Category: MLR Move Summaries

MLR Player Move Summary: October 14-20, 2024

NAR Database

James Deeley

The Major League Rugby Off-Season rollercoaster is well and truly off and running, with a second week in a row chock-full of new signings, resignings, and departures! Welcome to NARDB’s weekly off-season summary for October 14-20, 2024, keeping you up to date on all the roster moves around MLR ahead of the 2025 season. For the first time in the 2024/25 off-season, we have a multi-page summary graphic! Page 1 of this week’s summary is shown below:

MLR Player Move Summary: October 14-20 (1 of 2)
New Additions – Mexico Enters MLR and Warriors stay busy!

The San Diego Legion announced a League-first at the start of last week when they shared the news that they had signed Alejandro Pradillo for the 2025 MLR Season. Pradillo has played with the San Clemente Rhinos in the World Rugby Tens Competition, as well as with the Legion Academy side. He’s also a capped Mexican international and the first Mexican player to sign with a Major League Rugby side! Congratulations to ‘Bola’, and welcome to MLR!

A pair of players from the French Top 14 will also make their way over to the US for 2025, for different sides. The NOLA Gold announced the signing of capped French international back rower Kélian Galletier from Les Sang et Or. The Gold’s links to French rugby are baring fruit already, signing the long-time Montpellier player for 2025. Heading northeast from Perpignan to Lyon, the Utah Warriors announced the addition of capped All Blacks hooker and long-time Highlanders player Liam Coltman, who’s impressive resume includes representing New Zealand at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and even a memorable victory over the British & Irish Lions. Coltman joins from Lyon Olympique Universitaire (LOU) Rugby.

The Utah Warriors weren’t finished with the signing of Coltman, however. The Herriman-based team also announced the acquisition of a pair of test-capped Samoans, in fly-half/center D’Angelo Leuila and prop Aki Seiuli. Leuila is a 2021 NPC Champion with Waikato, played with the Moana Pasifika between 2022-2024, and represented Samoa at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. Seiuli has also played in Super Rugby, representing the Highlanders (alongside Liam Coltman) between 2014-2019, before moving to teh UK to represent the Glasgow Warriors then the Dragons in the URC, from whom he joins Utah. Seiuli earned his test debut for Samoa in the 2022 Pacific Nations Cup, which Manu Samoa won. Finally, to wrap up a busy week at Zion’s Bank, the Warriors announced the addition of 6’8 Irish lock Gavin Thornbury who joins following a short-term contract with the reigning Premiership Champions, Northampton. Thornbury is a Leinster academy product and former Ireland U20s player, who spent most of his pro career to date with Connacht in the URC and represented the Irish Wolfhounds in 2022.

MLR Player Move Summary: October 14-20 (1 of 2)
Re-signings A-plenty!

Both 2024 Eastern Conference Finalists began announcing their returning players from 2025. The Chicago Hounds announced the return of their inaugural season co-Captains Bryce Campbell (USA Eagle #497 and Hound #1) and Luke White (USA Eagle #561), as well as stand-out rookie Noah Brown. Campbell‘s agency, BSMI Rugby, announced that his contract runs through the 2026 season. White & Brown’s contract lengths are unknown.

The reigning back-to-back Champion New England Free Jacks also started the ball rolling on their re-signings, announcing the return of FIVE household names in Quincy. Club Captain and capped Canadian international Josh Larsen will return for 2025, as will scrum-half John Poland who missed a huge chunk of 2024 due to injury. I’m sure the fans at the Fort will love to see him back in the 9 jersey. Also returning for the champs is star fly-half Jayson Potroz, who led the league in scoring in both 2023 & 2024, and sits on 327pts scored in his MLR career, all for the Free Jacks. To round out the announcement are a pair of front rows. Fan-favourite Kyle ‘The Eagle’ Ciquera, who has featured for the Free Jacks in the joint-most MLR games in team history (tied with Mitch Wilson, more on that later…), and 2022 S. Marcus Calloway award recipient and capped Canadian international Andrew Quattrin, who will return for a 3rd year in New England.

Also getting in on the re-signing party were the Miami Sharks, who announced a pair of returnees in 50-time Los Pumas capped center Matías Orlando (a late addition for the Sharks in 2024), and the team’s leading scorer and Chilean international Santiago Videla, who finished with 74pts in the Sharks’ inaugural season, 1pt above Uruguayan teammate Felipe Etcheverry.

Inter-League Moves

On top of the SIX new additions from outside MLR, there was a bit of musical chairs within the league last week. The Seattle Seawolves added MLR veteran Siaosi “CC” Mahoni for 2025 from the Houston SaberCats. 2025 will be Mahoni’s 8th season in MLR, having represented the San Diego Legion from 2018-2021, and Houston from 2022-2024. Mahoni has 53 MLR games under his belt and 39 starts, and has recently been included in the USA Eagles squad for their November tests.

The New England Free Jacks also announced the signing of a pair of former Dallas Jackals following their withdrawal from the 2025 season. The back-to-back defending champs signed 2024 MLR Forward of the Year Jero Gomez Vara for their three-peat bid after selecting him 11th in the dispersal draft, an absolute steal. The Free Jacks also announced the signing of capped Canadian prop Kyle Steeves, who was selected 6th in the Dispersal Draft by the NOLA Gold. It’s unclear whether the Gold & Free Jacks were involved in a trade for Steeves, or if he chose to sign in New England as a Free Agent. Steeves joins a strong Canadian contingent at Fort Quincy.

Source: @NEFreeJacks on twitter/x
Departures and Unconfirmed Signings

The NOLA Gold continue to bid farewell to players who will not be returning to the team in 2025. The Gold announced their 6th & 7th departures of the off-season, Fintan Coleman & Dougie Fife. NOLA acquired US-eligible Irish forward Coleman in a trade with Old Glory DC in February 2024, and he earned 10 appearances for the Gold in the team’s best season to date. Capped for Scotland at both 7s and 15s levels, Dougie Fife has played in MLR for 4 seasons to date, with 2 seasons each with the New England Free Jacks (2021-2022) and the NOLA Gold (2023-2024), scoring 13 tries in 55 career MLR games (54 starts) to date, amassing over 3,000m gained in possession. It remains to be seen if Coleman and/or Fife will return to MLR in 2025.

On October 15th USA Rugby revealed the Men’s Eagles Squad for their end-of-year tests against Portugal (Nov 9th), Tonga (Nov 16th), and Spain (Nov 23rd). Within the squad announcement were some little easter eggs that look to have revealed some player moves that were not yet confirmed. For example, the New England Free Jacks had announced the departure of ‘Ironman’ Mitch Wilson back on October 11th, but his destination wasn’t yet known. The USA Squad has him listed as an Anthem RC player. Has the national team inadventantly leaked Wilson’s destination for 2025? This wasn’t the only surprise on the Eagles’ roster. Front row Alex Maughan was also listed as an Anthem RC player after representing Rugby FC LA in 2024 having followed the team from Atlanta, where the he had played for 4 seasons. A USA Eagle and North Carolina native, Anthem is a great fit for Maughan should this be accurate. Finally, the list of reserves looks to have leaked a 3rd new Anthem RC signing, with crossover athlete and former American Raptors lock Mikey Grandy also listed as an ARC player. I know that USA Rugby has a significant stake in Anthem RC and I’m sure this was unintentional, but they may want to check with the team before potentially leaking stuff!

Source: @nolagoldrugby on Instagram

Another chaotic week around MLR makes for another lengthy summary article. Thanks very much for reading, and keep an eye out for next week’s article summarising all the moves from October 21-27, 2024! NARDB is the easiest way to stay up to date on all the additions, departures, and general goings-on around the league.

MLR Player Move Summary: October 7-13, 2024

NAR Database

James Deeley

The 2024/25 Major League Rugby off-season seemed to explode into life last week, with a flurry of activity from a number of teams that made for a busy news week, a welcome change to the sparse announcements through September. This article will cover all the major moves from around Major League Rugby for last week, ensuring you don’t miss a thing! As always, here’s the graphic summarizing all of the confirmed moves from October 7th to October 13th, 2024:

Source: @MLRStats on Instagram
Dallas Dispersal Draft Fallout

As revealed by both NARDB and Americas Rugby News last week, the Dispersal Draft for Dallas Jackals players took place on September 25th, with no public announcement from MLR of either it’s taking place, or the results (despite a statement to the contrary). There were three trades on the day of the Dispersal Draft, but they didn’t appear on the MLR Trade Wire (which is notoriously slow to update) until October 9th, hence their inclusion on this week’s summary.

Two of these three trades are completely administrative, with Anthem RC acquiring the 5th pick in the Dispersal Draft from Old Glory DC in exchange for 2025 Salary Cap Space ($ amount unknown). ARC then flipped this pick to Rugby FC LA (who used it to select Vaughen Isaacs) along with 2025 Salary Cap Space ($ amount unknown) in exchange for the 2nd pick in the Dispersal Draft, which Anthem used to select Makeen Alikhan (who was playing for the Jackals on loan from English Premiership side Harlequins), it’s uncertain if Alikhan will return to MLR. The final trade is for an actual player. Old Glory DC picked up Argentine prop JP Zeiss with the 16th pick in the dispersal draft and immediately flipped him to the Seattle Seawolves in exchange for 2025 Salary Cap Space ($ amount unknown). Zeiss has 46 MLR caps to date across 3 seasons, starting 44 times and scoring 5 tries. He’s also completed over 350 career tackles.

Short Term Stints Across the Pond

We learned of a pair of players headed over to the UK on short-term deals to hone their game. English Premiership side the Bristol Bears announced the return of 2024 MLR Champion and newly-capped USA Eagle Toby Fricker on a 3 month contract as injury cover, and towering Seattle Seawolves lock Isaia Lotawa is headed to RGC 1404 in Super Rygbi Cymru as part of a player exchange made by former RGC player and current Seawolf Huw Taylor.

Fricker joined the New England Free Jacks late in the MLR season, earning 6 appearances including all 3 of their Playoff games en-route to the 2024 Shield, a 11-20 victory over the Seattle Seawolves which Fricker started. Isaia Lotawa didn’t feature in the 2024 final, but came off the bench in Seattle’s Western Conference Final victory over the Dallas Jackals. Lotawa earned 5 appearances for the Seawolves in 2024 and has 9 to date, including 2 starts. Both Lotawa and Toby Fricker will return to MLR for 2025, so no need for fans to worry!

Source: @bristolbearsrfc on Instagram
New Faces

Following news on October 2nd that 17 players would not be returning for 2025, the Utah Warriors began re-filling the roster by announcing the addition of 5 young, local players including two of their three 2024 MLR Collegiate Draftees. 2nd Round Pick (16th Overall) Tielu Sagala and 3rd Round Pick (28th Overall Cole Semu are officially MLR-ers. Sagala won 3 state Championships each with the 7s & 15s side at BYU, while New Zealand born Semu, also a BYU alum, has represented the USA at U18, U20, and U23 levels already. Also added by the Warriors were Papa Matelau & Mason Barker (the brother of Warriors alum Zak Barker), both of whole have represented the USA at age-grade level, and Tesimale Niupulusu, a 290lb monster front row who has been impressive in both Rugby League and Union in the Utah area.

In addition to Utah, Old Glory DC announced their first acquisition for the 2025 campaign, picking up veteran Welsh center Steffan Hughes from the Dragons in URC, where he has played since 2022. Hughes joined the Dragons in 2022 on a short-term basis but quickly earned an extension and became the team’s Captain for the 2023/24 URC season. Hughes had joined the Dragons from his local URC club the Scarlets, where he had played since 2013, earning well over 100 URC appearances and won the URC Championship in 2016/17. He captained the side through the 2019/20 & 2021/22 seasons and will add valuable experience to the Flags squad in 2025.

Source: @OldGloryDC on Twitter/X
RFCLA Build New-Look Coaching Team

Following the announcement from on October 4th that former LA Giltinis Head Coach Steven Hoiles was returning to MLR as Director of Rugby and Head Coach of Rugby FC LA, the team continued to add to their coaching squad last week with another pair familiar names. 2021 MLR Shield-Winning Captain and former Wallaby Dave Dennis returns to LA, now on the sidelines as RFCLA‘s Senior Assistant Coach, and former Austin Gilgronis and Chicago Hounds Head Coach Sam Harris takes up a position as Attack Coach.

Dennis already has an impressive trophy cabinet as a player. A Super Rugby Championship with the Waratahs in 2014, two Premiership trophies in 2016/17 & 2019/20 as well as a European Champions Cup in 2019/20 all with the Exeter Chiefs, and a MLR Shield with the LA Giltinis in 2021. He’ll be looking to add a second Shield as a coach in 2025. Sam Harris is likely well known around MLR already, having led the Austin Gilgronis through the 2021-2022 seasons before moving to Chicago to lead the Hounds through their inaugural season and the majority of the 2024 campaign before being let go in Round 15. He holds a 29-1-31 record as an MLR head coach, but will coordinate the RFCLA attack in 2025.

Source: @RugbyFCLA on Instagram
Steady Stream of Departures in New Orleans

On October 2nd the Utah Warriors announced the departure of 17 players that raised the eyebrows of many around the league, and it seems the Warriors were not the only team going through significant roster changes ahead of 2025. Throughout last week the NOLA Gold announced the departures of 5 players in total, one almost every day. Rodney Iona, Augusto Böhme, Maciu Koroi, OJ Noa, and Sam Klimkowski were all thanked for their contributions to the Louisiana team individually.

No doubt the names to stick out from this list will be Rodney Iona and Maciu Koroi. Iona has scored 4 tries and 128pts in 23 games (all starts) across 2 seasons for the Gold, and Koroi has earned 33 MLR appearances for the Gold over 3 seasons, starting 7 times and scoring 3 tries. Chilean international hooker Böhme and Samoan back rower OJ Noa both joined the Gold for the 2024 season and both earned 9 appearances, helping the Gold to finally end their MLR Playoff drought. Ohioan prop Klimkowski was drafted 13th overall by the LA Giltinis in 2021 and played with the NOLA Gold Academy side in the fall of 2022, finally earning his MLR debut for the Gold in 2024, when he featured in 4 games, starting 1.

These moves were not included on the Player Move Summary graphic as we are not yet sure of the destination of any of these players. It’s possible we could see them suiting up for another MLR team in 2025, for example. If/when I hear of any of these players signing with another team, the move will be included on that week’s graphic. It’s worth keeping an eye on NOLA to see if they continue to announce more departures this week, and who they bring in to replace these names.

Source: @nolagoldrugby on Instagram

A far longer summary article for a far busier week around Major League Rugby to start October. It seems like the off-season is really picking up, and we could be getting many more announcements over the next few weeks. Watch this space for summary articles each week, or follow @MLRStats on Instagram and @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X.

Player Movement around MLR: September 30 – October 6, 2024

NAR Database

James Deeley

Another week deeper into the Major League Rugby off-season, and still no word on the Dallas Jackals dispersal draft. Player moves are still few and far between, with only 1 move confirmed last week. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to talk about however, with plenty of action taking place off the pitch. Here’s everything you may have missed last week:

Kruse heads to the PNW

Last week, the Utah Warriors announced the departure of 17 players that would not be returning in 2025. NARDB understands that this was the choice of the team and these players were let go, rather than leaving of their own volition. One of these former Warriors found a new home almost immediately, with the Seattle Seawolves announcing the addition of USA Eagle #538 Mika Kruse for their 2025 season.

Kruse was the 10th player in MLR history to reach 50 caps in the competition on April 23rd, 2022, and has earned 80 MLR appearances as of the conclusion of the 2024 season including 51 for the Utah Warriors since 2021. Adding his 8 tries in 29 games for the Glendale/Colorado Raptors to his 18 for the Warriors, Kruse has scored 26 tries in MLR. This puts him 8th on MLR’s All-Time leading try scorer list, and he’s the 6th highest MLR Meter Eater, on 4,218m. Still only 26, Kruse is a great addition for the Seawolves and he’ll fill the gap left by Conner Mooneyham on the wing.

Source: Seattle Seawolves
Chicago add Coaching Pair

Moving to the sidelines, newly appointed Chicago Hounds Head Coach Chris Latham announced a pair of Assistant Coaches for their 2025 campaign.

Latham announced fellow Australian Todd Dammers as Forwards Coach, after the pair previously worked together with the South’s Rugby Club in Australia. Dammers has previously served as an Assistant coach for the Samoan National Team in 2019 (also alongside Latham), as well as the Director of Rugby at Sydney University and Forwards Coach with the Tokyo Black Rams in Japan’s Top League. Dammers joined the Hounds from Brisbane Boys College where he was serving as Director of Rugby.

As well as adding Dammers, the Hounds bring in former Leinster centurion and Toronto Arrows center Noel Reid as Backs Coach. Reid, who is capped for the Irish national team and played at Leinster with former Hounds player Dave Kearney, a minority owner of the Hounds with his brother Rob. As well as earning over 100 appearances with Leinster, Reid represented the Leicester Tigers and London Irish in the English Premiership, as well as Agen in France. He finished his playing career with the Toronto Arrows for the 2023 MLR season, where he earned 7 appearances and scored 1 try. Signed to play with the Arrows for the 2024 MLR season, when the Arrows withdrew from Major League Rugby Reid moved to a coaching role with the Arrows Academy, now known as The Rugby Academy. Reid also served as the Head Coach for the Markham Irish in the Greater Toronto Area in 2024.

Hoiles Returns to LA

Moving further from the pitch still, from the sidelines to the offices. Rugby FC LA announced the hiring of former Wallabies international Stephen Hoiles as Director of Rugby for the 2025 & 2026 MLR seasons. The former Waratahs & Brumbies man is no stranger to MLR or even to LA, having served as Forwards & Defence Coach of the LA Giltinis in their Shield-winning inaugural season in 2021. He was appointed as the Head Coach of the Giltinis for the 2022 season, prior to the disqualification and subsequent folding of both the Giltinis and the Austin Gilgronis during the ‘Gilly-Gate’ fiasco. Hoiles returned to his native Australia and took up a position as Head Coach of his former club team, the Randwick Galloping Greens. Hoiles coached Randwick to the Shute Shield title in 2023, the club’s first title since 2004 when Hoiles was a player. He followed his 2023 up by being named as the Shute Shield Coach of the Year in 2024, and now returns to LA.

Hoiles’ appointment with RFCLA is as Director of Rugby, his first such role. It is unclear if he will also be taking on coaching duties while in this role, similar to Seattle‘s Allan Clarke, who serves as both DoR and Head Coach of the Seawolves, or if RFCLA will be announcing a Head Coach in the near future.

Source: @rugbyfcla on Instagram

There’s your round-up for last week around Major League Rugby. These summaries are released every Monday to ensure you stay up to date on all the big news around MLR with NARDB!

Player Moves around MLR: September 23-29, 2024

NAR Database

James Deeley

After a few weeks with very little to no news around player movement for the 2025 MLR season, the last week of September saw a relative flurry of activity! With still no confirmation regarding the Dallas Jackals dispersal draft, let’s jump in to what we do know.

The week began with an announcement from Anthem Rugby Carolina announcing that they had acquired 2024 Rookie of the Year Junior Gafa from the New England Free Jacks on a permanent basis in exchange for quite the haul. I won’t dive into that trade here, as I wrote an article doing just that earlier in the week. Anthem RC announced this trade on the 24th which is why it’s included in this Player Move summary, despite the MLR Trade Wire stating this transaction was from September 21st (see below).

Source: MLR Trade Wire

As well as this big trade between Anthem RC and the New England Free Jacks, last week saw a trio of MLR players hang up their boots. Ben Fry, a former Wales U20 back row who represented the Dallas Jackals for his lone MLR season in 2024. Fry’s season was heavily impacted by injury, although he still made an impact with 2 tries and over 375m gained in 6 games (all starts). Nick McCarthy, the Michigan-born Ireland U20 scrum-half and UAS Eagle earned 16 MLR appearances (13 starts) for the Chicago Hounds in their best MLR season to date in 2024, starting both playoff games as the Hounds gave the Free Jacks a run for their money in the Eastern Conference Final. It’s worth stating that McCarthy has the honour of being the first player to ever win test caps for a major rugby nation as an openly gay man, what an inspiration! Finally on the retirements front is McCarthy’s teammate, Leinster legend who represented Ireland at the 2015 Rugby World Cup and owns a minority stake of the Chicago Hounds with his brother Rob, Dave Kearney, who announced his retirement in an interview with the Irish Independent. Kearney, who turned 35 mid-way through 2024, seems to have taken a chance to paly for a team he co-owns, and started 8 of his 9 MLR appearances.

Player Move Summary: September 23-29, 2024

Last but by no means least, the Seattle Seawolves announced an addition for the 2025 season, 6’6 South African lock Malembe Mpofu! 28yo Mpofu joins the Seawolves from the Airlink Pumas in South Africa’s Currie Cup competition, where he was playing alongside former Toronto Arrow and Rugby Canada scrum-half, Ross Braude. Mpofu helped the Pumas to their first ever Currie Cup championship in 2022, earning his debut in Round 1, and helped them return to the final one again the following season, finishing as runners up to the Free State Cheetahs in 2023.

Player move summaries like this will come out almost every week of the MLR off-season, assuming there are moves to cover. Stay up to date with all the movement around MLR with NARDB!

Source: @SeawolvesRugby on Instagram