English hooker Ben Sugars played in Major League Rugby between 2025-2026. He represented Rugby FC LA (2025) and the California Legion (2026).

Born and raised in England where he played as a back row growing up, Sugars moved to hooker and played rugby while attending the University of Nottingham, While there, he also played in the English Championship, representing the Yorkshire Carnegie (now the Leeds Tykes) and Nottingham between 2019-2022. He moved to Australia in 2023 and joined the famous Randwick Galloping Green in the Shute Shield competition, defeating the Northern Suburbs to win the Shield that season. His performances with Randwick put him on the radar of Super Rugby sides, and injuries at the NSW Waratahs gifted Sugars an opportunity to play in Super Rugby. He debuted in Round 12 of the 2024 Super Rugby season.

On November 26th, 2024, Rugby FC LA announced the signing of 23yo Ben Sugars for the 2025 MLR season. This marks Sugars’ first full-time pro rugby contract, and he reunites with RFCLA DoR Stephen Hoiles, who coached Sugars at Randwick, as well as University of Nottingham teammate Ed Timpson. In his debut season in North America, Sugars scored a pair of tries and started 11 of his 15 appearances for RFCLA, recording over 225m gained and completing 135 tackles in total, earning two MLR Team of the Week selections. As well as helping RFCLA to a playoff spot, Sugars started what would be the team’s first and last postseason appearance, a hard-fought 27-21 defeat to the Houston SaberCats in the Western Conference Semifinal.

Following the merger of RFCLA with San Diego to form the California Legion, Sugars remained on the west coast with the new-look Legion, who announced his signing on 2nd February, 2026. In his second season in MLR Sugars started 3 of his 7 appearances for the Legion, beating 11 defenders and scoring 4 tries to help the team finish the season as MLR runners-up. On 19th June, just a few days before the Championship Final, the Doncaster Knights announced that they had signed Ben Sugars for their 2026/27 CHAMP Rugby season, the 2nd tier of English rugby.

achievements

• 2026 MLR Runner-Up: California Legion
• MLR Team of the Week: 2026 – Rd 9
• MLR Team of the Week: 2026 – Rd 8
• MLR Team of the Week: 2025 – Rd 15
• MLR Team of the Week: 2025 – Rd 11

NARDB Player #1,333