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.

Chris Latham

Ex-Wallaby Chris Latham has served as a coach in MLR in 2020, and again between 2024-2026. He served as Head Coach of the Utah Warriors (2020), Assistant Coach for the Seattle Seawolves (2024), and Head Coach of the Chicago Hounds (2025-2026).

Latham’s playing career saw him represent the Wests Bulldogs in the Australian Premier League, as well as the NSW Waratahs for the 1997/98 Super 12 (now Super Rugby) season. Latham moved to the Queensland Reds ahead of the 1998/99 season and earned over 100 Super Rugby caps for the Reds between 1998-2008. While playing for the Reds in 1998, Latham earned his test debut for the Wallabies and appeared in 78 games for Australia, representing them at Three Rugby World Cups, winning in 1999, finishing 2nd in 2003, and recovered from an ACL injury to represent Australia in 2007. He scored 40 test tries (2nd in Wallabies history) including 5 against Nambia at the 2003 RWC, where Australia finished as runners-up to England. Following an impressive international career, Latham signed with the Worcester Warriors in the English Premiership in 2008, earning just shy of 50 appearances for the English side between 2008-2010, when Latham signed with Kyuden Voltex in Japan, where he played until he retired in 2012.

Latham is no stranger to Major League Rugby, having served as Head Coach of the Utah Warriors during the truncated 2020 season, where the Warriors went 2-1-2 before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the league to cancel the season. Latham stepped down ahead of 2021 due to personal reasons, he returned to his native Australia and continued his coaching career before joining the Seattle Seawolves as an Assistant Coach for the 2024 season when Seattle finished as MLR Runners-up. Latham returned to the Head Coach role on 11th September 2024 when the Chicago Hounds announced him as their head coach ahead of the 2025 MLR Season. In his first year in Chicago, Latham led the Hounds to a team record 11-5 finish (2nd in the Eastern Conference) and defeated Old Glory DC to advance to the Eastern Conference Final, falling to the New England Free Jacks in heartbreaking fashion.

Head Coach Record

Overall: 14-1-8
Chicago Hounds (2025): 12-6
Utah Warriors (2020): 2-1-2

John Manenti

Australian coach John Manenti served as a Major League Rugby Head Coach during the 2025 season, in charge of the San Diego Legion.

Manenti has extensive experience in the Australia Sevens program, joining as an Assistant Coach in 2015 before his first role as Head Coach of the Women’s side headed into the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 where they finished 5th following a loss to Fiji in the Quarter-Finals. Following the Olympics, Manenti switched over to the Men’s program for the 2021/22 World Rugby Sevens series, which the Australian men won for the first time in program history for the men’s side. The Aussie men backed this up with golds in Hong Kong and London, and Manenti led them into the 2024 Olympics in France where they finished a heartbreaking 4th following losses to Fiji in the Semi-Finals and South Africa in the Bronze Medal game.

Manenti officially took over as Head Coach of the San Diego Legion on September 1st, 2024.

Ryan Martin

New Zealander Ryan Martin Coached in Major League Rugby in 2021, and again from 2025-2026. He served as Head Coach of the New England Free Jacks for his entire MLR career.

Martin began coaching at grassroots level in his native New Zealand, spending 17 years in schools before coaching professionally. He started with Otago Boys’ High School, coaching the squad to national finals and a 64-game unbeaten streak. In 2016 his talents were rewarded when he was given the opportunity to coach the New Zealand Barbarians Schools side. He moved up to the Otago NPC side in 2018, serving as their Attack & Backs coach between 2018-2020 before MLR came calling. Named as the Head Coach of the New England Free Jacks following their inaugural MLR season in 2020, the Free Jacks banked a strong 10-6 record under Coach Martin.

Upon the conclusion of the 2021 MLR season, Martin was presented with an opportunity to coach at Super Rugby level, serving as the Attack & Backs Coach for the Melbourne Rebels between 2021-2022, before moving to Japan and serving the same role for Toyota Verblitz under Steve Hansen. When Scott Mathie departed New England for Edinburgh in the URC after back-to-back Shields, Martin returned to the Head Coach role with the Free Jacks early in the off-season, ahead of the 2025 MLR season. He re-joined the Free Jacks from Northland in New Zealand’s NPC competition, where he was serving as attack coach for the 2024/25 season. Despite a rocky start to the 2025 season, the Free Jacks recovered to record an 11-5 record in 2025 and top the Eastern Conference. Playoff victories against the Miami Sharks and a thriller with the Chicago Hounds in the Eastern Conference Final meant the Free Jacks met the Houston SaberCats in the 2025 final, emerging as 27-22 victors to secure their 3rd successive MLR Shield, the first of Ryan Martin’s career.

Head Coach Record

Overall: 21-11
New England Free Jacks (2021, 2025): 21-11

Achievements

 

2024 Championship Final: Seattle Seawolves v New England Free Jacks

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.

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2025 MLR Fixtures/Results

This page displays all fixtures and results from the 2025 Major League Rugby season, including both regular season and playoff games.

The schedule for the 2025 season was released league-wide on November 19th, 2024. The season kicks-off on February 15th, 2025, a few weeks earlier than the 2024 season to avoid the July test window. The season will consist of an 88-game regular season from February 15th to June 8th, followed by a 7 game Post-Season to crown the 2025 MLR Champions.

All 88 regular season games can be found in the calendar below, although you may need to skip ahead to next February if you’re viewing this during the off-season.

2024 Western Conference Final – Seattle Seawolves v Dallas Jackals

The Seattle Seawolves host the Dallas Jackals in the 2024 Western Conference Final at Starfire Stadium in Tukwila, WA for a spot in the 2024 MLR Championship Final

The Seattle Seawolves defeated the San Diego Legion 30-28 in the latest chapter of their historic MLR rivalry to advance to the WCF, while the Dallas Jackals ran out to 22-34 victors against the #1 seeded Houston SaberCats, earning a shock victory over their Texas Rivals at SaberCats Stadium. Dallas suffered a late injury in the warm up, as star no. 8 Sam Tuifua had to withdraw at the last minute. Marques Fuala’au replaced him and travelling reserve Joaquin Horcada came onto the bench.

It was the visitors who opened the scoring through the boot of Juan-Dee Oliver as both teams tussled for the upper hand in the opening stages. The Jackals would extend their lead thanks to a wonderful finish in the corner from Nic Benn to lead 0-10 after Oliver added the extras. The Jackals had got off to a dream start but this was about to turn into a nightmare. Dallas prop JP Zeiss was shown a yellow card for repeat offences despite no warning from referee Scott Green, and just a minute later Green awarded the Seawolves a penalty try and showed Makeen Alikhan a yellow, handing Seattle 7pts and reducing Dallas to 13 men for almost a full 10 minutes. Despite this nightmare scenario, the 13-man Jackals performed well and managed to extend their lead to 7-13 as the Seawolves just lacked accuracy in the red zone, and squandered a golden opportunity to take control of the game. With Dallas’ two yellow cards set to expire, the Seawolves were reduced to 14-men with Moni Ngakuru sent to the bin, before Nic Benn bagged his 2nd of the game on the half hour mark. Oliver slotted the two to give Dallas a healthy 7-20 lead. The Seawolves would hit back with a 7-pointer from USA Eagle Joe Taufete’e to reduce the gap to 6 before the break, but it was Dallas who held the lead and weathered a 13-man spell.

The second half began much like the first, but the hosts bagged the first score of the 2nd frame through captain JP Smith, and Mack Mason added the two to give the Seawolves their first lead of the game, 21-20. Smith would again make noise but for the wrong reasons. Clean through, he fumbled theball in the Dallas try zone completely unprovoked to squander another golden opportunity for the Seawolves and not long after, a Jackals maul rumbled into the try zone to give the guests a 21-25 lead with6 minutes to play. Just as with so many of their games in 2024, the Jackals could not hold on for the final few minutes, as Ryan Rees finished a wonderful run from Divan Rossouw in the 79th minute to seal the game for the hosts on the final play of the game. Windsor added the extras for a final score of 28-25, and the Seawolves once again pull off a come-from-behind playoffs victory in the final minutes. JP Smith will be relieved!

The battered and bruised Seawolves advance to the FOURTH MLR final to face the New England Free Jacks for a chance to lift their 3rd shield and first since 2019. The Dallas Jackals dream 2024 comes to a heartbreaking end, but they proved that they should never be underestimated, and silenced many critics. They head to the off-season with their heads held high.

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2024 Eastern Conference Final – New England Free Jacks v Chicago Hounds

The New England Free Jacks host the Chicago Hounds in the 2024 Eastern Conference Final at Veteran’s Memorial stadium in Quincy, MA.

The Free Jacks defeated Old Glory DC 33-29 in a growing rivalry to advance to the ECF, while the Chicago Hounds defeated the NOLA Gold 21-45 on the road in Louisiana in both teams’ first ever playoff game.

The game started with both teams trying to gain field position and the upper hand and both sides gave away plenty of penalties early on, but neither chose to go for points. Free Jacks’ prop John-Roy Jenkinson lasted only 13 minutes before injury sidelined him so Cole Keith would have to play almost 70 minutes in the front row. The first score of the game came after 20 minutes as Paula Balekana received a floated pass over the top and managed to offload to Reece MacDonald before going into touch for an easy finish, and the hosts were on the board. Potroz could add the two but would get another chance soon enough as MacDonald scythed through the Hounds defence to bag his 2nd in 3 minutes, but Potroz failed to add the extras again, so the Free Jacks lead was 10-0 after 23 minutes. It looked as though the score would stay that way into the half as both sides settled back in to the back and forth that defined the early game, but Nate Augspurger was able to grab one for the visitors on the stroke of half time, and Luke Carty added the two to cut the deficit to only 3pts at the break.

Potroz must’ve found his kicking boots during half-time, because he added 3 early in the 2nd half to extend the Free Jacks’ lead, but they would go down to 14 men following a yellow card to Conor Keys and Luke Carty stepped up to cancel out Potroz’s kick. The Hounds were unable to capitalise on the man advantage however, and Potroz would slot another 3 just before the 60min break. With just under 15 minutes to go, Dylan Fawsitt grabbed the ball at the back of a Chicago maul, and his patented try-scoring method didn’t let them down. His 14th of the season brought the visitors within 1 before Carty added the two to give the Hounds their first lead of the game. This was short-lived however, as 5 minutes later the Free Jacks struck back through their own hooker, as Andrew Quattrin grabbed his 8th of the year to swing the lead back to the hosts before Potroz added the two.

The Chicago Hounds were unable to break the Free Jacks defence in the final 7 minutes and the 23-17 score was how things ended. The Chicago Hounds’ 2024 season comes to an end after a heroic performance against the reigning Champions, who head back to the MLR Final for the 2nd year in a row with a chance to win back-to-back shields.

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2024 Western Conference SF 2 – Seattle Seawolves v San Diego Legion

The Seattle Seawolves (#2) host the San Diego Legion (#3) in the Western Conference Final in the latest chapter of MLR’s most storied rivalry, for a spot in the Western Conference Final. This game marks the SEVENTEENTH meeting between the two original teams, and the 5th in the MLR Playoffs. The Legion held a 7-5 record in regular season meetings, but the Seattle Seawolves had the upper hand in the post season, with a 3-1 record heading into this game.

The early game scoring was an exchange of penalties, with Matt Giteau nailing two penalties, sandwiching a Mack Mason kick to give the Legion a 3-6 lead before Duncan Matthews got on the end of a kick through to give the hosts the first try of the game and an 8-6 lead. Marcel Brache was handed a yellow card for a challenge in the air just before the first water break, and Mason extended Seattle’s lead to 11-6. The Legion managed to hold off the Seawolves with a man down, but Rhyno Herbst broke through just as it expired to further extend the lead to 18-6 following the conversion. The Legion didn’t look like breaching the famous ‘Sea Wall’ at all in the first half, but Giteau added another 3 to close the gap to 9pts at the half-time whistle following around 12 minutes of bruising play from both sides.

The Second half started as the first ended. bruising plays and each team trying to get the upper hand, with both defences holding firm. A deliberate knock-on from Seattle sent Tavite Lopeti to the bin for 10 minutes at the 2nd water break, and the Legion capitalised with a rolling maul try shortly after. The hosts hit back following a great run out wide from Toni Pulu, who kicked it through for Tomas Aoake to gather which he did so illegally so the ref had no choice but to award a penalty try to Seattle and send Aoake to the bin for 10. The Legion returned to the Seawolves half after the restart and after throwing it wide, a clear and obvious deliberate knock-on was missed by both the officials and the TMO allowing Seattle to gather possession and clear their lines, with which they flipped the field and Pago Haini added a 4th for the hosts to all but finish the game, now leading 30-14 with 5 minutes to go. Aoake would redeem his earlier mistake with a great finish in the corner in the 78th minute, and with the clock in the red the Legion would score again with a penalty try of their own, but it was too little too late for San Diego.

The Seattle Seawolves advance to face the Dallas Jackals in the Western Conference Final with a spot in the MLR Championship final up for grabs. The final score of 30-28 flatters the San Diego Legion, who didn’t look like they would break the Seattle Defence for the vast majority of this game, but having faced more turnaround in their squad during the offseason than any other team in MLR, they can be happy with a successful season, as much as they would’ve liked to finish it with a Shield.

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2024 Eastern Conference SF 2 – NOLA Gold v Chicago Hounds

The NOLA Gold (#2) host the Chicago Hounds (#3) at the Gold Mine in the first MLR playoff game for both clubs, and a spot in the Eastern Conference Final on the line. These two teams split the regular season series 1-1, with both road teams taking the win, and the Hounds edge the aggregate score 51-46.

The hosts would take an early lead, possibly better adjusted to the Louisiana humidity. A Rodney Iona penalty was built on by a scything run by Jordan Jackson-Hope to finish in the corner gave the Gold a 8-0 lead after a missed conversion, before the Chicago Hounds took their turn. A Luke Carty penalty followed by a trademark Dylan Fawsitt off the back of a maul, his 13th of the season and first of the 2024 playoffs. Carty added the extras for a narrow lead at the first water break. Carty’s boot extended the visitors lead before 2023 draft pick Julian Roberts hit back for the Gold, levelling the scores at 13-13 following another missed conversion. Iona was true from the boot with a penalty not long after however, to swing the lead back towards the hosts and give them a 3pt lead just after the half hour mark. Unfortunately for the Gold, this is where things got messy. Jordan Jackson-Hope received a yellow card that really hindered the NOLA defence, and Julian Dominguez was able to barrel through 3 would-be tacklers to shift the lead back to the hosts before the HT break.

Still with 14 men when play resumed, the Gold would concede again off the restart thanks to a lucky bounce and opportunistic score for Nate Augspurger, and the Chicago Hounds now held a commanding 16-23 lead which was extended around 10 minutes later by the boot of Luke Carty once again. NOLA would hit back through Jonah Mau’u on a phenomenal line from a line-out, and some poor Chicago tackling saw him go all the way to close the gap to 5pts, but this would be the final score from the hosts. 5 minutes later and seemingly from nowhere, Hounds Captain Billy Meakes burst through the NOLA line to score his first try of the season, which visibly thumped the wind out of the Gold’s sails. Alex Lopeti would receive NOLA’s 2nd yellow card shortly afterwards and a dejected Gold side would concede a 5th and 6th try (James Scott and Jason Higgins respectively) in the final 15 to really blow out the score. A 21-45 road victory for the Chicago Hounds will see them advance to face the New England Free Jacks in the Eastern Conference Final in Quincy.

The NOLA Gold end their first playoff campaign early, and will turn their focus to the off-season.

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2024 Western Conference SF 1 – Houston SaberCats v Dallas Jackals

MLR’s top regular season team, the Houston SaberCats (#1) host their Texas Rivals the Dallas Jackals (#4) at SaberCats Stadium for the Western Conference Semi-Finals and a spot in the Western Conference Final.

The game started as a slow burn in the Houston heat, with the first coming from the boot of AJ Alatimu 10 minutes in, before the Jackals dotted down the first try through Ronan Foley a few minutes later. The conversion missed, but Dallas would get another chance soon enough as Connor Winchester doubled their tries 5 minutes later, and Juan-Dee Oliver made no mistakes with this one. The guests lead 3-12 at the first water break, which the SaberCats must have needed because they hit back almost immediately after play resumed through Seimou Smith to close the gap, before taking the lead a few minutes later thanks to a great line break from Louritz van der Schyff to give the hosts back a 3pt lead. Oliver’s boot tied things up at 15-15 on the half hour mark, before Tomas Cubilla would notch Dallas’ 3rd try of the day. Conversion missed again gave the Jackals a 15-20 lead which remained intact at the half time break.

Gideon van Wyk came off the bench at 50 minutes and almost immediately received a yellow card, digging the ‘Cats into a deeper hole that was about to get worse. Tautalatasi Tasi, usually such a threat in midfield, attempted a grubber that he fluffed and the ball was picked up by Dallas back row Sam Tuifua who offloaded to Jason Tidwell to extend the visitors lead to 15-27 following the conversion. Houston would get one back through Andre Warner at the 65 minute mark to close the gap back to 5, before clsoe to 10 minutes of back and forth as the SaberCats tried desperately to break the Jackals’ defence, but the Houston heat and humidity was not on their side. Another SaberCats mistake with a handful of minutes remaining led to a kick through was finished by Juan-Dee Oliver, which put the game to bed. Martin Elias added the extras to take the score out of reach, and the game ended 22-34.

This marks the first time ever that the Dallas Jackals have defeated their rivals from Houston, and what a time to deliver. They advance to the Western Conference Finals to face the Seattle Seawolves at the formidable Starfire Stadium. For the SaberCats, they still wait for their first Playoff victory, and the clubs best ever season ends early. They head to the off-season and with Director of Rugby Heneke Meyer heading back to South Africa, they face a big challenge.

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