Irish born Washington native Karl Keane played in Major League Rugby between 2023-2026. He represented the Seattle Seawolves (2023-2024) and Anthem RC (2025-2026).

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Keane picked up rugby from an early age with Malahide RFC before he moved to Seattle with his family at age 10. He continued to play rugby with the Eastside Lions and Washington Loggers before he attended St. Mary’s College in California, playing for the Gaels while there. Keane has progressed through the USA age grades, playing with the U16, U18, U20, and U23 sides as well as playing with the USA Falcons on their 2022 tour of South America.

He earned 9 MLR caps in his debut MLR season, all of which were from the bench and playing time was limited behind stand-out scrum-half JP Smith. Keane committed to his local MLR side long term, signing a contract to keep him with the Seawolves through the 2025 MLR season, but on July 18th, 2023, Urayasu D-rocks of Japan’s League One D2 announced that they had signed Karl Keane for the upcoming season. The D-rocks season meant that Keane stayed in Japan until May, missing a significant portion of the 2024 MLR season. As a result he did not feature for the Seawolves during their 2024 Runners-Up season. Despite being signed with the Seawolves through 2025, Keane was included in Anthem RC’s squad when they announced their full 2025 roster on January 21st, 2025. Keane set career highs across the board with Anthem RC in 2025, earning his first 11 MLR starts in 11 appearances, and scoring his first MLR try. He also completed 54 tackles and gained 69m in possession.

On December 9th, Anthem RC announced the return of Karl Keane for his 2nd season with the Rising Stars in 2026.