League: Major League Rugby

Founded in 2017 with it’s inaugural season played in 2018, Major League Rugby (MLR) is the highest level of professional rugby in North America.

All Players

A list of all players to have ever played in the MLR. The stats included with this list are overall stats, and the teams listed are the most recent MLR team that player represented

2018 MLR Standings

The below shows the historic standings for Major League Rugby’s Inaugural 2018 season.

The inaugural season saw 7 teams competing to lift the shield in a 8-game regular season in which each team would play all others once, and one other team twice. This would be followed by a 2-week Championship Series (playoffs), split into semi-finals and a Grand Final.

2018 MLR Fixtures/Results

Major League Rugby’s Inaugural Season.

The table below lists all results from MLR’s inaugural 2018 season.

Sam Malcolm

New Zealand Fly-half Sam ‘The Boot’ Malcolm played in Major League Rugby between 2019-2023. He represented the Toronto Arrows for his entire MLR career.

Arrow #10 is a favourite amongst the Toronto fanbase and is one of the most reliable kickers in MLR. He is currently 3rd on MLR’s All-Time top Points Scorers list, with 370pts scored in his 45 MLR games from 2019-2023, sitting behind only Sam Windsor (453) and Joe Pietersen (420) at the conclusion of the 2023 season. He has scored 100+ points in a season twice, in 2019 (152), and 2022 (100) and holds the distinction of being the only non-Canadian to captain the Arrows in a MLR match. Malcolm earned 16 MLR caps in his debut MLR season (all starts), missing only 1 game of the Arrows‘ inaugural season and starting in their first ever Championship Series game. He recorded a massive 152pts in 2019 alone, recording a success rate of 83.54%, finishing 4th in the league for scoring and earning a selection to the All-MLR 2nd XV for 2019. Malcolm follwed up his impressive debut season with 60pts in 5 games (all starts) in 2020 before the season shut down due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, sitting 2nd in the league for scoring.

Following the 2020 season, Malcolm accepted a contract with the Kamaishi Seawaves in Japan before returning to the Arrows towards the end of the 2021 MLR season, earning 3 more MLR Caps. He recorded his 2nd 100pts+ season in 2022, finishing with exactly 100pts in 13 games (all starts), again finishing 4th in MLR scoring. He missed a large chunk of the 2023 season with injury but still recorded 50pts in 8 games (6 starts), including scoring all 27pts in Toronto‘s only victory of the 2023 campaign, a 26-27 victory in Chicago. His 27pts in this game sets a new club record for points in a game, and is good for 2nd most points scored by a player in a single MLR game, behind a 34pt game from Robbie Petzer in 2019.

On September 18th 2023, Sam Malcolm was the first player that Toronto announced to be returning for the 2024 season with the Canadian team. When the Arrows announced in late November 2023 that they would not be competing in the 2024 MLR season, Malcolm turned his focus to coaching, establishing the Between The Posts kicking school. He coaches with local teams in the Toronto area as well as his native New Zealand.

Achievements:

  • MLR Player of the Week: 2023 – Round 4
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2023 – Round 4
  • 4th in MLR Scoring: 2022 (100pts)
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2022 – Round 7
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2020 – Round 3
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2020 – Round 2
  • 4th in MLR Scoring: 2019 (152pts)
  • 2019 All-MLR 2nd XV Selection
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2019 – Semi-Finals
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2019 – Round 18
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2019 – Round 15
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2019 – Round 8
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2019 – Round 5

NARDB Player #3

Peter Smith

For Smith’s record as a player in Major League Rugby, click here

Lucas Rumball

Canadian Flanker Lucas Rumball played in Major League Rugby between 2019-2026. He represented the Toronto Arrows as Arrow #1 between 2019-2023, and the Chicago Hounds (2024-2026)

Lucas Rumball is a test-capped Canadian, with his international debut coming against Uruguay in 2016. He earned his 50th cap for Canada in November 2023 against Spain.

The Scarborough, Ontario native played club rugby with Balmy Beach RFC in Toronto, and has represented the Toronto Arrows in every MLR season in which they competed, earning 54 MLR caps (50 starts) and scoring 5 tries. Rumball was named Co-Captain of the Arrows for their 2021 campaign alongside fellow Canadian, Ben LeSage. He was named outright captain of the Arrows for their 2023 MLR campaign. He has developed a reputation as a fearsome tackler, and can be relied on for at least one breakdown steal a game. He finished the 2021 season as MLR’s highest tackler with a total of 228, and has a career MLR total of 1078 through 2025.

A Toronto and Canada stalwart, on 7th November 2023 the Arrows announced the return of Lucas Rumball for the 2024 MLR season. Rumball was one of only three Arrows players to reach 50 caps in MLR, along with Mike Sheppard and Paul Ciulini. In late November 2023, the Toronto Arrows and MLR announced that they would not compete in the 2024 season due to financial difficulties. Following this news, Rumball signed with the Chicago Hounds as a free agent for the 2024 season, which the Hounds announced on 20th December 2023.

In his first season away from the Arrows, Rumball earned 10 caps (5 starts) for the Hounds, completing another 91 tackles take his MLR total to 880, 2nd all-time as of the conclusion of 2024. The Chicago Hounds qualified for the playoffs in the 2024 season, and Rumball came off the bench in both their playoff games as the Hounds fell to the eventual champions, the New England Free Jacks in the Eastern Conference Final. On October 21st 2024, the Chicago Hounds announced the return of Lucas Rumball for his 7th MLR season in 2025, Captaining the side. On May 19th, 2025, Rumball completed 15 tackles for the Chicago Hounds to take his career total to 1,009 tackles completed, becoming the first play in MLR history to pass 1,000 tackles completed in the competition. Rumball ended up scoring 2 tries in 16 games (15 starts) as the Hounds took the Free Jacks beyond the 80 before losing a heartbreaking 21-20 Eastern Conference Final. For his efforts, Lucas Rumball was named the Chicago Hounds’ Forward of the Year for 2025 and was also named to the All-MLR Second XV team for 2025, his 2nd All-MLR selection.

On November 6th, 2025, the Chicago Hounds announced the return of their 2025 Captain Lucas Rumball for the 2026 MLR season.

Achievements

  • MLR Team of the Week: 2026 – Rd 4
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2026 – Rd 3
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2026 – Rd 2
  • 2025 All-MLR Second XV Selection
  • 2025 Chicago Hounds Forward of the Year
  • First MLR Player to pass 1,000 tackles completed – 19th May 2025
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2025 – Rd 8
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2025 – Rd 3
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2023 – Rd 1
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2022 – Rd 16
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2022 – Rd 3
  • 2021 All-MLR First XV Selection
  • 1st in MLR Tackling: 2021 (228)
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2021 – Rd 6
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2021 – Rd 5
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2021 – Rd 1
  • 2nd in MLR Tackling: 2020 (73)
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2019 – Rd 11
  • MLR Team of the Week: 2019 – Rd 10

NARDB Player #2

Dennon Robinson-Bartlett

New Zealander Dennon Robinson-Bartlett played in Major League Rugby during the 2022 season. He represented the Toronto Arrows for his entire MLR career.

Robinson-Bartlett joined the Toronto Arrows for the 2022 MLR season from Hawke’s Bay Magpies in New Zealand’s National Provincial Championship (NPC), a favourite competition for MLR teams to recruit from. He joins the Arrows along with Magpies’ Scrum Coach, Francisco Deformes.

He has represented the New Zealand Maori u20’s.

NARDB Player #1

Toronto Arrows

Background & History

The Toronto Arrows were a founding member of Major League Rugby, and played in the competition between 2019-2023. The Arrows joined MLR with Rugby United New York (Later Rugby New York and the Rugby New York Ironworkers), first competing in the 2019 season. To date, they are the only MLR team to have been based outside of the US, and the first professional rugby team in Canada’s history.

As the only professional team in Canada and the only Canadian team in MLR, the Arrows were committed to finding and developing Canadian rugby talent, similar to how the MLR and other teams were developing US talent. This presented unique problems during their tenure in MLR as the only club outside of the USA. They did not participate in the inaugural MLR Collegiate Draft because Canadian schools were not included. They had to play their entire 2021 season within the US due to border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic (which cancelled the 2020 season after only 5 rounds, during which the Arrows had a 4-1 record on the road), and based themselves out of Rugby ATL’s facilities. The Arrows went over 1000 days without a home game between 2019-2022, losing a huge amount of gate revenue in the process. Their 2023 season was the worst on record, finishing with a 1-2-13 record and dead last in the Eastern Conference. The ownership seemed to want to start afresh following this, with a shuffle of staff that included replacing the head coach, and a re-brand that played into their aeronautic background (named for the AVRO Arrow, a Canadian jet plane) and focused more on being Canada’s team, rather than simply Toronto’s. While a new logo (top right) and branding was launched, the Arrows never took to the field with their new look. Arrows Co-Founder and Majority Owner Bill Webb, a titan in Canadian rugby and the true driving force behind the team, tragically passed away in August 2023, and while things initially looked promising to continue in 2024, the Arrows were unable to replace Webb’s stake after potential investors pulled out late, and the team announced in November 2023 that they would not be competing in MLR in the 2024 season. The Toronto Arrows Academy continued trying to develop rugby talent in the Toronto area, led by former Canadian international Jamie Cudmore and assisted by ex-Arrows players Noel Reid and Sam Malcolm, but this only lasted for a few months after the Arrows withdrew from MLR.

A week later, the Rugby New York Ironworkers also announced they they were folding and would not compete in 2024. NY and Toronto joined MLR in the same season and, somewhat poetically, left at the same time. Following the Arrows demise another professional team emerged in British Columbia, the Vancouver Highlanders. This team does not compete in MLR however and as of the conclusion of the 2024 season, Major League Rugby has not returned to Canada.

Records & Records Holders

All Time

Top Scorer: Sam Malcolm (370pts)
Top Try Scorer: GastĂ³n Mieres (15)
Top Playoff Scorer: Sam Malcolm (11pts)
Top Tackler: Lucas Rumball (770)
Top Meter Eater: GastĂ³n Mieres (2,681m)
Most Capped: Mike Sheppard (58)
Most Starts: Lucas Rumball (51)

Single Season

Top Scorer: Sam Malcolm (152pts) – 2019
Top Try Scorer: Dan Moor (7) – 2019 and JoaquĂ­n Tuculet & Manuel Montero (7) – 2021
Top Tackler: Lucas Rumball (228) – 2021
Top Meter Eater: Dan Moor (1,124m) – 2019

historical performance

2019: 11-0-5 (+110) – 57pts: 3rd (Semifinalist)
2020: 4-0-1 (+62) – 19pts: 1st in Eastern Conference
2021: 5-0-11 (-1) – 30pts: 6th in Eastern Conference
2022: 8-0-8 (-24) – 41pts: 4th in Eastern Conference
2023: 1-2-13 (-295) – 16pts: 6th in Eastern Conference

Overall Regular Season Record: 29-2-33
Overall Championship Series Record: 0-1
Championship Series Appearances: 1 (2019)

The Old Mate

Total Possessions: 6
Longest Streak: 4 Games
First Possession: 2019 – Rd 7
Last Possession: 2022 – Rd 17
Successful Challenges: 3
Failed Challenges: 1
Challenge Success Rate: 75.00%
Successful Defences: 3
Failed Defences: 3
Defence Success Rate: 50.00%

Head Coach & Captain

head coach
  • Chris Silverthorn (2019-2021)
  • Peter Smith (2021-2023)
  • Stephen Meehan (2024)*

*= Meehan was named as coach for the Arrows in 2024, but the team folded before he could take charge.

captain

 Logo & Jersey

Ontario Arrows Pre-MLR
2019-2023
Unused 2024 Logo

The Ontario Arrows logo (far left) features a golden arrow above the Toronto skyline, forming the bridge of an ‘A’ within a circle (an ‘O’, for Ontario). This logo was excellent but was changed when the Arrows rebranded as the Toronto Arrows and entered MLR. The MLR logo for the vast majority of the Arrows time in MLR featured an interlocking ‘T’ and ‘A’ in white and dark blue. The Arrows jerseys were typically dark blue for their home kits, and white for their away. They have played in blue and white hoops with a collar during the 2021 season which was a fan favourite.

The Toronto Arrows when through a rebrand following the 2023 season, changing their logo to reflect their aeronautic history and changing the logo to just an ‘A’, removing the ‘T’ to market themselves more as Canada’s team rather than just Toronto’s team. The colour scheme seems to be red, light blue, and grey, and while we were lucky enough to see the new logos, we did not get to see the Arrows’ jerseys for the 2024 season before the team shut down.

Venues

In 2019, the Arrows split their home games between Alumni Field (3,500 Capacity) at York University, and Lamport Stadium (9,600 Capacity) in the Liberty Village neighbourhood of Toronto, which they shared with the Toronto Wolfpack rugby league side. This was the plan for their 2020 home games, but the season was cancelled before any Arrows home games were held. In 2021, the Arrows played their entire season based in the USA, sharing facilities with Rugby ATL, playing their ‘home’ games at Lupo Family Field (2,500 Capacity). Between 2022-2023, the Arrows played their home games at York Lions Stadium (4,000 Capacity) at York University. This is outside of the downtown core but still on the Toronto subway line, and drew healthy crowds even through their miserable 2023 season.

York Lions Stadium

 

New England Free Jacks

Background & History

The New England Free Jacks on 21st September 2018 as part of the wave of Major League Rugby expansion ahead of the 2020 season, joining the league alongside Rugby ATL (now a part of the California Legion) and Old Glory DC. The team was founded by Errik Anderson and former USA Eagle Alex Magelby, and is owned by a consortium that includes former NFL-ers Nate Ebner and Patrick Chung.

The Free Jacks would play their first ever game against the Ontario Arrows (later the Toronto Arrows) on October 20, 2018 at the Wanderers Grounds in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Through their first 4 seasons in Major League Rugby, the New England Free Jacks performance could be summarized as steadily increasing performance. With the exception of the 2020 season when they held a 1-4 record before the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the season, the Free Jacks have always finished with a positive record, improving every year (see below in ‘Historical Performance’ section) and recording a 13-0-3 record in 2022 which was the best regular season record in MLR history at the time, qualifying for the post-season but suffering a shock defeat to eventual Champions Rugby New York in the Eastern Conference Final.

The New England Free Jacks’ 2022 record was surpassed the following year by the San Diego Legion’s 15-0-1 season. The Free Jacks themselves recorded a 14-0-2 record in 2023, once again qualifying for the Championship Series as the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Free Jacks would not slip up as they did the year before, and easily saw off Old Glory DC in the Conference Final to advance to the Championship Final against the San Diego Legion in Chicago. Thanks to a 77th minute try by Le Roux Malan, the Free Jacks prevailed 24-25 victors in arguably the best MLR final to date to lift their first MLR Shield. The Free Jacks title defence in 2024 saw them finish the regular season with an 11-5 record at the top of the Eastern Conference once again, defeating local rivals Old Glory DC and the Chicago Hounds to claim the Eastern Conference Championship in back-to-back seasons. Standing between them and back-to-back Shields lay the only team in MLR history to have achieved back-to-back titles, the Seattle Seawolves playing in their 4th final. A back-and-forth final was defined by discipline and defence, and the Free Jacks put on a defensive masterclass in MLR’s lowest scoring final to date, emerging as 11-20 victors in San Diego and joined the Seawolves as Back-to-Back MLR Champions.

The Free Jacks’ 2x Title Defence got off to a shaky start in 2025. New England found themselves 2-3 after 5 games, before a huge comeback victory on the road against the Utah Warriors started a 7-game win streak. To the surprise of no-one, the Free Jacks finished the regular season atop the Eastern Conference with an 11-5 record and 55pts, guaranteeing home field advantage in the postseason. New England dominated the Miami Sharks in the Conference Semifinals before squeezing past the Chicago Hounds in the Eastern Conference Final thanks to a Hounds penalty kick off the upright in the final play of the game to secure a 21-20 victory and claim the Eastern Conference title for the 3rd straight year. The Free Jacks faced the Houston SaberCats in the 2025 Championship game in Rhode Island in what was definitely a home fixture for the Free Jacks. Looking to complete the Threepeat, New England took the lead after 7 minutes, and never trailed. They secured a 28-22 victory and their 3rd straight MLR Shield in front of a home crowd in New England!

Records & Record Holders

2025 MLR Champions
2024 MLR Champions
2023 MLR Champions

alltime

Top Scorer: Jayson Potroz (353pts)
Top Try Scorer: Paula Balekana (40)
Top Playoff Scorer: Jayson Potroz (44)
Top Tackler: Wian Conradie (876)
Top Meter Eater: Paula Balekana (3,701m)
Most Capped Player: Joe Johnston (67)
Most Starts: Wian Conradie (60)

single season

Top Scorer: Jayson Potroz (181pts) – 2024
Top Try Scorer: Paula Balekana (15) – 2023, 2025
Top Tackler: Wian Conradie (234) – 2023
Top Meter Eater: Reece MacDonald (1,535m) – 2024

historical performance

2020: 1-4 (-19) – 9pts: 6th in Eastern Conference
2021: 10-0-6 (+28) – 48pts: 4th in Eastern Conference
2022: 13-0-3 (+126) – 62pts: 1st in Eastern Conference (Conference Finalist)
2023: 14-0-2 (+283) – 68pts: 1st in Eastern Conference (Champions x1)
2024: 11-0-5 (+119) – 55pts: 1st in Eastern Conference (Champions x2)
2025: 11-0-5 (+84) – 55pts: 1st in Eastern Conference (Champions x3)

Overall Regular Season Record: 60-0-25
Overall Championship Series Record: 8-1
Championship Series Appearances: 4 (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)

The Old Mate

Total Possessions: 20
Longest Streak: 7 Games
First Possession: 2021 – Rd 8
Last Possession: 2026 – Rd 2
Successful Challenges: 6
Failed Challenges: 2
Challenge Success Rate: 75.00%
Successful Defences: 14
Failed Defences: 6
Defence Success Rate: 70.00%

Head Coach & Captain

Head Coach
Captain

Logo & Jersey

Free Jacks Logo
Alternate Logo

The New England Free Jacks’ logo and iconography are drawn from the American Revolution. Their primary logo is a hand holding a 18th century lantern in dark blue, with the light from the lantern coloured red, all with a white outline. The lantern is a nod to the famous ‘One if by land, two if by sea’ during Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride, to warn the revolutionaries of the British Army’s approach during the Revolutionary War. Indeed, the Free Jacks have a variation of the logo showing Paul Revere atop a horse.

Throughout their time in Major League Rugby, the New England Free Jacks have had consistently highly-praised kits, often small variations on red, white, and blue hoops with a collar, typically a winning combination for rugby. For 2023 & 2024, the Free Jacks ran 3 kits, a primarily blue (home kit both years), a primarily red (2023 alternate, 2024 away), and a primarily white kits (2023 away, 2024 alternate), all of which sported hoops and a collar.

The Free Jacks have also sported a mainly dark green jersey for St. Patrick’s Day 2022, and green hooped jersey for St. Patrick’s Day 2023, as well as a baseball-themed red jersey for their city kit in 2023.

Venue

For their exhibition season 2018/19, the New England Free Jacks played their home games out of the Union Point Sports Complex, which hosted the Free Jacks and the ‘A’ sides of the 4 Irish Provinces for the Cara Cup in 2019. The Free Jacks had intended to play their 2020 season out of UPSC but the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic prior to the Free Jacks hosting a game. The Free Jacks did play a ‘home’ game in 2020, but this was at the Sam Boyd in Whitney, NV which hosted many teams as part of a ‘season kick off’ event. The Free Jacks played the majority of their 2021 home games at UPSC.

Since their final game of the 2021 season, the New England Free Jacks have called Veterans’ Memorial Stadium in Quincy, MA home. Nicknamed ‘Fort Quincy’, the 5,000-seater synthetic turf stadium is owned by the City of Quincy and operated by Heritage Sports Ventures, originally a strategic partner of the Free Jacks in 2021 prior to being purchased by the team in January of 2022.

Veteran’s Memorial Stadium

 

 

2022 – Championship Final: Rugby New York v Seattle Seawolves

Rugby New York host the Seattle Seawolves for the 2022 MLR Championship Final at Red Bull Arena.

The 25,000 seater stadium is home to the New York Red Bulls of the MLS, and because this was arranged on such short notice, there was a very low turnout of just under 2,000.

The visiting Seawolves got off to a dream start, scoring the first try in under 5 minutes after their forwards made ground, finished by Martin Iosefo who found a gap. AJ Alatimu was unable to convert and so Seattle led 5-0 early. A NY box kick was mishandled shortly after to give possession back to the hosts, and Will Tucker rumbled through tacklers to score. Jason Emery added the 2 to give the hosts a 7-5 lead not even 10 minutes in. Alatimu made up for his earlier miss by slotting a penalty to give the lead back to Seattle and Jason Emery was given an opportunity to slot a penalty of his own for NY, but was unable to do so. Shortly after, a strong New York kick chase bundled the receiver into touch to provide the home side with an attacking platform, and while their drive was stopped, referee Federico Anselmi deemed it was done so illegally and awarded a penalty try as well as handing Rhyno Herbst a yellow card. This was a first Penalty Try in a MLR Championship Final. New York would score again around 10 minutes later after creating a four-on-one overlap that was an easy finish for Andy Ellis. The conversion was missed and that would be the final score of the half, New York now leading 19-8.

The first points of the 2nd half also went to the hosts, with Emery slotting a penalty to keep the scoreboard ticking over, before the half the New York pack delivered a delightful score full of offloads, chip throughs, and dummies that was finished by Nic Mayhew. Seattle struck back through Sam Matenga, who barrelled his way through the New York line to score. Alatimu’s conversion brought the score to 27-15 to the hosts. The Seawolves kept asking questions, with a Reid Watkins chip through forcing Will Tucker into a cynical foul resulting in a yellow card, before Will’s brother Brad almost added another for Seattle, but it was called back. A Sam Windsor drop goal in the 73rd minute put New York over 2 scores in front, and put the game to bed. Seattle had the ball with the clock in the red but Andy Ellis disrupted the play and forced the knock on. It would be the last act of World Cup Champion and former All Black Ellis’ professional playing career, as the Man of the Match announced his retirement in the post game press conference.

The Seattle Seawolves fall at the final hurdle, their first ever Championship Series loss coming in their 3rd MLR final in 5 years. The Shield goes to Rugby New York, and marks the first time that an Eastern Conference team has lifted it.

 

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