Another week gone and another Monday rolls around, which means it’s time for your weekly summary of player moves from around Major League Rugby from November 25-December 1, 2024! As always, this article will provide a little bit more context for all of last week’s moves, as well as add a few stats and a summary graphic to keep MLR fans up to date with all of the off-season moves. Last week, two teams began their 2025 announcements, so rest assured these summaries will stay busy through the holidays! As always, here is the first page graphic of last week’s summary:
Regular Re-signings
As with all of these summaries, we begin with the players returning to their teams for another season. Last week we had 11 resignings across 5 teams, including a trio each for the Houston SaberCats, Miami Sharks, and Rugby FC LA. Starting with the Houston SaberCats, who announced the return of Keni Nasoqeqe, Drew Wild, and Louritz van der Schyff for their 2025 campaign. Nasoqeqe, a US-eligible Fijian forward who has played 7 seasons in MLR through 2024, returns for his fourth season with Houston in 2025. The 6’4 lock/back row is an MLR stalwart with 74 appearances in his career so far, starting 52 times and scoring 10 tries. He represented the USA in a non-capped game against Stade Toulousain in September 2023. Kiwi fullback Drew Wild returns for his 3rd season with the SaberCats, having scored 5 tries in his 22 games (all starts) since joining in 2023. Wild spent this offseason playing with the Manawatu Turbos in New Zealand’s National Provincial Championship (NPC), where he’s played since 2019. Finally for Houston, lethal South African centre Louritz van der Schyff returns for a fourth MLR season. Van der Schyff has scored 14 tries in his 28 games (also all starts) for the ‘Cats since 2022, completing over 200 tackles and gaining over 1,500m in possession.
Moving on to the Miami Sharks, who continue to announce their 2025 squad at a steady pace. They will have back front rows Alec McDonnell and Jonas Petrakopoulos, as well as fullback/wing Marcos Young for their sophomore season in Major League Rugby. Missourian prop Alec McDonnell is a MLR veteran, having earned 42 appearances since 2020 between New York (2020), Houston (2021-2023), and Miami (2024), setting career highs in starts (4) and Metres Gained (101) with the Sharks and recording in 3rd season in a row with over 50 tackles completed. Another MLR veteran is Dutch-born prop Jonas Petrakopoulos, who has 51 appearances and 10 starts, and was teammates with McDonnell in New York in 2020, before moving to Rugby ATL (2021-2023), re-uniting with McDonnell in Miami for 2024. The 2021 MLR Runner-up set career highs across the board in 2024, in appearances (16), starts (5), Metres Gained (76) and Tackles Completed (55). Texas born Florida raised Marcos Young will enjoy his 3rd season in MLR in 2025, having represented Old Glory DC in 2023 before joining the Sharks. Young has 6 tries in his 28 MLR games to date, earning 14 of his 23 starts with the Sharks and setting a career high in tackles last season with 82.
A third team with three returnees last week is Rugby FC LA, who began announcing their 2025 squad on Monday November 25th. Capped Canadians Andrew Coe and Conor Young will return for their second seasons in LA, as will USA Eagle Jason Damm, who followed the franchise from Atlanta. A 2022 MLR Champion with Rugby New York, Canadian 15s and 7s capped winger Andrew Coe has scored 20 tries in his 44 MLR games since 2022, including 7 in 12 games for LA in 2024! He’s gained over 3,000m in his career to date, and completed over 200 tackles. Fellow test capped Canadian Conor Young is back for a 3rd season in MLR after lifting the Shield with the New England Free Jacks in 2023. Like Petrakopoulos for Miami, Young set career highs across the board in 2024, including 103 tackles completed. Finally returning for RFCLA is stand-out forward Jason Damm, who scored 7 tries in 15 games (14 starts) and completed a very impressive 172 tackles in 2024. Damm has 48 career appearances in MLR, has gained over 2,000m with ball in hand, and completed over 500 tackles since 2019.
Finally for re-signings, the San Diego Legion continue to wrap up their roster announcements with the return of Aminae Amiatu-Tanoi for 2025. The former USA Hawk was signed with the Legion in 2023 but didn’t feature. He played with the Utah Selects in the Fall of 2023 and earned his MLR debut in 2024, making 4 appearances off the bench for the Legion. He’ll be looking to earn his first start in 2025. Over in the Eastern Conference, Old Glory DC began their roster announcements yesterday (December 1st) and are following a ‘Advent Calendar’ style to their reveals. They announced the return of MLR veteran front row Quentin Newcomer. Newcomer, who can play either side of the front row, spent 3 seasons with the New England Free Jacks (2020-2022) before being traded to Old Glory DC, and has earned 51 MLR appearances to date, scoring a try in each of his last 3 seasons.
Intra-League Moves
Just a reminder, an intra-league move occurs when an MLR player moves to a different team within MLR, rather than an inter-league move which would be a player moving to MLR from the Pro D2 or vice-versa, for example. We’ll get to the inter-league moves in a bit. There were only a pair of intra-league moves last week, but they were big! Rugby FC LA‘s first player announcement of the off-season was the signing of Houston SaberCats veteran and USA Eagle #539, Christian Dyer. A California native and UC-Berkeley alum, Dyer signed with the Dallas Jackals before they deferred their entry into MLR, and was selected by Rugby New York for 2021, but did not play in MLR until the follow season with the SaberCats. Dyer scored 19 tries in 45 games (44 starts) with Houston between 2022-2024, gaining over 1,750m and completing over 250 tackles. The utility back is a huge addition for RFCLA, and a big loss for Houston both on the field and off of it.
The second intra-league move sees another Dallas Jackal find a new home for 2025. Canadian-eligible Irish back row Ronan Foley was selected 14th in the Dispersal Draft by the Miami Sharks, who confirmed the signing last week. Foley joins another Irish ex-Arrow Shane O’Leary in Florida, although the two never represented Toronto together. Foley has scored 8 tries in his 45 MLR games to date (39 starts) between Toronto (2021-2022), Seattle (2023), and Dallas (2024), running for over 2,250m gained and completing just under 500 tackles.
New Additions
After the San Diego Legion were the busiest team for much of the start of November, the title of busiest team stays in California but moves up the I-5 to Los Angeles, as Rugby FC LA announced a trio of new signings to go along with their three returnees and the addition of Christian Dyer. 23yo English hooker Ben Sugars joins the team from the NSW Waratahs in Super Rugby, where he was playing as injury cover after helping the Randwick Galloping Green to a Shute Shield title in 2023 under RFCLA’s new Director of Rugby, Stephen Hoiles. This will be Sugars’ first full-time professional rugby contract. LA also announced the addition of veteran Argentinian international scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou, who has represented Los Pumas at the 2019 & 2023 Rugby World Cups, earning over 60 test caps to date. Bertranou joins from Cardiff Rugby in the URC, having represented the Jaguares for their entire Super Rugby tenure, as well as Benetton and the Dragons, also in the URC. In addition to Ben Sugars, RFCLA DoR Stephen Hoiles has brought in back row and former Australia Sevens player Tim Anstee for their sophomore season. Anstee played in 24 tournaments for the Aussie Sevens side between 2016-2020, during which time he worked with Hoiles. Following his time with the Sevens team he signed with Western Force, playing in 45 games between 2021-2024, also playing with Eastwood in the Shute Shield, where he caught the eye of RFCLA Assistant Coach and 2021 MLR Champion, Dave Dennis.
Heading over to the Eastern Conference and the addition of another Australian to MLR, the Chicago Hounds announced the signing of Sydney native Mitch Short for their 2025 campaign. Short, a scrum-half, represented Randwick in the Shute Shield between 2015-2017. He played in Super Rugby with the Western Force (2017) and the Waratahs (2018-2020), before heading to the French Top 14 to play with Racing 92. Following a season with Racing, Short moved to the Pro D2 to play with Beziers between 2022-2024, and now heads to SeatGeek for 2025!
Staying in the Eastern Conference, the NOLA Gold announced the signing of a pair of new faces, including a Capped Canadian international for their 2025 season. Nova Scotian prop Tyler Matchem joins from Canada’s high performance development academy, the Pacific Pride. Matchem represented the Canada U20s in 2022 and the Canada Selects in a pre-season clash with the Seattle Seawolves in February 2024. He earned his test debut as #510 against Tonga in the 2024 PNC, and joins fellow Canadian internationals Cooper Coats and Kaden Duguid in New Orleans. Additionally, the Gold announced the signing of another French veteran in the form of winger Xavier Mignot. Capped once for France in 2016, Mignot played with his local team, CS Bourgoin-Jallieu, in the French Pro D2 for the 2013/14 season, before signing with Grenoble and representing them in the Top 14 between 2014-2017. Mignot moved to Lyon in 2017 to play with LOU, earning over 120 appearances in France’s top flight with LOU alone, scoring 30 tries across the Top 14, Challenge Cup, and Champions Cup. Mignot joins his compatriot Kélian Galletier in New Orleans.
Thus concludes another busy week of activity around Major League Rugby! With Rugby FC LA‘s announcements in full swing and Old Glory DC getting started on their own, expect it to be another busy week around the league. Maybe we’ll even hear something from Anthem RC, who have been eerily quite for the last month. NARDB helps to keep fans informed with all the movement around MLR, as well as posting the most interesting and informative stats about Major League Rugby!
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