Shield, where he caught the eye of RFCLA Assistant Coach and 2021 MLR Champion, Dave Dennis.

Heading over to the Eastern Conference and the addition of another Australian to MLR, the Chicago Hounds announced the signing of Sydney native Mitch Short for their 2025 campaign. Short, a scrum-half, represented Randwick in the Shute Shield between 2015-2017. He played in Super Rugby with the Western Force (2017) and the Waratahs (2018-2020), before heading to the French Top 14 to play with Racing 92. Following a season with Racing, Short moved to the Pro D2 to play with Beziers between 2022-2024, and now heads to SeatGeek for 2025!

Staying in the Eastern Conference, the NOLA Gold announced the signing of a pair of new faces, including a Capped Canadian international for their 2025 season. Nova Scotian prop Tyler Matchem joins from Canada’s high performance development academy, the Pacific Pride. Matchem represented the Canada U20s in 2022 and the Canada Selects in a pre-season clash with the Seattle Seawolves in February 2024. He earned his test debut as #510 against Tonga in the 2024 PNC, and joins fellow Canadian internationals Cooper Coats and Kaden Duguid in New Orleans. Additionally, the Gold announced the signing of another French veteran in the form of winger Xavier Mignot. Capped once for France in 2016, Mignot played with his local team, CS Bourgoin-Jallieu, in the French Pro D2 for the 2013/14 season, before signing with Grenoble and representing them in the Top 14 between 2014-2017. Mignot moved to Lyon in 2017 to play with LOU, earning over 120 appearances in France’s top flight with LOU alone, scoring 30 tries across the Top 14, Challenge Cup, and Champions Cup. Mignot joins his compatriot Kélian Galletier in New Orleans.

Thus concludes another busy week of activity around Major League Rugby! With Rugby FC LA‘s announcements in full swing and Old Glory DC getting started on their own, expect it to be another busy week around the league. Maybe we’ll even hear something from Anthem RC, who have been eerily quite for the last month. NARDB helps to keep fans informed with all the movement around MLR, as well as posting the most interesting and informative stats about Major League Rugby!

Be sure to follow NARDB across social media to see player moves as they happen, as well as to see the summary graphics, and support the site. Find us on Instagram/Threads @MLRStats, Twitter/X at either @NARugbyDB or @JamDelay, and on Bluesky at @NARDB or @JamDelay! If you’re looking for some rugby-related Christmas shopping, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRStats’ at checkout for 15% off your order!

MLR Player Movement Summary: November 18-24, 2024

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Although it may seem like the player signings are beginning to slow down, that doesn’t mean that teams aren’t busy! This is a summary of all the player moves around Major League Rugby from last week, November 18-24, 2024. This article dives into a little more detail around each move, and is the best place to stay up to date on the off-season movement from MLR. As always, here is a graphic summarising the first page of moves:

Player Moves Summary: November 18-24, 2024 (1 of 2)
Re-signings and Retirements

Starting (as usual) with the re-signings, of which there were 11 across 4 teams last week. The reigning Champion New England Free Jacks announced another quartet of returnees for next season, ensuring that the 2025 Free Jacks will look very similar to the 2024 squad. Fijian try-machine Paula Balekana returns for a 4th season with the Free Jacks, and 5th in MLR. Balekana currently sits T-4th all-time for tries scored, level with Chicago Hounds’ Julian Dominguez on 31. He hs almost guaranteed to move ahead of 3rd placed Mikey Te’o next season following Te’o’s retirement, but how close will he get to Seattle’s Riekert Hattingh in 2nd place, currently on 42. Also returning for New England are Canadian MLR veterans Conor Keys and Cole Keith. 6’6 Ontario lock Keys has earned 65 MLR appearances (41 starts) between Rugby ATL (2020-2022) and the Free Jacks (2023-2024), appearing in 3 MLR Championship games (2021, 2023, 2024). New Brunswick native Cole Keith has made 74 MLR appearances (46 starts) since 2019, playing with the Toronto Arrows (2019-2022) before joining the Free Jacks. Finally, a third Canadian international Ethan Fryer is returning. Fryer has 13 appearances for New England since 2022, including 10 in 2024 where he set career highs in starts (4), Meters Gained (235m), and Tackles Made (46).

The Houston SaberCats announced four returnees of their own last week, all of whom are MLR veterans. Forward-turned-centre Dom Akina is back for a 3rd season with Houston. He has 10 tries in 52 games (37 starts) since 2020, scoring 7 of these and gaining 1,422 of his 2,391m gained in two seasons with the SaberCats. A pair of South African forwards are also back, in Marno Redelinghuys and Justin Basson. Both Redelinghuys & Basson are former Rugby ATL players, although not at the same time. Basson played with the RATLers between 2022-2023 before moving to Houston. He’s averaged 2 tries a season for 6 tries in 42 games (38 starts), and passed 150 tackles for the first time in 2024 (151). Marno Redelinghuys played with ATL between 2020-2021 and returns for a 4th season with Houston in 2025. He has over 500 tackles in 53 games (48 starts). Redelinghuys will be deemed a domestic player for 2025, freeing up a valuable international player slot for the SaberCats. Finally for Houston, newly capped USA Eagle #576 Pono Davis returns for Houston. Davis has 40 appearances across 3 seasons with the SaberCats, and earned a career high 4 starts in 2024, completing 127 tackles (also a career high, by 52!).

The Miami Sharks continue to sprinkle a few re-signings into the mix, confirming the return of former Welsh international Kirby Myhill, and newly capped USA Eagle Tomas Casares. Hooker Myhill scored a try in his 7 games (6 starts) during the Sharks’ inaugural season, gaining over 220m. Casares scored 2 tries in 8 games (6 starts) in 2024, including a game-winner against the team that drafted him 17th overall in 2022, the New England Free Jacks. Casares earned his test debut as USA Eagle #583 just a few weeks ago when he came off the bench in a hard-fought 21-17 victory over Portugal. Finally for re-signings, the San Diego Legion announced the return of US-eligible Fijian forward Cyrille Cama for 2025. a MLR Champion with the LA Giltinis in 2021, Cama set career highs across the board for San Diego in 2024, with 3 tries in 16 games (2 starts), racking up 289m gained and completing 60 tackles. As one Legion player returns, another hangs up their boots. MLR Veteran and USA Eagle #564 Chris Mattina announced his retirement on instagram after 6 seasons in MLR. Mattina scored 6 tries and 120pts in 56 games (43 starts) between Rugby New York (2019-2021), the Austin Gilgronis (2022), Chicago Hounds (2023), finishing his career with the San Diego Legion (2024).

Intra-League Moves

Last week saw five players move to new teams within Major League Rugby, including a trio of Dallas Jackals following the withdrawal of the team from MLR in September. 2024 All-MLR Second XV scrum-half Juan-Dee Oliver signs with the Houston SaberCats after the team selected him 30th, the final player selected. Oliver scored 5 tries and 55pts in 13 games (all starts) for the Jackals in 2024, and was a standout when Dallas stunned the SaberCats in the Western Conference Semifinals. Also selected in the Dallas Jackals dispersal draft was Argentinian fly-half Martin Elias. Selected 25th and signed by the Miami Sharks, Elias was the Jackals’ all-time top scorer with 1 try and 116pts in 23 games (all starts) since 2023, and will fit in nicely with the Sharks’ strong South American influence. The Miami Sharks didn’t stop with Elias, however. The Florida team also announced the signing of Argentinian centre Tomás Cubilla, who was not selected in the dispersal draft, instead signing as a Free Agent. Cubilla has earned 11 MLR appearances for the Dallas Jackals since 2023, including 8 in 2024 where he scored all 5 of his MLR tries to date and amassed over 600m gained.

The NOLA Gold had a case of revolving doors last week. The Louisiana team announced the signing of Irish born USA Eagle #537 Luke Carty from the Chicago Hounds. A 2021 MLR Champion with the LA Giltinis, Carty has scored 1 try and 177pts in 45 games (31 starts) since 2021, representing the Giltinis until 2022, before being selected in the dispersal draft by the Chicago Hounds. Following the departure of Rodney Iona, Carty will fill that gap nicely. On the subject of Rodney Iona, just as the Gold were welcoming Luke Carty to the team, the Seattle Seawolves announced the signing of Iona’s NOLA & Samoa teammate OJ Noa for their 2025 squad. Noa scored 1 try in 9 games (all starts) for the Gold in 2024, running for over 520m gained.

New Faces

To wrap things up, two teams announced new signings from further afield than Major League Rugby. Also signed by the NOLA Gold for 2025 is 29yo Kiwi centre Isaac Te Tamaki who joins from the Southland Stags in New Zealand’s National Provinicial Championship. A capped former All Blacks Sevens player, Te Tamaki has played with Southland since 2018 with a season in France with Valence Romans Drôme in 2023. He earned his 50th Southland appearance in 2024, where he played alongside a number of familiar MLR names including Nic Souchon, Michael Manson, and Shneil Singh. Staying in the Southern Hemisphere, the final move of the week saw the Seattle Seawolves announce the signing of South African prop Njabulo Gumede. Gumede came up in the Blue Bulls system, also playing for Valke and the Pumas in the Currie Cup before joining the Griquas for 2024. A former Junior Springbok, Gumede will link up with former Pumas teammate Malembe Mpofu in Seattle.

Thus concludes a far more digestable summary when compared to the last few weeks. It seems that the ‘first wave’ of teams (Free Jacks, Legion, SaberCats, etc.) are coming to the end of their announcements, but with Rugby FC LA starting their announcements on November 25th, and both Old Glory DC & Anthem RC staying quiet, the ‘second wave’ could start any moment. This doesn’t even include the teams going steady with announcements like the NOLA Gold, Utah Warriors, and Miami Sharks!

A reminder that NARugbydb.com is the only place to find weekly movement summaries this off-season, providing a easy way to stay up to date with all the movement of the Major League Rugby off-season. Be sure to follow James and NARDB on Social Media, @MLRStats on Instagram & Threads, @JamDelay and/or @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky. Also make sure to check out the Youtube Channel, NARStats!

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MLR Player Move Summary: November 11-17, 2024

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Could Player announcements be starting to slow down as we plod towards US Thanksgiving? for the first time in three weeks the Player Move summary is “only” two pages, and with the San Diego Legion seemingly finished their roster announcement, the tide may be starting to let up! As with every week, this article will provide more context and detail around all of last week’s moves, helping MLR fans to stay on top of the latest signings from their team and from around the league. As always, here is the first page of this week’s summary:

Summary of MLR Player Moves: November 11-17, 2024 (1 of 2)

In total last week, there were 19 re-signings from 5 different teams, 4 inter-league moves, 4 new signings, 2 departures and a trade. Just like in past summaries, we’ll start with the re-signings which make up the bulk of last week’s announcements.

Re-Signings

The San Diego Legion, who have been announcing their entire roster from November 1st to 15th, completed their announcements with another 6 returnees from last years’ squad. Wingers James Vaifale, Ryan James, and Tomas Aoake all return, as do centres Marcel Brache & Tiaan Loots, as well as utility back Ethan Grayson. Vaifale has 32 MLR caps since 2020, but only earned 3 appearances for the Legion in 2024, starting twice and scoring 2 tries, however. A 2021 MLR Champion with the LA Giltinis, Ryan James earned half of his career MLR starts for the Legion last season, also setting career highs in Meters Gained (821m) and tackles made (83). Tomas Aoake returns for the 2nd year of a 3yr deal that will see him stay with the Legion through 2026, and has scored 18 tries in 37 games (all starts). He passed 250 career tackles and 2,500m gained in 2024. Moving to the centre, veteran MLR-er Marcel Brache, who turned 37 in October, will return for a 4th season in the league and 3rd with San Diego. Brache has scored 5 tries in 41 games (39 starts) since his first season with the Austin Gilgronis in 2022. He passed 250 tackles and 2,000m gained in 2024. Tiaan Loots is also back for his 5th season with the Legion, having scored 14 tries in his 41 games (37 starts) since 2020, amassing over 3,200m gained and over 360 tackles. Englishman Ethan Grayson, the son of Rugby World Cup winner Paul Grayson, returns for a 2nd season with the Legion. Grayson can play across the back line and is currently playing in the 10 shirt for the Newcastle Falcons in the Premiership. He scored 2 tries in 9 games (6 starts) for the Legion in 2024.

Moving east from the coast of California to the mountains of Utah, the Warriors announced another 4 familiar faces returning for their 2025 campaign. The 4 forwards are Warriors veterans Saia ‘Uhila, Bailey Wilson, Angus MacLellan, and Matt Jensen. Two of these, MacLellan and ‘Uhila, have represented the Warriors since 2018 and are returning for their eighth seasons in 2025. They’re two of the most capped players in league history, ‘Uhila with 82 appearances (54 starts), scoring 7 tries and completing over 500 tackles, and MacLellan with 92 appearances, tied for 3rd all-time with Seattle scrum-half JP Smith. MacLellan also has over 500 tackles completed and 58 starts, with his 3 tries all coming before 2020. The other returners announced last week, Matt Jensen and Club Captain Bailey Wilson, both return for a 5th season with the Warriors. Wilson has represented the Warriors continuously since 2020, scoring 7 tries in his 66 games (57 starts), amassing just over 2000m gained and completing a huge 660 tackles. Jensen played with the Warriors between 2018-2021 before stepping away, returning in 2024. He’s earned 54 appearances (50 starts), scoring 4 tries. He will likely pass 500 tackles made in 2025.

Continuing our journey east into Texas, the Houston SaberCats also announced 4 returning players from their 14-2 2024 season. Stand-out scrumhalf André Warner is back after being the only SaberCat named to the 2024 All-MLR First XV, scoring 8 tries in 15 games and completing almost 120 tackles (as a scrumhalf!). Points machine AJ Alatimu returns for a 2nd season in Houston after 3 in Seattle. Alatimu hasn’t scored a try, but has 406pts in his 56 games (52 starts) since 2021 and is currently MLR’s 3rd highest scorer all-time but will likely move to 2nd in 2025, passing Legion legend Joe Pietersen on 420pts. A SaberCats stand out in the pack will also return in the form of Ronan Murphy, the former American Raptor has 20 MLR appearances since 2022 and appeared in all 17 games for Houston in 2024, starting 15 times, scoring 6 tries and completing a huge 172 tackles. Murphy was unlucky to miss out on a Eagles call up for their 2024 tours, and is surely a lock for an international debut if he has another season like 2024. Finally for the Texas team, English centre Sam Hill is back after earning 8 appearances (all starts) in his debut MLR season.

Summary of MLR Player Moves: November 11-17, 2024 (2 of 2)

Reaching the east coast, the Miami Sharks keep sprinkling in re-signing announcements, confirming the return of prop Reinaldo Piussi and fly-half/fullback Shane O’Leary. At 6’4 and over 280lbs, Uruguayan international Piussi is a formidable presence in the Sharks scrum, scoring 1 try in his 8 appearances (7 starts) during Miami’s inaugural season. Canada-capped Irishman Shane O’Leary has 63pts in MLR since 2023, scoring his only MLR try for the Sharks, earning 5 appearances (all starts).

Finishing our cross-country journey by moving up the east coast to Boston, the New England Free Jacks announced another trio of returnees from their 2024 Championship squad, including a loanee to the Miami Sharks. Tongan prop Tevita Sole has earned 25 MLR caps since 2022 (7 starts), spending 2022-2023 with the Free Jacks before being loaned to the Sharks for the 2024 season, where he earned 6 appearances. He returned to the Free Jacks for the playoffs and came off the bench in the 2024 Championship game, his only appearance for New England in 2024. Also returning in red, white, and blue is Canadian eligible back row Piers von Dadelszen who scored 2 tries in 17 games (11 starts) and completed over 120 tackles, starting all 3 Free Jacks playoff games in 2024, and Fijian/English scrumhalf Cam Nordli-Kelemeti who started 8 of his 14 games for New England in 2024.

Intra-League Moves & New Signings

There’s a steady trickle of Dallas Jackals players finding new homes for 2025, which is excellent to see. The Houston SaberCats confirmed the signing of fearsome runner Sam Tuifua after selecting him 8th. Tuifua scored 6 tries in 10 games (all starts), racking up over 950m gained in possession. The busiest team for the 2nd week in a row was the San Diego Legion, who announced the first of two blockbusters early last week when they signed MLR Draftee and USA Eagle #543, Tavite Lopeti. Lopeti was drafted 3rd overall by the Seawolves out of St. Mary’s College in 2021 and was named as MLR’s Rookie of the Year for the 2022 season. Lopeti has scored 8 tries in 44 games for Seattle (32 starts), completing almost 300 tackles and amassing over 2,100m gained. He and the Seawolves have finished as MLR runners-up twice (2022 & 2024), and although he’s a California native, I’m sure Seattle fans aren’t thrilled that he’s joining their biggest rival. The Legion also announced the addition of US-eligible Welsh fullback/fly-half Steffan Crimp. Crimp, a former Legion U23 player who’s mother was born and raised in San Diego, joined Anthem RC late in 2024, making 4 appearances (3 starts). The second intra-league blockbuster came right at the end of last week, when the NOLA Gold announced the signing of veteran Utah Warriors fullback Caleb Makene for 2025. Makene was a stand-out during his 3 seasons with Utah, scoring 12 tries and 98pts across 44 games (all starts) and averaging over 1,100m gained per season. He was one of the many many departures announced by the Warriors in September, and probably one of the most high-profile players.

Source: @nolagoldrugby on Instagram

Moving on to new faces entering MLR for the first time, the San Diego Legion announced the signing of Bond University stand-out Rhian Stowers for 2025. the 2024 Slipper Trophy recipient has played almost every format of rugby imaginable, and was a regular on Bond’s 7s team. Additionally, the Legion picked up another former Melbourne Rebel in Australian utility back Nick Jooste. the former Western Force player was a regular in the Rebels’ Super Rugby Lineups, and will join fellow Rebel Brad Wilkin in San Diego. The Legion were not the only team shopping around Super Rugby, however. The reigning Champs announced that Wallabies capped hooker Connal McInerney will join the Free Jacks from the Brumbies, where he won a Super Rugby AU title in 2020, and the NOLA Gold announced the signing of NZ-born centre Nikolai Foliaki, joining from the Western Force where he had played since 2023. Foliaki is internationally capped for Tonga, representing them in the 2024 Pacific Nations Cup.

Departures & Trades

On the subject of Super Rugby, the top flight of rugby in Australia & New Zealand began announcing their rosters last week, and both the Utah Warriors and NOLA Gold will be wishing they hadn’t. Both Utah & NOLA lost stand-out players to the Highlanders for their 2025 Super Rugby Season. The Utah Warriors lost Player of the Season candidate Michael Manson, who was named to the Highlanders squad after scoring 14 tries in 12 games for the Warriors in 2024, racking up 1,491m gained. The NOLA Gold lost another prolific try scorer in Taniela Filimone who, although not named to the Highlanders squad, is believed to have been included in the wider training squad. Filimone amassed 1,071m gained in possession, scoring 11 tries in 17 games (all starts) for the Gold. Both Manson & Filimone were under contract for the 2025 season, so this is a definite both to both teams and fanbases.

Finishing up with the only trade of the week, on November 13th the Houston SaberCats acquired Brazilian international prop and 2022 MLR Champion Wilton Rebolo from Rugby FC LA in exchange for their 1st Rd Draft Pick in 2025. This is a valuable pick to give away but Rebolo is a quality player. He is the first Brazilian to play in MLR and, when he joined the Western Force for their 2023 season, became the first Brazilian to sign for a Super Rugby team. Rebolo earned 27 appearances for New York between 2021-2022, including a high of 15 in their Shield-winning 2022 season, and made 7 appearances for RFCLA in their inaugural season in 2024. As mentioned, a first round pick is a valuable asset to trade away, but if the SaberCats are looking to win now, then at the very least this pick will be lower in the first round, Houston will be hoping 11th. RFCLA now have two first round picks in 2025, so depending on their exact position, we could see one (or both) of these moving as the draft approaches in August.

Source: MLR Trade Wire

That concludes this week’s summary of last week’s player moves around MLR. The purpose of these articles are to add context and some more detail to all the movement around Major League Rugby, allowing fans to stay up to date with every player signing in one easy-to-digest article. These articles are released every Monday along with posts on all of NARDB Social Media. Please visit @MLRStats on Instagram or Threads, or either @JamDelay or @NARugbyDB on Twitter/x and Bluesky.

As we’re edging closer to the holidays, remember to visit shopmlr.com and pick up some swag in the end-of-season sales, and remember to use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off your order!

MLR Player Move Summary: November 4-10, 2024

NAR Database

James Deeley

For the 2nd week in a row, three pages are required for the graphic to summarise all the moves around MLR from last week! In total there were TWENTY-SIX re-signings around the league, 10 completely new signings from outside MLR, four players returning to MLR after some time playing elsewhere, and 3 inter-league moves. This article will go into more detail on all the activity from last week, allowing you to stay up to date on all the goings on ahead of the 2025 season! As always, we start with the first page of our summary, and jump into the returning players:

MLR Player Moves Summary: November 4-10, 2024 (1 of 3)
Relentless Re-Signings

As mentioned in the introduction, Six MLR teams announced the return of 26 players from their 2024 rosters who will return for 2025, including NINE for the San Diego Legion alone. The Legion appear to be announcing their entire roster between November 1st to 15th, and announced all their locks, back rows, scrum-halves, and fly-halves last week! We will get into the new additions for the Legion later in the article, but returning to the Legion in the second row are Charlie Hewitt and Brandon Harvey. MLR veteran Hewitt, a Champion with New York in 2022, has 68 caps and 34 starts in MLR since 2018, and scored 1 of his 3 tries in 2024, earning 3 starts and 11 appearances in his first year with the Legion. Brandon Harvey earned his MLR debut in 2024, making 3 starts in 5 games for the Legion and running for over 100m gained in possession. Also announced as returning for San Diego were Jay Tuivaiti and Vili Helu, who can both play on the flank. Tuivaiti scored 2 tries in 8 games (all starts) for the Legion in his debut MLR season in 2024, and Helu appeared in all 17 Legion games (12 starts) and has 61 MLR appearances since 2020, closing in on 1,500m gained and 500 tackles made in his MLR career. Capped USA Eagle Paddy Ryan will return to the Legion back row along with Australian veteran Christian Poidevin. Ryan was a late addition in 2024, earning 2 starts and 7 appearances for the Legion after joining from the English Champinoship, and 2021 MLR Champion Christian Poidevin returns for his 5th MLR season and 3rd with the Legion after an injury-affected 2024 . Poidevin has 10 tries in 45 MLR appearances (40 starts) since 2021, including 6 tries in 17 games for the San Diego Legion over the last two seasons.

Moving away from the pack to the Legion’s half backs, Connor Tupai will return in the 9 jersey for San Diego after scoring 5 tries in 15 games (14 starts) in 2024, completing over 120 tackles on defence. Wallabies legend Matt Giteau will not be returning for the Legion in 2025 after re-announcing his retirement, but Lincoln McClutchie and Harris Rutherford are returning. McClutchie was the Legion’s starting 10 for much of the first half of the season last year, finishing 6th in MLR scoring with 2 tries and 81pts in 12 games (8 starts). US-eligible Scottish fly-half Harris Rutherford didn’t get many minutes in 2024 as the Legion’s 4th 10 behind McClutchie, Giteau, and Josh Henderson, but still earned 3 MLR appearances, scoring 14pts and earning a Team of the Week selection in Round 17. That just about does it for the Legion’s returning players announced last week, and we’ll see the returning back line players in next week’s summary!

It’s not quite the 9 re-signings of the Legion, but the Houston SaberCats were also busy with 5 re-signings of their own. Recording a MLR-best 14-2 regular season in 2024, the SaberCats fell short in the playoffs and will be looking to take it a few steps further in 2025. Fly-half/fullback Davy Coetzer will return for a 4th season with Houston after signing a long-term contract through 2027. Coetzer has scored 16 tries and 291pts in 42 MLR games (all starts) for the SaberCats, and is MLR’s 9th highest points scorer of all-time. Joining Coetzer in the back line will be former Toronto Arrow Tautalatasi Tasi. Tasi has 4 tries in 20 MLR games since 2023 including 2 in 10 games (all starts) for the SaberCats in 2024. Also returning is 2024 Co-Captain Nathan den Hoedt, a 2021 MLR Champion with LA has 56 appearances under his belt including 24 with Houston since 2023. As well as den Hoedt, the SaberCats pack will see the return of lock/back row Johan Momsen and front row Pita Anae-Ah Sue. Momsen, MLR’s Forward of the Year in 2021, has just under 750 tackles made in his 66 games in MLR, scoring 13 tries including 1 in his 13 games (12 starts) in his first season with the SaberCats in 2024. Anae-Ah Sue is also returning for his 2nd season with Houston in 2025 after he scored 4 tries in 13 games (all starts) in their very strong 2024 season.

MLR Player Moves Summary: November 4-10, 2024 (2 of 3)

Staying in the Western Conference, the Utah Warriors continue to announce their returnees following the exodus of a few weeks ago, confirming that 4 Warriors veterans will be returning. Fan favourite centre Paul Lasike will return for a 5th season with Utah in 2025 after earning a career high 11 appearances (all starts) in 2024, and setting a career high in tackles with an even 100. Fellow long-time Warrior Emerson Prior will return for a 4th season after the Canadian prop was drafted 37th overall by Utah in 2021. Prior has 32 MLR appearances (16 starts) since 2022 and set career highs in both meters gained and tackles made in 2024. Also returning for a 4th season with Utah will be US-eligible kiwi scrum-half Zion Going, who has 4 tries in 34 games (16 starts) for the Warriors since 2022 and is another player who set career highs in meters gained and tackles in 2024. In fact, Going started more games in 2024 (9) than he had in the previous two seasons combined (4+3=7). Finally, promising Utah local Tomasi Tonga is back once again. Tonga has 3 tries in 18 games (7 starts) for the Warriors since 2022 but had limited game-time in 2024 with just the 1 game. He’ll no doubt be hoping to get those numbers back up in 2025.

The final returnee in the Western Conference is capped Canadian international hooker Jesse Mackail, who will return to the Seattle Seawolves for 2025. Mackail did not feature for the Seawolves in 2024, but spent the pre-season with Seattle before having to return to Canada.

Still on the many, MANY re-signings announced last week but moving over to the Eastern Conference, the Miami Sharks announced a trio of returnees including Captain Tomás Cubelli. Cubelli was the first player ever announced by the Sharks, and the Los Pumas veteran appeared in 11 games (10 starts) for the Sharks in their inaugural season. Along with Cubelli, the Sharks announced the return of a pair of capped Uruguayan internationals in Tomás Inciarte and Manu Ardao. Centre/scrum-half Inciarte scored 3 tries in 15 games (all starts) for the Sharks, completing just shy of 150 tackles on defence, and back row Ardao scored 5 tries in his 12 games (also all starts), carrying for well over 550m gained with ball in hand.

Finally, the reigning Champions announced the return of four depth pieces for their title defence. Kiwi prop Malakai Hala-Ngatai was a regular for the Free Jacks in 2024, scoring 3 tries in 15 games (7 starts) and carrying for over 200m gained as a front row. New England announced the return of a pair of veterans in Isaac Olson and Foster DeWitt, both test capped for Canada. Isaac Olson has earned 13 appearances (1 start, 1 try) for the Free Jacks since 2022, and Foster DeWitt has 3 tries and 9 starts in 35 games in the same timespan. Both Olson and DeWitt return for their 4th MLR seasons with the Free Jacks in 2025. Last but not least, Boston born Irish wing/centre Killian Coghlan also returns after earning 4 MLR appearances off the bench in 2024.

Source: @NEFreejacks on Instagram
New Names Entering MLR

Now that the heaps of re-signings are out of the way, we can move on to the new players joining MLR teams for the first time and will make their Major League Rugby debut in 2025. Another pair of Canada Sevens players step back from the national program and will enter MLR next season, following Brock Webster and Josiah Morra last week. Back row Matt Oworu will link up with a number of Canadians in Chicago with the Hounds. Born in Canada but raised in Zimbabwe, Oworu has been capped for both the 7s and 15s national sides, most recently starting at 12 for Canada’s November test against Chile in Romania. Also entering MLR from the national program is Cooper Coats, who played for the Ontario Arrows in their exhibition season in 2018 before entering MLR as the Toronto Arrows in 2019. Coats will join fellow Canadians Callum Botchar and Kaden Duguid with the NOLA Gold, and is also capped for Canada at both 7s and 15s level, most recently coming off the bench for Canada’s test against Chile, the same game that Oworu started.

On top of their 9 re-signings covered earlier in this article, the San Diego Legion announced the addition of 4 new faces for their 2025 roster. Waratahs veteran and capped Wallaby Jed Holloway heads to California, having made his test debut against Argentina in 2022 as Wallaby #955, and can play lock or loose forward. Holloway will be joined by fellow Australian flanker Brad Wilkin, a former Wallabies U20 player who played alongside Holloway at the Waratahs between 2017-2018. Wilkin joins the Legion following the demise of the Melbourne Rebels. The Legion back row is going to be packed with Australians, as the team announced the addition of promising young prop Jimmy Hokafonu from Eastwood in the Shute Shield, and finally the addition of capped Samoan prop Brook To’omalatai, a late blooming prop who caught the eyes of the Legion during the 2024 PNC, where he played on the Samoan side that defeated the USA in the 3rd place playoff.

MLR Player Moves Summary: November 4-10, 2024 (3 of 3)

Along with Matt Oworu from the Canadian sevens program, the Chicago Hounds announced the signing of fellow Canadian Noah Flesch. The younger brother of current Hound Mason Flesch, Noah joins from the Pacific Pride, Canada’s high performance pathway, and earned his full test debut over the weekend as Canada faced Chile in Romania. Another young talent joining the Hounds for 2025 is Australian utility back Ben Pollack, an Australia U19 & U20 player who enters MLR from Gordon in the Shute Shield, earning his 50th first grade appearance for the Highlanders in 2024. Finally for the Hounds, a veteran Scottish lock joins their pack in Hamish Bain, who played under former Hounds Head Coach Rob Webber for the Jersey Reds during their dominant 2022/23 Championship Season. Bain, a former Glasgow Warrior, joins from Vannes in the French Pro D2.

Finally for new faces joining MLR for 2025 is long-time Sharks hooker Kerron van Vuuren, who will enter the Seattle Seawolves front row after representing the Sharks Currie Cup side, and progressing to represent the senior team in both Super Rugby and the URC, and helping them to their first Challenge Cup title in 2024.

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby
Familiar Faces, Inter-League Signings, and Other News

Unusually for Major League Rugby, last week saw teams announce the return of 4 players who had played in MLR prior to last season, but played elsewhere in 2024. This includes a pair of familiar faces for the San Diego Legion, who were by far the busiest team last week. Both returnees come from their record-breaking 15-1 season in 2023 where they finished as runners-up. 2023 All-MLR First XV scrum-half Richard Judd returns after spending 2024 with the Hurricanes in Super Rugby, and Kiwi hooker Shilo Klein also returns having spent 2024 between the Blues in Super Rugby, and North Harbour in the NPC. Judd earned an MLR-high 6 Team of the Week selections in 2023, tied with then-Legion teammate Nate Augspurger, and scored 7 tries in 14 games (all starts). Klein added another 2 tries in 15 games (4 starts), and racked up over 300m gained in possession. The return of Judd and Klein will be a huge boon for the Legion in 2025.

The New England Free Jacks also have the benefit of a familiar face returning in Joe ‘The Mechanic’ Johnston to add to their already deep back row. a 2023 Champion with New England, Johnston earned 48 MLR caps for the Free Jacks between 2021-2023, starting 37 times and scoring 8 tries while completing over 575 tackles. He returned to New Zealand to finish his education in 2024, and played with Bay of Plenty in the NPC. Unlike the 3 familiar faces just mentioned, the final returnee joins a different team to the one he previously played with in MLR. Tongan born, Hawaii raised prop Ma’ake Muti featured in 6 games for the LA Giltinis in their Shield-winning 2021 season, before joining the American Raptors and spending a couple of seasons playing in Super Rugby Americas. For 2025, Muti joins the Miami Sharks. This may be following the announcement that the Raptors would not be playing pro rugby in 2025.

Onto the inter-league signings. Seeing new players from flashy overseas leagues is without a doubt exciting, but to have players moving between MLR teams and generating these ‘organic’ moves, helps to build rivalries between fanbases and is great news for the league. Firstly, we learned of the desitination of another ex-Dallas Jackals player in Dewald Kotze, the capped Canadian hooker signing with the Seattle Seawolves for 2025. Kotze scored 14 tries in 35 games (29 starts) across 3 seasons with the Jackals, including 11 in 17 games in 2024 that featured a MLR record FIVE-TRY performance against the Seawolves, who selected him 10th overall in the Dispersal Draft for Jackals players. The Seawolves’ signing of Kotze may explain why USA Eagle hooker Joe Taufete’e is moving on from Seattle, instead signing with the NOLA Gold who are putting together an exciting looking team for 2025. The Gold will be the 4th different team in as many seasons for the 2021 MLR Champion Taufete’e, who is Eagle #466.

Source: @nolagoldrugby on Instagram

And finally, to finish off this weeks summary article we have yet more news from the San Diego Legion. The California club announced the return of 2023 draftee James Rivers for 2025. English born Rivers was selected 10th overall by the Legion and spent 2024 on loan with Anthem RC, making over 130 tackles in 13 games (11 starts) during their inaugural season. On the topic of Legion draftees, San Diego also confirmed the signing of 2024 7th overall pick Inoke Waqavesi for 2025, drafted out of Saint Mary’s College where he played alongside 1st overall pick Erich Storti, Waqavesi can play across the back line. The Legion also confirmed the signing of academy product Aidan Konja out of SDSU as a homegrown player, and he will continue to develop in the Legion system in 2025.

That, finally, is the end of NARDB’s summary of all of the moves around Major League Rugby for the week of November 4-10, 2024. Feel free to share or quote this article but please do credit NARDB, and we look forward to seeing just how busy this week will be for player moves. Summaries articles and graphics are posted every monday on this site and across social media. be sure to follow @Jamdelay/@NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @MLRStats on Instagram & Threads.