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.

2024 – RD 7: Rugby FC LA v Seattle Seawolves

The Seattle Seawolves travel down the west coast to face Rugby FC LA at Dignity Health Sports Park in a Western Conference Clash during Round 7 of the 2024 MLR season.

Although it took almost 20 minutes, the Seattle Seawolves took the lead through the boot of Sam Windsor and never looked back. Their convincing 5-try, 5-36 victory puts them into first in the Western Conference and top of the entire MLR.

Seawolves Captain Riekert Hattingh scored 2 tries in this game, the 40th and 41st of his MLR career. Hattingh is just the 2nd player in MLR history to pass the 40 tries scored mark, behind Dylan Fawsitt of the Chicago Hounds (on 47 at time of writing). Hattingh also gained 83m with ball in hand to take his career MLR total to 5,069m, becoming the 3rd player in MLR history to pass 5,000m gained behind NOLA Gold’s JP du Plessis (5,349m) and San Diego Legion’s Mikey Te’o (5,437m).

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2024 – RD 7: San Diego Legion v NOLA Gold

The NOLA Gold travel to the Snapdragon Stadium in California to face the San Diego Legion in a cross-conference clash during Round 7 of the 2024 season.

The first half was entirely the hosts’. They ran out to a 17-0 lead over last season’s runners-up, and looked completely in control for the first 40. It’s unclear if the Gold took their foot off the gas, or if Legion coach Danny Lee gave an all-time great half-time speech to his San Diego team, but the 2nd half was almost entirely the visitors.

The Legion held the Gold to just 3pts in the 2nd half while scoring 33 of their own to claim a 20-33 BP victory on the road after a shaky first 40. The Gold will have to wait until either the Championship Final or the 2025 season to have another crack at defeating the Legion, a feat that they have never achieved in now 8 attempts.

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2024 – RD 7: Chicago Hounds v Anthem RC

Anthem RC travel to the windy city to face the Chicago Hounds at Seatgeek Stadium in an Eastern Conference clash during Round 7 of the 2024 season.

The Hounds started strong and fast, racing out to a 26-0 lead and securing the Try BP just after the 1st half hydration break. This was the exact position that they were in against the Seattle Seawolves a few weeks previous, before the Seawolves fought back to win decisively. This would have no doubt played on the Hounds’ minds as Anthem got themselves into the game with two tries before half-time both heavily involving Te Rangatira Waitokia, a clear standout for the Charlotte outfit. Dylan ‘The Butcher’ Fawsitt struck back on the stroke of HT for a first-half hattrick (the 38th in MLR history, 2nd for the Hounds and, amazingly the first of Fawsitt’s MLR career) to swing the momentum back towards the hosts.

As has been a problem for Anthem so far this season, they began to tail off as the game went on. Jason Higgins scored the 2nd hattrick of his MLR career for the Hounds as they ran rampant in the 2nd half, becoming the first player in MLR history to score hattricks for 2 different teams (San Diego & Chicago)! Anthem did dot down twice more to secure a try BP of their own, but it was the Hounds’ day as they racked up 9 tries in total en route to a 59-26 victory, their first at home in over a year.

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2024 – RD 7: Houston SaberCats v New England Free Jacks

The New England Free Jacks travel down to Texas to take on the undefeated Houston SaberCats in a cross-conference clash at SaberCats Stadium.

In a game that would make defence coaches wince, the visitors emerged as 35-47 victors after a combined 13-try scorefest! The SaberCats scored 2 tries within the final 10 minutes to bring the score back to 35-40, but a Free Jacks try in the final minute sealed the result. With the SaberCats recording their first loss of the season, all 12 MLR teams in 2024 have now lost and no teams remain undefeated. Houston had an off day from the tee, combining for 2/7 and only 1 of their 6 conversions.

In a game where Free Jacks’ center Wayne van der Bank received a yellow card, he also recorded his first career MLR hattrick in this game, the 37th in league history, and the 4th in club history for New England who take the bonus point victory on the road to extend their lead atop the Eastern Conference.

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Trent Rogers

Ohio front rower Trent Rogers played in Major League Rugby between 2023-2024. He represented the NOLA Gold for his entire MLR career.

A native of Cincinnati, OH, Trent Rogers captained both the rugby and football teams at Anderson HS, before attending Kutztown University and continuing to play rugby. Rogers was named a Collegiate All-American while at Kutztown and declared for the 2022 MLR Collegiate Draft following his graduation, where he was selected in the 1st Round (7th Overall) by the NOLA Gold.

Rogers spent the Fall with the NOLA Gold academy side, and played with New Orleans RFC at the start of 2023 before heading to Charlotte to join the USA Hawks development team, and did not appear at MLR level as a result. Still under contract with NOLA, Trent Rogers returned for the Gold for the 2024 season, earning his pro debut and 3 appearances off the bench to help the team qualify for the postseason for the first time in their history. Following the 2024 MLR season, Rogers returned to Ohio and has been playing with Cincinnati RFC at club level.

 AChievements
  • 2022 MLR Draftee: 1st Round (7th Overall) – NOLA Gold

2024 – RD 7: Dallas Jackals v Utah Warriors

The Dallas Jackals host the Utah Warriors in a Western Conference clash at Choctaw Stadium.

The Jackals came into this game having never defeated the Utah Warriors in 4 previous meetings, and were on the wrong end of some close games in teh 2024 season up to this point. They were looking for their first home victory of the 2024 campaign over a struggling Warriors side.

The hosts led 14-10 at the half time break, a familiar situation as they had led at HT in their previous two games and come away with 2 losses. They slotted a penalty to extend their lead before the Warriors pulled it back to 17-13 through the boot of Joel Hodgson before an expertly finished Michael Manson try pushed them into the lead. Hodgson added the 2 to give the guests a 17-20 lead in the closing stages.

The Jackals were awarded a penalty with maybe a minute remaining and, not content to draw, kicked for the corner. Dallas’ fearsome maul had resulted in 5 tries the previous week and they felt it could deliver again, a feeling that was proved correct as replacement hooker Tomas Bekerman trundled over to secure the victory in front of a home crowd. The conversion was missed but it made no difference, the hosts emerged as 22-20 victors to really cement their place in the Top 4 in the West.

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2024 – RD 6: Old Glory DC v Rugby FC LA

Rugby FC LA travel from coast to coast to face Old Glory DC at the Maryland Soccerplex in a cross-conference clash.

RFCLA struggled immensely with discipline in this match, receiving 4 yellow cards in the first half alone, including two to prop Alex Maughan, who therefore received a red. Despite this severe ill-discipline, they went into the HT break only down 14-10 by virtue of 2 missed conversions. Old Glory DC began to pull away in the second half, increasing their lead to 22-10 before the visitors began to reel them back in. A 73rd minute try by Niall Saunders brought the scores level to 22-22 which, despite 86 minutes of play, was how the game ended.

LA will be disappointed to drop a potential win, but picked up a try BP and should consider themselves lucky after a 5-card game across the country, the second very card-heavy performance of RFCLA’s young journey. Old Glory DC will be kicking themselves for letting another game end at 22-22 after they could (and perhaps should) have won both. This inconsistency could really hurt the 2023 Eastern Conference finalists.

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2024 – RD 6: NOLA Gold v Chicago Hounds

The NOLA Gold host the Chicago Hounds down in Louisiana, looking to keep their strong start to the 2024 season going.

The Chicago Hounds however, thought otherwise. The hosts took a 14-5 lead into half time, but the Hounds struck back right after half time and although the Gold did extend their lead to 21-12, a controversial red card and being down to 13 men for 10 minutes meant that they would not score again. The visitors fully exploited this, scoring 33pts in the second half to secure a comfortable BP victory on the road and put a serious dent in the Gold’s chase of 1st place in the East.

At the time, this was the most points ever scored by the Chicago Hounds, and the largest winning margin (17) in club history!

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2024 – RD 6: Seattle Seawolves v Dallas Jackals

The Dallas Jackals travel to the PNW to face the Seattle Seawolves at the formidable Starfire Stadium during Round 6 of the 2024 season.

The Seattle Seawolves continue to establish themselves as the clutch team for 2024 as, down 31-32 with a minute to go, Mack Mason slots a penalty kick to steal the victory from the Jackals at the death. The Jackals pick up two points but will be disappointed to come away without the victory, especially with an historic performance from Canadian-South African hooker Dewald Kotze, who scored all FIVE Jackals tries from the maul.

Kotze’s 5-try game sets a new MLR single game record, surpassing the 4 tries scored by Dean Muir for the Houston SaberCats against Old Glory DC in 2022.

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