The Major League Rugby Off-Season rollercoaster is well and truly off and running, with a second week in a row chock-full of new signings, resignings, and departures! Welcome to NARDB’s weekly off-season summary for October 14-20, 2024, keeping you up to date on all the roster moves around MLR ahead of the 2025 season. For the first time in the 2024/25 off-season, we have a multi-page summary graphic! Page 1 of this week’s summary is shown below:
New Additions – Mexico Enters MLR and Warriors stay busy!
The San Diego Legion announced a League-first at the start of last week when they shared the news that they had signed Alejandro Pradillo for the 2025 MLR Season. Pradillo has played with the San Clemente Rhinos in the World Rugby Tens Competition, as well as with the Legion Academy side. He’s also a capped Mexican international and the first Mexican player to sign with a Major League Rugby side! Congratulations to ‘Bola’, and welcome to MLR!
A pair of players from the French Top 14 will also make their way over to the US for 2025, for different sides. The NOLA Gold announced the signing of capped French international back rower Kélian Galletier from Les Sang et Or. The Gold’s links to French rugby are baring fruit already, signing the long-time Montpellier player for 2025. Heading northeast from Perpignan to Lyon, the Utah Warriors announced the addition of capped All Blacks hooker and long-time Highlanders player Liam Coltman, who’s impressive resume includes representing New Zealand at the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and even a memorable victory over the British & Irish Lions. Coltman joins from Lyon Olympique Universitaire (LOU) Rugby.
The Utah Warriors weren’t finished with the signing of Coltman, however. The Herriman-based team also announced the acquisition of a pair of test-capped Samoans, in fly-half/center D’Angelo Leuila and prop Aki Seiuli. Leuila is a 2021 NPC Champion with Waikato, played with the Moana Pasifika between 2022-2024, and represented Samoa at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. Seiuli has also played in Super Rugby, representing the Highlanders (alongside Liam Coltman) between 2014-2019, before moving to teh UK to represent the Glasgow Warriors then the Dragons in the URC, from whom he joins Utah. Seiuli earned his test debut for Samoa in the 2022 Pacific Nations Cup, which Manu Samoa won. Finally, to wrap up a busy week at Zion’s Bank, the Warriors announced the addition of 6’8 Irish lock Gavin Thornbury who joins following a short-term contract with the reigning Premiership Champions, Northampton. Thornbury is a Leinster academy product and former Ireland U20s player, who spent most of his pro career to date with Connacht in the URC and represented the Irish Wolfhounds in 2022.
Re-signings A-plenty!
Both 2024 Eastern Conference Finalists began announcing their returning players from 2025. The Chicago Hounds announced the return of their inaugural season co-Captains Bryce Campbell (USA Eagle #497 and Hound #1) and Luke White (USA Eagle #561), as well as stand-out rookie Noah Brown. Campbell‘s agency, BSMI Rugby, announced that his contract runs through the 2026 season. White & Brown’s contract lengths are unknown.
The reigning back-to-back Champion New England Free Jacks also started the ball rolling on their re-signings, announcing the return of FIVE household names in Quincy. Club Captain and capped Canadian international Josh Larsen will return for 2025, as will scrum-half John Poland who missed a huge chunk of 2024 due to injury. I’m sure the fans at the Fort will love to see him back in the 9 jersey. Also returning for the champs is star fly-half Jayson Potroz, who led the league in scoring in both 2023 & 2024, and sits on 327pts scored in his MLR career, all for the Free Jacks. To round out the announcement are a pair of front rows. Fan-favourite Kyle ‘The Eagle’ Ciquera, who has featured for the Free Jacks in the joint-most MLR games in team history (tied with Mitch Wilson, more on that later…), and 2022 S. Marcus Calloway award recipient and capped Canadian international Andrew Quattrin, who will return for a 3rd year in New England.
Also getting in on the re-signing party were the Miami Sharks, who announced a pair of returnees in 50-time Los Pumas capped center Matías Orlando (a late addition for the Sharks in 2024), and the team’s leading scorer and Chilean international Santiago Videla, who finished with 74pts in the Sharks’ inaugural season, 1pt above Uruguayan teammate Felipe Etcheverry.
Inter-League Moves
On top of the SIX new additions from outside MLR, there was a bit of musical chairs within the league last week. The Seattle Seawolves added MLR veteran Siaosi “CC” Mahoni for 2025 from the Houston SaberCats. 2025 will be Mahoni’s 8th season in MLR, having represented the San Diego Legion from 2018-2021, and Houston from 2022-2024. Mahoni has 53 MLR games under his belt and 39 starts, and has recently been included in the USA Eagles squad for their November tests.
The New England Free Jacks also announced the signing of a pair of former Dallas Jackals following their withdrawal from the 2025 season. The back-to-back defending champs signed 2024 MLR Forward of the Year Jero Gomez Vara for their three-peat bid after selecting him 11th in the dispersal draft, an absolute steal. The Free Jacks also announced the signing of capped Canadian prop Kyle Steeves, who was selected 6th in the Dispersal Draft by the NOLA Gold. It’s unclear whether the Gold & Free Jacks were involved in a trade for Steeves, or if he chose to sign in New England as a Free Agent. Steeves joins a strong Canadian contingent at Fort Quincy.
Departures and Unconfirmed Signings
The NOLA Gold continue to bid farewell to players who will not be returning to the team in 2025. The Gold announced their 6th & 7th departures of the off-season, Fintan Coleman & Dougie Fife. NOLA acquired US-eligible Irish forward Coleman in a trade with Old Glory DC in February 2024, and he earned 10 appearances for the Gold in the team’s best season to date. Capped for Scotland at both 7s and 15s levels, Dougie Fife has played in MLR for 4 seasons to date, with 2 seasons each with the New England Free Jacks (2021-2022) and the NOLA Gold (2023-2024), scoring 13 tries in 55 career MLR games (54 starts) to date, amassing over 3,000m gained in possession. It remains to be seen if Coleman and/or Fife will return to MLR in 2025.
On October 15th USA Rugby revealed the Men’s Eagles Squad for their end-of-year tests against Portugal (Nov 9th), Tonga (Nov 16th), and Spain (Nov 23rd). Within the squad announcement were some little easter eggs that look to have revealed some player moves that were not yet confirmed. For example, the New England Free Jacks had announced the departure of ‘Ironman’ Mitch Wilson back on October 11th, but his destination wasn’t yet known. The USA Squad has him listed as an Anthem RC player. Has the national team inadventantly leaked Wilson’s destination for 2025? This wasn’t the only surprise on the Eagles’ roster. Front row Alex Maughan was also listed as an Anthem RC player after representing Rugby FC LA in 2024 having followed the team from Atlanta, where the he had played for 4 seasons. A USA Eagle and North Carolina native, Anthem is a great fit for Maughan should this be accurate. Finally, the list of reserves looks to have leaked a 3rd new Anthem RC signing, with crossover athlete and former American Raptors lock Mikey Grandy also listed as an ARC player. I know that USA Rugby has a significant stake in Anthem RC and I’m sure this was unintentional, but they may want to check with the team before potentially leaking stuff!
Another chaotic week around MLR makes for another lengthy summary article. Thanks very much for reading, and keep an eye out for next week’s article summarising all the moves from October 21-27, 2024! NARDB is the easiest way to stay up to date on all the additions, departures, and general goings-on around the league.