Tag: Chicago Hounds

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 5 of the 2026 MLR Season!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

It may be hard to believe, but we are already five rounds into the 2026 Major League Rugby campaign, which means we’re approaching the half way point of the regular season! Week 5 delivered another 3 highly entertaining matches across the US which of course generated a whole bunch of new stats for us to dig into, so let’s do just that!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, the weekly article that gets into the numbers from the latest round of MLR action and pulls out the extreme, the unusual, and the standout stats to highlight both player and team milestones that may have otherwise flown under the radar. A word of warning, it’s quite a Chicago Hounds focused edition this week but as is now tradition, we start with MLR appearance achievements and there’s just the one this week, up in Seattle!

Appearance Achievements – Duncan Matthews

On Friday night in front of a home crowd, Duncan Matthews took the pitch for his 50th Major League Rugby appearance! He has represented the Seattle Seawolves for his entire MLR career, and has started every single one of his half-century of appearances for the team. A transplant to the PNW from the Western Cape of South Africa, Matthews refined his game as he progressed through the Blue Bulls academy system in his homeland. He represented the Blue Bulls at both Currie Cup levels and in Super Rugby between 2017-18 before moving to the Lions, where he also played in both the Currie Cup and Super Rugby from 2019-2021.

Matthews joined the Seawolves ahead of their 2022 campaign and proved absolutely lethal. He earned 16 appearances in his debut season and scored 7 tries on just shy of 1,500m gained, both of which remain career highs for the fullback, and were enough to earn him an All-MLR First XV selection in his debut season, helping the Seawolves to their 3rd Championship Final, where they fell to the New York Ironworkers.

Now in his 5th MLR season with the Seawolves, the 32yo has shown little sign of slowing down. He and Seattle finished as MLR Runners-Up again in 2024, and last season he contributed 6 tries and 10 assists in 13 games, finishing top of the league with 1,152m gained and picking up an All-MLR Second XV selection, the second All-MLR nod of his career. In fact there’s an argument to be made that Matthews is actually speeding up! Entering the 2026 campaign Duncan Matthews was averaging an impressive 89.4m gained per game, but through his first 3 games of this season he’s been averaging 98.0m gained per game and could even pass the 5,000m mark this year! Congratulations on your half-century, Duncan!

O’Keeffe passes 5k!

Speaking of that elusive 5,000m gained milestone, only 5 players in MLR history had passed that mark prior to Week 5, but now that number has grown to 6. On the opposite side of the field from Duncan Matthews, Chicago Hounds winger Mark O’Keeffe recorded 63m gained in their huge road victory to take his career total to 5,013m gained and become just the 6th player in MLR history to pass 5,000m gained in their career!

A MLR Runner-Up with Rugby ATL in 2021 and two-time All-MLR selection in 2021 (Second XV) and 2022 (First XV), the Irishman and capped USA Eagle has averaged 59.0m gained per game across his 85 game (72 start) MLR career, splitting his time between centre and wing. Primarily playing on the wing so far this season, in just 4 games O’Keeffe has recorded 243m gained, already passing his 2025 total of 231m gained in more than three times the number of games! A ferocious runner, O’Keeffe also sits within the League’s top 10 try scorers, adding his 29th career try in Week 5 (and 3rd in 4 games so far this season) to pass 150pts scored in total, and is closing in on 500 tackles completed on defence! Congratulations Mark, although you still have a little way to go if you want to overtake MLR’s all-time leader, JP du Plessis, who sits on 6,234m gained, the only player over the 6k milestone!

Hounds’ Hat Trick Hero!

Despite Mark O’Keeffe’s rare achievement in the Chicago Hounds’ Friday night clash with the Seattle Seawolves, most of the attention instead went to his back three teammate, Brock Webster. Test capped at both 7s and 15s, the Canadian Speedster and 2025 Championship MVP recorded 3 of the Hounds’ nine tries against the Seawolves, 7 of which were scored by Canadians! Starting his MLR journey with the Toronto Arrows in 2022 before joining the Canadian Sevens program, returning with the Free Jacks to lift the Shield in 2025 and now a part of the Chicago Hounds’ strong Canadian contingent, this is the first hat trick of Brock Webster’s MLR career, the 5th hat trick in Hounds history, and the 54th hat trick in MLR history. Congratulations, Brock!

The Chicago Hounds’ New Top Scorer!

Heading into Week 5, dual test capped fly-half Chris Hilsenbeck sat level with fellow USA Eagle Luke Carty (now with Anthem RC) as the Hounds’ all-time points scorers, both on 127pts. With 10pts from the boot off of 5 successful conversions, Hilsenbeck now moves into sole possession of 1st place and becomes the Chicago Hounds’ all-time leading scorer!

Chris Hilsenbeck has scored 148pts in Major League Rugby following 11pts in 4 games with Rugby ATL back in 2023, but has been the Hounds go-to place kicker since joining the team for the 2025 season, recording his lone try and a Hounds single-season record of 109pts to finish as MLR Top Scorer in his debut season in the Windy City. Hilsenbeck has racked up his 137pts in only 19 games for Chicago, averaging 7.2ppg and has a 75.64% success rate from the tee in green & white. Even though his kicking has taken a dip so far this season (14/24 – 58.33%), once this bounces back – and I believe it will – who knows how many points Hilsenbeck will end up on by the end of the season!

Team Stats

O’Keeffe’s score, Hilsenbeck’s place kicking, and Webster’s triple helped the Chicago Hounds to their first ever victory over the Seattle Seawolves on their 5th attempt since entering MLR in 2023, and what a way to do it! The 59pts scored by the Hounds ties a team record for both the most points and the most tries (9) scored in a single game, and breaks the team record for their biggest winning margin at 37pts, surpassing the 33pt winning margin the last time they scored 59pts in a 59-26 win over Anthem back in 2024.

On the other hand, the was the most points ever conceded by the Seattle Seawolves, surpassing the 57pts scored by the LA Giltinis way back in 2021. This was the Seawolves’ first home loss since Round 6 of the 2025 season against the Utah Warriors and, amazingly, the first time that the Seawolves haven’t picked up at least 1 table point at home since Round 8 of 2022! The injury bug has hit Seattle worse than any other team so far this season, which is a perfect storm when you remember that 2026 is far shorter than previous seasons, but they have a few players on the road to recovery. The Seawolves currently tied with the San Diego Legion with the most wins in MLR at 73 each, and have 6 games remaining this season. 6 opportunities to become the winningest team in MLR history!

Tackle Milestones

Of note for the Seattle Seawolves this week however, was Paddy Ryan’s performance. the Irish USA Eagle recorded an almost mythical 29 tackles completed in Week 5 which, to put it in perspective, is only the 7th time in Major League Rugby history that a player has recorded 29+ tackles in a game, and Ryan is the 6th man to do it! Amazingly, Canadian international and former Rugby ATL and RFCLA man Matt Heaton actually managed it twice, with a 29-tackle game in 2020 and a frankly ridiculous 32-tackle game in 2022 which remains the MLR record!

Flying around the rest of the league to finish up, there were a pair of tackle milestones, starting with (you guessed it) a Chicago Hound! Selected 2nd overall in the 2021 MLR Collegiate Draft, Lindenwood University alum Emmanuel Albert spent his first 4 seasons with the Houston SaberCats where he became the first MLR draftee to reach 50 appearances in the competition! Now with the Chicago Hounds, last weekend he became just the 2nd draftee to pass 500 tackles made after 2022 1st Overall Pick, Sam Golla!

Slightly further up the MLR tackle leaderboard, long time Utah Warriors back row Bailey Wilson completed an impressive 782 in 80 games in the Beehive State, recording 5 seasons with 100+ tackles, and a 200+ tackle season in 2022! Now playing for the New England Free Jacks alongside his brother Mitch, Wilson completed 12 tackles in the defending Champs’ first victory of the season to pass 800 made in his career! Perhaps one of MLR’s most underrated heavy hitters, Bailey Wilson now joins the likes of Free Jacks Captain Joe Johnston (833), Shield-Winner Nate Brakeley (842), and DC bruiser Ben Bonasso (879)!

Wrapping Up

As mentioned in the intro, this week’s Midweek Milestones article is very Chicago Hounds heavy, but that’s almost to be expected for a team that has scored 25 tries and a whopping 157pts in their last 3 games! Next week, the only two teams with a mid-season bye, Anthem RC and the California Legion, take their week off so there’s only a pair of games to choose from on Sunday, what kind of stats will they reveal?

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Midweek Milestones! I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I enjoy writing them, and find them interesting and engaging. 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 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: March 2nd, 2026 – March 15th, 2026

NARDatabase

James Deeley

With Major League Rugby Training camps having opened at the start of March, one would think that teams would have their complete rosters announced well before then. While that is now the case for 5 of MLR’s 6 teams, the California Legion were still announcing players for their inaugural season through the first few weeks of training camp! As a result, this final Player Moves summary article of the 2025/26 off-season will once again be very California Legion heavy, but there’s some other player news scattered throughout!

Welcome to the final NARDB Player Moves Summary of the 2025/26 off-season! Over the last 6 months, this series has aimed 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 final article follows the same pattern as the last few weeks, but unlike the usual 1-week timeframe this edition covers a couple of weeks to account for the drop in Player Moves as squads report to camp. The summary graphic for Player Moves announced between March 2nd and March 15th is below, followed by the intra-league moves.

Summary Graphic of Player Moves around Major League Rugby between March 2 – March 15, 2026!

Intra-League Signings

The California Legion started their March announcements with a bang, when they confirmed the addition of Utah Warriors legend and try scoring machine Joe Mano for their inaugural season in 2026! Born in Hawaii and raised in American Samoa, Mano was a multi-sport athlete during his time at Fa’asaō Marist High School, before moving to Alaska in 2013 and joined the Alaska Green Dragons. He represented the Dragons until 2017 when he moved to Oklahoma, playing with Tulsa RFC. After a brief return to Alaska, Joe Mano moved to Utah with the aim of representing the Warriors, first playing with the Salt Lake City Gladiators, then representing the American Samoa Sevens side (Talavalu) at the Oceania 7s in Fiji. His success earned him a spot in the Utah Selects squad for their fall season in 2020, where he earned a MLR contract ahead of the Utah Warriors’ 2021 campaign. Between 2021-2025, Joe Mano scored an outrageous 39 tries in 54 games (49 starts) including two separate seasons with 14 tries to his name (2023 & 2025). In his first 14-try season in 2023, Mano racked up over 1,400m gained in possession and scored his 14 tries in as many games, but only earned an All-MLR Second XV selection. Following his 2nd 14-try campaign in 2025, Mano finally earned that All-MLR First XV selection, also finishing 7th league-wide in Metres gained with 869m (the 2025 season saw a fall in MGained across the board. His 1,416m in 2023 saw him finish 4th league wide despite being almost double his 2025 total). Joe Mano is one of only 4 players in MLR history to have recorded multiple hat tricks in the competition, and is tied with Seattle Seawolves winger (and fellow American Samoan) Lauina Futi, both with 3 hat tricks each. Undoubtedly a prolific try scorer, Joe Mano now heads to the West Coast for his 6th season in Major League Rugby, and the first not representing the Utah Warriors. It seems likely that Joe Mano will be a regular starting winger for the Legion, with Ryan James on the other side, and Oscar Treacy in reserve.

The California Legion would follow up the addition of long-time Utah Warrior winger Joe Mano, with the addition of a second long time Warrior in as many days when they announced that they had signed Hawaiian back row Lance Williams for their inaugural campaign in 2026! A D1 football player with the University of Hawaii, Williams has played in Major League Rugby since the league’s inaugural season back in 2018, representing the Utah Warriors in 25 games between 2018-19, starting 24 times and scoring 2 tries, also recording a career high of 190 tackles in the 2019 campaign. He suffered an injury in the build up to the 2020 season that saw him miss the truncated 2020 season, returning in 2021 to become a regular in the Warriors’ starting XV between 2021 and 2023, starting 43 of his 46 appearances and adding another 13 tries including a high of 5 in both 2022 and 2023, recording over 170 tackles made in each of these 3 seasons. Following the 2023 MLR campaign, the Warriors announced the departure of Lance Williams who was linking up with the USA Sevens program in their run up to the 2024 Olympics in Paris. This wasn’t his first foray into Sevens, as he had already earned his Eagles debut on the HSBC SVNS Series tour in Dubai back in 2022, and had represented his country at 10 tournaments to that point, however he was not ultimately selected for the Olympic squad and following the games Williams returned to the Utah Warriors part way through the 2025 campaign, adding another try and 8 starts in 10 games including both of their playoff matches, ultimately falling to the Houston SaberCats in the Western Conference Final. In total, Lance Williams scored 19 tries in 81 MLR appearances for the Utah Warriors, starting 75 times and recording five 100+ tackle seasons including 4 over 170 for a huge total of 891 tackles made in his MLR career so far as well as over 3,100m gained in possession. The 33yo flanker is effective on both sides of the ball, and is an excellent addition to a California Legion back row that includes the likes of Christian Poidevin, Ronan Murphy, and Ben Houston.

Sticking to the pattern of signing former Utah Warriors, a day later the California Legion added a third ex-Warrior to their squad for 2026, announcing the addition of Samoan born, US-eligible prop Fred Apulu! Born and raised in Samoa, Apulu represented the Manu Samoa U20s before moving to Hawaii to be with his now-wife, and joined the Hawaii Marist Rugby Club. He signed with the LA Giltinis for their 2022 campaign, and earned his MLR debut off the bench that season. Following the disqualification and subsequent folding of the Giltinis, Apulu signed with the San Diego Legion for the 2023 season, but was traded from San Diego to the Chicago Hounds before earning his Legion debut, joining the Hounds for the back half of their inaugural season and represented Chicago through the 2024 season, earning 18 appearances in total including his first career start in 2024, where he featured in 14 games including both of the Hounds playoff matches, gaining well over 100m in possession. Following his time in Chicago with the Hounds, Apulu headed southwest to Utah, signing with the Warriors for the 2025 campaign where he scored his first career MLR try and earned 3 of his 4 career starts in 8 appearances. Across his 4 seasons in Major League Rugby, Fred Apulu has earned 24 appearances for 3 different sides (not including the San Diego Legion, who he didn’t get a chance to suit up for in a MLR game), completing just shy of 100 tackles and gaining 241m in possession. The 29yo loosehead will be competeing for the Legion #1 jersey with the likes of Declan Leaney and Ma’ake Muti.

The California Legion seem to have thoroughly raided the remnants of the Utah Warriors for everything they can, announcing the signing of a 4th former Warriors on 5th March, Cole Semu! Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Semu moved to Washington State with his family at the age of 8 and it was here, rather than in New Zealand, where he started playing rugby (surprisingly!) with Chuckanut Bay RFC when he was 12. Semu enrolled at Brigham Young University in Utah, and represented the BYU Cougars while also progressing through the USA Rugby Age-Grade sides, representing the U18s, U20s, and U23s. He also travelled to Chile with the California Grizzlies U23s in 2024. That same year, he declared for the 2024 MLR Collegiate Draft and was selected in the 3rd Round, 28th overall, by the Utah Warriors, who signed him to an MLR deal for their 2025 campaign. In his rookie year, Cole Semu started 8 of his 10 appearances for the Warriors, scoring his first pro try during Round 16, where he earned a MLR Team of the Week selection for his performance. Semu gained 165m in total and completed 60 tackles to help the Utah Warriors finish as MLR’s top team during the 2025 regular season. Now heading to California to join the Legion, Cole Semu will join the likes of Billy Meakes, Cassh Maluia, and the player below as centre options, and has a good chance of earning starts based on the current Legion roster.

Finally on the California Legion’s shopping list from Utah was freshly test capped USA Eagle Tonga Kofe! The former Portland State University Defensive Lineman and 2013 Oregon State Wrestling Champion began playing rugby in his native Oregon with the Oregon U20s. He developed in the Utah Warriors pathway, first joining the Utah Selects in the fall of 2023 and was called up to the Warriors in February 2024, right before the Major League Rugby season. In his first year of pro rugby, Kofe earned 6 appearances for the Warriors off the bench and was named as the Utah Warriors’ Newcomer of the Year. He returned for a 2nd year at Zion’s Bank in 2025, and enjoyed a superb season. He earn his first career start and was named to the starting XV for 12 of his 14 appearances during the regular season to help the Utah Warriors finish as MLR’s top team heading into the playoffs. During the postseason, Kofe started both Warriors games as Utah advanced to the Western Conference Final, where they fell to the Houston SaberCats. Kofe scored 2 tries during the 2025 season and completed over 100 tackles, earning 3 MLR Team of the Week selections and a spot in the All-MLR Second XV for his performances. Following the MLR campaign, Tonga Kofe was called up to the USA national side, where he earned his international debut as Eagle #587 during their July test against Belgium. He also featured against England that summer, which proved handy as in August, the Leicester Tigers of the English Premiership announced that they had signed Kofe for the 2025/26 season. Kofe spent his time in the UK between the Tigers and Championship side Nottingham on loan, earning a handful of appearances in both flights of English pro rugby. Now returning to Major League Rugby with the California Legion, who boast a decent number of former Warriors including Joe Mano and Lance Williams, Tonga Kofe will likely be Stephen Hoiles’ first choice tighthead, but will face some competition from Michael Scott and another gridiron convert, Justus Tavai.

After they were done scavenging all they could from the Utah Warriors, the California Legion returned to their regularly scheduled broadcasting with the announcement that they had signed former Rugby FC LA centre, Nick Chan! Born and raised in Sydney, Chan grew up playing fly-half but switched to the centre as he grew. As with a great many players on the California Legion roster, Chan represented the Randwick Galloping Greens, joining the Shute Shield side in 2021 before being selected for the Junior Wallabies (U20s) late that year. He played with Randwick between 2021-2023, helping them to a Shute Shield title in 2023. Nick Chan had been on the edge of a Super Rugby deal for some time, joining the Western Force for their 2022 pre-season camp, and represented the NSW Waratahs on their tour of Japan in 2024. Chan first entered Major League Rugby with Rugby FC LA for the 2025 season, scoring 3 tries in 12 games (all starts) and gaining over 400m in possession while completing 121 tackles on defence, a solid debut season in the US. Chan returned to Randwick for the 2025 Shute Shield season, and now heads back to California to join the Legion for 2026 where he is the 4th centre confirmed in the squad alongside the players mentioned above.

New Additions

Right at the tail end of announcing their roster for the 2026 Major League Rugby campaign, the California Legion announce their first player who joins from outside of MLR, New Zealand fly-half Coby Miln! The young kiwi attended Hamilton Boys’ High School in New Zealand before moving to Australia and joining Randwick in the Shute Shield, a popular recruitment spot for the Legion. Miln earned his professional debut in Japan in 2022, representing the Munakata Sanix Blues in Division 3 of the Japan Rugby League One, before returning to Randwick and representing the Galloping Greens until 2024 when he moved to the Warringah Rats, also in the Shute Shield. Miln was excellent for Warringah, finishing with a club record 214pts scored in the 2024 Shute Shield and earning a spot on the Western Force’s tour to South Africa. From this, he earned his Super Rugby debut with the Force as an injury call-up during Round 5 of the 2025 season. Coby Miln now heads to California to join the Legion where he has a good shot of making the 10 jersey his own, competing with MLR Draftee Matt Anticev and possibly Steffan Crimp (who can also play 15) for game time.

Draftees turning Pro

Although the California Legion have been the only team regularly announcing players over the last few weeks, they were not the first! Back on March 2nd, the Seattle Seawolves became the 5th MLR side to announce their complete roster for the 2026 campaign. Included on that roster were two of the Seawolves’ 2025 draftees, marking their first pro contracts!

First up is Seawolves’ 2025 First Round Draft Pick and Seattle native, Tiai Vavao! The son of a Samoan father who played rugby back in Samoa, Vavao grew up as a football and wrestling fan but picked up rugby in high school, and immediately took to it. He quickly earned a spot on the USA U18s’ tour to Canada, before CWU Head Coach at the time Todd Thornley (now with the California Legion) contacted him about the chance to play rugby while earning his degree. Vavao enrolled at CWU and represented the Wildcats during his time there while also progressing through the USA age-grade sides, representing the Falcons, U20s, and most recently the U23s in 2025. Following his graduation from CWU, the 215lbs flanker declared for the 2025 MLR Collegiate Draft and was seleted 3rd overall by his hometown MLR team, the Seattle Seawolves, who signed him for his rookie season in 2026 where he will mosy likely serve a depth role in a strong Seawolves back row.

Joining Tiai Vavao on the Seattle Seawolves roster for 2026 is tighthead prop and fellow Major League Rugby draftee Charlie Walsh! Selected in the 2nd Round of the 2025 MLR Collegiate Draft (11th Overall) by the Seawolves, Walsh was born and raised in Hong Kong but is a US-citizen and the son of two American attorneys who met at Boston College before moving to Hong Kong. Charlie Walsh began playing rugby at the age of 8, and moved to New Zealand to play high-level high school rugby with St. Paul’s Collegiate School. He enjoyed regular Championships while at high school, and helped to lead St. Paul’s to a New Zealand Central North Island (CNI) First XV Championship, and earning a stint with the Waikato U18 side to boot. Following his time in New Zealand, Walsh headed to California and enrolled at UC-Berkeley, where he earned 45 starts for the Golden Bears, more than any other player at the time. After captaining the team to a 2025 D1A National Collegiate Championship, Charlie Walsh declared for the MLR Draft and has signed on for his rookie season with the team that drafted him, the Seattle Seawolves where similar to Vavao, will play a depth role behind Ignacio Peculo & Mason Pedersen.

Departures

On March 3rd, one of the biggest names in Major League Rugby history issued a statement of support for his former team, teammates, and their fans, and confirmed that he would not be participating in MLR during the 2026 season. This upcoming MLR season will be the first season in league history to not feature Dylan Fawsitt. Born and raised in Wexford, Ireland, ‘The Butcher‘ was one of few active MLR players that played in the short-lived PRO Rugby competition in 2016, representing the Ohio Aviators. Between the fall of PRO Rugby in 2016 and the rise of MLR in 2018, Fawsitt became US eligible through residency and earned his test debut for the USA as Eagle #523 against Chile in February of 2018 before heading to Colorado to join the Raptors for the inaugural Major League Rugby season. That year, Fawsitt started 6 of his 8 appearances and scored his first MLR try (of a great many!) as the Raptors advanced to the 2018 Championship Final, where they fell to the Seattle Seawolves. Having set himself up in the Tri-State area when he moved to the US, Fawsitt moved from Colorado to expansion side Rugby United New York for their inaugural season in 2019. Dylan Fawsitt would represent the Ironworkers between 2019-2023, starting 65 of his 72 appearances with the team across 5 seasons, scoring a mind blowing 41 tries for New York. Following the collapse of the Ironworkers during the 2023/24 off-season, Fawsitt headed to Chicago to join the Hounds where he spent a couple of seasons, adding 30 starts in 34 games, and another 23 tries including a career high of 14 scores in 18 games in 2024. Throughout his 8 seasons in Major League Rugby, Dylan Fawsitt has started 101 of his 114 games across 3 teams, and is the league’s all-time leading try scorer with a ridiculous 65 tries to his name.

As if Major League Rugby’s first Centurion and all-time leading Try Scorer with 329pts to his name weren’t achievements enough, Dylan Fawsitt is MLR’s 10th highest Points scorer with 329pts despite never kicking at goal, and was also the 2nd player in league history to pass 1,000 tackles made behind Chicago Hounds teammate Lucas Rumball, both passing the 1k mark during the 2025 season. Fawsitt is a SIX-TIME All-MLR selection, with 4 of these being First XV selections (2019, 2022, 2023, 2024), and for the icing on the cake, he’s a MLR Champion having lifted the Shield with New York in 2022, defeating the Seattle Seawolves to get some revenge for 2018. Add in just under 3,000m gained in possession as well a a couple of 50:22’s, and without a doubt you have the resume for a first-ballot Hall of Famer…if such a thing existed in MLR. It will be very strange to not see The Butcher suiting up in 2026, but when fans have the conversation about legends within MLR, the conversation starts with Dylan Fawsitt.

To wrap things up, in mid-March the reigning Super Rugby Americas Champions announced some reinforcements after the first few rounds of the SRA season. According to Uruguayan journalist Ignacio Chans, Peñarol signed 4 Canadians for their 2026 SRA campaign, including 3 former Major League Rugby players, starting with 2025 Chicago Hounds centre, Noah Flesch. The brother of fellow test capped Canadian Mason Flesch, Ontario native Noah developed his rugby with the Pacific Pride in British Columbia, Canada’s High Performance Development Pathway. He earned his test debut against Chile in the Autumn of 2024, starting alongside his brother. As with his test debut, Noah Flesch first entered Major League Rugby with his brother on the Chicago Hounds, who signed him in November of 2024 ahead of the 2025 season. In his debut season, Flesch scored his first MLR try on just shy of 100m, and started 3 of his 12 appearances with 36 tackles made to help the Hounds earn a playoff spot, finishing 3nd in the Eastern Conference with a 11-5 record.

Along with former Chicago Hounds centre Noah Flesch and Pacific Pride fullback James Thiel, defending SRA Champions Peñarol also added a pair of Canadian former Free Jacks for their 2026 season, starting with British Columbia native Foster DeWitt. The University of British Columbia graduate developed with both the UBC Thunderbirds and the Pacific Pride, and earned his test debut for the national side against Belgium in November 2021. DeWitt entered Major League Rugby with the Free Jacks in 2022, and represented them for 4 seasons from 2022-2025. He earned 10 starts and 46 appearances in total, scoring 3 tries on just shy of 500m gained, and completed 55 tackles in 11 games in 2025 to take his career total to an even 250 tackles. Foster DeWitt was a part of all three New England Free Jacks Championships, but now heads to Super Rugby Americas alongside another 3x MLR Champion, Ethan Fryer. Born in Washington State, Fryer is a duel US/Canadian citizen thanks to his Ontario born, Newfoundland raised father. Raised in Washington, Fryer has represented Canada at U20 level and like DeWitt, played with the Pacific Pride before entering MLR with the Free Jacks in 2022. He started 6 of his 22 MLR appearances for the Free Jacks, earning 19 of these since 2024 and featuring in all 3 Shield-winning seasons. Back row Fryer has 2 tries on over 300m gained, and just shy of 100 tackles completed in his MLR career. Fryer committed to his Canadian side when he earned his test debut for the Maple Leaf against Romania in July of 2024. DeWitt and Fryer exchange one 3x Championship winner for another as they join Flesch and Thiel at Peñarol in SRA.

Wrapping Up

That does it for another California Legion heavy Player Moves article, covering the final few weeks of the 2025/26 Major League Rugby off-season! Along with a handful of departures to South America, and the retirement of a true MLR great, the Seattle Seawolves confirmed the signing of a pair of 2025 Draftees when they announced their full squad. Finally, the California Legion have now announced their entire 31 man squad that includes 13 Rugby FC LA players, but only 3 San Diego Legion players on their roster following the ‘merger’. Although the Legion haven’t officially announced the full roster, NARDB understands that all players have now been confirmed for the 2026 season which means that this is the final MLR Player Moves Summary of the offseason! Congratulations, we’re nearly made it and a highly competitive MLR season is under 2 weeks away!

Thank you, as always, for tuning in to these Player Moves articles throughout the off-season! Even if there are a few last minute surprise Player Moves, these will be covered individually on socials rather than in a weekly summary. Regular articles on NARDB will now shift from Player Moves to Midweek Milestones during the season in addition to a few additional articles through the season. If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site in general, 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 rugby gear, visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Moves Summary: January 26th, 2026 – February 1st, 2026

NARDatabase

James Deeley

January has flown by and February has arrived and with it, Major League Rugby training camps! Players are heading to their teams and cities for 2026, and Training Camp will open in the next few weeks! One would hope that each team has announced their entire 2026 roster by then, but with MLR that’s never a sure thing. Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Moves Summary series, covering all the Player Moves around the league last week, January 26th to February 1st, 2026!

As regular readers are well aware, 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 week’s article kicks off as they all do, with the summary graphic for Player Moves announced between January 26th and February 1st, 2026, followed by last week’s re-signings:

Summary Graphic of Player Moves around Major League Rugby between January 26 – February 1, 2026!

Re-Signings

The Chicago Hounds kicked off last week’s Player Moves on January 26th by confirming that Premiership Rugby and Champions Cup winner Ollie Devoto would be returning for a 2nd season with the Hounds and in Major League Rugby in 2026! The English centre earned his Premiership debut with Bath at the age of 18 due to an injury crisis at the club, and would earn over 70 appearances between 2012-2016 as well as representing the England U20s and England Saxons (England A), and earning his test debut for England during their 2016 Summer Tests. The following year, Devoto signed with the Exeter Chiefs and would go on to earn over 100 appearances for the club between the Premiership, Premiership Rugby Cup, and Champions Cup between 2016-2024. His impressive list of achievements with the Chiefs includes 3x Premiership Runner-Up (2017/18, 2018/19, 2020/21), 2x Anglo-Welsh/Premiership Cup Titles (2017/18, 2022/23), 2x Premiership Champion (2016/17, 2019/20), and to top it off, a Champions Cup winner (2019/20). Devoto headed across the pond following his departure from Exeter, signing with the Chicago Hounds ahead of the 2025 MLR season, but this wasn’t just a holiday prior to retirement. Devoto started all 16 of his appearances for the Hounds in 2025 (of the 18 that the team played) and scored 3 tries on over 450m gained, also completing an impressive 154 tackles in total including 30 in the playoffs alone as the Hounds advanced to the Western Conference Final, where they fell to the New England Free Jacks in a heartbreaker. Although he didn’t lift the Shield, Devoto’s stellar debut MLR season didn’t go unnoticed. He was named the Chicago Hounds Back of the Year for 2025, as well as an All-MLR Second XV selection for his performance. Devoto will join the likes of USA Eagle Mark O’Keeffe and new acquisitions Tiaan Loots & Tavite Lopeti in the Chicago midfield.

@chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

The Seattle Seawolves made some noise with their first move of the week on 28th January, announcing the return of fan-favourite Seawolves veteran Lauina Futi for his 6th season with the team in 2026! Born in American Samoa, Futi grew up playing football as a running back, recording two undefeated seasons and back-to-back championships at Tafuna High School. He continued his football career after moving to California in 2014, playing with Allan Hancock College between 2014-2015 before moving to moving to Idaho and picking up rugby, then moving to Seattle in 2018 and joining Seattle RFC. He entered Major League Rugby with the Seattle Seawolves in 2021, and has proven an electric presence on the wing across his 5 seasons of competition so far. He has gained over 500m each season of his career, including a career high of 1,495m in 2023 when he finished 2nd league-wide and scored a career high 9 tries. On the subject of tries, Futi sits on 27 tries scored in 66 games (53 starts) after adding 6 in 13 games during the 2025 season, and is currently T-9th all-time in MLR tries scored with Mika Kruse, his 2025 teammate. 2x MLR runner-up Futi has recorded 3 hat tricks for the Seawolves in his career, one of only 2 players to record a ‘hat trick of hat tricks’ along with former Utah Warriors speedster Joe Mano. The fan favourie American Samoan is almost guaranteed to increase his try tally in the 2026 season, and re-joins the likes of Divan Rossouw in the Seawolves back three for 2026, with another signing announced shortly after…

The following day, the Seattle Seawolves announced their second returning back-three player of the week in South African fullback Duncan Matthews, who will join Divan Rossouw and Ina Futi in the back three for his 5th Major League Rugby campaign for the Seawolves in 2026. A native of Atlantis on the Western Cape, the former Springboks U20s man represented the Blue Bulls and Golden Lions in the Currie Cup before making the move to the US and joining the Seattle Seawolves for the 2022 MLR season. Matthews exploded in his debut season, with 7 tries in 16 games (all starts), and a massive 1,489m gained which led the entire league that year and remains his career high today. Matthews gained over 200m in his 2 playoff games for the Seawolves but played no part in the 2022 Championship Final, in which the Seawolves fell to Rugby New York. He was named to the All-MLR First XV for his efforts in his debut season. Over the next 2 years from 2023-2024, Matthews added another 4 tries in 18 games and over 1,600m gained as a reliable, effective runner for the Seattle Seawolves and featuring as a starter in the 2024 Championship Final where the Seawolves fell to the New England Free Jacks. His 4th year with the team in 2025 was another stand-out season for Matthews, adding 6 tries and recording over 1000m gained for the 2nd time in his career, finishing with 1,152m to lead the entire league for the 2nd time in his career and earning his 2nd All-MLR selection with a Second XV nod, as well as Seattle Seawolves Back of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year honours.. In his first 4 seasons with the Seattle Seawolves, 2x MLR Runner-Up and 2x All-MLR player Duncan Matthews has started every single one of his 47 appearances, scoring 17 tries and 89pts for the team on over 4,200m gained with over 150 tackles completed.

@seawolvesrugby via Instagram

Intra-League Signings

Old Glory DC kicked off the week’s intra-league signings on 26th January when they announced that they had signed former Dallas Jackals and Anthem RC hooker Connor Robinson for 2026. A Massachusetts native, Robinson developed in the New England Free Jacks system as well as with Mystic River RFC, but an injury crisis for the Dallas Jackals catapulted him into Major League Rugby during the 2022 season. Although he would only earn 1 appearance for the Jackals that year (his pro debut!), he would return for a second season in Dallas in 2023, earning a further 9 appearances off the bench and scoring his first MLR try. Following 2 seasons in Texas, Robinson joined the newly created Anthem RC franchise ahead of their inaugural season in 2024, and was the regular first-choice hooker there. Robinson started 20 of his 25 games for Anthem RC across 2 seasons, 11 of which came in 2025 when he scored a career high 4 tries. He recorded over 100 tackles in both seasons with the Rising Stars, taking his career total to 281 completed and just shy of 400m gained in 35 appearances (20 starts), with 7 tries scored in total. Connor Robinson has a decent chance of getting solid game time with the Flags, joining Welsh international and fellow new arrival Kirby Myhill, as well as existing DC hooker KoiKoi Nelligan in competing for the 2 jersey. It’s possible that Nelligan and Robinson compete for the starting places, with 33yo veteran Myhill serving as backup.

The Flags would follow up the addition of Connor Robinson with their second front row signing of the week, adding Australian loosehead prop Liam Fletcher to their squad for 2026. The Brisbane native developed his game with both the Souths and Brothers clubs in the Queensland Premier Rugby competition, helping the latter to back-to-back Hospital cups between 2023-2024 before heading to the States to join the Chicago Hounds for the 2025 Major League Rugby season. In his debut season in North America, Fletcher would feature in 12 of the Chicago Hounds’ 18 games including both of their playoff matches, and completed 12 of his 60 tackles that year as a reserve in the Hounds’ heartbreaking Eastern Conference Final defeat to the New England Free Jacks. Fletcher scored his first MLR try for the Hounds and recorded over 100m gained (not bad for a prop), and now heads to the nation’s capital for his 2nd year in the competition. Although Fletcher will take up a valuable foreign player slot on the Flags’ gameday roster, the 26yo prop has proven himself a reliable and effective reserve front row. Will he transition into a starter with Old Glory DC in 2026? Who knows. Fletcher is the 6th prop announced by the Flags for 2026 along with fellow looseheads Bart Vermeulen and Canadian international Cali Martinez, and tightheads Paul Mullen, Patrick Beattie, and 2025 MLR Draftee Connor Devos. One would expect Martinez to be DC’s go-to loosehead, but even though it’s shorter than previous years, it’s still a long season.

The California Legion would make a splash with their first announcement of the week, also on the 26th January. The newly formed Legion confirmed the return of Los Pumas veteran scrum-half and 2025 MLR Back of the Year Gonzalo Bertranou for his 2nd season in Major League Rugby after representing Rugby FC LA in 2025. A true rugby veteran who signed with RFCLA to rekindle his international career for Los Pumas (which worked!), Bertranou earned his test debut for Argentina back in 2016, years before MLR had played a single game. He has racked up over 60 test caps to date and has represented his country at two Rugby World Cups, Japan in 2019 and France in 2023 when Argentina finished 4th. below international level, Bertranou is a veteran of both the URC and Super Rugby, playing with the Jaguares for their entire Super Rugby tenure from 2016-2020 before heading to the URC (Pro14 at the time), first with Benetton then the Dragons from 2021-2024. He was a standout in his debut season in MLR in 2025, appearing in 16 of RFCLA’s 17 games that season, and starting 15 times. A true general in control far more often than not, Bertranou could change games or serve as the catalyst for someone else to do the same with spectacular game management. He racked up nearly 700m gained (as a scrum-half!) and scored 6 tries, along with consistently flawless kicking and solid defence when required with 59 tackles made. For his outstanding season, Bertranou was deservingly named 2025 MLR Back of the Year, and selected as a part of the 2025 All-MLR First XV. He is the first scrum-half announced by the California Legion so far, and the 6th player in total.

@legion.rugby via Instagram

Not done there, the very next day the California Legion followed-up the signing of the 2025 MLR Back of the Year with the signing of a 2020 NFL draftee for his 3rd season in Major League Rugby in 2026. Selected in the 6th round of the NFL draft, New England Patriots draftee and former Titans player Cassh Maluia has joined the California Legion for the 2026 Major League Rugby season, his 3rd year in the competition. Following his time in the NFL, Maluia joined the Colorado XOs crossover program (formerly MLR’s Colorado Raptors, later the American Raptors) developing his game in Glendale, CO until 2023. He entered Major League Rugby with the Chicago Hounds in 2024, earning his MLR debut and 2 starts in 7 games during his debut season, scoring a first MLR try and over 150m gained in a depth role for the Hounds. His performance for the Hounds earned the California native a spot with the San Diego Legion for the 2025 season, where he recorded career highs almost across the board with 6 starts in 9 games, adding a 2nd MLR try on 187m gained, and doubling his 25 tackles from 2024 to 50 in 2025. Maluia has started 8 of his 16 MLR appearances over 2 seasons, scoring 2 tries on over 300m gained with 75 tackles completed, proving himself as a reliable, domestic qualified depth option in the midfield. With San Diego now morphing into the California Legion along with Rugby FC LA, Maluia remains in his home state of California representing the Legion’s new iteration in his 3rd MLR season in 2026, and is the first of two centres announced by the California Legion last week.

The third announcement of the week for the California Legion and the second of the two centres announced was a big one. On 28th January, the new look Legion announced the addition of 2021 Champion and 2x Major League Rugby Back of the Year Billy Meakes for his 6th season in the competition in 2026. The former Gloucester and London Irish centre entered MLR with the LA Giltinis for their inaugural season in 2021, starting all 12 of his games en route to the 2021 Shield. He represented the Giltinis for their entire short tenure in MLR, recording 5 tries in 27 games (all starts) over 2 seasons, recording a massive 2,466m gained and over 250 tackles made to earn back-to-back MLR Back of the Year awards, the only player in league history to do so. Following the disqualification and subsequent folding of the LA Giltinis, the Chicago Hounds selected Meakes in the dispersal draft and signed the Australian for their inaugural season in 2023. Meakes would represent the Hounds for 2 years from 2023-2024, recording over 1000m gained each season (and 3 seasons in a row from 2022-2024) and recording another 180 tackles in 30 games for the Hounds, starting every time. Following his time in Chicago, Meakes returned to Los Angeles where he owns a coffee shop (Boulevard Neighborhood Coffee), signing with Rugby FC LA for their 2025 season. Meakes scored a career high 6 tries in 16 games (15 starts) for RFCLA, recording over 130 tackles made for the 4th successive season, and gaining over 600m. Through his first 5 seasons in MLR, Billy Meakes scored 13 tries and 73pts in 73 games (72 starts) across 3 teams, earning an All-MLR selection in every season he’s played in for an incredible FIVE selections in total as well as a MLR Shield in 2021 and a pair of MLR Back of the Year awards. He has completed 690 tackles to sit 5th in MLR history among backs, and is one of only 5 players in league history to have recorded over 5,000m gained, sitting 4th all-time with 5,346m. The level of talent and experience that the 35yo Meakes will bring to the team will be invaluable for the California Legion in their inaugural season as their new iteration, and it’s great that Legion fans will be able to see the veteran centre representing their team and the state of California in 2026.

@legion.rugby via Instagram

Leaving their announcements so late means that the California Legion are inundating us with Player Moves, for their 4th signing of last week on 30th January they mixed things up a bit, announcing the signing of a forward to follow the 3 backs already announced. The Legion confirmed that they had added English flanker Ed Timpson to their squad for 2026 after he spent his debut Major League Rugby season with Rugby FC LA in 2025. Timpson attended the University of Nottingham, playing in the English University league, BUCS, during his time there as well as representing England Universities. Following his graduation, Timpson headed up to Scotland to play with Stirling in the Super 6 competition, before heading to Australia to join the Northern Suburbs in Sydney’s Shute Shield competition where he was named the team’s Player of the Season as they finished 2nd in the competition. After a season in Australia, Timpson returned to England after signing a short-term contract with the Bristol Bears until early 2025, whom he represented in the Premiership Rugby Cup before heading stateside to join Rugby FC LA for their 2025 MLR campaign, reuniting with his university teammate, Ben Sugars. The back rower enjoyed a solid debut season in MLR for RFCLA, scoring 7 tries in 15 appearances and helping the team to their first (and as it turns out, last) playoff appearance, the Western Conference Semifinal in which Timpson recorded a full 80 minute performance. Timpson scored his 7 tries on 379m gained, and recorded an impressive 164 tackles completed, earning the 2025 RFCLA Forward of the Year award. 24yo Ed Timpson now joins the likes of USA Eagles Christian Poidevin and RFCLA teammate Jason Damm in the California Legion back row, and like many former LA players, will already be very familiar with the coaching team for 2026.

Departures

Last week saw a pair of 2025 Major League Rugby Champions bid farewell to the club and explore other opportunities to play professional rugby overseas. On 26th January, Valley RFC in Hong Kong announced that they had signed former New England Free Jacks scrum-half Emanuel Lai for their 2026 season. The Hong-Kong qualified Connecticut native was drafted 36th overall out of Santa Clara University by the Free Jacks in the 2024 MLR Collegiate Draft, and was signed to a short-term MLR contract during their successful threepeat bid in 2025. Lai earned his pro debut off the bench in the Free Jacks’ Round 12 victory over the Houston SaberCats which was his only involvement at MLR level for New England during their threepeat season in 2025. He will likely enjoy more game time playing in the HKRU Premiership which will be crucial for the development of the 23yo. Lai is the 2nd player to leave MLR for Hong Kong this offseason, after San Diego Legion’s James Rivers signed with the Hong Kong Scottish back in December.

The second Free Jacks player heading overseas is Major League Rugby veteran and capped Canadian International, Cole Keith. His agency JP Sports Collective announced on 26th January that the prop had signed with the Doncaster Knights in the English Championship. The New Brunswick native entered MLR with the Toronto Arrows ahead of their inaugural season in 2019, also representing his country at the Rugby World Cup in Japan that same year. Keith represented the Arrows for 4 seasons from 2019-2022, starting 29 of his 46 appearances for the team and enjoying a superb 2022 season with over 400m gained and 142 tackles made in 16 games (13 starts), scoring all 3 of his career MLR tries. Following this career year, the Arrows traded Cole Keith to the New England Free Jacks in exchange for cap considerations. Cole Keith spent 3 seasons with the Free Jacks, starting 18 of his 33 games and helping the club to each of their 3 consecutive MLR Shields from 2023-2025. Across his 7 seasons in Major League Rugby, 3x Champion Cole Keith started 47 of his 79 appearances, recording over 1,100m gained and completing 517 tackles. Both relatively high for a prop forward. Keith continues to be a regular part of the Canadian national team lineup, helping the Maple Leafs qualify for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in 2025, and NARDB wishes him the very best of luck with the Doncaster Knights, currently sat 11th in the English Championship.

@doncasterknights via Instagram

These two former Free Jacks weren’t the only confirmed departures from MLR announced last week. Back in September of last year, Old Glory DC announced the departure of dual capped US/Italian centre Tommaso Boni from the club after 20 appearances (16 starts) over the last two seasons with the Flags. Last week, Boni’s next destination was revealed and it was not in Major League Rugby. On 28th January, Mogliano Veneto Rugby in the Italian Serie A Élite announced the return of Tommaso Boni on a short-term contract until the end of June. USA Eagle #557 Boni previously represented Mogliano during his developmental years, and played with the senior team for 3 seasons from 2012-2015 before joining Zebre in the Pro12 (now the URC). It is somewhat surprising that a domestic-qualified USA Eagle could not find a spot on a MLR roster for 2026, even with significantly fewer roster spots available around the league. It’s possible that the 33yo born and raised Italian simply wanted to return home. Regardless, NARDB wishes him the very best of luck back in Italy after 2 seasons in Major League Rugby with Old Glory DC.

Wrapping Up

We enter February on the back of another busy week of Player Moves around Major League Rugby, thanks in part to the 4 new additions announced by the California Legion including TWO MLR backs of the year, as well as two intra-league signings for Old Glory DC and a trio of re-signings including a pair of veterans returning for the Seattle Seawolves! Additionally, three MLR names are heading overseas including capped USA Eagle Tommaso Boni, and Capped Canadian and 3x MLR Champion Cole Keith!

Thank you, as always, for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! A full 1-page summary confirms that Player Moves are still going strong into February, with no doubt more on the way this week. Be sure to check back here next Monday (9th February) to find out more about all of this week’s news. If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site in general,, 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 rugby gear, visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Moves Summary: January 19th, 2026 – January 25th, 2026

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Already almost a month into the new year, and the build up to the 2026 Major league Rugby season is flying past thanks in part to plenty of activity from almost every team. We have 1 complete roster (Anthem RC), with the other 5 remaining MLR teams steadily announcing their squads for a critical 2026 season which kicks off in just over 2 months! A jersey reveal must be coming any day now but until that day comes, we have plenty of Player Moves to talk about following another busy week around the league.

Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Moves Summary 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. As always, let’s start with the summary graphic for Player Moves announced between January 19th and January 25th, 2026, followed by the re-signings section:

2-Page Summer Graphic of all Player Moves around MLR between January 19-15, 2026

Re-Signings

Old Glory DC kicked off the week’s Player Moves on 20th January when they confirmed the return of New York native Connor Buckley for his 3rd season with the team and 6th in Major League Rugby in 2026. The Iona College alum earned a Rudy Scholz nomination in 2020 but went undrafted that year, with the scrum-half instead signing with Rugby New York as a free agent for the 2021 MLR season. Buckley only earned 3 appearances off the bench in 2021, but became a regular option for the 9 jersey from 2022 onwards. He earned 8 starts and 13 appearances and completed over 50 tackles during New York’s Shield-winning 2022 season, and would improve across the board for the following season with 11 starts in 15 games in 2023, scoring his first 3 MLR tries with 188m gained and 66 tackles made which remain his career highs in both. After the Ironworkers withdrew from MLR in late 2023, Buckley signed with Old Glory DC for the 2024 season and has represented the Flags ever since. He has scored 8 of his 11 career tries in his 30 games for DC (21 starts), and has 61 Major League Rugby appearances in total, starting 40 times and gaining over 600m with 211 tackles completed in his career. With Ethan McVeigh now moving to the New England Free Jacks, Connor Buckley is almost definitely going to serve as Old Glory DC’s go-to scrum-half, backed up by John Lefevre.

Intra-league signings

Not content with the return of their regular scrum-half Connor Buckley, later that same day Old Glory DC announced that they had picked up former Miami Sharks hooker Kirby Myhill for his 3rd season in Major League Rugby in 2026. The capped Welsh international first signed with the Sharks ahead of their inaugural season in 2024, starting 6 of his 7 games in their debut year and scoring his first MLR try on 222m gained as the Sharks held their own. Myhill returned the following year and had a far better year almost across the board. He started 10 of his 15 appearances and scored 4 tries including 1 in the Miami Sharks’ first (and as it turned out, only) MLR playoff game in the Eastern Conference Semifinal against the New England Free Jacks. Although Myhill made less ground in 2025 than the previous season with 117m gained, he more than tripled his tackles completed total from 34 in 2024 to 114 in 2025. It’s a pleasant surprise to see Kirby Myhill remain in Major League Rugby after the Miami Sharks withdrew from the league earlier in the offseason. Old Glory DC will be hoping his leadership and experience is worth using a valuable foreign player spot, as the Welshman slots into the middle of the Flags front row as the first hooker announced by the team for 2026.

Old Glory DC were not the only MLR side to announce a new hooker for the 2026 season last week, however. Late on 20th January, the California Legion announced that they had added USA Eagle #466 Joe Taufete’e to their squad! The American Samoa-born forward has the distinction of being the only Men’s Player from a ‘Tier 2’ nation to ever be nominated for World Rugby Player of the Year while he was playing for the Worcester Warriors when the shortlist was announced for the 2019 award ultimately won by South Africa’s Pieter-Steph du Toit. Following his time in England and a stint in France, Joe Taufete’e entered Major League Rugby with the LA Giltinis in 2022, starting 7 of his 8 appearances and scoring 2 tries on just shy of 300m gained before the Giltinis were disqualified prior to the 2022 postseason. ‘Big Joe’ would sign on with the Houston SaberCats part-way through the following season, scoring double the number of tries as the previous season in fewer games (6 starts in 7 games), earning his first MLR postseason appearance as a replacement as the SaberCats fell to the Seattle Seawolves in the Western Conference Eliminator. During the 2023/24 offseason, the Houston SaberCats traded Joe Taufete’e to those Seattle Seawolves in a blockbuster deal that saw Seattle’s star fly-half AJ Alatimu head to Texas. Taufete’e would double his try total again, with a career high 8 tries scored in 14 games (12 starts) for the Seawolves including a try in the 2024 Championship Final as Seattle fell to the New England Free Jacks. The 2024 campaign was Taufete’e’s best in MLR to date, with over 400m gained and just shy of 100 tackles made, as well as 8 tries to take his career total to 14. He would increase this to 16 as a member of the NOLA Gold in 2025, mainly as the back-up hooker behind Ale Lopeti with 3 starts in 10 games. Across his MLR career so far, Joe Taufete’e has scored 16 tries in 39 MLR games (28 starts) acrodd 4 different teams with just under 1000m gained and just over 250 tackles completed. The USA Eagle was the 3rd player ever announced by the California Legion behind Christian Poidevin and Jason Damm, and marks his 5th Major League Rugby team in as many seasons.

@CalLegion via Twitter/X

Not done there, a couple of days later on the evening of 22nd January, the California Legion also announced that they had signed California native Ryan James for the 2026 MLR season. A native of San Diego, CA, James first entered Major League Rugby with the Colorado Raptors, earning his pro debut off the bench in a single appearance before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the league down after only 5 games rounds. He joined the LA Giltinis for their inaugural season in 2021, scoring 5 tries and starting 6 of his 15 appearances including coming off the bench in the 2021 Championship Final to help the Giltinis secure the Shield. James represented the Giltinis in 25 games over 2 seasons from 2021-22, gaining over 900m total and scoring 6 tries in 12 starts. Following their disqualification and subsequent folding, Ryan James returned to Colorado and spent 2023 representing the rebranded American Raptors in the Super Rugby Americas competition, before returning to California and signing with his hometown MLR team, the San Diego Legion. He started all 27 of his appearances with the San Diego Legion between 2024-25, recording over 800m gained and 80 tackles completed in each of his 2 seasons there and scoring 6 tries. To date in MLR, Ryan James has 12 tries on over 2,500m gained in 53 appearances (39 starts) over 5 seasons, with just shy of 250 tackles completed as a winger. With the California Legion, James joins fellow former San Diego and Giltinis player Christian Poidevin under a familiar ex-Giltinis/Legion coaching staff of Stephen Hoiles, Dave Dennis (both formerly Giltinis), and Dave Clancy (former SD Legion).

The Chicago Hounds began their Player Moves for the week on January 21st when they announced that they had signed Brazilian international front rower and Major League Rugby Champion Wilton Rebolo for their 2026 campaign. Rebolo earned his test debut for Brazil against Germany back in 2015, and was still a regular in the Brazilian pack for their autumn internationals in 2025. The São Jose dos Campos native entered Major League Rugby with the Austin Gilgronis in 2020, featuring for the AGs in the pre-season but suffering a knee injury that ruled him out of the COVID-shortened year. He returned the following year with Rugby New York, becoming the first Brazilian to play in the league and earning 12 appearances (2 starts) as well as scoring his first MLR try. Rebolo returned with the Ironworkers in 2022 and enjoyed his best season to date, starting 5 of his 15 appearances and adding a 2nd career try on over 150m gained with 89 tackles made (both career highs) to help the Ironworkers advance to the 2022 Championship Final and secure their first Shield over the Seattle Seawolves. Rebolo started all 3 of the Ironworkers’ playoff games en-route. Following the MLR season, Rebolo was picked up by the Western Force in Super Rugby, playing with Northland in New Zealand’s National Provincial Championship (NPC) in the fall of 2022 before earning his Super Rugby Debut for the Force in Round 15 of the 2023 season, becoming the first Brazilian player to ever feature in Super Rugby. Rebolo would return to MLR mid-way through the 2024 season, signing with Rugby FC LA and starting 2 of his 7 appearances during their inaugural season and during the offseason, RFCLA traded Rebolo to the Houston SaberCats in exchange for the 8th overall Draft Pick in 2025 (used to select Ieremia Ieremia). Rebolo would score his 3rd MLR try for the SaberCats in one of his 10 appearances for Houston, also appearing off the bench in all 3 of their playoff games that season as they advanced to the 2025 Championship Final, where they fell to the New England Free Jacks. Through his 4-season MLR career so far, Wilton Rebolo has started 9 of his 44 appearances, scoring 3 tries and gaining exactly 350m gained, with over 200 tackles completed, and is both a MLR Champion (2022) and MLR Runner-Up (2025). Primarily a prop but also capable of playing hooker, the 30yo will be joining a highly experienced Chicago Hounds front row, with the likes of Charlie Abel, Oti Pifeleti, and Jake Turnbull all competing for gametime.

@chicagohoundsrugby via instagram

The very next day the Chicago Hounds announced that they had also signed a former Miami Sharks forward for their 2026 squad: Capped USA Eagle Tomas Casares! The Argentina-born back row attended Thomas More University and was drafted 17th overall in the 2022 MLR Draft by the New England Free Jacks. He never represented the Free Jacks at MLR level however, and was selected by the Miami Sharks during the 2023 expansion draft ahead of their debut 2024 season. Casares earned his pro debut for the Sharks in 2024, started 6 of his 8 appearances during their inaugural season and scoring 2 tries including a game-winning 7-pointer against his former side, the New England Free Jacks. Following an impressive season with the Sharks, Casares was included in the USA National Team squad for their 2024 Autumn tests, where he earned his international debut as Eagle #583 in a hard fought 21-17 victory over Portugal. Tomas Casares returned for a second MLR season with the Sharks in 2025, earning another 14 appearances and doubling his starts from 6 in 2024 to 12 in 2025, recording an impressive 139 tackles which very nearly doubled his total from 2024 as well, passing 200 tackles made in his career. Casares now heads to Chicago following the withdrawal of the Miami Sharks from MLR, and will likely serve as a depth role in a stacked Hounds back row, playing behind the likes of Maclean Jones, Lucas Rumball, and Mason Flesch.

Not wanting to miss out in the intra-league signing spree, the Seattle Seawolves announced the addition of test capped Canadian lock Callum Botchar for their 2026 campaign. Born in Ontario but raised in British Columbia, Botchar attended the University of British Columbia playing with the UBC Thunderbirds as well as the Pacific Pride and Canada U20 side. He also represented the Toronto Wolfpack Rugby League side in their 2021 Canada Cup exhibition game against the DC Cavalry. Botchar got a chance to represent his country at test level before even entering Major League Rugby when he was selected for the Canada squad for their 2022 November tests, earning a pair of caps against the Netherlands and Belgium. Botchar headed to New Zealand for 2023, playing with the New Plymouth Old Boys in the Taranaki Premier Division, and was signed by the Toronto Arrows for the 2024 season before their unfortunate withdrawal following the passing of their talismanic owner, Bill Webb. Botchar was selected by the NOLA Gold in the subsequent dispersal draft, and finally earned his Major League Rugby debut for the Gold in 2024. He started 9 of his 16 appearances for the Gold, featuring in all but 1 game including the first (and as it turned out, only) playoff game in franchise history against the Chicago Hounds. He scored 2 tries in his debut season, gaining 167m and completing over 100 tackles on defence, and was named as the 2024 NOLA Gold Shawn Riley Heart of Gold award recipient, honoring MLR and NOLA Gold alum, Shawn Riley. Botchar returned for a second season with the Gold in 2025, starting 6 of his 8 appearances and passing 200m gained in his 23 game (12 start) MLR career so far. He now heads back towards his home in Vancouver to join his (sort of) local MLR team, the Seattle Seawolves following the withdrawal of the NOLA Gold. Botchar will join Seawolves veteran Rhyno Herbst and fellow new acquisition Harrison Mataele in the middle of the Seattle pack.

@seawolvesrugby via Instagram

New Additions

On January 22nd, Old Glory DC announced that they had added the 2nd Round draft pick from 2024 to their squad for the 2026 Major League Rugby campaign, Aidan Ridgway! A native of Johannesburg, the South African scrum-half attended Arkansas State University from 2020-2024, representing the Red Wolves throughout. Following his graduation in 2024, Ridgway declared for the 2024 MLR Collegiate Draft and was chosen as one of the top 50 prospects to attend the MLR Rising combine to give MLR sides a better look at potential draftees. This clearly paid off for Ridgway as he was drafted in 15th overall in the 2024 Draft by Old Glory DC. Following his selection, he spent the fall of 2024 in the Old Glory DC pathway, playing with the Young Glory academy side as well as the Washington Irish club side, but did not feature at MLR level for the Flags in 2025. Instead, the not quite US-eligible Ridgway returned to Arkansas State University for another year with the Red Wolves. Now fully US-eligible on residency, Ridgway returns to the Flags and is hoping to make his pro debut in 2026. He will have to fight for that though, with Connor Buckley and John Lefevre likely both ahead of him for the 9 jersey.

Later that day, the Chicago Hounds added a new face of their own when they announced that they had promoted Academy product Mathis Demandolx to their MLR squad for the 2026 season. Also a scrum-half, Washington State native Demandolx played with the Rhino Rugby Academy in California, attending in 2021 and again in the World Tens Series in 2024, sandwiching a stint at Central Washington University during the 2022/23 season. After moving to Chicago and playing with the Lions in the Midwest Rugby Premiership, Demandolx headed to New Zealand and spent the summer of 2025 playing premier grade rugby with Whakarewarewa Rugby Community Sports Club in the Bay of Plenty, hleping them to the 2025 Bay Wide Championship title, the club’s first in 19 years. Following this time in New Zealand, Demandolx returned to the Chicago Lions with a taste for Championships, and helped the club to the 2025 Midwest Rugby Premiership title while also proving a standout with the Chicago Hounds Fall Performance squad. At just 22, Mathis Demandolx serves as proof that pathways and academy systems work, and now the young scrum-half will be playing behind regular USA National Team starter, Ruben de Haas.

@chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

Also on a busy 23rd January, the California Legion announced that they had signed their first ever MLR Collegiate Draft pick to a Major League Rugby contract for the 2026 season! Selected in the first round using the 5th overall pick out of Central Washington University, US-eligible Australian winger Oscar Treacy joins the Legion after a stellar college career with the Wildcats. Born and raised in Melbourne, Treacy attended CWU from 2021-2025, during which time he was named a 2x CRAA All-American represented both the USA Falcons and USA U23s at Sevens levels. To cap off his college career, Treacy was named as the 2025 recipient of the prestigious Rudy Scholz award, recognising the top collegiate rugby player in the US each year. Oscar Treacy is the 5th player announced by the California Legion for their inaugural 2026 season and of those 5, he is already the 2nd winger after Ryan James, who is covered earlier in this article. There has already been a lot of buzz around Treacy as a player, so Legion fans should be excited about him representing the state of California in 2026.

Wrapping Up

It seems like Major League Rugby teams got last week’s Player Moves announced just before much of the USA and Canada was blanketed by a dump of snow, resulting in plenty of moves at the start of the week but a quiet weekend just gone. It was still a busy week for intra-league transfers, with the Chicago Hounds keeping busy and the California Legion really getting rolling on their Player Moves. A busy week for Draftees and academy standouts as well, earning their first pro rugby contracts and congratulations to them!

Thank you very much for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! Another 2-page summary last week shows that Player Moves are experiencing a bit of a second wind to start off 2026, with no doubt more on the way this week. Be sure to check back here next Monday (2nd February) to find out more about all of this week’s news. 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 January sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Moves Summary: January 11th, 2026 – January 18th, 2026

NARDatabase

James Deeley

In previous years, by mid-January training camps would have opened and fans would be being bombarded with photos of players in camp as the hype would be really ramping up towards the season kicking off! However, 2026 is not a ‘normal’ season as fans of Major League Rugby have come to know it. we are still roughly two and a half months away from the season kicking off, but thankfully the California Legion have finally started to announce their Player Moves for the 2026 season, which should give NARDB plenty to talk about over the next few weeks!

There’s been an increase in Player Moves from around the league compared to the last few weeks which means there’s plenty of news to talk about: Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Moves Summary 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. As always, let’s start with the summary graphic for Player Moves announced between January 12th and January 18th, 2026, followed by the re-signings section:

2-Page Summary Graphic for all Player Moves around MLR between January 11-18, 2026!

Re-signings

The Seattle Seawolves got last week’s Player Moves started on January 12th, when they announced the return of South African prop Dewald Donald for his 5th season with the team in 2026. The former Springboks U19 man and Blue Bulls Currie Cup player first entered Major League Rugby with the Seawolves in 2022, representing Seattle in each of the 4 seasons since then. Donald has earned 22 appearances to date including a high of 8 in the 2024 season when the Seattle Seawolves finished as MLR Runners-Up, a year where Donald also earned a career high 4 starts that year. the 6’1, 270lbs front row has started 7 of his appearances for the Seawolves, gaining over 200m (not bad at all as a depth prop) and completing 86 tackles in his career so far. Donald will compete with fellow returning Seawolf Mason Pedersen and new signing Ezekiel Lindenmuth in the Seattle Seawolves front row, with no doubt more props to be announced by the team in the coming weeks.

@seawolvesrugby via Instagram

A few days after the re-signing of Dewald Donald, the Seattle Seawolves confirmed their 2nd returnee of the week for the 2026 campaign, MLR Draftee Calvin Liulamaga! the Rudy Scholz nominee and 2x All-American was selected 11th overall by the Seattle Seawolves, his local team, in the 2024 MLR Draft out of Central Washington University. He spent the 2025 season with the team and although he did not earn his pro debut, he was named the 2025 Seattle Seawolves Young Player of the Year. Calvin Liulamaga will be hoping to earn his pro debut during the 2026 season, joining the likes of Dan Kriel and Mark Bennett in the Seawolves midfield.

Joining Seattle with a re-signing last week were the Chicago Hounds, who coincidentally announced the return of a former Seattle Seawolf on 13th January 2026. 6’3, 275lbs tighthead prop Koby Baker will return for his 2nd season with the Hounds in 2026, and 3rd in Major League Rugby after representing the Seawolves in 2024. Baker represented the American Raptors during the 2024 Super Rugby Americas season before being brought in as injury cover by the Seawolves towards the end of their 2024 campaign. He earned 5 appearances off the bench for the Seattle Seawolves that year, 3 of which were playoff appearances including the 2024 Championship Final against the New England Free Jacks, finishing his debut MLR season as a runner-up. Following the season, Baker joined the Chicago Hounds academy team during the fall of 2024 and has remained with the team since, earning an MLR deal and 2 additional appearances for the Hounds in their 2025 campaign, before a stand-out fall with Chicago’s Autumn Performance Squad against the likes of the Midwest Thunderbirds and Canada’s Pacific Pride in 2025.

Intra-League Signings

In a busy week for the team, the Seattle Seawolves also announced the addition of former Brumbies U19 hooker Liki Chan-Tung to their 2026 roster on 13th January 2026 after the 24yo spent the 2025 season with the San Diego Legion. Prior to entering MLR, Chan-Tung was playing in the ACTRU Premier Division with the Gungahlin Eagles, winning the John I Dent cup with the team in 2023. Having been raised in Australia but born in Hawaii, he is US-eligible and therefore a valuable domestic player in Major League Rugby, found by the San Diego Legion who snapped him up for their 2025 campaign. Chan-Tung earned his pro debut and 3 appearances off the bench for the Legion during his first season in North America, gaining 29m and completing 14 tackles, and was an unused reserve in an additional two matches as the Legion would miss out on the post-season by a single point. With San Diego merging with RFCLA to create the California Legion, Liki Chan-Tung heads north and joins the Seattle Seawolves, where he will compete for the 2 jersey with Canadian international Dewald Kotze and recently capped USA Eagle Sean McNulty in 2026.

On January 15th, the Chicago Hounds announced their first intra-league signing of the week, adding 2022 Major League Rugby Draftee Jason Tidwell to their squad for the 2026 season! Selected late in the 2022 Draft at 36th overall by the Dallas Jackals out of Texas A&M University, Tidwell spent his first two years in the league with the Jackals, earning his pro debut and 3 appearances off the bench in his rookie season, before enjoying a breakout year in 2024. He started 7 of his 16 games for the Jackals that season, scoring 3 tries and gaining over 600m to help the Jackals qualify for the postseason for the first (and only) time in team history, advancing to the Western Conference Final where they took the Seattle Seawolves right to the edge. Following the withdrawal of the Dallas Jackals from MLR in the offseason, Tidwell moved to Charlotte and signed with Anthem RC for the 2025 season, representing the Rising Stars in 10 games that year, starting every time and scoring another 3 tries with 324m gained to take his career total to 6 tries and over 900m gained in 29 MLR games (17 starts)! Tidwell will have plenty of competition for game time in Chicago, joining USA Eagle Noah Brown and MLR Rookie of the Year Peyton Wall, as well as Canadian international Brock Webster and Chilean international Santiago Videla at the back. Tidwell will be hoping that Videla plays fly-half more often than not, and Webster fills the 15 shirt.

@chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

To wrap up the intra-league moves from last week, on 18th January Old Glory DC announced the addition of NOLA Gold veteran Ross Depperschmidt for his 8th Major League Rugby season in 2026! Born and raised just outside of Dallas, TX, Depperschmidt grew up playing football and baseball, before picking up rugby at the University of Alabama, graduating in 2018. He signed with the NOLA Gold ahead of the 2019 MLR season following an open tryout, but would have to wait until 2020 to earn his pro debut. Depperschmidt earned 2 appearances (1 start) in 2020 before the COVID 19 pandemic shut the season down after 5 rounds. He returned in 2021 and earned 2 starts in 3 appearances before earning a regular roster spot the following year. In 2022, Depperschmidt started more games (6) than he had appeared in the previous 2 seasons combined (5). He earned 12 appearances during the 2022 season and scored his first 2 tries with 297m gained which remains his career high. Over the 3 seasons between 2022-2024, Depperschmidt scored 5 tries and earned 41 appearances (23 starts) for NOLA, recording over 200m gained each year and 164 tackles including a high of 68 in 2024. Over 7 seasons with the Gold, he has earned 49 MLR appearances asnd passed 200 tackles made in 2025, also sitting just under 1000m gained in his career (930m). Depperschmidt will represent a MLR team other than NOLA for the first time in his career in 2026, where he is almost guaranteed to earn his 50th MLR appearance. He joins a healthy NOLA Gold alumni contingent at Old Glory, comprised of Aidan King, Paul Mullen, Bart Vermeulen, and Harley Wheeler.

New Additions

This next Player Move created a bit of a headache. After months of silence, the California Legion finally started announcing their 2026 roster on 14th January, starting with a player from the San Diego Legion. Given that the California Legion is a new entity, is this an intra-league signing? Given that the branding, moniker, and likely fanbase is going to be largely the same as San Diego, is this a re-signing? Because NARDB is treating the California Legion as a new Major League Rugby franchise, and some elements will be new to Rugby FC LA and San Diego Legion players, any and all Legion signings for 2026 will fall into the ‘New Additions’ section. Moving to the player himself, the first player ever announced by the California Legion was USA Eagle #593, Christian Poidevin!

A 2021 Champion with the LA Giltinis, Australian back rower Poidevin (the son of Wallabies legend Simon Poidevin) has now represented 3 Californian Major League Rugby franchises across 6 seasons including 2026, and was even selected by the precursor team to Rugby FC LA, Rugby ATL in the Giltinis expansion draft. Poidevin has scored 18 tries in his 59 game MLR career so far, including 8 in 14 games (8 starts) during the 2025 campaign with the San Diego Legion, where he recorded his 4th 100+ tackle season and 3rd with 150+ tackles, recording 170 that year to take his career total to 695, which is an average of 11.8 per game. Not just a solid defender, Poidevin passed 1,500m gained in possession during the 2025 season, and recorded a career high of 513m gained in 2023, his first season in San Diego. Although born and raised in Australia, Poidevin qualifies for the USA thanks to his mother who was born in Chicago, and he earned his test debut for the USA as Eagle #593 against England in July 2025. With 6 weeks until the Legion kick off the 2026 MLR season against Anthem RC on 28th March, fans can expect roughly a player a day from the California Legion!

@legion.rugby on Instagram

Not finished there, on 16th January the California Legion also announced the addition of Major League Rugby veteran and USA Men’s National Team Captain Jason Damm for the 2026 season! Born in Georgia, Damm first entered MLR with the Glendale Raptors in the fall of 2018, earning his pro debut for the team during the 2019 campaign, with 3 appearances and 1 start. Following the 2019 season, Jason Damm returned home to Georgia and signed with the Rugby ATL expansion team, where he would spend 4 seasons. He earned 4 appearances for the RATLers before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the season down after 5 rounds, but the following year is when Damm really began to stand out. During the 2021 campaign, Jason Damm scored 5 tries on 865m gained in 15 games (12 starts), completing 165 tackles to earn a 2021 All-MLR 2nd XV selection and help Rugby ATL advance to the Championship Final, where they fell to the LA Giltinis. In total, Damm scored 8 tries in 30 games (21 starts) with Rugby ATL between 2020-2023, and moved with the team following their relocation to Los Angeles under new ownership. Damm captained the now-rebranded Rugby FC LA from 2024-2025, and proved a standout. He earned 31 appearances (29 starts) for the team, scoring 7 tries in each season and recording well over 150 tackles completed, including a career high of 199 tackles in 2025, helping RFCLA to earn their first (and only) MLR playoff appearance. For his efforts, Jason Damm was named to the All-MLR 2nd XV for the second time in 2025. He joins Christian Poidevin in an already formidable looking Legion pack.

The California Legion weren’t the only team to announce a new addition last week, however. On 15th January Old Glory DC announced that they had added their 1st Round pick from the 2025 Draft to their Major League Rugby roster for the 2026 campaign. Selected 4th overall in 2025, Texan Prop Connor Devos attended Lindenwood University from 2021-2025, where he was named a Collegiate All-American in 2024 and helped the Lions to finish in the NCR D1A Final Four 3 times during his time there. The promising 22yo front rower has already represented the USA at both U20 and U23 levels, touring South Africa with the latter in the summer of 2025. Following his successful draft, Devos spent the fall of 2025 with the St. Louis Bombers, earning his D1 Club debut in October. New to the professional game, Devos will likely serve as a depth tighthead option for Old Glory DC in 2026 behind MLR veteran Paul Mullen and Patrick Beattie, with Canadian international (and fellow draftee) Cali Martinez able to play both sides of the scrum. Devos is the 7th draftee from the 2025 MLR Draft Class confirmed for 2026.

Departures

Right at the start of the week there was news from Japan about the signing of a 2025 Major League Rugby standout, as Japan Rugby League One – Division 1 side the Yokohama Canon Eagles announced the addition of former Utah Warriors hooker Liam Coltman for their 2025/26 campaign. The soon-to-be 36yo capped All Black only spent 1 season in Major League Rugby, but made a huge impact representing the Utah Warriors, who finished as the top team during the regular season thanks in part to Coltman’s efforts. He started 14 of his 16 appearances for the Warriors including both of their playoff games during the 2025 postseason, completing 172 tackles in total, more than any other front row player during the 2025 season (next closest was Seattle Seawolves’ Cam Orr on 161). Although he did not score in the playoffs, Coltman recorded 10 tries in his 14 regular season games in 2025, and was one of four Utah Warriors named to the All-MLR First XV for his performance that year. Unfortunately, with the withdrawal of the Utah Warriors from Major League Rugby, and the league’s shift away from foreign players, fans will not see him back in MLR in 2026. NARDB wishes Liam Coltman the very best of luck playing in Japan!

On 15th January 2026, the reigning Super Rugby Americas Champions Peñarol announced their squad for the 2026 SRA season. On it was former Miami Sharks stand-out Manu Ardao, who previously represented Peñarol when they won the 2023 SRA title, before heading north to join the Sharks. Back rower Ardao joined the Sharks for their inaugural MLR season in 2024 having just represented Uruguay at the 2021 Rugby World Cup in France, and was a regular in the starting XV in Florida. He scored 10 tries in 26 games as a Shark (25 starts), recording over 1,100m gained in possession and 273 tackles completed including a high of 155 during in 14 games during the 2025 season, helping the Sharks qualify for their first (and only) MLR playoff appearance. That year, he was the only Miami Sharks player to earn All-MLR honours, earning a First XV selection for a superb season in which he led the entire league with a monstrous 27 turnovers won at the breakdown. Manu Ardao now returns to his native Uruguay and joins fellow MLR alumni and 2025 Peñarol Captain Manu Diana (TOR, 2020-21).

With Major League Rugby re-defining their definition of ‘Domestic Player’ to no longer include Canadians for the 2026 season and beyond, the 47 Canadians who contributed to the success of Major League Rugby teams in 2025 will fall dramatically, and the amount of Canadian players confirmed for 2026 is currently in single figures. As a result, many Canadian players are looking elsewhere to play in 2026. The Canadian Men’s Sevens team announced their roster for the HSBC SVNS D3 tournament in Dubai his month, which included a pair of 2025 MLR-ers that will not be returning to the league in 2026. Josiah Morra returns to the Sevens setup after last featuring at the Rugby Americas North (RAN) 7s in 2024, following a switch to the XVs game and signing with the New England Free Jacks for the 2025 season. Morra earned 1 appearance with New England before being loaned to the Miami Sharks to give him more game time, where he scored 2 tries and started 8 of his 9 games with Miami and gained over 300m in his 10 MLR appearances that season. Returning to the Sevens team alongside Morra for the first time since the 2024 RAN 7s is MLR Draftee Jack Shaw. The Bishop’s University graduate was selected 22nd Overall in the 2022 MLR Draft by Rugby ATL and spent 3 seasons in the league, representing the RATLers in 2023 before following the team to LA when they relocated under new ownership and became Rugby FC LA. Shaw scored 9 tries in 27 MLR games, starting 24 times and recording over 1,200m gained with 124 tackles completed in his MLR career. Morra and Shaw join fellow MLR alumni Lockie Kratz (NOLA, 2021) and Brenden Black (TOR, 2023) in the Canadian Sevens squad. While it is a shame that fans will not get the chance to see these players in Major League Rugby this season, it is great to see them still representing the Maple Leaf, and very best of luck to them and the entire Canada squad!

@rugbycanada via Instagram

Retirements

As well as the above moves, last week also saw the retirement of perhaps one of Major League Rugby’s most underrated players after 8 seasons in North America’s top flight and over 75 games played across 3 different teams. On 12th January, Seattle Seawolves flanker Devin Short announced his retirement on social media. The Nevada native was a Major League Rugby original, having featured in every season of the competition between 2018-2025. Short’s pro career began with the San Diego Legion in MLR’s inaugural 2018 season where he featured in all but 1 of the Legion’s games, starting all of his appearances and putting in a full 80 minutes during their semi-final defeat to the Seattle Seawolves. He would represent the Legion for 3 years between 2018-2020, scoring 3 tries and starting 19 of his 23 appearances for San Diego despite missing a chunk of the 2019 season with injury. He gained well over 500m in possession and averaging 8 tackles per game for 184 completed in total. Short was tipped for an Eagles cap in the near future but this was ruined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down play after only 5 rounds of the MLR season. When the league returned in 2021, Devin Short had moved on from the Legion and signed with the NOLA Gold where he played for another 3 seasons. For the Gold, Short started 24 of his 31 appearances between 2021-2023, gaining over 1,300m and completing 282 tackles. Most of this was achieved during a stand-out 2022 season, where Devin Short recorded career highs across the board as well as becoming the youngest player in MLR history at the time to reach 50 appearances, the 21st player to do so in league history. He started all 15 of his appearances for the Gold that season, completing 195 tackles and scoring 3 tries on 903m gained, almost tripling his previous career high of 325m set the previous year.

Just as it appeared that Devin Short had arrived on the scene, his 2023 season was hugely affected by injury, and he started 3 of his 4 appearances that year. Following the 2023 season, the NOLA Gold traded the flanker to the Seattle Seawolves in exchange for the 11th overall pick in the 2023 MLR Draft (used to select Gabriel Mahu’inga). Things would get worse for Short before they got better. An autoimmune disease ruled him out for roughly half of the 2024 season, but he made his Seawolves debut in Round 12 and started all 6 of his appearances in the back half of the season including twice in the playoffs, starting both the Western Conference Semifinal against the San Diego Legion, and the 2024 Championship Game against the New England Free Jacks. Despite health issues limiting his game time, Short still recorded 72 tackles and over 225m gained during the 2024 season, and returned to the Seawolves for 2025, where he enjoyed a resurgence. In what would prove to be his final season in Major League Rugby, Devin Short appeared in all 17 of the Seawolves’ games, setting a career high. He started 8 times and recorded just shy of 100 tackles, scoring 2 tries. Across his 8 seasons in MLR, Devin Short recorded 636 tackles completed and gained well over 2,000m in possession, scoring 8 tries and 44pts in in total in 77 games, starting 57 times. Devin Short is one of the great ‘what ifs’ of American rugby. He is a proven stand-out in the back row when healthy, but health issues and a pandemic prevented him from putting in consistent performances year-in, year-out. These factors meant that Short became one of the more underrated players in Major League Rugby, but when he was in the lineup you knew that he would perform. Devin Short is arguably one of the best players to never represent the USA at test level, and we wish him the very best in retirement.

@devinshort_ via Instagram

Wrapping Up

Following 2 weeks of relative calm regarding Player Moves around Major League Rugby, it seems that things have started to pick up again! Anthem RC announced their full roster and the Chicago Hounds and New England Free Jacks coming to an end of their announcements, while Old Glory DC and the Seattle Seawolves continue announcing at a steady pace, and the California Legion are getting started at long last! There should be plenty of Player Moves to discuss until training camps open in early February, and maybe even some more after that.

Thank you very much for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! As mentioned, it seems like things are picking up again on the Player Moves front so be sure to come back next Monday to find out more about all of this week’s news. 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/Thread, 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 January 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: January 5th, 2026 – January 11th, 2026

NARDatabase

James Deeley

As the holidays disappear in the rearview mirror and the cold of the winter lingers on, hopefully the January blues can be staved off with the prospect of professional rugby in the not-too-distant future! The 2026 Six Nations is under a month away and as that finishes, the Major League Rugby season will kick off! MLR teams are putting the finishing touches on their rosters, which means there are still a handful of Player Moves to discuss from a quieter than usual 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. Although the California Legion remain silent (on almost everything), other teams are coming to the end of their announcements with jerseys sure to be announced in the near future as well. As always, let’s start with the summary graphic for Player Moves announced between January 5th and January 11th, 2026, followed by the re-signings section:

Summary Graphic of Player Moves around Major League Rugby between January 5 – 11, 2026!

Re-Signings

To kick off the week’s Player Moves, on 5th January the Chicago Hounds announced the return of their 2nd Round Draft Pick from 2024, Jake Kinneeveauk, for his 2nd Major League Rugby campaign in 2026. Selected 22nd overall by the Hounds in the 2024 MLR Draft out of the University of Utah, Alaskan back rower Kinneeveauk played with the Hounds academy side after being drafted and earned himself a full MLR contract with the team for the 2025 season. He earned his pro debut off the bench in the Chicago Hounds‘ Rd 10 clash with the Seattle Seawolves which was his only action at MLR level that season. He spent the fall of 2025 playing with the Chicago Hounds’ Autumn Performance Squad, captaining the side in their 33-57 win over the Pacific Pride in Vancouver. Kinneeveauk may find it tough to get consistent game time in 2026 among a very strong Chicago Hounds back row, but extra depth can’t hurt and nor can another taste of training, living, and playing in a professional environment.

The following day, the Seattle Seawolves announced the return of one of their stalwarts in the 2nd row. South African lock Rhyno Herbst will be returning for his 6th season with the team in 2026. Now eligible to play for the USA through residency, Herbst has started 72 of his 73 Major League Rugby appearances for the Seawolves since entering the league in 2021. Although he only has 6 tries to his name, 2x MLR Runner-Up Herbst has gained over 1,850m to date including a career high of 518m back in 2022. In 2025, Herbst recorded his 4th 100+ tackle season with 143 tackles made in 15 games, tacking his career total to 643 and putting him 3rd in Seattle Seawolves team history, behind only JP Smith and Riekert Hattingh (both also from South African, incidentally). His 143 tackles last season wasn’t far off of his career high of 165 set in 2024 which (in part) earned him an All-MLR First XV selection that season as the Seawolves advanced to the Championship Final, where they fell to the New England Free Jacks in San Diego. Herbst is the 2nd lock announced by the Seawolves for their 2026 campaign, joining new addition Harrison Mataele in the 2nd row.

@seawolvesrugby via Instagram

Old Glory DC joined in with a re-signing of their own on January 9th, confirming the return of Virginia native John Lefevre for his 4th season with the team in 2026. Lefevre joined Old Glory DC ahead of the 2022 season, and represented the Flags in 17 games across 2 seasons before he headed to Colorado to join the American Raptors for their 2024 Super Rugby Americas season. Following the news that the Raptors were ceasing operations, Lefevre returned to his hometown Major League Rugby side, Old Glory DC, for the 2025 campaign where he earned a further two appearances. In total, John Lefevre has scored 2 tries in his 19 MLR appearances for Old Glory DC, gaining over 200m in possession and completing just shy of 50 tackles in his career. Lefevre is the first scrum-half announced by DC for their 2026 season and he might enjoy some increased game time with USA Eagle Ethan McVeigh joining the New England Free Jacks this year.

Intra-League Signings

Not stopping at the re-signing of Jake Kinneeveauk, on 7th January the Chicago Hounds announced the addition of Argentinian forward Tomás Bekerman to their roster for the 2026 Major League Rugby season. This will be Bekerman’s 3rd season in the league, joining the Hounds from the now-defunct Miami Sharks. Born in Miami and therefore classed as a domestic player in Major League Rugby eligible to represent the Eagles, Bekerman first entered the league in 2024 with the Dallas Jackals, although he was signed with the Jackals for the 2023 season, but played no part. He scored 5 tries in his debut MLR season, earning 15 appearances (2 starts) and gaining just shy of 300m in possession primarily as a reserve to help the Jackals earn a postseason spot in 2024, featuring in both playoff games for Dallas as they advanced to the Western Conference Final. Following the withdrawal of the Jackals, Bekerman was selected by Anthem RC in the dispersal draft, who promptly traded him to the Miami Sharks for the 2025 season. He scored another 4 tries for the Sharks in 2025, earning 16 appearances and completing 50+ tackles for the first time in his MLR career to help the team advance to the postseason, with Bekerman once again appearing in their playoff lineup for the Eastern Conference Semi-final. In total, Bekerman as 9 tries in 30 MLR games (5 starts) with over 400m gained and 99 tackles made. His domestic status coupled with his ability to play both hooker or flanker will prove valuable to the Chicago Hounds during a MLR season with smaller than normal rosters.

Wrapping-Up

Much like the first week of 2026, last week continued to be far quieter than the weeks leading up to the New Year. Just the 4 Player Moves around Major League Rugby, made up of a re-signing each for Old Glory DC, Seattle Seawolves, and the Chicago Hounds, with the Hounds also treating us to an intra-league signing from the Miami Sharks, adding versatile US-eligible forward Tomás Bekerman. Although not covered here, Anthem RC became the first team to reveal their full 32-man roster for the 2026 MLR season, and it seems like at least New England and Chicago might not be too far behind doing the same thing!

Thank you very much for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! As we all get back into the swing of daily life, player news around the 2026 Major League Rugby season may be winding down, but news around the League is only going to ramp up as kick-off approaches! 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 18th 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 January 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 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!