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.
Rugby United New York travel to Georgia to face Rugby ATL in what would prove to be an excellent contest. RUNY would come out as 19-22 winners to hand ATL their first MLR defeat.
Zander van Schalkwyk would bag his 2nd try of the game in the last minute of the game to give ATL a losing bonus point. THe conversion was missed but even if this was successful it wouldn’t have given ATL the victory.
19 v 22 
IronworkersThe Toronto Arrows travel to the Pacific Northwest to take on the Seattle Seawolves at Starfire Stadium in a repeat of the 2019 MLR Semi-final that saw the Seawolves defeat the Arrows to advance to the 2019 Major League Rugby final.
While the match up was the same, the result was very different. The Arrows led early from the boot of Sam Malcolm and despite Seattle scoring the first try 25 minutes in, they only held the lead for 7 minutes before Arrows Captain Dan Moor scored to give Toronto back the lead which they held on to for the rest of the game, emerging with a comfortable 17-39 win to hand Seattle their 3rd defeat on the trot and secure Toronto’s 3rd victory.
Sam Malcolm shined for the Arrows, setting an MLR record with his 9/9 performance from the tee. The highest 100% success rate in a single MLR match. At the conclusion of the 2022 MLR season, Malcolm’s 24pts was still T-2nd for in MLR history for points scored by a single player in an MLR game.
The Utah Warriors travel to Bold Stadium within the Circuit of the Americas to face the Austin Gilgronis. This game took place on February 22nd, 2020 and at the time, Austin had not won a MLR game since 1st June, 2018.
The Gilgronis are desperate for a win, and were holding a 20-13 lead into the last minute of the game when the Utah Warriors used an attacking lineout to set upa driving maul that could not be stopped with Kalolo Tuiloma eventually darting over from close range, and Hagen Schulte nailing the conversion to tie the game at the final whistle, 20-20.
It’s the first time in 20 games that Austin came away with something more than a loss, but they were so close to a victory that a draw may well have felt like defeat.
In the final Major League Rugby game held at Sam Boyd Stadium, the San Diego Legion faced the Colorado Raptors in front of the Las Vegas crowd.
The Legion came away with a comfortable 49-22 victory. Interestingly, the Raptors became the 4th team in one weekend to score 22pts with only one of these teams taking a win.
Major League Rugby expansion side Rugby ATL head west to Louisiana to face NOLA Gold at the Gold Mine, in a battle of the south!
The Gold have faced two 2020 expansion sides in as many weeks, with a very different outcome in this game to their Round 1 result. Rugby ATL emerged as 10-22 winners on the road with Kurt Coleman slotting 4 penalties from the tee and Rory van Vugt’s 79th minute try securing the victory for the RATLERS, who move to 2-0 on the season.
After a thumping in their first ever Major League Rugby game, Old Glory DC earn their first ever MLR victory in front of a home crowd at Cardinal Stadium.
It would have given fans and players extra confidence that this victory came against the back-to-back Champion Seattle Seawolves who fall to 0-2 on the season after this defeat, but did pick up a losing bonus point for their efforts, mainly thanks to Brock Staller’s 6/6 effort from the tee, for 17 of Seattle’s 22 points.
The Toronto Arrows and Houston SaberCats put on a great rugby spectacle in Vegas when they met at Sam Boyd Stadium.
There was buckets of later drama, with the Arrows led 27-15 with 5 minuters to go when a yellow card to Tomy de la Vega took them down to 14 men. Shortly after this, a converted Houston try took the score to 27-22 with minutes to go and Houston on attack when a high tackle from Toronto lock Mike Sheppard resulted in a red card, sending the Canadian outfit down to 13 men with one play to go.
The ‘Cats kicked to the corner and set up a strong rolling maul that reached and crossed the try line……but the referee ruled that the ball had been held up, and that was the end of the game, with Toronto emerging 27-22 winners.
In another Major League Rugby game held at Sam Boyd Stadium in las Vegas to celebrate the kick off of the 2020 MLR season, Rugby United New York and the Austin Gilgronis gave the crowd plenty to cheer about with a 11 try game that ultimately went the way of New York.
Austin continue their MLR-record losing streak that dates all the way back to 2018, followed by a 0-16 season in 2019.
49 v 31 
Gilgronis
Arrows
Old Glory
Warriors
Gold