Tag: Anthem RC

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from the 2026 MLR Playoffs!

James Deeley

The 2026 Major League Rugby season was always going to be a sprint rather than a marathon and after months of waiting for kickoff, we find ourselves at the end of the season in the blink of an eye. Despite contracting to just 6 teams, the 2026 Campaign proved thoroughly entertaining with a competitive regular season and a pair of entertaining semifinals (albeit for very different reasons), culminating in a massive rugby party for the Championship Game in Chicago.

After a week off, welcome back to the final Midweek Milestones article of the 2026 season! This series dives into all the standout stats, player, and team milestones from the latest MLR games, so that ‘statsheads’ like myself don’t miss a thing. Although this series has been weekly for most of the season, rather than having a separate article for the Semifinals and Championship, this article will cover the entire playoffs as a whole. With an emphasis on ‘postseason’ stats, this article will likely end up longer than normal anyway given the sheer number of records that seemed to have been broken! Breaking with tradition slightly, this article will be split into the Semifinals, and the Final. Let’s start with the Semis!

The Semifinals

Appearance Achievements

The 2026 Semifinals saw a pair of players reach a half-century of appearances in major League Rugby, one in each match-up! Starting chronologically as the Semifinals kicked off with the Seattle Seawolves hosting the California Legion at the formidable Starfire Stadium in Tukwila. The Legion’s starting hooker, capped USA Eagle and 2019 World Rugby Men’s Player of the Year Nominee Joe Taufete’e is playing in his 5th MLR season for his 5th different team, finally reaching his half-century of appearances in the competition!

Born in American Samoa, ‘Big Joe’ earned his test debut for the USA Eagles against South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England, earning his test debut on the sport’s biggest stage before ever playing a professional game. This changed in early 2016 when he joined the San Diego Breakers in the short lived PRO Rugby competition. Following it’s only season of play, Taufete’e returned across the pond to join the Worcester Warriors in the English Premiership, playing there from 2016-2020. It was while playing for Worcester that Taufete’e became the first (and to date, only) player from a ‘tier 2’ nation to be nominated for World Rugby Men’s Player of the Year. Following his time with the Warriors, and a stint in France with Lyon, Taufete’e returned to California to join the LA Giltinis for the 2022 season. To date, Taufete’e has scored 23 tries in 37 games for the USA, with the most recent coming in July 2022.

Although he played a cup of coffee with the Leicester Tigers during the 2022/23 Premiership season, Taufete’e has played in every season of MLR since 2022, representing the LA Giltinis (2022), Houston SaberCats (2023), Seattle Seawolves (2024), NOLA Gold (2025), and now the California Legion, where he now reached 50 appearances, starting 35 times. He’s appeared in all 11 games for the Legion so far this season, starting 7 times and scoring 3 tries to take his career total to 19, including a high of 8 in 14 games for the Seawolves in 2024. Congratulations, Joe!

The day after Taufete’e earned his 50th MLR appearance, another front rower earned his 50th MLR appearance in the other Semifinal between the Chicago Hounds and Old Glory DC. Brazilian prop/hooker Wilton Rebolo came off the bench in the Hounds’ demolition of DC to earn his half-century of appearances, starting 13 of his now 51 games in MLR, 4 of which came for the Hounds in 2026.

The São Jose dos Campos native is a Brazilian veteran, having earned his test debut for the national team back in 2015 (the same time as Taufete’e was earning his debut with the USA, coincidentally). He signed with the Austin Gilgronis ahead of the 2020 season but a knee injury in the pre-season meant that he played no part that year, which only lasted 5 rounds before it was cancelled due to COVID-19. He returned to MLR in 2021, this time as a member of the Rugby New York Ironworkers. Rebolo, the first Brazilian to play in MLR, represented New York for 2 seasons, starting 7 of his 27 games and scoring 2 tries. He earned 5 starts in 15 games (both still his career highs) in 2022 to help the Ironworkers to lift the Shield that season, ending the campaign as an MLR Champion before heading to Australia where he had earned a contract with the Western Force, becoming the first Brazilian to play in Super Rugby.

Rebolo returned to MLR in 2024, joining the Australian-heavy Rugby FC LA after they relocated from Atlanta. He earned 2 starts in 7 games for RFCLA during their debut season, before joining the Houston SaberCats the following year, where he scored his 3rd career MLR try and earned 10 appearances to help the ‘Cats advance to the 2025 Championship Game where they fell to the New England Free Jacks. Following the surprise withdrawal of the SaberCats from MLR following the 2025 season, Rebolo joined the Chicago Hounds, where he earned 4 starts in 7 appearances as a part of their undefeated campaign, and made it to his 3rd final to claim his 2nd Shield. Congratulations, Wilton!

Matthews passes 5k!

Lost among the disappointment of the Seattle Seawolves’ elimination from the 2026 season following their loss to the California Legion was a remarkable achievement by one of their main metre eaters this year. Although they fell to the Legion, the Seattle Seawolves recorded over 500m gained, with 142 of those gained by one man alone, Duncan Matthews.

This is the highest metres gained total of the entire 2026 Postseason, and pushes him over 800m gained on the season, averaging 80.6m in each of his 10 appearances this year and finishing as the Round Leader for metres gained no fewer than three times in 2026. What’s unbelievable about Matthews, is that this average is actually down on his career average, which sits at 87.9m gained per game across his 57 game career with the Seawolves so far. The more mathematically inclined readers made have already put together that this means that in the Semifinal match, Duncan Matthews’ career metres gained total passed 5,000m!

Matthews is just the 7th player in MLR history to have passed the 5km gained mark, and his average is far higher than any of the 6 players above him which includes the likes of MLR legends Mikey Te’o, Billy Meakes, and Paula Balekana! Matthews’ 806m gained in 2026 is the most of any player this season, and over 100m higher than Brock Webster in 2nd with 667m gained for the Chicago Hounds. He recorded 28 defenders beaten and scored 3 tries to take his career total to 20, knocking on the door of MLR’s Top 20 try scorers. Congratulations, Duncan!

Semifinal Scoring Stats

The first of the two 2026 MLR Semifinals was defined by a kicking duel between Seawolves fly-half Davy Coetzer, and his California Legion counterpart Coby Miln. Both had been dynamite from the tee all year, with Miln entering the postseason as MLR’s top scorer, and Coetzer not far behind. It was a back and forth opening 40 minutes and at the break, the score was even at 16-16 with only 1 try scored. 22 of the 32pts in the first half were scored by either Coetzer or Miln, with both players flawless from the tee and equal on 11pts each.

As the second half progressed, Coetzer and Miln remained neck and neck, and even as the Legion began to pull away on the scoreboard, these two stayed neck and neck. It wasn’t until Coetzer missed a 70th minute conversion, and Miln slotted a penalty 4 minutes later, that there was daylight between the two. The two playmakers had combined for 42pts and gone 16/17 from the tee, with Davy Coetzer scoring 19pts to Coby Miln’s 23. The New Zealander went 9/9 from the tee, equalling a record for most successful place kicks by a player in a single MLR game, set by Toronto Arrows legend Sam Malcolm back in 2019 and equalled by AJ Alatimu in 2022, although neither Malcolm (9/10) nor Alatimu (9/12) went 100%! Unsurprisingly, Miln’s 23pts is a new Legion single game record, passing his own previous record of 18pts. It’s also a new MLR record for the most points scored by a player in a MLR playoff game, surpassing the 21pts scored by Alatimu for the Seawolves against the (San Diego) Legion back in 2022! Congratulations, Coby!

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Prior to the 2026 postseason, the highest scoring playoff game in MLR history was a 73pt Western Conference Final match back in 2022, where the Seattle Seawolves defeated the Houston SaberCats 27-46. 4 years later, the Seattle Seawolves were involved once again as that record was broken. Despite playing in front of a home crowd at Starfire Stadium, their fortress where they had won 21 of their last 24 games heading into the postseason (including against the California Legion just the week before…), the Seawolves came out on the wrong side of this one. They fell 34-43 to a clinical Legion side, with both sides combining for 77pts, the highest scoring playoff game in MLR history! While the previous record had stood for years, this one wouldn’t stand for long at all, though.

Less that 24 hours later the Chicago Hounds hosted Old Glory DC in the second Semifinal of 2026 and as mentioned above, it was a demolition. The Hounds put up a huge 59pts against the Flags who probably gave them the toughest time during the regular season, and the final scoreline of 59-22 only looks somewhat reasonable due to two late scores from DC. The combined score of 81pts surpasses the 77pts of the previous semifinal and sets a new record for the highest scoring playoff game. How long will this one last?

The Hounds have now scored 61pts, 59pts twice, and 57pts during the 2026 season. The 59pts scored against DC is the highest points ever scored by a team in a MLR Playoff game, surpassing the previous record of 46pts scored by the Seattle Seawolves back in 2022, when they defeated the Houston SaberCats 27-46 in the Western Conference Final. The 37pt winning margin also sets a new record for the largest margin of victory in a MLR playoff game, replacing another Seawolves record of 24pts when they defeated the San Diego Legion 43-19 in the 2022 Western Eliminator. This 24pts was tied by the Chicago Hounds themselves when they defeated the NOLA Gold 21-45 in the 2024 Eastern Conference Semifinals. For the cherry on top of their huge victory over perennial playoff contenders Old Glory DC, the Hounds’ 8 tries in this game took them over 250 tries scored in Major League Rugby! Chicago moved up to 254 tries scored after the Semifinal, with Peyton Wall’s 33rd minute score marking the 250th try in franchise history.

The Final

Champagne Sundays

It is a safe bet that the weather for the 2026 Major League Rugby Championship game in Chicago was the worst of any final in league history, with torrential rain cancelling other events across the city. It didn’t dampen the spirits of the 4,400+ fans that turned up to SeatGeek Stadium to watch the hometown Chicago Hounds take on the California Legion for what would’ve been the first Shield for either side. If you are reading this article, you likely already know the result. The Chicago Hounds capped off a perfect season with the perfect ending, defeating the Legion 35-17 to record the first undefeated season in MLR history, going 12-0 through the regular season and playoffs. The nearest any other MLR team has come to a perfect season was the 2023 San Diego Legion team that went 16-2, but one of those losses came in the Final where they fell to the New England Free Jacks, also in Chicago but with far better weather!

The 2026 Chicago Hounds will go down in MLR legend as the first perfect season and the most dominant side in league history. It’s hard to make the case against them being the best side the league has ever seen, they don’t seem to have an obvious weakness, they can play all kinds of different styles, and their depth is incredible. Yes the 2026 campaign was only a maximum of 12 games, down from the 18 or 19 games required to make the final in previous seasons, but you can only play what’s in front of you, and boy did the Hounds do that. They recorded over 550pts and 81 tries scored in just 12 games, scoring at least 4 tries in every single match, regular season or playoff. For context, their 461pts scores in the 10-game 2026 regular season is higher than last year’s champions, the New England Free Jacks, scored across the sixteen game regular season last year!

In a year of high scoring postseason games, the 2026 Championship was no different. Yes, at a combined 52pts it was far lower than the 77pts and 81pts of the Semifinals, but this is the highest scoring Final in Major League Rugby history, surpassing the previous record of 50pts on the final kick of the game from Chris Hilsenbeck. This previous record was set just last year when the New England Free Jacks defeated the Houston SaberCats 28-22 in Rhode Island to claim their 3rd Shield in a row.

Finals Scoring

As mentioned, it was Chris Hilsenbeck’s penalty in the final minute of the game that cemented the 2026 Final as the highest scoring Championship game in league history, but that was only one of his six successful kicks from the tee throughout the game. Capped by the USA USA Eagle went 6/7 in miserable conditions, notching 3 penalties and 3 conversions for 15pts in total to tie the record for the most points ever scored by a single player in a Championship game, set by Jayson Potroz for the Free Jacks in 2024. These 15pts pushed him over 100pts on the season this year, moving into MLR’s Top 20 Points scorers with 224pts scored across his MLR career including 52pts in the playoffs, the highest among active players and 4th all-time. Congratulations, Chris!

Hilsenbeck’s 15pts made a large chunk of the Chicago Hounds’ 35pts on the night. As with many things the Hounds have done this season, this is also a record. It’s the most points ever scored by a team in the Championship game, just overtaking the LA Giltinis in their 31-17 victory over Rugby ATL in 2021 and marks the 3rd time that a side has scored over 30pts in the Final along with the Rugby New York Ironworkers, who defeated the Seattle Seawolves 30-15 back in 2022.

On the subject of scoring, now that the season is complete we know the identity of the top scorer from the 2026 season and it’s someone who has already been mentioned in this article for breaking records but isn’t a Chicago Hound! In his debut season in Major League Rugby, fly-half Coby Miln appeared in the maximum of 12 games to help the California Legion advance to the Championship game in their first season post-merger, scoring a huge 130pts in total to finish as MLR’s Top Scorer in a season where this author doubted if any player would even break 100! Finishing 26pts head of both Davy Coetzer & Chris Hilsenbeck (tied for 2nd with 104pts each) that included 35pts in the playoffs, Miln recorded a success rate of over 85% from the tee which is easily the highest among players that have finished the season as Top Scorer, and his 10.8pts per game is the highest by a top scorer since Jason Robertson’s 13.4ppg back in 2020, when the season was cancelled after 5 games! Congratulations, Coby!

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If scoring over 100pts in MLR’s 2026 ‘sprint season was a big ask, scoring 10+ tries looked almost impossible. However, just as there were 3 players to break a century in points scored, there were a pair of players to reach double-figures in tries scored and this time, they both represent the newly crowned Champs, and both dotted down in the Championship game! Finishing the season in 2nd place with a hugely impressive 10 tries scored in his 11 appearances is Canadian international Mason Flesch, who split his season between lock and back row across his 11 starts in 2026, and reached double figures with a somewhat trademark Flesch score in the Final. The former Toronto Arrow entered his 3rd season with the Hounds on 9 tries scored in his MLR career, and more than doubled that in a breakout campaign that saw him pick up 3 MLR First XV selections this season and put his name up as a Forward of the Year candidate!

In any other season, Flesch’s 10 tries in 11 games would be extraordinary. To achieve that and finish second in tries scored however, is almost unbelievable. But that is exactly what happened this season, with Mason Flesch sat behind Chicago Hounds hooker Theo Fourie who averaged a try a game in 2026, finishing with 11 tries scored in his 11 appearances (10 starts) en route to the Shield! The Super Rugby front row was brought in as a replacement for outgoing MLR legend (and all-time leading try scorer) Dylan Fawsitt, and it’s safe to say that he was up to the huge task of filling that gap in the Hounds pack. Fourie was at the centre of the fearsome Chicago set piece, and completed 79 tackles of his own while beating 13 defenders to earn a pair of MLR First XV selections. The 21 tries scored by Fourie and Flesch alone accounted for over a quarter (25.9%) of all Hounds tries this season, and isn’t far behind the New England Free Jacks’ team total of 29 tries scored in the entire 2026 season. Congratulations, Mason & Theo!

The ‘Curse of First’

Earlier in this article mentioned the 2021 season where the LA Giltinis lifted their first and only MLR Shield. For a long time, they were the first and only side in Major League Rugby to have topped the standings in the regular season, and went on to lift the Shield in the same season. The Seattle Seawolves, who have made it to 4 finals and lifted the Shield twice in the early years of the league, never finished as regular season leaders. None of the New England Free Jacks teams during their threepeat run did either. In fact, the only time the Free Jacks did finish as regular season leaders was in 2022, the season before their first Shield when they were knocked out by eventual Champions Rugby New York in the Eastern Conference Finals. This rather bizarre pattern has been dubbed ‘The Curse of First’, but even that couldn’t defeat the 2026 Chicago Hounds.

Completing the first undefeated season in MLR history, the Hounds overcome ‘The Curse of First’ and become the first team in 5 years (and just the 2nd team ever!) to finish the MLR regular season as league leaders and lift the Shield in the same season. It serves as further proof that absolutely nothing was going to stop the Chicago Hounds from claiming their first MLR Championship, but is the curse gone for good, or just for this year? League leaders are still 2-8 when it comes to lifting the Shield, but we’ll have to wait for 2027 to find out…

Wrapping Up

With the Shield having been awarded, the 2026 Major League Rugby ‘Sprint Season’ has come to an end. Although shorter than previous years and probably less far-reaching, it was no doubt entertaining and one of the more competitive seasons from week to week, if not from game to game. With the obvious exception, any team could beat any other team on any given week, and it took until the very last regular season game to decide the playoff match-ups. In the end, the best team (possibly ever) lifted the Shield, bringing the first MLR Championship to Chicago. Congratulations to the Chicago Hounds from the staff to the players to the fans, your deserving 2026 Major League Rugby Champions!

As the curtain has fallen on the 2026 campaign, so it does on these Midweek Milestones articles also. Whether you read one paragraph 6 weeks ago, only read this article, or came back every single week, thank you. Please let us know if you enjoyed these articles, what you liked about them or what we could improve, or if anything was missed throughout the postseason. Who knows what the long dark off-season may bring, but there are USA & Canada international matches to look forward to soon, followed by the 2026 MLR Draft likely some time in August, and there’s bound to be all sorts of other news sprinkled in over the next weeks and months. Thanks again for reading Midweek Milestones, and welcome to the off-season!

You can find NARDB/James on social media here: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, 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 gear over the summer, visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Movement: 2026 Season End – July 5th, 2026

James Deeley

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!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from the Final Round of the 2026 MLR Regular Season!

James Deeley

The 2026 Major League Rugby ‘Sprint Season’ is complete! After 10 rounds, 4 of the 6 teams in this year’s competition have earn their right to compete for the Shield in the postseason, and it went down to the wire! A thoroughly entertaining weekend of rugby saw the playoff possibilities change countless times as tries were scored and crowds roared. The regular season is now complete but before we turn our attention to the playoffs, lets dig into some of the numbers from the final round of regular season play.

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, the weekly article series that dives deeper into some of the standout stats from the latest round of MLR action! As mentioned, round 11 saw the playoff picture solidified, but it came down to the wire after some close calls that could’ve meant huge upsets! As regular readers of these articles will know, every MLR gameday throws out a bunch of interesting numbers, standout stats, and Midweek Milestones!

Appearance Achievements

As always, Midweek Milestones kicks off with the appearance achievements section, recognising players that earned a milestone appearance in last week’s games, 50 games played, 100 games played, 50 games for their team, etc. This week however, is a little bit different. This week we recognise a 115th Major League Rugby appearance from a league veteran, Seattle Seawolves stalwart, and capped USA Eagle, JP Smith.

JP Smith’s 115th MLR appearance makes him the most capped player in league history, surpassing the 114 games played for another legend of this league, Dylan Fawsitt who recently ended his career on a high with a US Club Rugby Championship title with Old Blue. The Butcher represented 3 different team throughout his MLR career, but JP Smith has only ever represented one. He has earned all 115 appearances with the Seattle Seawolves since entering the league back in 2019, helping them to their 2nd straight shield in his debut season that year.

A regular in the Seawolves 9 jersey since his debut season, JP Smith has played the maximum number of possible games in a MLR season 3 times, earning 18 appearances (16 regular season + 2 playoff) in their Shield-winning 2019 season, and 19 appearances (16 regular season + 3 playoff) in 2022 (when he started all 19) and in 2024. Other than the inaugural MLR season in 2018 before Smith joined the franchise, in every season that he played the maximum number of games, the Seattle Seawolves made it to the Championship Game. Spending much of this season on the wing, Smith has played in 9 of a possible 10 games however, so Seawolves fans may not want to read too much into that!

Smith, who earned his test debut for the USA as Eagle #572 against Romania in July 2024, has scored 23 tries in his MLR career so far and 133pts in total for the Seawolves, running up just shy of 2,000m gained in possession and completing close to 750 tackles in his career. Impressive for a player in typically lost-tackle positions like scrum-half or wing. Smith’s 115th appearance at the weekend was his 104th start, tied with fellow Seawolves stalwart Riekert Hattingh for the MLR lead, and one of only 3 players with over 100 starts in the competition with Dylan Fawsitt. Congratulations, JP!

Hounds complete Perfect (Regular) Season!

A significant portion of these Midweek Milestones article this season has been spent fawning over the Chicago Hounds who seemed to break a new record on a weekly basis, and not to rock the boat, this week is no different. They faced the New England Free Jacks at the weekend, who were playing for their season and just happened to be the team who dumped the Hounds out of the playoffs in the 2025 Eastern Conference Final. The 3x defending champs kept it close, and were even leading into the final 15 minutes, but with revenge and a 10-0 record on the line, as well as regular starters strategically coming off the bench, the Hounds were able to accelerate away from New England, ending their season with a 19-35 victory in from of their home fans. I have never heard ‘Fort Quincy’ so quiet, and it must’ve been music to the ears of the Chicago Hounds.

It’s quite poetic that the Hounds overcame the defending champions in their own back yard to secure the first undefeated regular season in Major League Rugby history. In fact, not only was in an undefeated season, but it was a perfect season. Chicago recorded a bonus point victory for 10 straight weeks for 50pts in the standings, the maximum available points and only allowing their opponents a single losing bonus point, claimed by Old Glory DC in their thriller last week.

Major League Rugby is no stranger to dominant seasons, but nothing quite like this. The first team that comes to mind for many fans will likely be the 2023 San Diego Legion, who recorded an extraordinary 15-1 regular season with 74 of a possible 80pts in the standings, 92.5% of the maximum possible points. Yes, this was a longer, 16 game season, but the Legion only averaged 4.8 tries per game (tpg) to the 2026 Hounds’ whopping 6.9. Nice. similarly, the Legion averaged 34.6 points per game (ppg) and an average winning margin of 17.9, both of which also fall short of the Hounds’ 46.1ppg and 20.9 average winning margin. The 14-2 Free Jacks of 2023 only close the gap slighty, with 5.0tpg, 34.7ppg, and an average winning margin of 20.2 with 68 of 80 possible points in the standings. Even the mighty 2021 LA Giltinis, who lifted the Shield in their first season and were arguably MLR’s first ‘juggernaut’, comes it at a seemingly mediocre 12-4 record, 4.9tpg, 34.1ppg, and average winning margin of 20 with 63/80 points.

The real magnitude of what the Chicago Hounds have achieved this season boils down to whether you view a 10 game season as drastically ‘easier’ than a 16 game season. The Hounds can only play what’s in front of them however and it’s not so much what they have achieved this season, but how they achieved it. Of course, it will all mean nothing if, like the 2023 San Diego Legion, they fall short of the Shield (also in Chicago, coincidentally). MLR’s ‘curse of first’ is a fascinating thing, with only 1 team in league history finishing as the top team in the regular season and lifting the Shield the same year, that being the 2021 LA Giltinis. The Hounds face Old Glory DC next weekend, who have given them the most trouble in both of their matchups this season, so only time will tell…

Scoring Stats

Last week, Midweek Milestones mentioned that USA Eagle Luke Carty had set a new single season points scoring record for Anthem RC, at 53pts in 2026. In the final game of the regular season for the Rising Stars, he tacked on another 6pts in a really close contest with Old Glory DC which they were leading at the 70 minute mark, but couldn’t hold out the Flags, who themselves were desperate for a playoff spot. Regardless, Carty finishes the 2026 season with 59pts for Anthem, all from the boot with a success rate of 75.68% (28/37). Not only does this set the new single season record in stone, but for the second week in a row Carty surpasses Cliven Loubser, this time passing his 57 career points for Anthem RC to become their all time top scorer!

With murmurs already starting in MLR circles about the future of Anthem RC given that their 3yr deal for World Rugby funding has come to an end, I’m sure I’m not the only fan to hope that Luke Carty’s new records for the Rising Stars can be contested again in 2027.

Back to the playoff bound teams now, but still building on something that was covered in the previous Midweek Milestones article. Last week, Divan Rossouw picked up his 17th career MLR try which took his total for the Seattle Seawolves up to 102pts and becoming the 7th player to pass 100pts scored for the 2x Champs. This week, that club has grown to 8!

Only beaten to 100pts by Rossouw’s limited goal kicking earlier this season while Davy Coetzer was injured, South African standout Duncan Matthews dotted down for his 20th career try for the Seawolves in their home semifinal clinching victory over their west coast rivals, the California Legion. Matthews’ 20th try actually puts him slightly ahead of Rossouw with 104pts thanks to two automatic conversions (for newer MLR fans, in previous seasons if a try was scored directly under the posts, a full 7pts would be awarded and there would be no conversion. This was scrapped for 2026) to become the eighth player in team history to score 100pts for the team! For anyone wondering, Davy Coetzer is the next closest Seawolf to 100, currently sat on 85pts all scored this season.

Wrapping up the scoring stats with the 3rd hat trick of 2026, and the second for the Chicago Hounds! It seem like no matter who the Hounds name in their starting XV or even their matchday 23, they perform. In fact, in weeks that they field a ‘rotated’ roster, there seems to be a pattern of one depth player really stepping up. The likes of Canadian international Matt Oworu in Round 5, Jake Kinneeveauk in Round 8, and now Tiaan Loots in Round 11!

The MLR veteran and long time San Diego Legion player is actually enjoying his seventh season in the competition, after playing with the Houston SaberCats in his debut year (2020), before joining the Legion for 2021-2025. He’s earned over 50 appearances in MLR, made just shy of 3,500m in possession (including a high of 988m in 2022!) and scored 17 tries, but these tries have come in batches. Twice, Loots has recorded 0 tries in a season (2022, 2025), but he’s also scored 4 in 2023 and a high of 6 in 2024. He has served more of a depth role on the Hounds this season, and had 0 tries coming into their clash with the Free Jacks, but that all changed. He just had a knack for being in the right place at the right time this week, and recorded his first career MLR hat trick to help Chicago secure that perfect 10-0 record, and was named as MLR Player of the Week to top it off!

As mentioned, this is only the 3rd hat trick of the season which averages out to 1 every 10 games, yet it’s the second for the Hounds who are just catching lightning in a bottle this year, following Brock Webster in against the Seattle Seawolves in Round 5. It’s the 5th hat trick in Chicago Hounds history, and the 56th in MLR history. It’s highly likely that it’s the last hat trick of the 2026 season as well, unless the playoffs have some surprises in store!

The Newest Member of the 1000 Tackle Club!

Not forgetting the more granular milestones compared to wins or points, California Legion flanker Lance Williams completed a team high 15 tackles (tied with Cyrille Cama) ot take his career total over 1,000 tackles completed in MLR! Now on 1,004 tackles, the long time Utah Warrior is the 6th player in MLR history to pass 1,000 tackles completed, and has made 113 in 2026 where he’s started all 10 of California’s games so far. Williams has averaged just over 11 tackles per game across his 91 game (85 start) MLR career, including four seasons with over 170 tackles made. He’s come close to breaking his career high of 190 tackles for the Warriors in 2019, with two 173 tackle season in 2021 and 2022, and 181 tackles completed in 2023. Combining this with his just over 3,400m gained in possession and 21 career tries, and it’s easy to see why Stephen Hoiles likes him in the Legion starting XV. Congratulations, Lance!

Scorigami Check

Scorigami’ is a method of tracking all final scores for a given league that originated in the NFL but has since grown in popularity and spread to other sports and leagues, with a ‘Scorigami’ being a score that has never occurred before. NARDB has applied the same method to MLR but does not take credit for starting this, as it has been present on the r/MLRugby subreddit for years.

The table below breaks down the three results from Round 10 of the 2026 Major League Rugby season, including how many times each score has occurred in the past and when, or if the final score is a MLR Scorigami that has never occurred before!

Old Glory DC 29 – 21 19 – 35 33 – 19
2nd Occurrence2nd Occurrence5th Occurrence
21 – 29
2024 – Rd 8		 35 – 19
2019 – Rd 14		 19 – 33
2026 – Rd 2
19 – 33
2025 – WCF
19 – 33
2025 – Rd 15
19 – 33 NOLA rugby
2025 – Rd 8
Note: MLR Scorigami only takes into account the final score, and does not (yet) go deeper into whether the home/away score configuration has also occurred before. For example, The Seattle Seawolves defeated the New England Free Jacks 21-29 as the away team, but in Rd 11 of 2026 Old Glory DC defeated Anthem RC as the home side, but these are still counted as the same score.

Wrapping Up

The most capped player in MLR history, the leagues first perfect season, and plenty more Midweek Milestones as the playoff picture is locked in. There was drama from the first kickoff of the 2026 regular season, to the final whistle of the final game. The whirlwind 10-game season and has provided us with heaps of standout stats to talk about in Midweek Milestones, but the business end of the campaign is here. It’s time for the playoffs!

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Midweek Milestones! Please feel free to let me know what you thought of this article on social media, or let me know if you’ve found any standout stats that weren’t mentioned here!

You can find NARDB/James on social media here: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, 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 gear, visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Rd 10 of the 2026 MLR Season!

James Deeley

The penultimate weekend of the 2026 Major League Rugby regular season is behind us, and with just 1 weekend of games left before the postseason begins, three of the four playoff spots have been decided but only one of them is locked in. The California Legion and Seattle Seawolves are still fighting over the final home playoff spot in 2nd, while the three teams at the bottom of the standings are fighting for survival, with the defending champion New England Free Jacks, Old Glory DC, and Anthem RC (mathematically, at least) all battling it out for the last remaining place!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, the weekly article series that dives deeper into some of the standout stats from the latest round of MLR action! Round 10 gave us another 3 cracking games including arguably the game of the season so far between Old Glory DC and the Chicago Hounds and as regular readers of these articles will know, every MLR gameday throws out a bunch of interesting numbers, standout stats, and Midweek Milestones!

Appearance Achievements

Round 10 saw a MLR collegiate draftee earn his 50th appearance in the competition, becoming the 6th Collegiate Draftee to reach a half-century of appearances, and just the 2nd from his draft class in 2022. Selected 1st Overall in the 2022 MLR Collegiate Draft by the Dallas Jackals out of UC Berkeley, Sam Golla has been exceptional since starting his pro rugby career. He started all 16 appearances for the Jackals during his rookie season, scoring 3 tries and gaining over 500m while completing a massive 218 tackles, averaging 13.6 tackles per game. Unsurprisingly, this earned him the 2023 MLR Rookie of the Year award, becoming the first 1st Overall Draft Pick to win the award. Following this superb first year of pro rugby, Golla earned his test debut for the USA as Eagle #558 against Romania in August 2023.

Golla represented the Jackals for two seasons between 2023-2024, scoring 6 tries in 26 games (25 starts) and completing well over 300 tackles before the team withdrew from the competition. Following this, the Texas born, Colorado raised Golla headed to North Carolina to join Anthem RC with former Jackals head coach Agustin Cavalieri, where he’s played for the last two seasons. He added another strong defensive season in 2025 (187 tackles made in 15 games) and remains a constant in the Rising Stars lineup this season, appearing in all 9 games so far. In his 50 game MLR career so far, Golla has started 47 times and notched 8 tries on over 1,100m gained (impressive for a forward), and has completed a huge 584 tackles in total with over 100 in each of his last three seasons, but a slight drop this year (67 in 9 games). Golla follows Canadian Cali Martinez as the 2nd member of the 2022 MLR Draft Class to reach 50 appearances in the competition. Congratulations, Sam!

Before the 2026 season, only 4 players had ever reached 100 appearances in Major League Rugby. Despite being a shortened season this year, that number has doubled! Luke White, Riekert Hattingh, and Jake Turnbull have all joined MLR’s exclusive ‘100 club’ and in Round 10, they were joined by California Legion forward, Keni Nasoqeqe!

Born and raised in Fiji, Nasoqeqe grew up playing rugby for Lelean Memorial School in Nausori near the capital of Suva, before moving to the United States in 2015 and settling in California. He promptly joined Belmont Shore RFC in Long Beach, helping them to a Pacific Rugby Premiership title in 2018, before turning professional and joining the San Diego Legion ahead of the 2019 MLR season. Nasoqeqe started 12 of his 13 games for the Legion that season, scoring 2 tries and completing 138 tackles (still his career high) to help the team finish as MLR Runners-Up that season. He would represent the San Diego Legion for 3 seasons between 2019-2021, starting 22 of his 28 appearances and scoring 5 tries in total with over 1,000m gained in possession.

Ahead of the 2022 MLR season, Keni Nasoqeqe moved from the west coast to Texas, joining the Houston SaberCats. After struggling through the first few years in the competition, the SaberCats went through a period of rebuild ahead of the 2022 season, bringing in former Springboks head coach Heyneke Meyer and veteran South African coach Pote Human to take the reigns. This transformation wasn’t limited to the front office, with plenty of new players arriving from around the league and beyond, including Keni Nasoqeqe. It was with the Houston SaberCats that he earned the bulk of his 100 appearances in MLR. Nasoqeqe played with Houston for 4 seasons between 2022-2025, posting positive records and qualifying for the post-season every year. In total, Nasoqeqe earned 63 appearances for the SaberCats, appearing in 17 games in 3 different seasons including 2025, when the SaberCats posted an impressive 14-2 record and advanced to the MLR Championship Game where they fell to the New England Free Jacks.

With the unexpected withdrawal of the SaberCats from MLR following the 2025 season, Keni Nasoqeqe returned to California to rejoin the new look California Legion. He’s started 5 of his 9 games for the Legion so far this season to reach triple figures! In terms of career totals, Nasoqeqe has started 59 of his 100 appearances including a high of 14 for Houston in 2022, scoring 10 tries in total. He sits just shy of 700 tackles made and has over 1,850m gained in possession. Congratulations on your 100th appearances, Keni!

Carty sets single season record!

With 6pts for Anthem RC from 3 successful conversions in the Rising Stars defeat to the California Legion at the weekend, Irish born USA Eagle Luke Carty moves to 53pts on the season, setting a new Anthem single season record for points in a season! Carty is just the second Anthem player ever to score over 50pts in a season, and overtakes Cliven Loubser’s 51pts in 2024 to set the new benchmark. Loubser is currently Anthem RC’s all-time top scorer with 57pts scored for the team, but Carty now sits just 4pts behind him with 1 regular season game left this season. Can he take the top spot?

Scoring points is nothing new for Luke Carty. He passed 250pts scored earlier this season and currently sits as MLR’s 12th highest scorer with 279pts scored in 64 games, putting him 4th among active players. This season, Carty is 25/34 from the tee across his 8 games played for a success rate of 73.53%, far higher than his career average of 68.82% (117/170). He has only scored 1 MLR try so far, which came back in 2024 while playing for the Chicago Hounds.

Scoring Stats

On the subject of scoring points, Luke Carty wasn’t the only player with a standout scoring stat in Round 10. In Seattle, a gutsy win over the Free Jacks was secured by a Divan Rossouw score that took the Seawolves just out of reach for the defending champions, securing a playoff berth for the 4x finalists and keeping their hunt for a home playoff game alive.

This was the 17th MLR try for capped Namibian international Rossouw which, when added to his 3 penalties and 3 conversions he scored while filling in as Seattle Seawolves place kicker during their injury ravaged start to 2026, takes his points total over the 100pt mark, to 102! Rossouw is averaging 0.4 tries per game across his 44 appearances for Seattle, and is the 7th player in Seawolves history to pass 100pts scored for the team. Congratulations, Divan!

Moving down the west coast from Seattle to California and the Legion, who were in fact playing Anthem all the way across the country in North Carolina. The Legion secured their spot in the 2026 playoffs in style, with an eight-try, 26-55 victory over the Rising Stars. Three of these scores came from USA eligible Welshman Steff Crimp, recording the first hat trick of his MLR career and doubling his career try total from 3 to 6!

Now on a career high 4 tries in 7 games (4 starts) so far this season, Crimp’s hatty is the first in California Legion history, and only the second hat trick of the 2026 season after Brock Webster for the Chicago Hounds in Round 5. This is the 55th hat trick in Major League Rugby history! Congratulations, Steff!

Player Milestones

The Seattle Seawolves completed the season sweep of the defending champion New England Free Jacks over the weekend, retaining the Coffee Cup with a surprisingly dominant victory (although the scoreline suggests otherwise thanks to a late surge from the Free Jacks). In this game, winger Ina Futi recorded the 2nd highest metres gained total for the Seawolves, with 55m gained which isn’t particularly remarkable in and of itself, however this pushes his career total over the 4,000m mark, becoming just the 16th player in MLR history to pass 4km made in possession!

A gridiron football player in his native American Samoa, Ina Futi moved to California in 2014 before moving to Idaho the following year and picking up rugby, before heading to Seattle in 2018 and joining Seattle RFC. The rugby club has served as a regular feeder team (and pre-season opponent) for the Seattle Seawolves over the years, and after excelling with the club, Futi was signed to a MLR deal ahead of the 2021 season and has represented the Seawolves ever since. His breakout season came in 2023 when he finished 2nd league-wide for metres gained with an extraordinary 1,495, scoring 9 tries and even completing 89 tackles out on the wing. These all remain career highs for Futi.

Averaging 57.8m gained per match across his 70 game MLR career so far, Futi is entering rarified air at the top of the Metre Eater leaderboard. He is currently sat 15th all-time for metres gained, while passing 4,500m would put him in the Top 8, alongside teammates Duncan Matthews and Riekert, who are both approaching metre milestones of their own, so watch this space. Congratulations, Ina!

Moving from metres gained to tackles made, and from the Seawolves to their Round 10 opponents, the New England Free Jacks. After signing with the Free Jacks from Old Glory DC in a high-profile move during the off-season, capped USA Eagle Jama Fa’anana-Schultz headed to France to join RC Narbonnais in the 3rd tier, Nationale. Narbonne qualified for the playoffs and eventually claimed the Nationale title and with it, promotion to the Pro D2. Excellent for Fa’anana-Schultz, although Narbonne’s success actually kept ‘JFS’ away from the Free Jacks for much of the season, finally linking up with the reigning champs and earning his Free Jacks debut in Round 9, and earning his first start this weekend in Round 10.

The long time Old Glory DC player and former Captain completed a team-high 17 tackles in round 10 to take his total to an even 700 tackles completed in his 72 game MLR career so far, averaging just under 10 tackles per game! Fa’anana-Schulz began his career with the Houston SaberCats in 2019 before joining DC for their inaugural season and playing with the Flags from 2020-2025, when he joined New England. Along with his 700 tackles that includes a high of 187 back in 2023, JFS has scored 16 tries on over 3,300m gained, setting his carer high of 4 tries in his final season in DC. Congratulations, Jama!

Not to take any of the shine off of Fa’anana-Schultz’s achievement, but he was not the only Free Jack to pass a big tackle milestone in this game. Captain Joe Johnston recorded slightly fewer tackles than JFS in this game at 14 (Johnston and Fa’anana-Schultz combined for just over 20% of all tackles made by the Free Jacks in this game!), but this took ‘The Mechanic’ career total over NINE HUNDRED, putting him in the Top 13 MLR tackles ever!

Johnston now sits at 901 tackles made in his 73 MLR games (60 starts) in total, all for the Free Jacks. The 3x Shield Winner is averaging 12.3 tackles across his career, but that season his average is an insane 16.8 tackles per game, passing 100 tackles in just his 6th game of the season. Congratulations, Joe!

Scorigami Check

Sticking with a newer segment that applies the concept of ‘Scorigami’ to Major League Rugby. ‘Scorigami’ is a method of tracking all final scores for a given league that originated in the NFL but has since grown in popularity and spread to other sports and leagues, with a ‘Scorigami’ being a score that has never occurred before. NARDB has applied the same method to MLR but does not take credit for starting this, as it has been present on the r/MLRugby subreddit for years.

The table below breaks down the three results from Round 10 of the 2026 Major League Rugby season, including how many times each score has occurred in the past and when, or if the final score is a MLR Scorigami that has never occurred before!

36 – 28 26 – 55 Old Glory DC 32 – 33
4th Occurrence2nd Occurrence2nd Occurrence
36 – 28 RFCLA
2025 – Rd 4		 55 – 26 NOLA rugby
2018 – Rd 5		 32 – 33
2024 – Rd 8
Old Glory DC 36 – 28
2023 – Rd 18
36 – 28 NOLA rugby
2022 – Rd 13
Note: MLR Scorigami only takes into account the final score, and does not (yet) go deeper into whether the home/away score configuration has also happened before. For example, the Seattle Seawolves defeated NOLA Gold 55-26 as the home side, but this is counted as the same score as when the California Legion defeated Anthem RC 26-55 as the away side.

Wrapping Up

For once, the Chicago Hounds didn’t break a crazy record! Instead, this week’s Midweek Milestones article covered appearance achievements for an MLR Draftee and a new Centurion, a new single season scoring record for the Rising Stars among other scoring achievements, and a bunch of player milestones for both tackles and metres gained! Three big games every week this year is throwing up a huge number of standout stats for us to break down, and I hope you enjoy them. Come back next week for all the juicy numbers from the final week of the 2026 Regular Season!

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Midweek Milestones! Please feel free to let me know what you thought of this article (and the new addition of the Scorigami Summary) on social media, or let me know if you’ve found any standout stats that weren’t mentioned here!

You can find NARDB/James on social media here: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, 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 gear, visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 4 of the 2026 MLR Season!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

The 4th round of Major League Rugby’s 2026 season saw some big scores, big tries, and big hats as the league headed to Nashville for the first time ever as the Chicago Hounds took on the New England Free Jacks in the first ever Music City Rugby Showdown! That doesn’t even mention the West Coast Classic on Sunday Night Rugby, or The Old Mate. As always, there was a bunch of standout stats from Round 4, so let’s get into them!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, a weekly article that dives into the numbers from the latest round of MLR action and pulls out the extreme, the unusual, and the standout stats to highlight player or team achievements and milestones that may have otherwise flown under the radar. As always we start with a few appearance achievements, the first of which wasn’t so subtle!

Appearance Achievements

Coming off the bench for the Chicago Hounds in the 45th minute of their huge 50-26 victory over the defending champions in Nashville, veteran forward Luke White became just the 5th player in league history to earn his 100th MLR appearance!

The Sydney, Australia native moved to Colorado in 2015 and joined the Glendale Raptors, then a club side. He is one of very few active MLR players to have played in the short-lived PRO Rugby competition, representing the Denver Stampede in their lone season in 2016. White remained with the Raptors when Major League Rugby was founded, and earned 25 starts in 31 games between 2018-2020, finishing as a Runner-Up in 2019 when he enjoyed a superb season, scoring 3 tries and gaining 1,227m while completing over 150 tackles that year.

Following the withdrawal of the Raptors following the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Luke White headed to the west coast to join the heavily Australian influenced LA Giltinis. It was with the Giltinis that he earned his first (and to date, only) MLR title in 2021, defeating Rugby ATL at the LA Coliseum. White played with the Giltinis for their entire tenure in MLR from 2021-22, earning 16 starts in 21 games in total and becoming the 13th player in MLR history to reach 50 appearances in May of 2022 (taking him almost 4 years to double it!). With the Giltinis also withdrawing from MLR, Luke White was selected by the Chicago Hounds in the dispersal draft, joining the team ahead of their inaugural season in 2023 and playing there ever since.

Following his debut season with the Hounds, White was included in the USA Eagles squad for their 2023 Autumn Internationals, and earned his test debut against Romania as Eagle #561. He’s earned 5 test caps for the Eagles to date and continues to contribute for the Chicago Hounds as he nears his 50th appearance for the team (currently on 48). He is likely to pass 4,000m gained this season as well as 800 tackles made, which puts him in the Top 20 all-time in both categories. There’s no word on whether Luke White will keep playing beyond 2026, but if he ends it with a Shield for the Chicago Hounds in Chicago, what a send off that would be. Congratulations, Luke!

MLR’s 5th Centurion would obviously steal the headlines for standout stats this week, but that wasn’t the only appearance milestone around the league in week 4. Over in California, New York born, Australia raised scrum-half Tas Smith came off the bench for the California Legion in their hard fought win over the Seattle Seawolves to earn his 50th MLR appearance! Smith has represented 3 different sides in MLR, all based in California. He entered the league with the LA Giltinis under Stephen Hoiles in 2022 and actually played alongside Luke White that year before returning to Australia to complete his studies at the University of Sydney in 2023. His 2nd stint in MLR started in 2024 when he joined Rugby FC LA, also under Hoiles. Tas Smith was RFCLA’s most capped player during their time in MLR, appearing in 32 of their 33 games between 2024-2025 and was even on the bench for the 33rd, but was an unused reserve! Staying in California, Smith once again followed Hoiles and much of the RFCLA setup to the California Legion, where he has featured in every game so far this season to reach his half-century! To date, Tas Smith has 16 starts, 3 tries scored on just shy of 600m gained, and an even 150 tackles made. Not too shabby for a scrum-half!

Chicago Defend The Old Mate!

After 2 successful challenges for The Old Mate in a row, the Chicago Hounds became the first team to successfully defend MLR’s Supporters’ Challenge so far this season, scoring 50pts for the 3rd time in team history to see off the New England Free Jacks (incidentally, this is the most points ever conceded by the Free Jacks…) in Nashville. With a successful defence, the Chicago Hounds retain The Old Mate which gives the Seattle Seawolves a chance to take possession of MLR’s newest oldest trophy next week!

First Overall Pick Party in Charlotte!

Heading over to American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, where Old Glory DC picked up a convincing victory over Anthem RC on Saturday, but there was something else worth talking about from this game than just the final score. The broadcast understandably highlighted the clash of Rick Rose and Will Sherman, both 1st overall picks (from 2023 & 2025 respectively) and both playing lock opposite each other, but they weren’t the only 1st overall picks on display.

In fact, there were a total of FIVE 1st Overall MLR draft picks in this game! Four of them playing for Anthem RC: Conner Mooneyham (2020 – Life), Sam Golla (2022 – UC Berkeley), Erich Storti (2024 – St. Mary’s), and Will Sherman (2025 – UCLA), with the aforementioned Rick Rose (2023 – St. Bonaventure) representing Old Glory DC!

This is the most No. 1 Draft Picks to ever feature in a single MLR game, surpassing the previous record of 4 in a match between Anthem RC and the Miami Sharks last season, featuring four of the same five players (Mooneyham, Golla, Storti for Anthem RC, and Rick Rose for Miami) minus Will Sherman, who had not been drafted yet. With only 6 first overall draft picks in MLR history, to have 5 of them feature in a single game is highly unusual!

Metres Milestones

Diving deep into some numbers now and sticking to a First Overall draft pick. MLR’s first ever draft pick in fact: Conner Mooneyham! The Life U alum has been on fire to start his second season with Anthem, scoring 3 tries in 4 games so far including a brace (on his birthday!) in the team’s first ever victory back in Round 1. Mooneyham has already racked up over 250m made this season to take his career total over the 2,500m mark! This is an average of 44.2m made per game over his career but so far in 2026, that average is up at 63m per game. Congratulations on 2.5km, Conner!

Turning our attention to the big men in the forwards, who often find metres made far harder to come by. 2019 World Rugby Player of the Year Nominee Joe Taufete’e made 12 hard-fought metres for the California Legion in their tough victory over the Seattle Seawolves to move past 1,000m in his career! Averaging 23.4m made per game across his 43 match MLR career, Taufete’e’s numbers may seem low when compared to the likes of Mooneyham but ‘Big Joe’ is earning all of those metres the hard way, slogging it out in close range against opposing heavies. Congratulations, Joe!

Coetzer Passes 400!

The Seattle Seawolves made one of the bigger splashes of the off-season in the signing of former Houston SaberCats talisman, Davy Coetzer. Through his first 4 games in the PNW, the South African has proved that he absolutely lives up to the hype! Despite the Seawolves’ loss to the California Legion down in LA, Coetzer picked up 2 tries and another 9pts from the tee to record a new season-high of 19pts scored in a single game, passing the 18pts he scored back in Rd 2, tied with California’s Coby Miln!

This brace takes Coetzer up to 20 career MLR tries, and his 19pts takes him up to a whopping 45pts on the season, which is even more impressive when you consider that the New England Free Jacks have only scored 50pts as a team! What’s more, with this haul of points, Davy Coetzer became just the 4th player in MLR history to pass 400pts scored in the Competition! He joins Joe Pietersen (420pts), AJ Alatimu (504pts), and Sam Windsor (595pts)! The 27yo is in excellent form which should excite any fan of US rugby as he closes in on Eagles eligiblity. Congratulations, Davy!

Wrapping Up

With a 5th Centurion, a ‘Who’s Who’ of first round draft picks, and a handful of individual scoring and metre milestones, that just about does it for this edition of Midweek Milestones! I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I enjoy writing them, and found something interesting. Please feel free to let me know what you thought of this article on social media, or if you’ve found a milestone that I may have missed!

You can find NARDB/James on social media here: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, 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 gear, visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 3 of the 2026 MLR Season!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones from Round 3 of Major League Rugby action in 2026! This weekly series aims to keep fans up to date on some of the individual and team milestones from the latest round of MLR games that may have gone under the radar, but still absolutely deserve some recognition!

I hope that you find this article, and this series, interesting and informative. Who knows, if there is ever a Major League Rugby themed pub quiz, they might come in very handy! As mentioned, this particular article will cover the three matches from Round 3 of the 2026 season, starting off with an appearance milestone for Old Glory DC!

Appearance Achievements

When Collin Grosse came off the bench in the 62nd minute of Old Glory DC’s road victory over the New England Free Jacks at Fort Quincy he became just the 4th MLR draftee ever to reach 50 appearances in the competition behind Emmanuel Albert, Tavite Lopeti, and Conner Mooneyham, earning all 50 with the Flags!

Collin Grosse becomes the first player from the 2022 MLR Draft Class to reach a half-century of games played, ahead of the likes of Sam Golla and DC teammates Cali Martinez and KoiKoi Nelligan, and is the 2nd fastest draftee to reach 50 appearances, reaching the milestone 1,148 days after his MLR debut! Only long time Houston SaberCat Emmanuel Albert, now with the Chicago Hounds, managed it quicker but not by much (1,113 days from MLR debut).

Scoring Milestones

For the most part, the California Legion’s trip to Chicago was as miserable as the weather at SeatGeek Stadium, but despite the relentless rain it wasn’t a complete wash out. Thanks to a late try from Joey Mano, the Legion left the Windy City with a try bonus point, marking Mano’s first score for the Legion and 40th of his MLR career!

On the back of 39 tries during his time with the Utah Warriors including a pair of 14-try seasons in 2023 & 2025, Joey Mano becomes just the 4th player in MLR history to reach 40 tries scored, behind league legends Dylan Fawsitt (65), Riekert Hattingh (48), and Paula Balekana (46)! Mano reached this milestone in just 57 appearances, recording 0.7 tries per game; Highest among MLR’s 40+ try scorers!

Joey Mano may have secured the Try BP for the California Legion, but their scoring was opened by one of his former Warriors teammates: Lance Williams! Like Joey Mano, Williams’ first try for the Legion was also a milestone. It marked his 20th score in Major League Rugby! It may not be the lofty heights of 40 tries, but 20 scores for a hard running, hard tackling back row is no mean feat. There aren’t many players in the league that can boast 20 tries, over 3000m gained, and over 900 tackles like Lance Williams. Congratulations!

In the same game that Julian Roberts recorded the 100th try in Anthem RC team history, fly-half Luke Carty kicked a round-high 14pts to help lift the Rising Stars over the Seawolves. Although this was only Carty’s 3rd game with the Rising Stars after joining in the off-season, these 14pts took the capped USA Eagle over 250 in his MLR career! With 50pts for the LA Giltinis (2021-22), 127pts for the Chicago Hounds (2023-24 – he remains the team’s top scorer!), 49pts for the NOLA Gold last year, and 27pts for Anthem in 2026 so far, Carty has gone 104/152 from the tee in his MLR career for a success rate of 68.42% to go with a lone try scored back in 2024, for a career total of 253pts. He becomes the 13th player in MLR history to pass 250pts scored, congratulations, Luke!

Tackle Milestones

Round 3 saw a trio of players reach significant career tackle milestones, starting with Canadian international and Chicago Hounds back row, Mason Flesch who recorded 7 tackles made in the Hounds’ big home victory over the California Legion to pass 500 tackles made in his 60 game MLR career to average 8.38 tackles per game! Flesch has recorded over 100 tackles in his last 3 seasons including a career high of 165 tackles last season. It’ll be tough to reach triple-figures in the shortened 2026 season, can he do it again?

Moving much closer to the top of Major League Rugby’s all-time tacklers list, Johan Momsen also completed 7 tackles in Round 3 as Anthem RC earned their 2nd win of the season over the Seattle Seawolves in front of a home crowd. As a result, the Anthem Captain became the 3rd player in MLR history to pass 1,000 tackles made in the competition, now sat on 1,004 tackles! Momsen first entered Major League Rugby with Rugby ATL for their inaugural season in 2020, representing the RATLers from 2020-23, finishing as a MLR Runner-Up in 2021 and completing over 600 tackles in his 4 seasons in Marietta before heading to Texas to join the Houston SaberCats where he spent two seasons, completed 345 tackles, and finished as a runner-up for a second time in 2025. Now with Anthem RC, Momsen currently leads the league for tackles made in 2026, completing 43 in just 3 games!

Johan Momsen has recorded 5 seasons in a row with at least 125 tackles completed, including a pair of 200+ tackles seasons in 2021 and 2025, the latter of which was a career high at 220! He looks set to reach triple figures again despite the shortened season and reached 1,000 tackles in just 28 games more than Mason Flesch reached 500, averaging an impressive 11.41 tackles across his 88 game MLR career so far!

The big South African forward passes 1,000 tackles behind Dylan Fawsitt (1,040) and MLR’s All-Time tackle leader, Lucas Rumball! The Canada and Chicago Hounds Captain’s Man of the Match performance in Round 3’s victory over the California Legion saw him score a brace of tries and complete 15 tackles in total to push his MLR-leading tackle total over 1,100 to 1,106 in even fewer games than Momsen, averaging a massive 13.17 tackles across his 84 game MLR career between the Toronto Arrows and Chicago Hounds!

Wrapping Up

Round 3 of the 2026 season brought us the 1st member of the 2022 MLR Collegiate Draft Class to reach 50 appearances, the 3rd MLR player to pass 1,000 tackles completed, and the 4th player in MLR history to reach 40 tries scored, and that’s not even covering everything in this article! I hope you found this informative and entertaining, and please feel free to reach out on social media with any questions. Be sure to come back next week for all the Midweek Milestones from Round 4 of the 2026 MLR season!

If you find any milestones that haven’t been mentioned here, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, 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 gear, visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Moves Summary: December 29, 2025 – January 4th, 2026

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Happy New Year rugby fans, and welcome to 2026!! Here’s hoping that the tumult and uncertainty of the second half of 2025 will stay in 2025, and let’s look ahead to this upcoming season which by necessity is Major League Rugby’s most important season to date. Some MLR teams are starting to come to the end of their roster announcements for their 2026 squad and as usual, that gives NARDB plenty to talk about despite a much quieter week.

Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Moves Summary series! As regular readers already know, these weekly articles aim to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season. This series only covers the players announced by the teams themselves, but that doesn’t mean that NARDB isn’t listening to any rumours that are out there. As always, the summary graphic for Player Moves announced last week between December 29th, 2025 and January 4th, 2026, followed by the re-signings section:

Player Moves Summary Graphic for December 29th 2025, to January 4th, 2026

Re-Signings

Old Glory DC were the first team to announce a returning player last week, confirming the return of Major League Rugby draftee John Powers for his 3rd year with the team in 2026, and 6th in the competition. Powers was selected 7th overall out of Iona College by the Utah Warriors in MLR’s inaugural draft back in 2020, and is one of only two players to ever be drafted from Iona College along with Watson Filikitonga in the same draft (14th Overall). Powers was signed by the Warriors for the 2021 MLR season and made his debut from the bench in his sole Utah appearance before being traded to New York ahead of the 2022 season in exchange for a 2022 3rd Round Draft Pick that was eventually used by the Houston SaberCats to select Brandon Karnes after being traded through Rugby ATL. Powers earned 7 appearances from the bench with the Ironworkers from 2022-2023, helping the team to lift the 2022 MLR Shield before withdrawing from the competition in late 2023. Powers was selected by Old Glory DC in the subsequent dispersal draft and has represented the Flags ever since. He has carved out a solid career with Old Glory DC, earning his first 11 career MLR starts across 26 games since 2023, scoring 2 tries and 12 points while gaining 465m of his career total 626m, and completing 75 of his 82 career tackles. Powers has played at centre, fullback, and even fly-half for Old Glory DC and this flexibility will prove very useful when injuries inevitably take their toll on the roster.

@oldglorydc via instagram

Intra-League Signings

On December 29th, Anthem RC kicked off last week’s player announcements with the news that they had added 2023 MLR Draftee Marques Fuala’au to their squad for the 2026 MLR season. A Central Washington University product, Fuala’au was selected by the Dallas Jackals with the 3rd overall pick of the 2023 MLR Draft and signed with the team for his debut Major League Rugby season in 2024. He had a solid first year as a professional player, scoring a try and earning 3 starts in 16 appearances for the Jackals to help them earn their first postseason berth with over 80 tackles completed and 195m gained. Following the withdrawal of the Dallas Jackals from MLR, Fuala’au headed to Miami and signed with the Sharks for the 2025 season, where he enjoyed another solid year. He earned a career high 8 starts in 15 games for the Sharks to also qualify for the postseason for the first time in team history, recording remarkably similar numbers as his debut season. Fuala’au has averaged 6 starts in 16 games across each of his first two seasons, recording 80 tackles and 177m gained on average each year. Anthem RC will mark Fuala’au’s 3rd team in as many seasons due to team withdrawals, but that will likely change given teh stability of the MLR/USA Rugby/World Rugby owned franchise. He will have to really compete for game time in that stacked Anthem back row, however.

Not done there, the following day Anthem RC also announced the addition of former Utah Warriors fullback Jordan Trainor for his 4th MLR campaign in 2026. The New Zealander first entered Major League Rugby with the LA Giltinis in 2022, scoring 3 tries in 13 games and gaining over 800m to earn a pair of MLR Team of the Week selections before the Giltinis were disqualified prior to the playoffs, and ceased operations. Trainor then moved to the NOLA Gold and bettered his 2022 performance, scoring 2 tries and 14pts while recording over 1000m gained and earning three more Team of the Week selections. Trainor did not feature in MLR during the 2024 season, instead staying in New Zealand before returning to the states with the Utah Warriors for a career year in 2025. For the Warriors, Trainor set career highs across the board with 16 appearances (all starts) and scored 8 tries and finished 2nd league-wide with 1,117m gained while completing 55 tackles. With just shy of 3,000m gained in his 39 games in MLR, Trainor is averaging a remarkable 76m gained per game and is scoring at a 0.3 tries a game pace, 0.5 tries per game in 2025 alone. Trainor will almost certainly be Anthem’s go-to fullback in 2026.

Following a few days of New Years’ celebrations, the Chicago Hounds kicked off 2026 with the announcement that they had added South African utility back Reece Botha to their roster. Eligible for the US on residency and therefore a domestic player for the 2026 season, Botha is a product of Lindenwood University who joined the NOLA Gold academy system in the fall of 2022 before earning an MLR deal with the team ahead of the 2023 season. Botha spent 3 seasons with the NOLA Gold, contributing 4 tries and 82pts in his 32 MLR appearances, including appearing in all 17 NOLA Gold games during the 2024 season, the team’s lone playoff appearance. Along with tries, Botha has scored 6 penalties and 22 conversions from the tee, going 28/44 (63.64%) in his career including 19/25 (76%) when he scored a career high 53pts in 2024. In 2025, Botha started at both fly-half and centre for the Gold, scoring a try and 15pts in 9 games (3 starts) during a disappointing final season in Major League Rugby for the NOLA Gold. His ability to play almost anywhere across the back line will no doubt prove useful to the Chicago Hounds as the 2026 MLR season trundles on.

Later that same day, the Seattle Seawolves announced their first player of 2026, confirming that they had added former Houston SaberCats scrum-half André Warner to their roster for the upcoming season. The Cape Town native entered Major League Rugby in 2024 and spent two seasons playing with the SaberCats from 2024-2025. He enjoyed an excellent debut season with the SaberCats in 2024, scoring 8 tries in 15 games (all starts) and recording 118 tackles as a scrum-half to earn an All-MLR First XV Selection, the only Houston player to be included in the First XV that season. The following year, Warner delivered another solid season for the SaberCats, although unsurprisingly a step back from his superb 2024. He added another 4 tries in 12 games (11 starts) and recorded 68 tackles as the SaberCats claimed the Western Conference Title in 2025, advancing to the Championship Game which Warner started, a 28-22 defeat to the New England Free Jacks in Rhode Island. An All-MLR First XV selection followed by a MLR runner-up campaign and the best season in SaberCats history is far from a bad two seasons in MLR. André Warner now joins fellow former SaberCats Davy Coetzer, Ezekiel Lindenmuth, and Marno Redelinghuys in Seattle, where he will be jostling for the starting 9 jersey with another South African, JP Smith.

@seawolvesrugby via Instagram

Wrapping Up

It seems like Major League Rugby teams were also enjoying some time off during the ‘Chrimbo Limbo’ period, as last week was significantly quieter on the Player Moves front, with only 5 announcements across the league comprised of 1 re-signing for Old Glory DC, and 4 intra-league moves including a pair of new additions for Anthem RC. Due to the season kicking off later this year, NARDB estimates that training camps should open in early to mid February in 2026 and so we should hear more from the California Legion in the next few weeks, likely revealing their full roster in one big bang.

Thank you very much for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! As we all get back into the swing of daily life, team and player news around the 2026 Major League Rugby season will be coming thick and fast, so keep an eye on socials! As regular readers will know, these article are posted on the site and on social media every Monday so keep an eye out for this week’s summary 12th January! If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, 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 jump into the offseason sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com OR rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Moves Summary: December 22 – December 28, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Happy Holidays! If you’re reading this article close to the time of publication, I can only assume you’re in a food/drink coma and cannot move, or you had to hurry to find something to read on your phone to avoid a conversation with a certain family member (you know who I mean). Regardless of the reason, NARDB welcomes you and hopes you’re enjoying the holidays. Last week got off to a busy start with teams trying to get announcements in right before the holidays, which means that even at this magical time of year, we have Player Moves to talk about!

Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Moves Summary series! As regular readers already know, these weekly articles aim to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season. Every officially announced Player Move is covered, providing additional information about each player along with context as to where they may fit in with current rosters. This series only covers the players announced by the teams themselves, but that doesn’t mean that NARDB isn’t listening to any rumours that are out there. As always, the summary graphic for Player Moves between December 22nd to 28th, 2025, followed by the re-signings section:

A 2-page Summary Graphic of all player moves around Major League Rugby from December 21-28, 2025

Re-Signings

Last week’s re-signings were kicked off by the Chicago Hounds on December 23rd, when they announced the return of 2023 MLR Draftee Jackson Zabierek for his 2nd season with the team, and 3rd in Major League Rugby in 2026. Zabierek was selected in the 2nd Round of the 2023 MLR Draft out of UC – Santa Cruz by Rugby FC LA, but instead played with the American Raptors during the 2024 Super Rugby Americas season before signing with the Seattle Seawolves for their playoff push, earning 6 appearances and his first MLR start. Following his debut season, Zabierek headed to Chicago and signed with the Hounds for the 2025 campaign where he tripled his career appearances from 6 to 18, and scored his first two MLR tries in the same game, a closely contested 15-12 home victory against eventual 2025 Runners-Up the Houston SaberCats. Zabierek was named to the MLR Team of the Week for this performance. The 25yo hooker will be joining Theo Fourie in the middle of the Chicago Hounds front row next season.

@chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

Intra-League Signings

On 22nd December, Anthem RC announced that they had added veteran MLR centre Will Leonard to their 2026 roster. A native of County Limerick in Ireland, Will Leonard first entered Major League Rugby with the Rugby New York Ironworkers for their inaugural season back in 2019, representing them through 2021 and scoring 6 tries in 31 games (29 starts) in the Big Apple, recording a career high 198 tackles made in 2021 which was good enough for 6th league-wide that year. Leonard moved south to Atlanta for the 2022 season where he had a standout season for the RATLers, scoring 4 tries in 15 games (14 starts) and gaining over 1,250m in possession while recording another 150+ tackle season. In fact, Leonard had two excellent seasons with Rugby ATL, with over 2000m gained and 333 tackles completed in 30 games (29 starts), scoring 5 tries. He would follow the team to Los Angeles when they relocated, and spent another couple of years with Rugby FC LA, scoring a further 3 tries in 14 games between 2023-24. In total, Will Leonard has started 67 of his 75 MLR appearances across 7 seasons, scoring 14 tries. He is one of only 12 players in league history to pass 4000m gained (4100m), and sits on 794 tackles completed, 17th in MLR history. Will Leonard is bound to add experience to the young Anthem RC midfield, joining the likes of Junior Gafa, EJ Freeman, and maybe Erich Storti in the centre.

Later in the week, Anthem RC announced that they had also aquired US-eligible New Zealand scrumhalf Zion Going for the 2026 season after 4 years with the Utah Warriors. Going first entered MLR in 2022, and through his first two seasons at Zion’s Bank he played more of a reserve role, with 7 starts and 2 tries in 20 games. His last two seasons with the Warriors were a different story, however. In 2024 he earned more starts (9), and scored as many tries (2) than he did in his first two years combined, setting career highs for appearances (14), metres gained (175m) and tackles made (84). Going’s form continued to improve in the Utah Warriors’ best ever season in 2025, settting career highs across the board. He appeared in all 18 games for the Warriors, starting 15 times and doubling his career try total from 4 to 8. Going recorded over 100 tackles for the first time in his career (114) and recored 276m gained, cementing himself as the Utah Warriors’ go-to starting scrumhalf. Unfortunately for Zion Going, the Utah Warriors withdrew from Major League Rugby in November 2025 after failing to secure new funding, but his US-eligibility made him an attractive signing for Anthem RC, where he will likely continue as the go-to 9, supported by Ishma-eel Safodien and Karl Keane.

The Chicago Hounds announced that they had acquired another of the former Houston SaberCats for their 2026 squad on December 22nd. This time, 2021 Draftee Emmanuel Albert. A product of Lindenwood University, Albert was selected 2nd overall by the Houston SaberCats in the 2021 Draft, and represented Houston in every season from 2022-25. He was the first MLR Draftee to reach 50 appearances in Major League Rugby, and remains MLR’s most capped draftee with 62 appearances for the ‘Cats in total. Albert enjoyed a career year in 2025, setting career highs almost across the board. He earned 16 of his 25 career starts and appeared in 17 of Houston’s 19 games en route to the Championship Final. Albert recorded a career high of 311m gained to take his career total over 1000, and recorded his first 200+ tackle season with 206, finishing 10th league-wide. He now sits just shy of 500 tackles made in his career and has proven himself a starting-calibre forward. Unfortunately, his 2025 ended in defeat to the New England Free Jacks, but he joins a formidable looking Chicago Hounds squad that is also out for revenge, and includes Albert’s SaberCats Captain, Nathan den Hoedt.

@chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

Moving to New England, where the reigning Champion Free Jacks announced the signing of capped USA Eagle and Major League Rugby veteran back row Bailey Wilson for their title defence on December 23rd, 2025. Born in Australia, High School All-American Wilson grew up in Utah and represented the USA age grade sides before joining his local MLR side, the Utah Warriors, ahead of the 2020 season. He represented the Warriors through 2025, scoring 7 tries in 80 appearances (67 starts) and captaining the side 47 times since 2021. Wilson has gained just shy of 2,200m in possession in his career, averaging 27.3mpg and 9.8 tackles per game. With 122 tackles in 14 games (9 starts) in Utah’s franchise-best 2025 season, Wilson recorded his fifth successive 100+ tackle season that includes a 150+ tackle season in 2021 and a career high 201 tackle season in 2022. With the Utah Warriors withdrawing from Major League Rugby. The (somewhat underrated) defensive workhorse Bailey Wilson will link up with his brother at the New England Free Jacks, with fan favourite Mitch returning to Quincy after a season with Anthem RC in 2024. Bailey Wilson will compete for gametime with a stacked Free Jacks back row that includes the likes of Piers von Dadelszen, Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz (if he’s back from France!) and Joe Johnston, as well as new additions such as Jacob Norris and Alex Mackenzie.

The following day on Christmas Eve 2025, the Seattle Seawolves announced the return of recently capped USA Hooker Sean McNulty for the 2026 season. Born in England to Irish parents who moved to New York when Sean was only 1, he earned his test debut for the USA as Eagle #577 against Canada in August 2024. McNulty has started 33 of his 72 Major League Rugby appearances since 2019, scoring 6 trieson 1,100m gained in possession and completing over 400 tackles in his career. He lifted the 2021 MLR Shield with the LA Giltinis and has finished as a runner-up twice, with the Seattle Seawolves in 2022 and was a part of the San Diego Legion team that recorded MLR’s best ever regular season but fell to the Free Jacks in 2023. Across his 7 seasons in the competition, McNulty has represented 6 MLR teams, playing with Rugby New York (2019), the New England Free Jacks (2020), the LA Giltinis (2021), the Seattle Seawolves (2022), the San Diego Legion (2023), and the Miami Sharks (2024-2025), playing in the inaugural seasons of 4 of these teams (NY, NE, LA, Miami). While Jake Turnbull signed with his 6th different MLR team last week, Sean McNulty may be the only player in League history to have actually represented 6 different teams at MLR level right now. He re-joins the Seattle Seawolves having represented them in 2022, and will compete with Canadian international Dewald Kotze for the spot in the middle of their front row.

@seawolvesrugby via Instagram

Later in the week, the Seattle Seawolves also announced the addition of newly capped USA Rugby Eagle Rufus McLean. Born in Boston, the disgraged Scottish winger signed with the American Raptors in Super Rugby Americas after Edinburgh and the Scottish National Team terminated his contract. Following the Raptors ceasing operations, the Houston SaberCats signed him for their 2025 campaign. The signing of McLean divided the SaberCats fanbase and MLR fans in general, with many feeling that McLean does not deserve to play professional rugby and wouldn’t be if not for his US-birth. McLean scored 4 tries in 15 games (all starts) for the SaberCats, completing 79 tackles and gaining just shy of 700m, however his on-the-field play is not what fans have an issue with. McLean further divided US rugby fans when he earned his debut for the USA as Eagle #595 against England in July 2025. Many claimed that a convicted domestic abuser should not be representing the national team, with supporters saying that McLean deserves a second chance. McLean has yet again divided fans after signing with the Seattle Seawolves, with some wondering how he keeps managing to earn new contracts given the dark cloud over his head. Some claim that McLean is a changed man and NARDB’s standpoint is that everyone is capable of change, but for the privilege of playing professional rugby and representing the USA Eagles, proof of that change is needed. So far, proof is nowhere to be found.

Back to Rugby. Old Glory DC became the 5th team to announce an Intra-league signing last week when they announced (also on Christmas Eve) the addition of 2016 Olympic Gold Medallist Semi Kunatani for their 2026 Campaign. Having won a Gold Medal with the Fiji 7s team, and represented the Fiji 15s side at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, Kunatani entered MLR with Rugby FC LA in 2024 having played for some of the RFCLA Ownership at the Tel Aviv Heat. He exploded in his debut season with 10 tries and over 1,100m gained in 15 games (11 starts) during the 2024 season, earning an All-MLR First XV Selection for his efforts. Unsurprisingly, last season he took a step back, with 1 try and 4 starts in 11 games, although he still recorded over 300m gained and 70 tackles completed in considerably less game time. Kunatani, who is classified as an international player for 2026, will compete with the likes of Ben Bonasso, Cory Daniel, and Collin Grosse in the DC back row.

New Faces

On December 22nd, the New England Free Jacks announced the addition of a pair of new faces to Major League Rugby, starting with US-born rugby league winger Max Lehmann. The New England Free Jacks have done an excellent job in recent years to find players with sneaky US eligibilty through birth, heritage, etc., and Lehmann is no exception. Although the 25yo was raised on rugby league in Australia, he was born in San Francisco and so will count as a domestic player for the 2026 season. Lehmann has spent much of his pro career playing in the development leagues of the NRL. He represented the Parramatta Eels in the NSW Cup in 2022 before moving to the Easts Tigers and playing in the Queensland Cup. After a stint in England with the Bradford Bulls of the Championship in 2024, he returned to Australia and the NSW Cup with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, although most recently he has been trialling with the Easts Tigers NRL side, from which he heads to New England to join the Free Jacks. Lehmann has played rugby union at a decent level for the junior Waratahs, although the 2026 MLR season will be his first time playing rugby union professionally. A winger arguably has the easiest transition from league to union, and Lehmann will be competing with the likes of Nathan Salmon, Killian Coghlan, and Free Jacks veteran Mitch Wilson for game time out wide.

Alongside Max Lehmann, the New England Free Jacks announced the addition of New Zealand centre/fullback Kienan Higgins for their 2026 title defence. The Upper Hutt native attended St. Patrick’s College in Silverstream, representing the 1st XV before moving up to Waikato and playing with Nothern United where he scored 18 tries in 32 games and bagged a Jubilee Cup title in 2019. Following this, Higgins joined the Hawke’s Bay Magpies and has represented them in the National Provincial Championship since 2021. He has started 13 of his 21 NPC appearances for the Magpies, scoring 4 tries and recording over 400 minutes of game time in each of his last two seasons. Although capable of playing fullback, Higgins has been primarily a centre for Hawke’s Bay, so will be linking up with the likes of Ben LeSage and Wayne van der Bank in the Free Jacks midfield.

@nefreejacks via Instagram

The following day, Anthem RC also announced the addition of a pair of players new to Major League Rugby, starting with a name that may ring a few bells to die-hard fans: Jeron Pantor. Born and raised in a rugby family in Trinidad, Jeron Pantor was introduced to rugby at the age of 4, and played primarily 7s growing up. He played for Mystic River before enrolling at Life University, representing the Running Eagles from 2020-2024, when he declared for the 2024 MLR Draft. He was selected in the 1st Rd, 5th overall by Anthem RC that year but did not feature at MLR level, instead finishing his Masters degree. With his education now complete, utility back Pantor re-joins the team that drafted him for their 2026 Major League Rugby campaign, Anthem RC. Jeron Pantor can play almost anywhere across the back line so provides Anthem with some flexibility and depth should the MLR season start to take it’s toll on the roster.

Announced alongside Jeron Pantor was Australian back row Baden Godfrey. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) native developed in the Brumbies system, representing both the U19 and ‘A’ sides, as well as played Premier Grade rugby for the Tuggaranong Vikings between 2022-2024. In November of 2024, Godfrey was named to the Australia Development Sevens team and in March 2025, he signed with the Northern Suburbs in Sydney’s Shute Shield competition. Godfrey may have his work cut out for him in the Anthem RC back line in 2026, as he will be competing for gametime against the likes of MLR veterans Johan Momsen and Moni Tonga’uiha, as well as USA Eagles Makeen Alikhan and Sam Golla.

Departures

On Christmas Eve, a number of Super Rugby Americas sides unveiled their full rosters ahead of the 2026 season and unsurprisingly given Major League Rugby’s shift to a larger focus on domestic talent, a number of South American players have returned home and will be playing in SRA next season.

Included in the first ever squad for Argentinian expansion side Capibaras XV were a trio of familiar faces: Lucas Bur, Martin Vaca, and Jero Gomez Vara. Both Bur and Gomez Vara represented the Dallas Jackals from 2023-2024, with Bur starting all 18 of his appearances and recording over 300m gained and 150+ tackles in each of his two seasons with Dallas, and Jero Gomez Vara scored 10 tries in 30 games (29 starts), recording over 500m gained and 120+ tackles in each season. Gomez Vara was also named as MLR Forward of the Year for the 2024 season, where the Dallas Jackals qualified for the post-season and advanced to the Western Conference Final, taking the Seattle Seawolves right to the edge. Following the withdrawal of the Dallas Jackals from Major League Rugby in the 2023/24 offseason Lucas Bur and Jero Gomez Vara went their separate ways. Bur signed with Rugby FC LA and completed over 50 tackles in 5 appearances (3 starts) in 2025, while Gomez Vara joined the New England Free Jacks, scoing 2 tries in 11 games (9 starts) and recording 84 tackles and 155m gained on the way to the team’s 3rd successive MLR Shield, the first of his career. Unlike Bur and Gomez Vara, Martin Vaca did not represent the Dallas Jackals during his time in MLR. Instead, he spent his 2 seasons with Old Glory DC, scoring 7 tries in 14 games (10 starts). Most of this came in his stellar 2024 season, with 5 tries and 9 starts in 11 games and over 300m gained in possession, with 114 tackles completed. Vaca’s gametime would be dramatically reduced in 2025, with 2 tries in 3 games (1 start), however.

Staying in Argentina but moving from the Capibaras in Rosario to the Tarucas in Tucumán, who also announced their squad on December 24th. The squad included capped Puma and former Miami Sharks centre Matías Orlando, who returns to Argentina after entering MLR in the latter half of the 2024 campaign. Orlando earned 17 appearances for the Sharks (all starts) including 14 in the 2025 season, where he Captained the team 7 times and gained over 330m in possession with 103 tackles completed on defence to help the Sharks to their first and only MLR Postseason appearance. Orlando earned a pair of MLR Team of the Week selections for his performances in 2025, but returns to his native Argentina following the withdrawal of the Miami Sharks from Major League Rugby.

@capibaras_xv via Instagram

Wrapping Up

A full 2-page summary graphic and over 3,000 words to cover a busy holiday week aroung Major League Rugby. As usual, 5 of the 6 remaining teams were active last week (not helping your already flimsy fanbase much, California Legion!) in addition to all 4 of the Argentinian Super Rugby Americas franchises announcing their complete rosters on Christmas Eve. Finally, it’s a little bittersweet for Utah Warriors fans, who finally saw a few of their players signing with other teams.

Thank you very much for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! It turns out that the Christmas Break didn’t really slow things down on the Player Moves front, so chances are the New Year’s celebrations may not, either! As regular readers will know, these article are posted on the site and on social media every Monday so keep an eye out for this week’s summary and the first Player Moves summary of 2026 on 5th January! If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, 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 jump into the offseason sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Moves Summary: December 15 – December 21, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

In previous years, the holidays just a week away would mean that Major League Rugby training camps would be opening soon and the new season would be kicking off in roughly 8 weeks time. In previous years, we might even know what the jerseys for each team would look like for the new season, but 2026 will not be like previous years. With the season kicking off with the California Legion hosting Anthem RC in Orange County on March 28th, the holidays are still 3 months away. Luckily for MLR fans, this doesn’t mean that things are quiet around the league, as Player Moves are still flying in ahead of what is sure to be a pivotal season for Major League Rugby.

Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Move Summary Article series! These weekly articles aim to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season. Every Player Move is covered, and additional information about each player is provided along with context as to where they may fit in with current rosters. This series only covers the players announced by the teams themselves, but that doesn’t mean that NARDB isn’t listening to any rumours that are out there. As always, the summary graphic for Player Moves between December 15th to 21st, 2025, followed by the re-signings section:

Summary Graphic of Player Moves around Major League Rugby between December 15-21, 2025

Re-Signings

The first re-signing of the week was in the Nation’s Capital on December 17th, when Old Glory DC announced the return of their 2025 Captain Rob Harley for his 3rd season in Major League Rugby in 2026. The long time Glasgow Warrior and capped Scotland International joined Old Glory DC ahead of the 2024 season after a few seasons in France with Carcassonne and Colomiers in the Pro D2. In his two seasons of Major League Rugby, Harley has started 28 of his 29 appearances for the Flags completing 370 tackles in total, averaging 12.8 tackles per game and recording a pair of 180+ tackle seasons. He Captained the side in 2025, completing 181 tackles in 14 games and earning a pair of MLR Team of the Week selections on the way to their 3rd straight postseason appearance. Capable of playing in the back row, Harley played lock for the Flags in 2025, and will once again link up with Tevita Naqali and Bill Whiteside in the DC second row, as well as new addition and 2023 1st overall pick, Rick Rose.

Later on that same day, the Chicago Hounds (probably last week’s busiest team as you will find out as you keep reading) announced the return of USA capped prop and Major League Rugby veteran Faka’osi Pifeleti for his 2nd season with the Hounds in 2026, the ninth MLR season of his career. Born in California, Pifeleti developed in the Saracens system in England alongside his brother Kapeli before entering MLR with the San Diego Legion ahead of the league’s inaugural 2018 season. He earned his test debut for the USA as Eagle #549 against the All Blacks in 2021 and with the exception of 2022 when he played with the Austin Gilgronis, Pifeleti represented the Legion from 2018-2024, starting 42 of his 59 games for the team and scoring 7 of his 9 career tries. He was a part of the 2023 San Diego Legion team that recorded the best regular season in league history with a 15-1 record, and started the 2023 Championship Final where the Legion fell to the New England Free Jacks by a single point. This was Pifeleti’s 2nd final after he also started the 2019 Championship game for the Legion. Across 8 seasons in Major League Rugby so far, Faka’osi Pifeleti has started 64 of his 87 appearances including a career high 15 starts in his debut season with the Chicago Hounds in 2025 where he also recorded 110 tackles, the first 100+ tackle season of his career.

Via @chicagohoundsrugby on Instagram

The Seattle Seawolves announced their first re-signing of the week on 16th December, confirming the return of 2025 All-MLR 1st XV selection Divan Rossouw for his 3rd MLR season in 2026. Already a 2x All-MLR selection and 2024 Runner-up with the Seawolves, the capped Namibian international has proved lethal on both sides of the ball through his first two seasons in MLR. He finished 2nd league-wide for metres gained in 2024 with 1,492m (including 142m gained in the 2024 Championship Game alone) and 4th league wide in 2025 with 995m gained. This puts his career total at just shy of 2,500m gained in only 35 games (all starts) for the Seawolves, scoring 14 tries including a high of 8 in 2025. Defensively, Rossouw has recorded a pair of 100+ tackle seasons with 222 in total, and was named as the Seattle Seawolves Coaches’ Player of the Year for 2025. Although Rossouw will use a valuable International PLayer slot in 2026, with a resume like his it’s unlikely that many fans will mind. Rossouw is the first back three player announced by the Seawolves ahead of the 2026 season, and what a way to start!

A few days after announcing the return of Divan Rossouw, the Seattle Seawolves confirmed the return of MLR original Mason Pedersen for his ninth season in the competition, and 5th with the Seawolves. The California native has represented two teams during his MLR career, with two stints at each. He entered the league with the Austin Elite, playing there from 2018-2019 before joining the Seattle Seawolves for the 2020 season. Once that year’s campaign was cancelled due to COVID-19, Pedersen returned to Austin, playing with the rebranded Austin Gilgronis from 2021-2022 before returning to the Seawolves following the Gilgronis’ disqualification and subsequent withdrawal in 2022. Although he missed the entier 2024 season due to injury, Pedersen earned 15 appearances in 2025, recording 84 tackles (5 off his career high set in 2022) and passing 1000m gained in his career. To date, Mason Pedersen sits on 38 starts in 80 Major League Rugby appearances across 8 seasons, with 6 tries scored and 446 tackles completed. He will join new acquisition Ezekiel Lindenmuth in the Seawolves front row.

Intra-League Moves

Early in the week, Anthem RC announced a pair of additions on loan from the Chicago Hounds, starting with the Hounds’ 1st Round pick in 2025, Elias Garza on December 15th. Prop Garza went to high school in South Carolina despite hailing from Texas, and enrolled at Life University where he represented the Running Eagles from 2020-2025, earning a National Championship appearance in 2025. Garza’s performances with Life U earned him a spot on the USA U23s tour of South Africa under Anthem RC head coach Agustin Cavalieri who must have liked what he saw from the front row. After being drafted 6th overall by the Chicago Hounds, Garza spent the fall of 2025 with the Hounds academy, and now heads back to Carolina on a season-long loan with the hopes of getting some decent game time under Cavalieri once again.

The following day, Anthem RC announced that they had also acquired prop Alex Hernandez on loan from the Chicago Hounds. Selected in the 3rd Round (34th Overall) by the Hounds in the 2024 Draft, Marian University product Hernandez played with the Chicago Hounds academy in the fall of 2024, one year prior to Elias Garza, earning a MLR contract for the 2025 season. In April 2025 he was loaned to Anthem RC for 4 weeks, where he earned his pro debut against the Seattle Seawolves in Round 11. His loan with the Rising Stars was extended for the rest of the 2025 season, and Hernandez earned 7 MLR appearances including 4 starts for Anthem RC, recording 39 tackles completed. Now, Alex Hernandez is headed back to Anthem RC on loan from the Hounds for the 2026 season after playing with the Hounds Autumn Performance Squad in the fall of 2025. The returns for both Elias Garza and Alex Hernandez are currently unknown, as MLR have removed the Trade Wire from public view.

Source: @anthemrugby via Instagram

Capping off Anthem RC’s shopping trip to the windy city, on 17th December they announced the addition of 6’6 English lock James Scott on a permanent move from the Chicago Hounds to Charlotte. The former Worcester and Glasgow Warrior joined the Chicago Hounds ahead of the 2024 MLR season after playing under Rob Webber (the Hounds assistant coach at the time) with the Jersey Reds, winning the 2022/23 English Championship title. Across his two seasons in Chicago from 2024-2025, Scott started all 34 of his appearances and recorded over 150 tackles in both years including a high of 209 in 2025 when he finished 9th league-wide. Offensively, Scott has 5 career MLR tries on just under 400m gained in possession and will be entering his 3rd MLR season in 2026, joining the likes of 1st overall draft picks Sam Golla (2022) and Will Sherman (2025) in the Anthem RC 2nd row.

Moving from players heading out of Chicago, to players moving to the Chicago Hounds. On 16th December the Hounds announced that they had added MLR veteran and long time San Diego Legionnaire Tiaan Loots to their roster for the 2026 season. Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Loots first entered Major League Rugby ahead of the 2020 season when he moved from the Dragons of the URC to the Houston SaberCats, starting all 4 of his appearance for the ‘Cats before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the season after only 5 rounds. Loots returned with the San Diego Legion the following year and represented them for 5 seasons from 2021-2025, earning 48 of his 52 MLR appearances to date and scoring 13 of his 14 career tries. He enjoyed a standout year in 2022 when he set career highs in metres gained (988m) and tackles made (141), but it was his next two seasons that really stand out. Loots was a part of the San Diego Legion team that went 15-1 during the 2023 regular season (still the best regular season in MLR history), falling to the New England Free Jacks in heartbreaking fashion in the Championship Final. The following year, Loots scored 6 tries in only 10 games to earn a 2024 All-MLR 2nd XV selection.2026 will be Tiaan Loots’ 7th season in MLR, and he sits on just over 3,400m gained and 435 tackles completed with 14 tries scored and 41 starts in 52 games in his career. He will join the likes of Mark O’Keeffe and former Legion teammate Tavite Lopeti in the Chicago Hounds midfield in 2026.

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

Not content with picking up just Tiaan Loots from the San Diego Legion, a few days later on December 19th the Chicago Hounds announced the addition of freshly capped USA Eagle Brandon Harvey on a rare 2yr deal that will see the 6’6 lock stay in Chicago through the 2027 MLR season. The Cardiff Met graduate and former USA U20 man earned his test debut for the USA as Eagle #598 against Georgia in Batumi early in the Fall, after spending the last two seasons with the San Diego Legion. Harvey started 7 of his 9 appearances for the Legion, gaining over 130m in possession and completing 75 tackles. A promising player at only 23yo, Harvey will be hoping for more game time with the Chicago Hounds, playing alongside the likes of Malcolm May and Nathan den Hoedt in an all-new Hounds 2nd row (so far).

In between the signings of Tiaan Loots and Brandon Harvey, the Chicago Hounds also announced the addition of USA Eagle #562 Jake Turnbull who (like now-teammate Faka’osi Pifeleti) enters his ninth Major League Rugby season in 2026. Originally from Australia, Turnbull moved to Denver, CO in 2015 and played with the Glendale Raptors before they turned professional, and represented the Denver Stampede in the short lived PRO Rugby competition in 2016. After returning to Australia to complete his education, Turnbull entered MLR with the Houston SaberCats ahead of the inaugural season in 2018. Turnbull has represented the SaberCats (2018-2019), Old Glory DC (2020), the Austin Gilgronis (2021-2022), Seattle Seawolves (2023) and Anthem RC (2024-2025) in his MLR career so far with the Chicago Hounds will become the 6th different team that he has played with in the competition, believed to be a league record. Turnbull enjoyed stand-out seasons with Anthem RC, scoring 5 of his 14 tries and completing 260 tackles in 28 games (23 starts) to take his career total to 689. He is almost guaranteed to become a Major League Rugby centurion in 2026 as he is currently sat on 97 appearances, starting 50 times to date and gaining just under 1,900m as a front row.

Anthem RC and the Chicago Hounds had a busy week swapping players with each other, but this wasn’t the only business done by Anthem. On 19th December the Rising Stars announced the addition of US-eligible prop Alessandro Heaney for their 2026 campaign. Raised between the UK and Ireland to an Italian mother and Boston-born father, Heaney returns to Major League Rugby for his 3rd season after spending the last two years in Rugby FC LA. He earned 19 appearances with RFCLA, the vast majority of which were in the 2025 season when injuries to the LA front row gave Heaney a ‘baptism by fire’. From 4 appearances off of the bench in 2024, he skyrocketed to 12 starts in 15 games, earning a pair of MLR Team of the Week selections and gaining over 100m in possession (as a prop) and completing 118 tackles. This was almost twelve times his tackle total from his debut season (10)! Although NARDB is classing this move as an intra-league signing, Heaney has been playing in England with CHAMP rugby side the Cornish Pirates alongside MLR alum Tomiwa Agbongbon. Heaney is the 6th prop announced by Anthem RC ahead of the 2026 season, and the 3rd this week alongside loanees Alex Hernandez & Elias Garza, announced above.

@anthemrugby via Instagram

Draftees Turning Pro

On the 15th December, the New England Free Jacks announced that they had signed a trio of 2025 MLR Draftees to Major League Rugby contracts for their 2026 title defence, starting with 10th overall pick Tevita Mapa. Born in Oakland, California, Tevita Mapa was raised in New Zealand and began playing rugby in Australia in the Melbourne Rebels and Queensland Reds youth systems. Following his high school graduation in Brisbane in 2023, he represented the University of Queensland Elite Mens 7s, and earned his Premier Grade debut with Brothers RC. Later that year, Mapa returned to the United States, enrolling at Life University, helping the Running Eagles to the 2023 ARP title. Following his graduation from Life, Mapa declared for the 2025 MLR Draft where he was selected with the 1st pick of the 2nd Round (10th Overall) by the New England Free Jacks.

Alongside Tevita Mapa, the New England Free Jacks announced the addition of American International College graduate Filimone Manu for the 2026 season. Born in Hamilton, New Zealand, Manu went to high school in South Carolina and enrolled at AIC in 2023, helping the Yellow Jackets to back-to-back Liberty Conference postseason appearances. He was named an NCR All-American in both 2023 and 2024, and was named to the Collegiate Rugby All-Stars Men’s National Shield Challenge in 2025. Following his graduation in 2025, he toured Scotland with the New England Independents and despite being a Free Jacks academy product, in the 2025 MLR Draft he was selected 15th overall by the Utah Warriors. He was selected for the USA Falcons squad for the 2025 Rugbytown Sevens before playing for the New England Independents at the New York 7s. With the Utah Warriors withdrawing from Major League Rugby, it’s not clear if the Warriors intended to sign Filimone Manu for 2026, or if he was always going to end up with the team that developed him, the New England Free Jacks.

Source: @nefreejacks via Instagram

Finally, along with Tevita Mapa and Filimone Manu, the New England Free Jacks confirmed the signing of scrum-half Remy Thomson for the 2026 Major League Rugby season. Born and raised in England, Thomson played with Hartpury College before making the move Stateside to Ohio when he enrolled at Notre Dame College. Thomson captained the rugby side to a National Championship in 2023, and when NDC closed in 2024, he and the rest of the rugby team moved to Walsh University where he was selected as an NCR All-American in 2024. Thomson declared for the 2025 MLR Draft following his graduation, and was selected with the final pick of the draft, 26th overall, by the New England Free Jacks.

Departures

Moving on to players heading away from Major League Rugby to ply their trade elsewhere. On 19th December 2025, NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu in D2 of Japan’s Rugby League One announced the addition of former New England Free Jacks back row Kaipono Kayoshi for the remainder of the 2025/26 season. The California native was drafted 4th overall by the Free Jacks in the 2024 MLR Draft out of St. Mary’s College, and represented New England during the 2025 season, earning 1 start in 3 appearances and completing 17 tackles en route to the 2025 MLR Shield. He will join a number of MLR alumni at the Green Rockets including former Free Jack Reece MacDonald, as well as ex-Utah Warriors Dylan Nel and Frank Lochore under former Warriors Head Coach Greg Cooper. Very best of luck in Japan, Pono!

@nec_gr_official via Instagram

Moving from Japan to France. In early October, Top14 side Stade Francais announced that they had acquired USA Eagle #553 Jack Iscaro as a Medical Joker during their 2025/26 campaign. Iscaro has been effective during his time in Paris, starting 3 of his 6 appearances between the Top14 and the European Challenge Cup, and Stade Francais clearly agreed as on December 19th, the club announced that they had signed Jack Iscaro on a full time contract until the end of the 2026/27 season. While this is fantastic news for Iscaro, it does rule him out of returning to Old Glory DC any time soon. However, Old Glory fans, and USA Rugby fans in general, should be proud that one of their Eagles is impressing at the top levels of European rugby. Congratulations, Jack!

Wrapping Up

Another busy week around Major League Rugby as 5 teams get some last minute Christmas shopping done, including a lot of business both ways between Anthem RC and the Chicago Hounds! The New England Free Jacks have announced 30 players so far (almost their entire 2026 roster) while California Legion stay silent on almost everything with 0 players publically confirmed. One would think that we will get a full roster reveal in the new year. That being said, MLR’s 2026 season doesn’t kick off until late March so there is still plenty of time to announce Player Moves in early 2026.

Thank you very much for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! As we are days away from St. Nick’s annual house call, it’s likely that this week will be quieter that pervious weeks but nevertheless, as regular readers will know, these article are posted on the site and on social media every Monday so keep an eye out for this week’s summary at the same time on December 29th! If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, 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 jump into the offseason sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Moves Summary: December 8 – December 14, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

The schedule for the 2026 Major League Rugby season is out, the league is under the new leadership of Co-Presidents Alex Magleby and Graeme Bradbury, and attention is beginning to turn to what the jerseys will look like for each team in 2026. Continuing alongside all of that are the MLR Player Moves, and this article will cover all the moves from the last week to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Move Summary Article series! Every week, these articles aim to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season as well as adding a bit of context to better understand why each move happens. This series only covers the players announced by the teams themselves, but that doesn’t mean that NARDB isn’t listening to any rumours that are out there. As always, the summary graphic for Player Moves between December 8th to 14th, 2025, followed by the re-signings section:

The 2-page graphic summarising all Player Moves around Major League Rugby between December 8-14, 2025

Re-Signings

The Chicago Hounds kicked off last week with the announcement on 8th December that they had re-signed 2023 MLR Draftee Noah Brown for his 3rd Major League Rugby season in 2026. An Indiana native, Brown enjoyed early success as a Sevens player, winning a Club 7s National Championship with the Chicago Lions in 2021 before being named as Captain of the USA U23s and Falcons, touring most recently with the Falcons to the Coral Coast Sevens in Fiji. After graduating from Indiana University, Brown declared for the 2023 MLR Draft and was selected in the 1st Round, 4th overall by the Chicago Hounds whose Captain at the time, USA Eagle Bryce Campbell, was also an IU Hoosiers alum. In his rookie season, Noah Brown scored 4 tries and started 7 of his 13 appearances for the Hounds and gained over 500m in possession. He was named the 2024 Chicago Hounds Rookie of the Year for his efforts, and re-signed for the 2025 campaign where he continued to impress. He upped his game time, starting 15 of his 16 appearances that season and scoring a further 3 tries, gaining a career high 565m in possession and recording an impressive 123 tackles as a winger. Brown started and scored a try in the Chicago Hounds heartbreaking Eastern Conference Final loss to the New England Free Jacks, and will be out for revenge with the rest of the Hounds in 2026. He joins the likes of Peyton Wall, Brock Webster, and Santiago Videla as back three options for Chicago next season. Scary.

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

The following day, the Chicago Hounds confirmed a second re-signing of the week: Major League Rugby original Luke White would be returning for a 4th season with the Hounds and ninth in MLR. One of few players still playing to have featured in the short-lived PRO Rugby competition, White joined MLR with the Glendale Raptors ahead of the inaugural season, and represented them between 2018-2020, finishing as a MLR Runner-Up in 2018 before heading to the west coast with the LA Giltinis, representing them between 2021-2022 and lifting the 2021 MLR Shield. Following the Giltinis’ disqualification and subsequent withdrawal from the competition in 2022, Luke White signed with the Chicago Hounds whom he has represented for the last 3 seasons, scoring 5 tries in 45 games (24 starts) in the Windy City, averaging 103 tackles per season. Luke White is positioned for a very impressive ‘triple threat’ in 2026, where he is is likely to reach 100 MLR appearances in total (currently on 98), joining only 4 players to achieve a century in the competition, likely to pass 750 tackles (currently on 748) which only 18 other players in league history have done, and has a shot of passing 4,000m gained in his career (currently on 3,905m), which only 12 players have achieved in league history, and only 2 other forwards! This is on top of likely passing 50 appearances with the Chicago Hounds.

Not finished there, a few days later the Chicago Hounds also announced the return of test capped Canadian back row Matt Oworu for his second Major League Rugby season in 2026. Oworu has been capped for Canada at both 7s and 15s levels, earning is 7s debut in Vancouver in 2021, and his XVs test debut against Belgium the following year. Oworu has earned 14 caps for Canada since, and is poised to be a regular in the national team squad for the foreseeable future. He earned 13 appearances for the Chicago Hounds in 2025, starting 3 times and completing just shy of 100 tackles, helping the Hounds to qualify for the postseason. He featured in the Chicago Hounds’ heartbreaking Eastern Conference Final defeat to the New England Free Jacks. Oworu becomes the 4th Canadian to be signed by the Chicago Hounds for 2026, and the 8th league-wide. He joins the likes of Maclean Jones and Luke White in the Chicago back row, as well as fellow new addition Malcolm May, and fellow Canadians Mason Flesch and Lucas Rumball.

That same day, Old Glory DC announced the return of wing/fullback Owen Sheehy for his 5th Major League Rugby season in 2026! The son of Old Glory DC Co-Founder and capped USA Eagle Paul Sheehy,, Sheehy has represented the Flags in each season since 2021 with the exception of the 2024, starting 14 of his 31 games and scoring 5 tries in total including 4 tries in 11 games (4 starts) in 2025 alone. He gained just shy of 300m in possession last season to take his career total to 980m, so he’s almost guaranteed to pass 1000m in 2026. On the topic of the Old Glory DC back three, a few days later on 11th December the Flags also announced the return of wing/fullback John Rizzo for his 5th Major League Rugby season in 2026. Rizzo has scored 10 tries in 36 MLR games (23 starts) for Old Glory DC, including 5 in 12 games in 2025 alone, where he recorded a career high 490m gained and recorded over 50 tackles completed for the 2nd straight season. Along with Owen Sheehy, John Rizzo joins the likes of Scottish international Damien Hoyland, English Premiership Centurion Perry Humphreys, and MLR veterans Harley Wheeler & Jason Emery in the Old Glory DC back three.

That day proved to be a busy one around Major League Rugby, as Anthem RC also jumped in with a pair of re-signings with a scrum-half duo for ‘9s on the 9th’, announcing the return of both Karl Keane and Ishma-eel Safodien for the 2026 season. Born in Ireland but raised in Washington state, Karl Keane earned his MLR debut with the Seattle Seawolves in 2023, appearing in 9 games off the bench and scoring his first MLR points with a successful conversion. After not featuring for the Seawolves in 2024 (when he spent much of the season with the Urayasu D-Rocks in Japan), Keane signed with Anthem RC for the 2025 campaign. He started all 11 of his appearances for the Rising Stars last season, scoring his first MLR try and completing over 50 tackles, with 69m gained. Joining Keane at scrum-half is Ishma-eel Safodien. The Cape Town native is newly US-eligible on residency after attending Life University and playing with the Running Eagles from 2020-2024, captaining the side in his senior year and earning a Rudy Scholz Award nomination. Safodien played with Anthem during his debut season in 2025, scoring 2 tries in 13 games (3 starts) and gaining just over 150m in possession!

Source: @anthemrugby via Instagram

Intra-League Signings

The New England Free Jacks appear to be announcing their 2026 roster in batches, and on 8th December they confirmed the addition of three new faces familiar to MLR, but new to Quincy. The first of which was crossover athlete Line Latu! A former wide receiver with Eastern Michigan University, Latu converted to rugby through the Colorado XOs program before earning a tryout with the LA Giltinis in 2021, but injury sidelined him for almost a year. Latu returned to Colorado once they rebranded to the American Raptors and participated in the 2023 SLAR season, where he was named to the SLAR Team of the Season. He then signed with the Houston SaberCats as injury cover at the end of the 2023 season, and earned his Major League Rugby debut as a ‘Cat. He returned to Houston for his first full MLR season in 2024, scoring 2 tries and starting 5 of his 10 appearances for the SaberCats. Latu then headed to the Carolinas and signed with Anthem RC for their 2025 campaign, scoring a try and 16pts in 7 games, starting 5 times and gaining a career high 399m in possession. More than doubling his total from the previous season in 3 fewer games. A flexible utility back, Line Latu now heads up to Quincy to join the reigning champions for their title defence.

Alongside Line Latu, the Free Jacks also announced the addition of English raised US-eligible lock Braemar Murray for their 2026 campaign. Although Murray never played with Line Latu, he did represent Anthem RC during their inaugural season in 2024 after coming up through the Newcastle Falcons and Stade Toulousain academies. US-eligible through his Chicagoan mother, Murray started 3 of his 7 appearances for the Rising Stars in his debut season before signing with the Miami Sharks the following year. In 2025, He started 2 of his 8 appearances and passed 50 tackles completed for the first time in his career, reaching an even 100 in his 15 total MLR games (5 starts) so far. As well as signing Line Latu and Braemar Murray, the New England Free Jacks also announced the addition of former Rugby FC LA prop Maliu Niuafe to their front row for 2026. Born in Sacramento, CA but raised in New Zealand, Niuafe played with the Auckland U19 side in 2022 before representing the New Zealand U20s the following year. He was named to the Moana Pasifika wider training squad for the 2024 Super Rugby season and signed with Rugby FC LA just before the 2025 Major League Rugby campaign kicked off. Niuafe started 12 of his 15 appearances with LA, completing over 100 tackles to help RFCLA earn their first postseason appearance, where he started their Western Conference Semifinal clash with the Houston SaberCats. Following his impressive debut season in MLR, Niuafe earned his test debut for the USA as Eagle #596 in their victory over Samoa in September 2025 to book their place at the 2027 Rugby World Cup. At only 22yo, Maliu Niuafe staying in Major League Rugby is great news for USA fans although it’s surprising to see that the California Legion didn’t hold onto him following the RFCLA/San Diego Legion merger. Perhaps it was his choice to head to New England, where he joins the likes of Kyle Ciquera, Nate Sylvia, and Tevita Sole in the front row.

Source: @nefreejacks via Instagram

Towards the end of the week on December 12th, the Seattle Seawolves announced that they had acquired yet another former Houston SaberCat for their 2026 season: Newly capped USA Eagle #594 Ezekiel Lindenmuth! Born in Samoa, Lindenmuth earned his test debut for Samoa but having not played with the national team since 2022, he became eligible for the USA in July 2025 and earned his USA debut 3 days later against England. Lindenmuth represented the Houston SaberCats between 2024-2025, starting 27 of his 29 appearances and averaging 115 tackles per season. He earned All-MLR Honorable Mention selections in back-to-back seasons, and finished his time with the SaberCats as a MLR Runner-up. Lindenmuth is the first prop announced by the Seattle Seawolves for their 2026 season and only the 2nd front rower after Canadian capped hooker Dewald Kotze.

Wrapping up the Intra-league movement for the week, on the evening of 14th December, Old Glory DC announced that they had added 2024 MLR Draft pick Patrick Beattie to their squad for the 2026 season. A graduate of Long Beach State, Beattie was named a Collegiate All-American in 2024 and declared for that year’s MLR Draft, where he was selected in the 3rd Round, 26th Overall, by Rugby FC LA. He was named to the RFCLA Training Squad for the 2025 season but did not appear at MLR level, instead playing with Santa Barbara RC. Following the 2025 season and RFCLA’s merger with the San Diego Legion, Beattie headed to the East Coast to play with Old Blue in the ARP and now stays out east with DC. With playing experience in England (Billericay RFC in 2022) and New Zealand (Tauranga Sports Club and Poneke RFC between 2019-21), as well as a tour of Chile with the California Grizzlies in 2023, the young Californian prop is primed for his MLR debut with the Flags in 2026.

Source: @oldglorydc via Instagram

New Additions

Staying on the subject of the Seattle Seawolves, they made a bit of a splash last week when they announced the signing of test capped lock Harison Mataele for the 2026 Major League Rugby Season! The 6’8 (yes, really) Tongan international made his debut for the Ikale Tahi against the All Blacks in 2021 and has been a regular in the Tongan second row since, representing his country at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France, as well as in the 2024 & 2025 Pacific Nations Cup campaigns as well as the 2025 Autumn Internationals just gone. At club level, Mataele played with the Manly Marlins and Eastern Suburbs in Australia’s Shute Shield competition from 2022-2024, before heading to France to join Stade Montois for their 2024/25 Pro D2 campaign. Now heading to the PNW to join the Seattle Seawolves, Mataele is the first out-and-out lock confirmed for the 2026 season, but will likely partner with Marno Redelinghuys in the Seawolves second row, although Redelinghuys may also play in the back row.

A couple of days after they announced the addition of a trio of familiar MLR faces, on December 10th,the New England Free Jacks announced a second batch of new additions for their 2026 title defence, this time from outside of MLR. Starting with 27yo back row Jacob Norris. A native of Tauranga in New Zealand, Norris signed with the Tasman Mako in the Mitre 10 (now the NPC) in 2017, earning his debut in 2018 and making 16 appearances for the team between 2018-2021. He was called up to the Māori All Blacks as injury cover in June of 2021 and earned his debut in a 35-10 victory over Samoa. Norris moved to Bay of Plenty ahead of the 2022 NPC season and has represented the Steamers in each season since, starting 34 of his 39 games for the team. He earned his Super Rugby debut as injury cover for the Western Force in 2023, before breaking into Super Rugby proper with the Moana Pasifika in 2024, starting 11 of his 12 appearances that year. Norris was named to the Chiefs wider training and replacement players group for the 2025 season, but has yet to make his Chiefs debut. Norris will join the likes of fellow kiwis Joe Johnston and Tayne Hemopo in the Free Jacks back row in 2026.

Alongside Norris, the New England Free Jacks announced another pair of young Bay of Plenty Steamers in Sione Tupou and Filipe Vakasiuola. 21yo hooker/prop Sione Tupou represented the Chiefs U20 side in 2024, earning his NPC debut with the Steamers later that year. He has earned 7 NPC appearances over the last two seasons, including 5 in 2025 alone where he more than tripled his playing time. Joining Sione Tupou in the Free Jacks front row is fellow Steamer Filipe Vakasiuola. The 23yo prop played with the Bay of Plenty Toa (U19s) in 2022 before earning his NPC debut with the Steamers in 2024 when he was named Bay of Plenty Rookie of the Year. He has earned 19 NPC appearances for the team over the past two seasons, playing just shy of 400 minutes in total.

Not content with the 6 new additions for their 2026 season that they already announced last week, the New England Free Jacks announced another pair of new faces joining them for their title defence and this time, they’re both US-eligible. Starting with Japanese born, US-raised back row Alex Mackenzie. Mackenzie played gridiron football through high school and was introduced to rugby in his senior year before attending Central Washington University. Mackenzie was named a 2x All-American while playing with the Wildcats, and earned a number of tryouts with pro sides in Japan following his graduation in 2021. He signed with the Urayasu D-Rocks in Japan’s Rugby League One, representing the team from 2022-2025 and playing in both D1 and D2 before leaving the team in June of this year. He now signs for the reigning MLR Champions and joins the likes of Joe Johnston, Piers von Dadelszen, and Jacob Norris in the Free Jacks back row. Announced at the same time as Alex Mackenzie was New York born Australian lock Ollie Aylmer. The 20yo played his junior club rugby with Roseville Junior Rugby Club before joining Gordon in Australia’s Shute Shield competition. After attending McKendree University in Illinois and captaining the rugby team there, he was selected for the Australia U20s and represented them in both the U20 Rugby Championship and World Rugby U20 Championship. Aylmer was selected for the Brumbies wider training squad for the 2025 Super Rugby season. Aylmer will try and blend with an all-new Free Jacks 2nd row, consisting of himself, Braemar Murray, Tayne Hemopo, and Reuben Palmer.

Departures

In late November, the New England Free Jacks announced the addition of Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz for their 2026 title defence. It seems that JFS will be taking the scenic route from DC to New England, however. On 11th December, French 3rd tier (Nationale) side RC Narbonnais announced that Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz would be joining the team as injury cover from January until the end of the Nationale season. The regular season runs until the end of April, with playoffs running as late as May. Narbonne are currently sitting 2nd in the Nationale with promotion to the Pro D2 at stake, so it’s possible that Fa’anana-Schultz misses a chunk of the early 2026 Major League Rugby season as he joins fellow Old Glory DC alum Axel Muller at Narbonne.

Source: @rcnarbonnais via Instagram

Missed Moves & Retirements

With the Major league Rugby off-season in full swing and teams building for the season ahead, it’s inevitable that some players will not return to the competition for next year. As rugby is played professionally all over the world, sometimes a move or two can slip past NARDB and go unnoticed. This is the case for a pair of moves that were announced on December 4th, but have only been caught now. Although it’s a week late, these players still deserve recognition for their time in MLR, and here it is.

Having played in Major League Rugby for the past 6 seasons, capped USA Eagle Vili Helu is heading overseas, signing with the Kurita Water Gush in D3 of the Japanese League One. Helu entered Major League Rugby with Rugby ATL for their inaugural season in 2020, appearing in 3 of the 5 games that took place before the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the season. He represented the RATLers for 4 seasons between 2020-2023, starting 32 of his 44 appearances there, finishing as a MLR Runner-Up in 2021 and earning his test debut as Eagle #552 in 2022. When the team relocated to Los Angeles under new ownership, Helu followed them to his home state of California but signed with the San Diego Legion, who he represented for two seasons from 2024-2025. He scored 4 of his 8 career MLR tries with the Legion, starting 23 of his 32 games there. In total, Vili Helu scored 8 tries in 76 MLR appearances, starting 55 times and recording 583 tackles including four 100+ tackle seasons (2021, 2023-25). With San Diego merging with Rugby FC LA to form the California Legion, Helu became a Free Agent and heads overseas. Very best of luck in Japan, Vili!

Source: @watergush_official via Instagram

Also on 4th December, Championship rugby side Doncaster Knights announced the addition of Fijian scrum-half Cam Nordli-Kelemeti on a short-term contract as injury cover. Nordli-Kelemeti represented the New England Free Jacks for the past two Major League Rugby seasons, helping them secure the latter two of their 3 successive MLR Shields. He scored 6 tries in 28 games total (18 starts) including 5 tries in 14 games in 2025 alone, earning a pair of MLR Team of the Week selections. Born in Fiji, Nordli-Kelemeti has spent significant time in England, playing with the England U18 side as well as the Newcastle Falcons (now Red Bulls) and former Championship side the Jersey Reds. As well as being eligible for Fiji (through birth) and England (through residency), Nordli-Kelemeti is eligible for Canada through adoption that meant he was classified as a domestic player during his time with the New England Free Jacks. With MLR’s new import regulations, Canadian-eligible players no longer count as domestic and as a result, Nordli-Kelemeti was released by New England. Very best of luck with the Knights, Cam!

Last week’s Player Moves were capped off with the retirement of a Major League Rugby veteran and Champion, and one of the most likeable personalities in the League. On December 13th, Chance ‘Chango’ Wenglewski announced his retirement on Instagram after 7 seasons in the competition. Wenglewski entered MLR in 2019 having already earned his test debut for the USA as Eagle #531against Ireland the year before. The Oklahoma native signed with Rugby New York, earning his first 3 appearances during the Ironworkers’ inaugural season before moving to Atlanta where he was a regular starter for Rugby ATL, with 3 in 5 games during the shortened 2020 season and 11 in 13 the following season with his first MLR try and an impressive season with 154 tackles as the RATLers advanced to the Championship Final, where Wenglewski came off the bench in their defeat to the LA Giltinis. Following the 2021 season with Rugby ATL, Wenglewski returned to New York, signing with the Ironworkers for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, where he helped the team lift the 2022 Shield, appearing in every game that season and starting their victory over the Seattle Seawolves and earning a further 33 appearances in his 2nd stint in New York. Following the Ironworkers’ withdrawal from MLR in November 2023, Wenglewski headed to the PNW and signed for the Seattle Seawolves themselves, playing there for the last two seasons and earning his third MLR Championship appearance as the Seawolves fell to the New England Free Jacks in the 2024 Final. In total, Chance Wenglewski started 41 of his 81 MLR appearances across 3 teams and 7 seasons, recording over 850m gained in possession and 641 tackles completed. Appearing in 1 final is impressive, but Wenglewski played in three different finals for three different teams, and that is extraordinary. Congratulations on a great career and all the best in retirement, Chango!

Wrapping Up

If the week before last turned out to be the busiest week of the Major League Rugby offseason so far, last week can’t have been far behind! With 8 new additions for the New England Free Jacks alone including 5 of the 7 players signed last week that are new to MLR, 7 re-signings across 3 teams, a pair of departures from December 4th that were previously missed to go with Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz‘s French detour, and the retirement of a 3x MLR finalist, 2022 Champion, and one of the most likeable personalities in the League: Chango Chance Wenglewski.

Thank you very much for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! These article are posted on the site and on social media every Monday, so keep an eye out for this week’s summary at the same time on December 22nd! If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, 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 jump into the offseason sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!