It’s been a couple of weeks since the Chicago Hounds lifted the Shield on a soaking wet Sunday evening at SeatGeek Stadium, and the lack of Major League Rugby is starting to set it. However, just because there are no more matches doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to talk about. The Nations Championship and Nations Cup competitions have kicked off and will provide a month of top quality test matches every weekend, the 2026 MLR Collegiate Draft will be held in roughly 6 weeks time, and between then and now, there will be all sorts of tidbits involving players, teams, and MLR itself!
While Midweek Milestones tends to be NARDB’s go-to articles while matches are being played, during the off-season the news shifts to player signings and as the purpose of this site is to keep fans as imformed as possible, it would be remiss of us to go without summarising all the player movement to, from, and within Major League Rugby. These summaries will be a constant throughout the MLR offseason, and will be weekly at most depending on the volume of player moves each week. Welcome to the first Player Movement summary of the 2026/27 off-season, covering the end of the 2026 season to July 5th, 2026!
Below is a summary graphic of all the moves this offseason so far:
Retirements
At the end of any professional sports season there will be a number of players who decide to call time on their career and hang up their boots. 2026 is no different, and there have already been three retirement announcements including a pair of MLR veterans, and it important that fans get the opportunity to recognise their outstanding careers, and say thank you.
The first player to announce his retirement after the 2026 MLR season actually announced it before his final game. On 17th June, a few days before the Championship game, English centre Ollie Devoto announced that he would be hanging up his boots at the conclusion of the 2026 MLR season. Devoto already had an impressive career before entering MLR for the 2025 season, having developed through the Bath system in England, he earned his Premiership debut in 2012 at the age of 18, and represented the club for 4 years, also representing the England U20 side before earning his test debut with England in the 2016 Summer Internationals. When the 2016/17 Premiership season started Devoto was still playing, but now representing the Exeter Chiefs. He played with the Chiefs from 2016-2024, earning over 100 appearances for the club and winning almost everything there was to win at club level including the Premiership Cup twice (2017/18, 2022/23), the Premiership itself twice (2016/17, 2019/20) while finishing as runners-up three times (2017/18, 2018/19, 2020/21), and even the European Champions Cup in 2019/20!
Ollie Devoto’s Exeter Chiefs resume alone would make for an outstanding pro career, but when his time with the club came to an end he headed across the pond to play in MLR, and represented the Chicago Hounds for 2 years. In his debut season with Chicago, Devoto averaged almost 10 tackles per game for 152 in his 16 appearances, starting all 16 and contributing an assist and 3 tries on over 450m gained to earn an All-MLR 2nd XV Selection. Returning for a second year with the Hounds after a heartbreaking defeat to the New England Free Jacks in the Eastern Conference Final, Devoto improved his production in half as many games on a dominant Hounds team, scoring another 3 tries and assisting a further 2 scores in 8 games (all starts) and making 16 tackles with 45m gained in the Championship Game as the Hounds claimed their first MLR Shield. Capping off his pro career with another Championship, Ollie Devoto can now add ‘MLR Champion’ to his already impressive resume. All the best in your retirement, Ollie!
The first retirement of the offseason proper was on the West Coast over in California. On June 27th, Fijian born loose forward Keni Nasoqeqe announced the end of his professional career after 8 seasons playing in MLR. Nasoqeqe began playing rugby at Lelean Memorial School in Fiji before moving to California in 2015 where he joined Belmont Shore RFC. It would be a few more years before he turned pro, joining the San Diego Legion ahead of their 2019 campaign. In his debut MLR season, Nasoqeqe started 12 of his 13 appearances for the Legion, gaining over 300m in possession while completing 138 tackles on defence to help the Legion advance to the Championship game (not for the last time in his MLR career), where they fell to the Seattle Seawolves in the dying seconds.
Nasoqeqe played with the San Diego Legion for 3 seasons between 2019-2021, earning 28 appearances (22 starts) and scoring 5 tries before swapping the beaches of California for Space City, joining the Houston SaberCats. He would spend the next 4 seasons in Black & Yellow, earning 17 appearances in 3 of his 4 seasons there for 63 appearances in total and starting 32 times including a career high of 14 in 2022. It was with the SaberCats that Nasoqeqe made it to his 2nd Championship game in 2025, coming off the bench as they fell to the New England Free Jacks. Following the unexpected withdrawal of the SaberCats from MLR, Nasoqeqe headed back to California to finish his career with the new look California Legion for the 2026 season. He appeared in every single Legion game during the season, starting 7 times and became a MLR Centurion after earning his 100th appearance to help them advance to their first, and his 3rd MLR Championship, falling to the Chicago Hounds. In total, 3x MLR Runner-Up Keni Nasoqeqe started 61 of his 103 appearances across 8 seasons, scoring 10 tries on over 1,800m gained in possession, and completing over 700 tackles on defence. Congratulations on a great career, Keni!
A few days after Keni Nasoqeqe announced his retirement, another MLR veteran did the same. On 3rd July, USA Eagle #525 Paul Mullen called time on his professional career following his ninth season in the competition in 2026. Born and raised in Ireland, Mullen played age-grade rugby for Munster under-18s, 19s, and 20s, as well as for Ireland under-19s before moving to Texas in 2011. When professional rugby came to Texas, the Houston SaberCats signed Mullen ahead of the inaugural season of Major League Rugby in 2018 and he would play with the ‘Cats for two seasons from 2018-2019, starting 7 of his 10 games with the team. While with the SaberCats, he was called up to the USA national team and earned his test debut in a 62-13 victory over Russia in June 2018, before heading to the UK where he played with the Newcastle Falcons in the Premiership and Doncaster Knights in the Championship during the MLR off-season before returning stateside.
For 2020, Paul Mullen moved from Texas to California and joined the San Diego Legion where he started all 5 games as the team went 5-0 before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When professional rugby returned to North America in 2021, Mullen had signed with the Utah Warriors where he would spend 4 seasons and is arguably the team he is most well known for playing with. Between 2021-2024, Mullen would start 37 of his 57 games for the Warriors, gaining over 120m in each season for over 600m gained for Utah in total including a career high of 193m in 2022. He also recorded his first 100+ tackle season, completing 112 tackles in 14 games in 2023. Following the 2024 campaign, the Utah Warriors cleaned house and bid farewell to over a dozen players from their squad, including Paul Mullen who headed from Utah to New Orleans to join the NOLA Gold where he had another productive year. For the Gold, he completed a career high 115 tackles and appeared in all 16 games (11 starts) that NOLA played that year, passing 500 tackles made in his MLR career as a prop.
With the NOLA Gold withdrawing from the competition after the 2025 season Paul Mullen moved to his fifth different MLR franchise when he joined Old Glory DC in the nation’s capital. He started all 11 games for the Flags in the shortened 2026 campaign, completing 74 tackles to help the team squeeze into the postseason when they unfortunately ran into the juggernaught Chicago Hounds in the semifinals. Along with representing his adopted country, Paul Mullen has started 71 of his 99 appearances (yes, 99!) throughout his 9 seasons in Major League Rugby across 5 different franchises, gaining over 800m in possession and completing over 600 tackles. Congratulations on a fantastic career, Paul!
Heading Across the Pond
Along with the trio of retiring legends, five players from the 2026 season have picked up contracts across the pond for the upcoming 2026/27 seasons in european competitions. This is not uncommon and shows the talent on display in Major League Rugby this year. Of these 5 Europe-bound players, 3 of them are headed to the UK so let’s kick it off there.
Starting in New England, where the Free Jacks never quite got it together for the 2026 season, and missed out on the postseason despite showing glimpses of the x3 Champions that we are used to seeing. One of their (many) new signings for 2026, Kienan Higgins, took a detour on the way to Boston to join Edinburgh Rugby in the URC on a short term deal before linking up with the Free Jacks prior to the start of the season. Clearly Higgins impressed in the Scottish capital, as on 27th May (yes, long before the MLR season was over) the club announced that they had signed Higgins to a full one-year contract for the 2026/27 URC season, linking up with his younger brother Riley. Higgins started all 9 of his games for the Free Jacks in 2026, contributing 2 tries and an assist on over 325m gained with ball in hand and averaged 13.4 tackles per game for a total of 121 on the season. Best of luck, Kienan!
Staying in the UK but moving from Scotland and the URC down to England and CHAMP Rugby, the fully professional 2nd tier of English Rugby. On 19th June 2026, the Doncaster Knights announced the signing of English hooker Ben Sugars from the California Legion for their 2026/27 Campaign. The Super Rugby capped Ben Sugars spent two season in MLR playing with Rugby FC LA (2025) and the California Legion (2026), starting 14 of his 22 games and scoring 6 tries in total, 4 of which came in 2026 to help the Legion end the season as Runners-Up. Sugars completed just under 200 tackles (198) and gained well over 350m in his MLR career and now returns home after a few years in Australia and the USA. Congratulations, Ben!
Sugars isn’t the only MLR player heading to England after the 2026 season, however. On 1st July, London Scottish announced that they had signed Patrick Beattie for their upcoming campaign. Scottish, who had played in CHAMP rugby in 2025/26, finished 13th and lost their relegation playoff to Blackheath, so will be playing their 2026/27 season in the semi-professional National League 1, but this is still a high standard of rugby. What is interesting is that Patrick Beattie is a MLR draftee, having been selected 26th overall by RFCLA out of Long Beach State University in 2024. The California native spent the 2025 season with RFCLA where he was teammates with Ben Sugars, before signing with Old Glory DC for the 2026 season. Beattie is yet to make his MLR debut, but now heads overseas for the chance of more gametime. Congratulations, Patrick!
Moving now away from the UK to the south, but not too far south. A pair of MLR names will be headed to France to compete in the French 2nd tier in 2026/27, the Pro D2. On June 25th, Stade Montois in the south of France announced the addition of Australian back row Baden Godfrey who joins after playing his debut season in MLR with Anthem RC in 2026. The 23yo Godfrey appeared in all 10 games for the Rising Stars is 2026, starting half of them and scoring 3 tries on 290m in possession beating an impressive 23 defenders. Despite not starting half of Anthem’s games this season, Godfrey averaged over 11 tackles per game and finished as their 2nd highest tackler with 112, just behind captain Johan Momsen on 119. Best of luck in France, Baden!
Godfrey will be joined in France by California Legion standout and fellow Australian Ben Houston, though not on the same side. On 1st July, Aurillac in central France announced the addition of 27yo Randwick back row after two years in MLR with RFCLA (2025) and the Legion (2026). He started all 22 of his appearances in MLR, scoring 14 tries in total including 6 in 8 games for the Legion this year in addition to a pair of assists and 13 defenders beaten en route to the 2026 Championship, which he started. Houston has averaged just under 11 tackles per game for 241 in total, gained over 900m in possessionand heads over to France as an MLR runner-up. Very best of luck in France, Ben!
Wrapping Up
A trio of retirements and five named headed to ply their trade in Europe in the Autumn just about does it for a relatively busy first few weeks of the offseason! As mentioned in the intro, these articles will come out most weeks depending on the volume of player movement to, from, and around MLR as we head deeper into the offseason. To reassure fans who may have noticed that all 8 of these moves are from MLR (retirements included), but this is typical for the early off-season as teams elsewhere in the world are busy recruiting for their upcoming seasons, but here in North America we have a long time to wait until the hype starts to build for the 2027 season.
Thank you very much for giving this article a read and if you enjoyed it, please share it around so that other fans can stay informed of all the player movement around MLR so far! If there are any moves that were missed, please let us know by tagging us on social media or sending them our way directly. James and NARDB can be found on social media here: @MLRStats on Instagram, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site
Finally, if you’re looking to pick up some new rugby gear be sure to visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!
