Another week gone by, and another boat-load of player moves to break down around Major League Rugby. This is your weekly summary of new signings, re-signings, and departures from last week, October 21st to October 27th, 2024. It’s a multi-page summary graphic again this week, and here’s Page 1:
Re-Signings Galore
The Miami Sharks are going steady with their re-signings, announcing another pair of returning players for their 2025 campaign. US-born Argentinian back row Ben Bonasso will return for his 5th MLR season and the 2nd with the Sharks, and veteran hooker Sean McNulty will also return for Miami in what will be his 7th season in the competition. Both Bonasso and McNulty are capped USA Eagles and both have also won an MLR Shield in their careers, McNulty with the LA Giltinis in 2021 and Bonasso the following year for Rugby New York, actually playing against McNulty’s Seattle Seawolves in the final that year. Both players also have over 50 MLR appearances, and were core pieces of the Miami Sharks squad for their impressive inaugural season in 2024.
The Chicago Hounds also continue to announce the return of players from their impressive 2024 season. The Hounds confirmed that Canadian National Team captain Lucas Rumball, will return for their 2025 season, as will Irish winger Michael Hand II, who impressed with 3 tries in 8 games while on loan to the Miami Sharks in 2024. Rumball, a long-time Toronto Arrow before their demise in November 2023, currently sits 2nd on MLR’s All-Time top tacklers list on 880, and will no doubt be eying the 1,000 mark in 2025.
Finally for re-signings, the back-to-back reigning Champion New England Free Jacks announced a quartet of familiar faces that will be back at Fort Quincy next season. Canadian international and 2024 S. Marcus Calloway Award recipient Ben LeSage will return for his 6th MLR season (3rd with New England), and back row monster and Namibian international Wian Conradie will also return having missed a huge chunk of the 2024 season with injury. Fellow Namibian international Le Roux Malan also returns after his heroics in the 2024 MLR Championship Game. Malan’s last 2 MLR tries have come in consecutive MLR finals, scoring against the Legion in 2023, and the Seawolves in 2024. Speaking of the 2024 final, the MVP of that game is back for his first full MLR season. Jed Melvin was a late addition to the Free Jacks in 2023, but scored 4 tries in 8 games (including a hat trick), and was named MLR Finals MVP for his performance at Snapdragon Stadium. The New England Free Jacks seem to have the majority of their 2024 roster returning, and will no doubt be a force to be reckoned with again in 2025.
New Signings – Warriors fill out and Free Jacks beef up
The New England Free Jacks weren’t just busy with re-signings last week. The reigning champs also added a pair of new faces to their roster for 2025 in the form of Fijian prop Jone Koroiduadua, and Kiwi lock Sam Caird. Koroiduadua joins the Free Jacks from the Fijian Drua in Super Rugby, and although missing out on the 2023 Rugby World Cup due to injury, earned his test debut for Fiji during the 2024 Pacific Nations Cup. 6’7 lock Sam Caird joins from Northland in the NPC, where he has played since 2019 after a couple of seasons with Waikato. Caird helped the New Zealand U20 side to a U20 World Championship Final victory in 2017, and has also represented both the Waratahs and Highlanders in Super Rugby, as well as the Kintetsu Liners in Japan. Both Koroiduadua and Caird add plenty of size to what is already a formidable Free Jacks pack.
MLR has a strong connection with New Zealand’s National Provincial Championship (NPC) competition, as the two leagues have no overlap, allowing players to play professional rugby year-round between New Zealand and the USA. This is why so many MLR names head to Aotearoa during the off-season, and so many new MLR signings come from NPC sides. This is no different this offseason, and the Utah Warriors added four NPC players last week. The Warriors announced the signing of Logan Crowley (the son of former Canada head coach Kieran Crowley) from the Taranaki Bulls, who was signed with the Warriors ahead of 2024 but did not feature, instead remaining in New Zealand. The Warriors also announced the signing of Australian prop Remsy Lemisio, a teammate of Sam Caird’s at Northland. Lemisio played with the Australian U20 side before moving to New Zealand to play with Northland in 2023. The Warriors also went shopping in North Harbour, adding back row Tamarau McGahan who has represented the team since 2020, and Manawatū, adding Turbos centre Kyle Brown who has played in green since 2023.
The only inter-league move last week saw former NOLA Gold center/fly-half Rodney Iona join the Seattle Seawolves for 2025. Iona scored 4 tries and 128pts in 23 games (all starts) for NOLA between 2023-2024, but his departure from the Gold was announced by the team on October 7th. It seems like the Samoan international then signed on with the 2024 runners-up as a free agent, with the Seawolves announcing the signing of Iona on October 24th.
Departures – Destination Unknown
On the topic of the NOLA Gold, they continued to bid farewell to members of their 2024 team, thanking Sean Paranihi and Sebastiano Villani for their service. Paranihi earned 18 appearances for the Gold (16 starts) between 2023-2024, completing 111 tackles, and US-eligible Italian scrumhalf Sebastiano Villani was drafted 2nd overall by the Gold out of St. Bonaventure in 2022, earning 9 MLR appearances (1 start) since then. This takes the number of departures announced by the NOLA Gold to 9, while former French international Kélian Galletier is the only addition confirmed by the team.
So ends another weekly wrap up of all the goings on during MLR’s 2024/25 offseason. This summary is going up a few days late (apologies for that) so we already know MLR teams are keeping busy as we move into November. Stay tuned for this week’s summary next monday!
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