NA Rugby Database

Recap

The 2024 Championship Final was held at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, the 3rd time the city has hosted the MLR final. The Champions of the Eastern Conference Seattle Seawolves compete in their 4th MLR final against the Eastern Conference Champion New England Free Jacks who are looking to go back-to-back just as Seattle did 2018-2019. A MLR single game record crowd of 12,085 gathered to watch the climax of the 2024 season, complete with half-time and post-game shows from DJ Marshmello.

Broadcast on FOX Sports in the US and on The Rugby Network worldwide, the game got off to a wobbly start with an almost 15-minute delay before coverage started, limiting the pre-game build-up. When the game itself kicked off, it proved to be a battle of defence and discipline. The New England Free Jacks opened the scoring after 10 minutes off the boot of Jayson Potroz, before Le Roux Malan would score the Free Jacks’ only try of the game from a close range effort in the corner with an acrobatic finish. Potroz couldn’t add the extras so the score stood at 0-8 to New England through the first water break., just after Kyle Baillie had to leave the game with an HIA, so Free Jacks club captain Josh Larsen would enter the game until Baillie was cleared. The Seawolves would open their account in the 26th minute, as Mack Mason would convert his 2nd penalty attempt to get Seattle on the board, but Potroz’s boot would restore the 8pt gap just before the half-hour mark. The Seawolves, playing much of the first half in their own end, took their opportunities and scored their only try of the game through a great little set piece play from a lineout, and USA Eagle Joe Taufete’e would barge through a Free Jacks defender for 5. Mason, like Potroz, was unable to add the extras so the gap sat at 3pts, 8-11. The Free Jacks would add another 3 on the stroke of half-time to give them a 8-14 lead into the sheds.

Potroz would continue to twist the knife into the 2nd half, adding another 3pts in the 47th minute to increase the gap to 9pts. Mason would hit back and nullify this penalty almost straight away however, taking the score to 11-17 and the gap back to 6pts. In the 52nd minute, an upright takle by Pite Lopeti on Le Roux Malan saw him handed a yellow card and the Seawolves reduced to 14men. To make it worse, Potroz made no mistakes from the ensuing penalty to restore the Free Jacks’ 9pt lead with the score sat at 11-20 with just under 30 minuts to go. although holding a man advantage, the Free Jacks were unable to shift the scoreboard, and the momentum actually began to swing towards the Seawolves. Although they had struggled to maintain posession in the Free Jacks’ half for the first 55 minutes, the final 25 minutes was dominated by the Seawolves, who camped in the New England red zone time after time but were unable to crack the Free Jacks defence, who weathered the relentless storm without giving away points. The Seawolves went for the corner nultiple times but could not convert, and were not helped by a controversy around theri substitutions. Seattle lock Jean Droste picked up an injury and could not continue, and so Chance Wenglewski was named to take his place, however the MLR officials on the sideline claimed that Seawolves’ #1, Cam Orr, had previously left the field (NARDB cannot find evidence of this) and so would have to come off. Instead, Sam Windsor had to come on for Droste and Cam Orr also had to come off, meaning that the Seawolves were playing with 14 for the final 12 or so minutes, seriously hampering their ability to crawl back into the game. The players were audibly unhappy with Luke Rogan for this, but continued nonetheless. Their efforts were futile however, as they were still down by 9pts when the clock turned red. Playing only for pride the Seawovles mounted 1 final attack, but a turnover at the breakdown sealed the game, with the Free Jacks victorious in San Diego.

Seattle, undone by their ill-discipline and a rock solid Free Jacks defence, fall to a 2-2 record in their four MLR Championship Games, and are also not the only team to have won back-to-back Shields. The New England Free Jacks successfully defend their 2023 title and claim the 2024 MLR Shield, crowned Champions for the 2nd season in a row. The party will continue, but prep for 2025 will start very soon.

TV figures for this game were disappointing, averaging 200,000 viewers on FOX Sports, down from 269,000 last year. Figures for The Rugby Network have not been released.