North American Rugby Database

Report

The California Legion host the Seattle Seawolves in a Pacific Coast clash during Round 4 of the 2026 MLR season, a Sunday Night Rugby marquee matchup.

The California Legion enter the sole LA fixture looking to bounce back from a tough 48-24 loss to the Hounds up in a very wet Chicago, while the Seattle Seawolves also need to recover after a 34-25 loss away in Charlotte to Anthem RC. Both teams currently sit on 1 win, with the Legion having 2 losses with 1 more game played than Seattle.

The hosts came out firing, putting pressure on the Seawolves defence but it held firm and in the 13th minute, despite barely any possession thus far, the Seawolves opened the scoring following an interception from Davy Coetzer who converted his own score to give the guests the lead! This lead was extended 5 minutes later when Calvin Liulamaga, on his first career MLR start, collected an inside ball from Duncan Matthews for his 1st career MLR try! Coetzer added the extras and the Seawolves were up to 0-14 at the first hydration break. Coming out of this break, the Legion seemed to find their cutting edge, and after some slick interplay from Cassh Maluia and Ben Houston, 2025 5th overall pick Oscar Treacy almost walked in for his first career try on his MLR debut to put the Legion on the board. It would be another 10 minutes in the California heat before the next try, during which time Davy Coetzer slotted a penalty to push Seattle’s lead to 7-15, but the Legion would strike out wide onace again in the 35th minute, with Maluia again barging through the Seawolves line before some crisp passing between Joey Mano and Corbin Smith put the latter through for a try on his Legion debut. With that, the score sat at 14-15 at the half-time break, and was shaping up to be another west coast classic.

The Legion started the 2nd half as they ended the first, and quickly got on the front foot thanks to a line break from Gonzalo Bertranou before winning a penalty that was taken quickly and fed to Ben Houston who caught the Seawolves napping to give the Legion their first lead of the afternoon. Houston’s try was cancelled out a few minutes later however, when Davy Coetzer decided that he was a back row player, and barrelled through 3/4 Legion defenders to claim his 2nd of the game, before converting his own score once again to restore a narrow Seattle lead, 21-22 with 30 minutes to play. It would be almost 20 minutes before the next score despite a few challenges and reviews but in the 68th minute, Declan Leaney took advantage of a gap following a quick pick up and fed it to the supporting Bertranou to flip the lead back over to the Legion, before Joey Mano finished an easy score out wide less than 5 minutes later to give the Legion a strong 35-21 lead with 8 minutes to go. The visiting Seawolves, reeling after these two quick scores, were able to hit back through Liki Chan-Tung to secure the try BP in the 75th minute, but a 78th minute penalty from Coby Miln took the Legion up to 38-29, and denied the Seawolves a losing BP.

An entertaining, back and forth game in California sees the Legion pick up a 2nd win to improve to a 2-2 record and up to 3rd place in the standings. They will look towards next week where they face 2nd placed Old Glory DC for the Flags’ home opener at George Mason University. The Seattle Seawolves fall to 1-2 in 5th, and will face the league-leading Chicago Hounds up in Tukwila on Friday night.