Tag: Houston SaberCats

MLR Player Moves Summary: August 18 – October 5, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

It was a while ago now, but Major League Rugby’s final event of 2025 is now in the books, with teams selecting 26 college athletes from schools around the US and Canada to create the 2025 MLR Draft Class. Congratulations to first overall pick Will Sherman, who joins Anthem RC from the UCLA Bruins!

Draftees will now negotiate with the team that selected them for a contract and once those signings are confirmed, they will be included in these articles. We now enter the deep dark offseason, with no major news on the 2026 season likely to come before US thanksgiving. Buckle up, because player moves might be a light in the dark!

Welcome back to the latest edition of NARDB.com’s Player Moves Summary! As always, these articles aim to keep MLR fans up to date on all the retirements, signings, re-signings, and departures of players to/from Major League Rugby teams for the 2026 season. Typically these articles will be released every Monday and cover the week just gone, but that will depend on the number of moves in the previous week. Due to a tumultuous 2025 off-season and uncertainly rampant around the league and it’s fanbase, these (usually weekly) articles are very few and very far between, with only a handful of moves in the over six weeks since the last Player Move Summary! We kick off with a pair of retirements from the Western Conference.

Player Moves around MLR: August 18th to October 5th, 2025

Retirements

On 25th August, Irish lock Gavin Thornbury announced his retirement on Instagram. The former Connacht and Northampton man started all 8 of his appearances for the Utah Warriors in 2025, Captaining the side to their best ever regular season finish with a 11-5 record and 58pts. The Warriors finished as MLR’s top team during the 2025 regular season under the leadership of the big 6’8 second row Thornbury, and secured their first ever playoff victory to advance to the Western Conference Final, where they fell to the Houston SaberCats. Although his lone season in MLR was disrupted with injury, Thornbury still averaged almost 10 tackles a game for a total of 78, and recorded 38 lineout takes for the Warriors.

Source: @utwarriorsrugby via Instagram

Moving up to the Pacific Northwest for the other retirement of the week, Seattle Seawolves stalwart Cam Orr announced that he was hanging up his boots just a couple of days after Thornbury, on 27th August, 2025. Cam Orr joined the Seawolves ahead of the 2024 season and almost immediately made the #1 jersey his own, starting 32 of his 33 appearances for Seattle across 2 seasons, scoring 5 tries in total and completing just shy of 300 tackles. He was one of only a handful of players to start every game for his team in 2025, starting at loosehead all 17 times for Seattle. Orr’s scrummaging helped him to earn All-MLR nods for both of his seasons in Major League Rugby: A First XV selection in 2024, and a Second XV selection in 2025. Following the 2025 season, Orr returned to his native Australia and was named to the Brumbies squad to take on none other than the British & Irish Lions during their tour of Australia. Not a bad final professional game!

Very best of luck in retirement to both Gavin Thornbury and Cam Orr!

Departures

Moving from retirements to players heading to ply their trade outside of MLR, starting with the 3x reigning Champions. In early October, New England Free Jacks scrum-half Oscar Lennon returned to the Bristol Bears on short-term contract having previously represented the Bears in the 2022/23 season before heading to MLR. For the Free Jacks, Lennon scored 3 tries and 33pts in 22 games, starting 9 times and helping the Free Jacks lift their two most recent Shields (2024 & 2025). Lennon returns to the Bears as injury cover for England International Harry Randall, which does not rule him out of returning for the Free Jacks in 2026. Staying on the Free Jacks, on 26th August 2025, French Pro D2 side Valence Romans announced the signing of test capped Canadian hooker Andrew Quattrin as a medical joker for their 2025/26 campaign. Quattrin is a true MLR veteran, having played 4 seasons with the Toronto Arrows from 2019-2022 before joining the New England Free Jacks (via 3-way trade!) ahead of the 2023 season, winning 3 MLR Shields in a row in Quincy from 2023-2025. To date, ‘Q’ has scored 22 tries in his 96 MLR appearances, starting 82 times and racking up 845 tackles completed with over 2,600m gained in possession. He is the inaugural winner of the S. Marcus Calloway Community Impact Award in 2022, and has earned 3 All-MLR selections including 2 Honourable Mentions (2023, 2025) and a Second XV selection in 2024.

Source: @VRDRRugby via Twitter/X

Although Quattrin only joined Valence Romans on a short-term deal as a medical joker, he is covering the absence of Issal Hamel who isn’t expected to return until at least February due to a knee injury sustained while representing Algeria. This would rule Quattrin out of the start of the 2026 season should he intend to return, but (look away now, Free Jacks fans) with the Pro D2 being a marathon campaign that runs from late August to June, it’s possible that this move would rule him out of the 2026 MLR season. A farewell statement from the Free Jacks suggests that fan-favourite Quattrin may not be back for their 2026 campaign. Very best of luck in France, Q!

Staying in France with a signing that seems a little more permanent, RC Narbonnais in the French 3rd Tier, the Nationale, announced the signing of test capped Argentinian winger Axel Müller for their 2025/26 season. Müller had represented Old Glory DC in the last two Major league Rugby campaigns, helping them to qualify for the post-season in both years. He started all 24 of his appearances for the Flags and scored 13 tries with just shy of 1,600m gained in possession. He scored 8 of his tries in the 2025 season alone, including a hat trick in Old Glory DC’s dramatic road win over Miami to kick off the 2025 season. Müller where he gained over 900m and earned an All-MLR Second XV Selection for his performance. Very best of luck in France to Axel Müller, as well!

Source: @rcnarbonnais via Instagram

Staying on the subject of Old Glory DC, over the last few weeks the Flags have announced the departures of a trio of players from the organisation: Ignacio Dotti, Tommaso Boni, and Martin Vaca. Old Glory DC announced the departure of Uruguayan lock Ignacio Dotti back on August 28th. Dotti started 10 of his 17 appearances for the Flags over the last two seasons, scoring 1 try and completing 99 tackles. He passed 50 MLR appearances in 2025, having earned 36 appearances for the NOLA Gold between 2019-2022. Dotti has over 1,100m gained in MLR, as well as over 370 tackles completed.

The departure of Italian center Tommaso Boni was announced on 12th September. Capped for both Italy and the USA, Eagle #557 Boni joined Old Glory DC ahead of the 2024 season, and started 16 of his 20 appearances for the Flags across two seasons. He gained over 900m and completed 123 tackles including 99 in the 2024 season alone. Boni earned his test debut for the USA in 2023, shortly before he joined MLR and Old Glory DC. Finally, Argentinian hooker Martin Vaca was confirmed to be departing Old Glory DC on 19th September also after 2 seasons with the Flags, just like both Dotti and Boni. The former Narbonne man scored 7 tries for Old Glory DC in 14 games, starting 10 times and completing 114 tackles in 2024 alone.

NARDB undestands that nothing has been announced regarding the next step for Ignacio Dotti, Tommaso Boni, or Martin Vaca. Once any announcement is made public, their profiles will be updated.

Heading over to the Beehive State and the Utah Warriors, who are on firmer ground than a month or so ago if rumor is to be believed. The Warriors’ fanbase and forwards pack took another hit on September 16th however, as it was revealed that reigning MLR Forward of the Year Frank Lochore would be joining Dylan Nel and former Utah Warriors Head Coach Greg Cooper at NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu in the Japanese League One Division Two.

The Kiwi’s departure from Utah was first noted in an article by Joe Harvey on September 10th, highlighting his record-breaking season and mentioning that Lochore would be heading to Japan following the 2025 NPC season with Hawke’s Bay. Lochore had a huge impact on the Utah Warriors during his two seasons in Major League Rugby, completing 522 tackles in just 34 games for the team for an average of 15.4 tackles per game. This includes setting a new MLR record of 301 tackles in the 2025 season alone, becoming the first player in league history to record over 300 tackles in a season, increasing his average to 16.7 tackles per game! Of his 34 appearances for the Utah Warriors since 2024, Frank Lochore started 33 times and scored 7 tries with just shy of 1,100m gained in possession, proving that he wasn’t just a defensive monster, but a true talent on both sides of the ball. Having been named in the All-MLR First XV for both of his seasons in the competition, it’s obvious that calling Frank Lochore an elite player is far from controversial. Very best of luck in Japan, Frank!

Source: @nec_gr_official via Instagram

Wrapping up

A pair of retirements, some short-term contracts as players head to Europe as injury cover, and a heap of departures, that does it for this edition of Player Moves around Major League Rugby! As mentioned at the start, the aim was to publish these Player Move Summaries on a weekly basis but due to the scarcity of player moves so far this offseason, this article covers a 7 week period!

If the last MLR offseason is anything to go by though, player moves started to pick up in October so fingers crossed that’s the case this time around and more Player Move Summaries will be coming your way soon!

Thank you very much for reading! If there are any player moves that you notice, 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 End of Season sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Moves Summary: July 21 – August 17, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

As the young 2025/26 Major League Offseason approaches it’s first big event in the MLR Collegiate Draft scheduled for August 21st, the League will be painfully aware that much of the discourse surrounding Major League Rugby has not been about the 2025 edition of the draft lately, and barely about any players at all.

With news that the San Diego Legion and Rugby FC LA are merging to form the California Legion, as well as the withdrawals of the NOLA Gold and Miami Sharks all but confirmed (although not by the League themselves, and there has been no word from the Sharks at all), NARDB is hoping that the worst is now behind us. As things stand, MLR will move forward with a 8-team competition in 2026 but of course, those teams need players, which brings us to the purpose of this article.

Welcome back to the latest edition of NARDB.com’s Player Moves Summary! These articles will keep MLR fans up to date on all the retirements, signings, re-signings, and departures of players to and from Major League Rugby teams for the 2026 season. Typically these articles will be released weekly on Monday’s, but due to a lack of moves over the last few weeks, this article covers the period from 21st July to August 17th, 2025. Obviously with news of the league’s contraction still very fresh, player moves might take a while to pick up, but these articles will keep up up to date, nevertheless! As with the end of every season, some players have decided that they have played their last campaign, and have called time on their career. This article will start by recognising the MLR legends that have done just that.

Source: @MLRStats on Instagram

Retirements

Beginning in Chicago, where a USA Eagle and Hound #1 has hung up his boots. Bryce Campbell, Eagle #497, announced his retirement on instagram after 3 seasons with the Chicago Hounds where he scored 4 tries and started 45 of his 48 appearances in green & white, and Captaining the side through their inaugural season in 2023. Prior to the Hounds, the Indiana University grad represented both the Glendale Raptors in 2018, and the Austin Gilgronis from 2021-2022, where he also captained the AGs through the 2021 season. Outside of MLR, Campbell spent two seasons with London Irish, helping them earn promotion from the Championship back to the Premiership, playing there for the 2019-20 season. In total, Campbell earned 84 MLR appearances across 6 seasons of competition, starting 81 times and scoring 11 tries. He racked up over 4000m gained in possession and 730 tackles completed including a career high of 158 in 2025, his final season. Internationally, Bryce Campbell earned his test debut against Romania in 2016, and earned 47 appearances for his country in total, representing the Eagles at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. All the best in your retirement, Bryce!

Unfortunately for the USA, Campbell was not the only Eagle to announce the end of his playing career in the last few weeks. On 23rd July 2025, Christian Dyer announced the end of his playing career on instagram at the age of 27 after spending 4 seasons in Major League Rugby between the Houston SaberCats (2022-2024) and Rugby FC LA (2025) in his home state of California. Having played rugby and gridiron football through high school, Sacramento native Dyer continued to play rugby at UC Berkeley before signing with the Dallas Jackals for the 2021 MLR season. This was a big year for Dyer, who earned his international Sevens debut in Vancouver, and his test debut as Eagle #539 against England in July, the first of his 14 test caps. Dyer had to wait for his MLR debut however. Once the Dallas Jackals deferred their entry to 2022, Dyer was selected by Rugby New York in the dispersal draft, but didn’t end up signing in the Big Apple. He signed with the Houston SaberCats ahead of the 2022 season, and scored 19 tries in 45 games across 3 seasons for the ‘Cats, including a high of 9 in 2023. Following 3 seasons in Texas he returned to his home state, signing with Rugby FC LA for the 2025 season, helping them qualify for the postseason for the first time in club history and scoring 2 tries in 6 games in California. In total, Dyer scored 21 tries and 109pts in 51 MLR appearances, starting 48 times and recording just shy of 2000m gained (1,987m) in possession, and 287 tackles. Very best of luck in what’s next, Christian!

Source: @usarugby via Instagram

Departures

Maybe Christian Dyer had an idea about what was going down with the creation of the California Legion, who knows? Staying on the subject of Rugby FC LA, they are also be saying farewell to 2024 MLR Back of the Year Reece MacDonald. The kiwi fullback will be plying his trade in Japan after signing with the NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu in JRLO Div 2. MacDonald won two Shields with the New England Free Jacks from 2023-2024, scoring 12 tries and 86pts in 30 games including 10 in his Back of the Year season in 2024 when he also gained 1,535m in possession. MacDonald made a high-profile move to Rugby FC LA for the 2025 season, and still scored 3 tries and 33pts in 10 games (6 starts) despite missing a hefty chunk of the season with injury. In his career, Reece MacDonald score 15 tries and 119pts in 40 MLR games, starting 34 times and gaining 3,331m in possession.

Source: @nec_gr_official via instagram

MacDonald isn’t the only Green Rockets signing that will be familiar with MLR fans, as on the same day that the club announced his signing, they also announced the addition of Utah Warriors stalwart Dylan Nel for their 2025/26 campaign. Nel, the 2024 Utah Warriors Forward of the Year, spent two seasons at Zion’s Bank, scoring 6 tries and completing 362 tackles in 27 games (26 starts) including a high of 234 in 2025, finishing 3rd League wide. Nel was a significant contributing factor to the Warriors finishing as the top team in MLR during the regular season and earning a spot in the postseason for the first time since 2021. He started both of their playoff games in 2025, defeating the Seattle Seawolves to advance to the Western Conference Final where they fell to the Houston SaberCats. Nel follows his father-in-law to Japan, former Utah Warriors head coach Greg Cooper, who now serves as head coach of the Green Rockets.

Moving to the other side of the California merger but sticking with Japan, Australian fullback Rhian Stowers has signed with Tokyo Gas in the Japanese 4th tier, the Top East League. Stowers played his debut MLR season with the San Diego Legion in 2025, starting 6 of his 10 appearances and scoring 3 tries while racking up 590m gained including 150m in a single game for the Legion in Rd 12.

Best of luck in Japan to Reece, Dylan, and Rhian!

Although he converted from football relatively late in his career, the meteoric rise of former Portland State University Defensive Lineman Tonga Kofe continues! The 6’2, 300lb+ giant signed with the Utah Warriors ahead of the 2024 MLR season, earning his professional debut as he came off the bench 6 times in his debut season. In his sophomore season in 2025 however, Kofe proved a fearsome scrummager. He earned his first pro start, starting 14 of his 16 games and completing over 100 tackles to help the Utah Warriors top the league during the regular season, making it all the way to the Western Conference Final where they fell to the Houston SaberCats. Kofe’s strong performances earned him a call up to the national team for the USA’s July tests, where he earned his test debut as Eagle #587 as a starter against Belgium. He earned 3 caps for the Eagles in July, and was included in their squad for the 2025 Pacific Nations Cup. On 16th August 2025, Prem Rugby side Leicester Tigers announced the signing of Tonga Kofe for the 2025/26 Prem season, marking the next chapter in Kofe’s short but already storied rugby journey. Best of luck with the Tigers, Tonga!

Source: @leicestertigers via Instagram

Temporary Departures

In addition to the confirmed departures above, there was one move that was slightly more unusual. Jeremy ‘Missile’ Misailegalu is spending the Major League Rugby offseason with RC Arka Gdynia in Poland’s professional league, the Ekstraliga. Misailegalu finished as a MLR runner-up with the Houston SaberCats in 2025 and for any ‘Cats fans concerned about his departure, his agency (Westsyde Pathways) strongly suggests that this move is just for the offseason, hence this move is in it’s own ‘Temporary Departures’ section.

Misailegalu, a 2018 MLR Champion with the Seattle Seawolves, has finished as a MLR runner-up twice. He played with Rugby ATL in their 2021 season when they fell to the LA Giltinis in the Final, and represented the Houston SaberCats in 2025, who fell to the New England Free Jacks in the 2025 Championship. To date, Misailegalu has scored 11 tries in his 61 MLR appearances for 4 teams across 6 seasons of competition, starting 47 times. He’s recorded over 2000m gained in possession and just shy of 300 career tackles (293). Best of luck in Poland, Missile!

Source: @westsydepathways via Instagram

Misailegalu wasn’t the only MLR player to head elsewhere for the offseason, however. Rugby FC LA saw another pair of names heading overseas, starting with MLR veteran Jurie van Vuuren. The South African lock signed with the Boland Cavaliers for their 2025 Currie Cup campaign. Van Vuuren has played in MLR since 2020, representing the Utah Warriors from 2020-2023 before moving to RFCLA for two seasons from 2024-2025. In total he scored 10 tries in 68 games, starting 60 times. He recorded over 1800m in possession and 717 tackles completed including a high of 199 in 2021. The Currie Cup doesn’t overlap with the MLR season so it’s a possible that van Vuuren returns in 2026, should he sign with the California Legion.

In a similar boat to Jurie van Vuuren is US-eligible Irish age grade representative prop Alessandro Heaney, who signed a short-term deal with the Cornish Pirates in the English 2nd tier, Champ Rugby, for the remainder of 2025. Heaney stepped up in a big way for RFCLA after their forward pack was hit with a wave of injuries. Despite not earning a start in 2024, he started 12 of his 15 games in 2025 and completed 118 tackles to help LA qualify for the postseason for the first (and as it turns out, last) time! Heaney went to school in the south of England so it’s a move that makes sense, but he has value as a domestic player in MLR so we could see him back for 2026 should he sign with the California Legion.

Source: @cornishpirates via Instagram

Wrapping Up

These Player Move Summaries are few and far between at present, but will pick up speed as the 2025/26 Major League Rugby offseason rumbles on. Although this is only the 2nd of the offseason and the 2025 MLR Collegiate Draft is only a few days away, there were a handful of moves to cover, and no doubt there will be plenty more as the fallout from a frenetic few weeks is realised.

Thank you for reading! These articles will pick up in regularity as the player moves do, with the articles coming out every Monday at their peak. NARDB continues to strive to keep fans informed and aware of the goings on around both the league and around each team.

If there are any player moves that you notice, 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 End of Season sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Moves Summary: Season End – July 13, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

With the New England Free Jacks crowned as MLR Champions for the third year in a row following the 2025 Major League Rugby Championship at Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Welcome to the 2025/26 offseason!

NARDB’s Midweek Milestones series is done for the year, but this article marks the first of what will be a weekly series of articles summarising all of the roster moves from the previous week. Welcome to the first of NARDB’s player move summaries! These articles will be released most Mondays depending on the number of moves each week, and will contain information on all the retirements, signings, re-signings, and departures of players to & from Major League Rugby teams for the 2026 season. For the first few weeks/months, there will be a high number of departures as players return home and find a club for the MLR offseason, or retirements and veterans decide to hang up the boots after this latest campaign.

The aim of this series, just with everything about NARugbyDB.com, is to keep fans informed of all the latest info from their favourite teams and around MLR. These articles will provide extra context to all new signings, and give a bit of background to them, as well recognise the achievements of players who may be moving on. For this first article, let’s kick it off by recognising players that have come to the ends of their career.

Retirements

As with the end of any season, the end of the 2025 MLR season means the end of the careers of some of the league’s most veteran stalwarts. Although the conclusion of this year’s season was only a week or two old there’s already been a handful of retirement announcements, with more likely to go public over the next few weeks. Let’s start with a pair of San Diego Legionnaires.

On June 16th, 2025, the San Diego Legion announced the retirement of California born, South African raised USA Eagle, Marcel Brache. Eagle #503 entered MLR in 2022 with the Austin Gilgronis, before moving to the Legion for 3 seasons between 2023-2025. The utility back scored 5 tries and 33pts in 53 MLR games across 4 seasons, starting 44 times and running for close to 2,500m gained while completing 325 tackles on defence. The former Western Force man helped the San Diego Legion finish as MLR Runners-Up in 2023, and still earned 12 appearances for the Legion in his final season in 2025.

Two weeks later on June 27th, 2025, the San Diego Legion announced a 2nd retiree in the form of another capped USA Eagle, Tevita Tameilau. Eagle #475 Tameilau was a 7 year veteran of Major League Rugby, representing the Utah Warriors in 2018 before joining the Legion from 2020-2025. He scored 10 tries in 78 games (starting 55), and was the 50th player in MLR history to reach 50 games player in the competition. The hard-running back row gained well over 3,000m in possession including a high of 1,075m in 2022, while completing 483 tackles on defence.

Best of luck in retirement, Marcel and Tevita!

Source: @sdlegion via Instagram

Moving over to the Eastern Conference and a player who represented the San Diego Legion back in the League’s inaugural season in 2018. On 9th July, 2025 the NOLA Gold announced the retirement of Irish hooker Pat O’Toole. The former Connacht hooker started his MLR career with the Legion before moving to the Houston SaberCats for 2019 where he started all 16 games during that year’s regular season and completed a career high 172 tackles. O’Toole would join the Glasgow Warriors on short-term loan in 2020, before returning to MLR with the NOLA Gold for a standout 2021, scoring 7 tries in 15 games and gaining just over 500m in possession, both career highs. He represented the Gold from 2021-2025, earning 51 appearances and 39 starts, scoring 17 tries. In his MLR career, he scored 20 tries in 71 games across 7 seasons.

A week prior to the retirement of Pat O’Toole, the Gold announced on 2nd July, 2025 that another USA Eagle had hung up his boots, Cam Dolan. A true MLR Stalwart, Eagle #443 played in every season of Major League Rugby between 2018-2025, also representing the San Diego Legion in 2018, before moving to New Orleans and representing the Gold for 7 seasons from 2019-2025. For the Gold alone, Dolan earned 80 appearances, starting 75. In total, Dolan scored 15 tries in 86 MLR games, starting 81 times and completing just under 700 tackles while gaining just over 2,500m in possession. He was also capped 67 times for the USA, representing the Eagles at two Rugby World Cups in 2015 (England) and 2019 (Japan). Prior to his MLR career, Dolan represented the Northampton Saints in the English Premiership, as well as Cardiff in the Pro12 (now the URC), and Nottingham in the English Championship.

All the best in retirement to you both, Cam and Pat!

Source: @nolagoldrugby via Instagram

Departures

Moving on from retirements to departures. Players who are leaving their 2025 MLR teams to pursue other playing opportunities, starting with a pair of Ex-Dallas Jackals who finished as 2025 Runners-Up with the Houston SaberCats. On 2nd July 2025, KHAOS Sports Consultancy announced that their client, 23yo Juan-Dee Oliver, had signed with Rovigo in the Italian domestic Serie A Élite competition. Oliver was a standout scrumhalf with the Dallas Jackals in 2024, scoring 5 tries and 55 points in 13 games during Dallas’ magical season, including a try to help defeat the Houston SaberCats in the Western Conference Semifinal. When Dallas withdrew from MLR, the SaberCats picked up Oliver in the dispersal draft, and played largely as a winger during 2025, scoring 4 tries and 26pts starting 6 of his 10 appearances. In total, Juan-Dee Oliver scored 9 tries and 81pts in 23 games (19 starts) across 2 seasons in Major League Rugby.

Best of luck in Italy, Juan-Dee!

A teammate of Oliver’s both in Dallas in 2024, and in Houston this year is also on the move. Hard running back row Sam Tuifua joined the Jackals for their 2024 campaign, scoring 6 tries in 10 games and gaining just over 950m in possession while also completing over 100 tackles on defence. Like Oliver, Tuifua was picked up by the Houston SaberCats in the Dallas dispersal draft, and scored another 3 tries in 11 games for the ‘Cats this season. In his MLR career, Sam Tuifua gained over 1,500m, scoring 9 tries in 21 games (starting 20) and completing 202 tackles on defence. On 13th June 2025, French Pro D2 side Stade Montois announced the signing of Tuifua for the 2025/26 season.

Tuifua wasn’t the only player picked up by Stade Montois this off-season, though! Former San Diego Legion and NOLA Gold loose forward Jay Tuivaiti was announced by the French Pro D2 side a few weeks after Sam Tuifua, on 2nd July 2025. The Kiwi represented the San Diego Legion in 2024, starting all 8 of his appearances and scoring 2 tries. Although he was included on the Legion roster for 2025, part-way through the season the NOLA Gold announced that they had signed Tuivaiti for the remainder of the season. It is still not clear if this was a trade (and if so, what the return was) or a free agent signing, or what happened in San Diego. He added another try and started 5 of his 9 games for NOLA in a disappointing season, finishing with 3 tries in 17 games (13 starts) across 2 seasons in Major League Rugby and 1m shy of 250m gained in possession.

Best of luck in France to Sam & Jay!

Source: @stademontoisrugby via Instagram

Finally for the Departures section of this edition of NARDB’s Player Moves Summary for MLR, a pair of San Diego Legionnaires bid farewell to the Golden State. The first is one that was announced before the 2025 MLR season even began, the return of Ethan Grayson to Newcastle Falcons in the English Premiership on a permanent basis. Grayson represented San Diego in 23 games across 2 seasons from 2024-2025, starting 20 times and scoring 3 tries and 41pts total. He completed 116 tackles and gained over 1,200m in possession including 840m in 2025, and played fly-half, center, and fullback for the Legion in 2025 alone. A teammate of Grayson’s for his entire tenure at the Legion is also headed back to the UK: Harris Rutherford. A US-eligible Scottish fly-half, Rutherford earned 5 total appearances for San Diego, playing in a pair of games in 2025 including his first MLR start. He scored 20pts in total, all from the tee. Rutherford will be playing in the English National League 1 (3rd tier), for Rams RFC.

Good luck in England, Ethan and Harris!

Temporary Departures

In Major league Rugby, players are only under contract to teams during training camp through to the end of the season (roughly January-June). As a result, players often sign for other teams elsewhere to continue playing professional rugby year-round. One of the most common examples of this is New Zealand’s National Provincial Championship (NPC), where players regularly spend the MLR off-season. There is such a large MLR presence in the NPC, that NARDB will have a devoted post for all 2025 MLR players that will be playing in the 2025 NPC season. But for this section of this article, the focus is on South Africa.

On 8th July 2025, the South African Currie Cup side the Suzuki Griquas announced the addition of Seattle Seawolves lock Malembe Mpofu for their 2025 season. The following day the Seattle Seawolves congratulated Mpofu and confirmed that this move was a 3-month contract, keeping him open to return to the Seawolves for the 2026 season. Mpofu, a South African who has previously played for both the Leopards and Pumas in the Currie Cup, scored 3 tries in 10 games for Seattle in 2025, completing almost as many tackles (81) as metres gained in possession (88m). Best of luck in South Africa, Malembe!

Source: @griquas_rugby via Instagram

Wrapping Up

That does it for the first MLR Player Move Summary article of the 2025/26 Major League Rugby Off-season! Some early player departures and a handful of MLR vets hang up their boots. MLR teams are pivoting to the 2025 Draft in August, and it’ll be a good few weeks before we start to hear about new signings or re-signings for the 2026 season, but they will come!

Although this article covered roughly a month, as player announcements pick up pace these articles will as well. Player Move Summaries will come out every week or two (depending on the number of moves) on this site, and will be posted on NARDB social channels shortly after publication.

Thank you for reading! NARDB continues to strive to keep fans informed and aware of the goings on around both the league and around each team. You can stay up to date with all the MLR news by following NARDB and/or James 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 End of Season sales, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from the 2025 Championship Game!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Just like that, the 2025 Major League Rugby season has come to an end with a huge weekend-long party in Rhode Island! Although the vast majority of fans were cheering for the ‘hometown’ New England Free Jacks, rugby fans from all over North America converged at the brand new Centreville Bank Stadium, the home of Rhode Island FC of the USL for the culmination of a season’s worth of hard work from the Free Jacks and the Houston SaberCats!

Welcome back to the final Midweek Milestones of the 2025 MLR season! This week’s article will cover the Championship Game which, while being the biggest game of the season, is still only a single game. There are still plenty of standout stats related to the Final, all of which will be covered below! The purpose of this series of articles is to highlight milestones met by either teams or players that deserve recognition, and provide MLR and rugby fans with some additional context and interesting info about recent games and the history of the league. Enjoy!

Threepeat: Complete!

The Houston SaberCats put in a valiant effort, reeling the New England Free Jacks back in twice as the reigning champions tried to pull away from the Western Conference Champions, but in the end it wasn’t quite enough. The Free Jacks claimed an historic 28-22 victory in Rhode Island to secure their 3rd straight MLR Shield, completing the first Threepeat in US Major Sports since the Los Angeles Lakers lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy 3 times in a row in the NBA from 2000-2002! Congratulations, New England!

The Free Jacks now hold the most Shields in MLR history, moving ahead of the Seattle Seawolves who claimed their two Shields in the league’s early years, from 2018-2019. New England and Seattle are also the only active teams to have won a Championship, as the 2021 Champion LA Giltinis withdrew after 2022, and the 2022 Champion Rugby New York Ironworkers withdrew after 2023.

The Winners of the MLR Shield each season: 2018-2025

The New England Free Jacks’ Third victory marks the 4th season in a row that the Shield has gone to the Eastern Conference Champion. The East now moves ahead of the West, who claimed the League’s first 3 Shields but now trial the East 4-3 with the Shield not awarded in 2020.

Hollinshead Hits 13!

Converting two of the New England Free Jacks’ tries and adding three penalties for a combined 5/6 from the tee in the Championship Game, Free Jacks fly-half Dan Hollinshead kept the scoreboard ticking over with 13pts in total: Tied for the 2nd most points ever scored by a player in a MLR Championship Game!

Hollinshead was parachuted in to fill the gap left by an injured Jayson Potroz this season and coincidentally, his 13pts in a Final now only trails the 15pts scored by Potroz himself in the 2024 Championship Game, a 11-20 victory over the Seattle Seawolves. Hollinshead draws level with San Diego Legion legend Joe Pietersen, who recorded 13pts including a drop goal in the 2019 MLR Championship, and Matt Giteau, who scored 13pts for the LA Giltinis in their 2021 Championship victory.

Webster named Championship MVP!

Having assisted superbly on both of Paula Balekana’s tries in the Free Jacks‘ Championship victory and very very nearly getting on the scoreboard himself, Brock Webster became the first Canadian and just the 2nd domestic player ever to be named Major League Rugby Championship MVP!

Spectacular under the high ball, Webster is capped for Canada at both Sevens and 15s levels and joins Vili Toluta’u back in 2018 as the only two domestic players named as Man of the Match in the Championship Game! Webster breaks a 3-year streak of New Zealanders winning the award, with ex-All Black Andy Ellis winning for Rugby New York in 2022, before fellow Free Jacks Jayson Potroz (2023) and Jed Melvin (2024) claimed the award in New England’s first two Shield victories. Congratulations, Brock!

MLR Championship MVPs: 2018-2025

Schumacher & Balekana Both Bag Braces!

Prior to 2025, only 3 players had scored multiple tries in a MLR Championship game. Following Saturday’s latest Final, that number has now grown to 5. Zach Fenoglio (2018 – Glendale Raptors), John Ryberg (2021 – LA Giltinis) and Nate Augspurger (2023 – San Diego Legion) have been joined by both Paula Balekana (New England Free Jacks) and Max Schumacher (Houston SaberCats) as the group of players to score a brace of tries in the MLR Championship game! No-one has scored a hat trick in the Final, yet….

Balekana’s two tries took his 2025 total to an extraordinary 15 tries on the season. This ties his career high and MLR record for tries in a season, first achieved by Balekana in 2023. Thanks to a superb season this year Balekana sits as MLR’s 3rd highest try scorer of all time, 7 tries ahead of Joe Mano (who scored 14 of his own this year) and only two tries behind Riekert Hattingh in 2nd place on 48! The gap from 2nd to 3rd place has completely closed this year, while Dylan Fawsitt has extended his lead as MLR’s all-time leading try scorer and is now sat on a ridiculous 65 tries!

Alatimu Passes 500!

AJ Alatimu appeared in his 2nd MLR Championship Game and first with the Houston SaberCats. He is one of very few players to have represented multiple teams in the MLR Shield game, having represented the Seattle Seawolves in the 2022 final. Unfortunately, the test capped Samoan playmaker falls to an 0-2 record in Championship games.

On the plus side, Alatimu’s two conversions and single penalty gave his side 7pts as he went 3/5 from the boot. Alatimu is MLR’s all-time leading playoff scorer with a total of 89pts in the postseason. These 7pts also take the veteran up to 2nd League-wide on the 2025 season with 98pts behind the only player to pass 100pts this year, Chris Hilsenbeck of the Chicago Hounds on 109pts. Alatimu is the 3rd highest scorer in Houston SaberCats history, now on 183pts. This is an impressive total in isolation, but when adding this to his 321pts scored with the Seattle Seawolves (where he is still the all-time top scorer despite having not played with Seattle since 2023), this takes his all-time total to 504pts.

AJ Alatimu becomes MLR’s 2nd ever 500pt scorer!

Following his 7pts in the 2025 Championship Game, AJ Alatimu becomes just the 2nd player ever to pass 500pts scored in Major League Rugby! Alatimu has scored 3 tries, 77 penalties, and a MLR-leading 129 conversions in his 74 game MLR career so far, with a career high of 166pts for Seattle back in 2022 when he finished as the League’s Top Scorer! Alatimu, who is becoming a Houston SaberCats legend in his own right, sits behind only Sam Windsor (speaking of SaberCats’ legends…) on 595pts points scored in MLR. Congratulations, AJ!

Wrapping Up

A handful of interesting Championship-specific standout stats, as well as the 2nd player in MLR history to pass 500pts scored in the competition. That concludes the 2025 Major League Rugby season as well as this season’s Midweek Milestones articles!

While Midweek Milestones is done for the year, NARDB will be publishing weekly Player Moves Summaries from roughly August onwards (depending on the number of moves that week!), as well as draft-centric content and a few videos regarding big league news (yes, NARDB has a Youtube Channel), so there will still be plenty of content for you MLR die-hards out there!

Whether you read part of one week’s article, or every word all season long, thank you. I hope that these articles have been both interesting and entertaining, and who knows, maybe one day they will be full of answers to pub quiz questions! If there’s anything that has been missed, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB or James on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from the 2025 Conference Finals!

Featured Photo Source: @wadebphotos

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Following a 17 round regular season and two weeks of intense playoff action, the 2025 Major League Rugby Conference Champions have been declared and the MLR Shield awaits. The Eastern Conference Champion will face off against the Western Conference Champion in the 2025 Championship at Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island to determine who will lift the 2025 Shield. Welcome back to Midweek Milestones!

This is NARDB’s weekly article that highlights and examines the standout stats from each round of MLR action! The purpose of this article is to bring attention to achievements, milestones, and standout stats achieved by players and teams throughout MLR with the aim to give them the recognition and applause they deserve. The penultimate article of the 2025 season will cover the two Conference Finals matchups. Because it only covers a pair of games, it is a shorter than average article, but hopefully one that is just as interesting!

The Championship Clash!

Following the Conference Finals last weekend, we now know the two teams that will fight it out to lift the 2025 MLR Shield! The New England Free Jacks claimed their 3rd straight Eastern Conference Championship with a 21-20 victory following a heartbreaking final minute missed penalty from the Chicago Hounds. The Free Jacks saw off the Miami Sharks in the Conference Semifinal, before defeating the Chicago Hounds in the Eastern Conference Final for the 2nd straight year to earn their 3rd Championship appearance in a row with a chance to lift their 3rd Shield in as many seasons and cement their legacy as a dynasty!

By contrast, before 2025 the Houston SaberCats had never won a Major League Rugby playoff game despite qualifying ever year since 2022, including as the top team in MLR in 2024. This year, the ‘Cats qualified 2nd in the Western Conference with a 10-6 record and 54pts (just 1pt behind the Free Jacks). Houston earned their first playoff victory over a spirited Rugby FC LA side in the Conference Semifinals, before dominating the top regular season team in the Western Conference Final, the Utah Warriors.

The SaberCats racked up 33pts on the road against the Warriors, scoring more points than any other team in the 2025 postseason, surpassing the 32pts scored by the New England Free Jacks in their victory over Miami which remains the biggest margin of victory in this year’s postseason so far. The SaberCats also became the first team to score 5 tries in a 2025 playoff game which, when added to their 4 tries from the Western Conference Semifinal, takes their playoff try total to 9 in 2025 compared to the Free Jacks’ 7. For those wondering, the MLR Playoff record for points in a game is 46, set by the Seattle Seawolves in a Conference Final victory against the Houston SaberCats in 2022. The Seawolves scored 6 tries in that game, and 12 postseason tries total that year, both also MLR records although the Chicago Hounds matched the record of 6 tries in a postseason game with their 21-45 victory over the NOLA Gold in last year’s Eastern Conference Semifinals.

A head-to-head comparison for the Championship can be found below, showing just how tight this clash is on paper. The New England Free Jacks look to have the advantage in the set piece (both scrums and lineouts), but concede far more penalties which the Houston SaberCats may want to consider exploiting with AJ Alatimu’s boot, given how few tries the Free Jacks conceded. Worth noting is the head-to-head record of these two sides. The Houston SaberCats have never defeated the Free Jacks, 0-4. The Championship game would be a great time to get their first!

Head-To-Head: Free Jacks v SaberCats

Hilsenbeck Hits One Hundred!

Although the game definitely did not end the way that he or the Chicago Hounds hoped, former German international turned aspiring USA Eagle Chris Hilsenbeck still racked up half of the Hounds’ 20pts in the Eastern Conference Final. The 33yo fly-half scored 22pts in Chicago’s two playoff games this year, and was sat on 99pts scored this season heading into this game. This means that despite the Hounds’ defeat, Chris Hilsenbeck became the first (and so far, only) player to pass 100pts scored in the 2025 MLR season, and that still deserves some praise. Congratulations, Chris!

Chris Hilsenbeck now sits 13pts ahead of the next highest scorer, Joel Hodgson on 96pts for the Utah Warriors. With only the Championship Final left to play in the 2025 Major League Rugby Season, Hilsenbeck is almost guaranteed to finish as the League’s top scorer in 2025, and he has a good chance of being the only player in the entire league with over 100pts this year. Only AJ Alatimu with the Houston SaberCats has a realistic chance of also scoring 100. He is currently sat 9pts away on 91, so while 100pts is achievable, MLR’s all-time leading playoff scorer would need to score 19pts in what would be a Championship Performance for the ages to pass Hilsenbeck.

As an aside, Alatimu would need 16pts to become the first play in MLR history to reach 100pts scored in the playoffs. Additionally, he is currently MLR’s 2nd highest scorer all-time with 497pts scored in total so is almost guaranteed to become only the 2nd player ever to pass 500pts scored in MLR following Sam Windsor, who remains MLR’s all-time leading scorer on 595pts.

The Top Scorers heading into the 2025 Championship, showing the gap between Hilsenbeck & Alatimu

Wrapping Up

As mentioned in the introduction, with only two games in the Conference Finals, standout stats for this week’s Midweek Milestones are hard to come by, resulting in a shorter than usual article. Despite that, this article still took a deeper look at the match-up for the 2025 Championship Game and highlighted MLR’s first (and only) 100+ point scorer this season: Chris Hilsenbeck! Check in next week for a mini Midweek Milestones from the final game of the 2025 Major League Rugby season, the Championship game at Centreville Bank Stadium in Rhode Island!

Thank you for reading the final regular season edition of NARDB’s Midweek Milestones! This series will continue through the postseason, where we are bound to get plenty of standout stats! If you like this series, please get in touch on social media or share this article to help highlight these achievements! If there’s anything that has been missed that you feel is worth mentioning, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB or James on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! NARDB can also be found on YouTube, at NARStats!

Finally, If you’re looking to get your hands on some of the new Macron merch for 2025 or to add to your jersey collection, visit shopmlr.com to get your hands on all that new gear, and remember to use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off your order!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from the 2025 Conference Semifinals!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

From 8 teams qualifying for the 2025 Major League Rugby playoffs, only 4 remain after the Conference Semifinals. There are only two weeks left of arguably the most competitive season of MLR that we have seen to date, and the competition is only getting tougher!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, NARDB’s weekly article that highlights and examines the standout stats from each round of MLR action! This article will cover the four Conference Semifinal matches. These articles aim to recognise achievements by players and/or teams that may have gone unnoticed or flown under the radar otherwise, providing fans with some extra insight and context every week to add an extra level to MLR! For a change, there weren’t any appearance achievements to report in the Conference Semifinals, so we’ll start with something speedy!

Balekana bags a speedy score!

The back-to-back defending Champion New England Free Jacks didn’t take long to open their 2025 playoff account, with just 19 seconds passing before the Free Jacks’ Fijian try machine Paula Balekana crossed for his 13th of the season! This sets a new record for the fastest playoff score in Major League Rugby history, surpassing a 45 second Fa’asiu Fuatai try for the Rugby New York Ironworkers back in 2023! Congratulations, Paula!

Paula Balekana scores the fastest try in MLR Playoff history!

Balekana’s speedy score was roughly 12 seconds off of the fastest ever MLR try, scored by Conner Mooneyham for the Seattle Seawolves straight from kick off after only 7 seconds in 2023! Balekana now sits just 1 try behind Utah’s Joe Mano for the league lead in tries scored, and both men are closing in on Balekana’s single season record of 15 tries set in 2023. With both the Free Jacks and Utah Warriors advancing to their respective Conference Finals, will we see more tries from either of them?

Playoff Placements!

The MLR Championship Final is now under 2 weeks away and as mentioned in the introduction, the 8 playoff teams have already been sliced in half and four teams remain in the hunt for the 2025 Shield. In the Western Conference, two teams earned their first playoff wins to set-up a completely new Conference Finals matchup. Having not featured in the postseason since 2021 when they faced the juggernaut LA Giltinis, the Utah Warriors faced the 2024 runners-up Seattle Seawolves playing in their MLR-leading thirteenth playoff match. In typical Warriors style, they raced out to a big lead before the Seawolves mounted an admirable comeback that fell just short, 23-21. The Warriors will host the Houston SaberCats who, after qualifying for the playoffs for the 4th year in a row, finally earned their first postseason victory with a nailbiting 27-21 victory over playoff debutants Rugby FC LA, ending the game with two players in the bin!

The 2025 Playoff Picture following the Conference Semifinals

There’s a very different story over in the Eastern Conference, where a repeat of the 2024 Eastern Conference Final awaits! The defending champion New England Free Jacks recorded the biggest victory of the 2025 Conference Semifinals, defeating the Miami Sharks 32-10 to match the scoreline of the San Diego Legion’s 2023 Western Conference Final victory over the Seattle Seawolves. The Sharks were heavy underdogs in their first ever playoff appearance, but should be proud of their 2025 season and look forward to a strong 2026. In the other Eastern Semifinal, the Chicago Hounds made it entertaining for the home crowd as they trailed 10-16 to Old Glory DC at half time, before shutting the Flags out in the 2nd half to take a 27-16 victory. Both sides were looking for a shot at revenge against the Free Jacks who knocked them both out in 2024, and it’s the Hounds that will get the chance. New England defeated Chicago 23-17 in last year’s Eastern Conference Final, will it be the same outcome a year later?

Free Jacks Statement Win

After getting off to a shaky start to the season, the New England Free Jacks are speeding towards that Threepeat with a big win over the Miami Sharks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. They were one of only two sides (along with the Houston SaberCats) to score 4 tries in the 2025 Conference Semifinals, and scored 32pts, more than any other team in the postseason so far!

Source: @nefreejacks via Instagram

The Free Jacks’ 22pt winning margin in a 32-10 victory is the 2nd largest winning margin in MLR Playoff history, tied with the San Diego Legion’s 32-10 win of their own over the Seattle Seawolves in 2023. The largest winning margin in a Major League Rugby playoff game is 24pts, achieved twice. First by the Seattle Seawolves in a 43-19 victory over the San Diego Legion in 2022 (those two have been rivals since the League started!), and then equaled by the Chicago Hounds in a 21-45 victory over the NOLA Gold last year which is also both the highest scoring playoff game in league history (66), and the highest points total by a single team in a playoff game (45)! Will we see any new records set in the 2025 post-season?

Houston Hits 100!

The Houston SaberCats scored 4 tries and 27pts in their muddy victory over Rugby FC LA in the Western Conference Semifinals, taking them to 102pts scored in the playoffs in total! AJ Alatimu’s 66th minute penalty took them into triple figures. They are just the 5th team in Major League Rugby history to pass 100pts scored in the postseason!

The SaberCats are the 4th active MLR team to pass 100pts in the playoffs behind the Seattle Seawolves (358), the New England Free Jacks (174), and the San Diego Legion (also 174), as well as the inactive Rugby New York Ironworkers (144). Congratulations, ‘Cats!
The Chicago Hounds are likely next to hit this milestone. Currently on 89pts scored in the postseason, they could also pass the 100pts mark in their Eastern Conference Final clash with the Free Jacks this weekend.

Wrapping Up

For the first time this season, this week’s Midweek Milestones article doesn’t have any appearance achievements! With the playoffs now rolling, a whole new area of standout stats and records are just waiting to be broken! The Conference Semifinals already gave us the fastest playoff try in MLR history, as well as the T-2nd biggest winning margin in playoff history and the 5th team to reach 100pts scored in the postseason. With only 3 games left in the 2025 season, what other standout stats will we see?

Thank you for reading the final regular season edition of NARDB’s Midweek Milestones! This series will continue through the postseason, where we are bound to get plenty of standout stats! If you like this series, please get in touch on social media or share this article to help highlight these achievements! If there’s anything that has been missed that you feel is worth mentioning, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB or James on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! NARDB can also be found on YouTube, at NARStats!

Finally, If you’re looking to get your hands on some of the new Macron merch for 2025 or to add to your jersey collection, visit shopmlr.com to get your hands on all that new gear, and remember to use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off your order!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 17 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

17 weeks of Major League Rugby action have been and gone, and in what seems like the blink of an eye, the 2025 Regular Season is at an end. For three teams, their season is over and the off-season awaits full of planning for the MLR Draft in August, and the 2026 season. For four teams from each Conference, it’s crunch time. The Playoffs await!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, NARDB’s weekly article that highlights and examines the standout stats from each round of MLR action! Just because the regular season ends with Round 17 that doesn’t mean there wasn’t still plenty to talk about. These articles aim to recognise achievements by players and/or teams that may have gone unnoticed or flown under the radar otherwise, providing fans with some extra insight and context every week to add an extra level to MLR! As always, Appearance Achievements are up first!

Appearance Achievements

The final round of the season often brings interesting lineups. Teams that are already securely in the playoffs with no chance of securing home advantage and only a narrow chance of moving positions sometimes reward depth players that have worked hard in camp all season. This gives teams a chance to see what their prospects can do at professional match level, and also exposes the players to valuable high-level game time. With the season staying so competitive right up until the final whistle of the final game, there were only a couple of unusual lineups, including a few MLR debuts!

The Miami Sharks secured their first ever Playoff berth last week, qualifying for the postseason in just their 2nd season. They were almost destined to face off against the defending champion New England Free Jacks as the 4th seed and decided to rest the majority of their starters this week. In fact, only Santiago Videla remained in their starting lineup from last week as Chase Schor-Haskin scored his first MLR try on his first MLR start, Isaac Bales came off the bench for his Sharks debut and first MLR appearance since 2023, and two players earned their MLR debuts!

Starting on the wing for the Sharks was 2024 Draftee Jake Negrete. The St. Mary’s College alum was selected in the 2nd Round, 20th overall by the Houston SaberCats in 2024, before moving to the Sharks back in May. Although the details of the move haven’t been disclosed, Negrete finally made his MLR debut in a 42-17 defeat to the Seattle Seawolves in the Fish Bowl. Congratulations, Jake! Unfortunately, his debut lasted only a few minutes before he had to leave the pitch, so wishing him a safe and speedy recovery! Also earning his first MLR appearance was Blake Pereda, a new signing announced by the Sharks during the week. NARDB is unclear if this deal was signed prior to the 2025 signing deadline in May, or if Pereda is injury cover but regardless, the Miami Tridents player came off the bench for the final 35 minutes of action. Congratulations, Blake, and welcome to MLR!

Source: @utwarriorsrugby via Instagram

As two players earned their MLR debuts for the Sharks in the East, in the West a Utah Warrior joined the half-century club. Since joining the Utah Warriors ahead of the 2022 season, US-eligible New Zealand scrumhalf Zion Going has scored 8 tries and started 29 of his now 50 MLR appearances, and is enjoying a stand-out season in 2025! Going appeared in all 16 of the Warriors’ regular season games this year (a career high), starting a career high 13 times and scoring 4 tries, completing 85 tackles, and gaining 266m, all three are new career highs. Congratulations, Zion! It seems apt to wrap up Going’s career year by celebrating his 50th MLR appearance but with the Warriors finishing top of the league, could he also celebrate it with a Shield? We’ll have to wait and see…

Hounds Hit Half-Century!

In the same round that Zion Going earns his 50th MLR appearance for the Utah Warriors, the Chicago Hounds celebrate their 50th game played in Major League Rugby! The Eastern Conference Hounds secured a hard fought 15-12 victory over the Houston SaberCats in the Dogs v Cats match to clinch their first ever home playoff game, in their 50th MLR match!

Since joining in 2023, the Hounds have an all-time regular season record of 22-1-25 as well as an even record of 1-1 in the postseason thanks to their Conference Final run in 2024. With 4pts in their nail-biting win over the SaberCats, the Hounds also draw to within 1pt of the LA Giltinis in the all-time MLR standings. Congratulations, Chicago!

Source: @Chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

Playoff Placement

As mentioned off the top, Major League Rugby’s 11 teams has been whittled down to 8 that advance to the 2025 postseason. This section will take a look at the playoff histories for each team, and some standout stats around the postseason.

In the Eastern Conference, the defending champion New England Free Jacks claim the top spot for the FOURTH year in a row to qualify for the post season for the 4th time in succession. The back-to-back Champions had a shaky start to the year, but have recovered well and banked a 11-5 record in their bid for the threepeat! They will face a team that has been a bit of a boogeyman for them, the Miami Sharks. The 4th seeded Sharks are enjoying their playoff debut in 2025 after qualifying with a franchise-best 8-8 record with 41pts. The Sharks have defeated the Free Jacks twice in their short history, but never in Quincy. Could we see an upset for the ages?
Over to the other matchup in the Eastern Conference, hosted by the 2nd seed Chicago Hounds at SeatGeek Stadium, as mentioned above. One of the Hounds’ key targets in 2025 was to host a playoff match and they hit that target with a strong 11-5 record. This matches the Free Jacks’ record and the Hounds took it to New England all year, in the end finishing only 2pts behind them due to a pair of extra Try BPs earned by the Free Jacks. Like the Sharks, this is by far the best regular season in Hounds history and the 2nd year in a row that they have qualified. Back in 2024, they routed the NOLA Gold on the road before falling to the Free Jacks in the Eastern Conference Final by the skin of their teeth. The Hounds want to at least match that, and are out for revenge. Standing in their way first however, are Old Glory DC. The Flags qualified with a matching record to the Sharks, 8-8, but finished with 4pts more thanks to their 4 additional bonus points. DC, like Chicago, are looking for revenge over the Free Jacks who have knocked them out in both of the last two seasons. Will 3rd time be the charm?

Now to the Western Conference which has produced the #1 team in the entire league for the 3rd year in a row. In 2025, the Utah Warriors finish as the Top team in MLR with the same 11-5 record as both New England and Chicago, but with 58pts in total. A franchise best season from the mountain men. The Warriors end MLR’s longest playoff drought and qualify for the postseason for the first time since 2021, where they will face the 4th seeded Seattle Seawolves, playing in their MLR-leading sixth postseason at the expense of their rivals, the San Diego Legion. 2024’s runners-up finish with a 8-7-1 record, just 1pt ahead of the Legion. Finally, last seasons top seed finishes 4pts behind Utah in 2nd with a 10-6 record. The Houston SaberCats clinched home advantage with a win in their last game of the season to qualify for the 3rd year on the trot, but are yet to record a playoff victory. The ‘Cats will face a run ‘n gun Rugby FC LA team, who finished 2pts ahead of Seattle with the same 8-7-1 record to earn their playoff debut in their 2nd season.

The 2025 Playoff picture at the end of the Regular Season

Wrapping Up

That does it for a ‘Playoff Prep’ edition of Midweek Milestones. A pair of MLR debuts, a team and a player join the half-century club, and a bumper overview of the 2025 playoff picture! The business end of the Major League Rugby season is here, with all four matchups looking to be thrillers. Midweek Milestones will continue through the postseason, so be sure to check back next week for all sorts of playoff stats!

Thank you for reading the final regular season edition of NARDB’s Midweek Milestones! This series will continue through the postseason, where we are bound to get plenty of standout stats! If you like this series, please get in touch on social media or share this article to help highlight these achievements! If there’s anything that has been missed that you feel is worth mentioning, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB or James on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! NARDB can also be found on YouTube, at NARStats!

Finally, If you’re looking to get your hands on some of the new Macron merch for 2025 or to add to your jersey collection, visit shopmlr.com to get your hands on all that new gear, and remember to use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off your order!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 16 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Round 16 of the 2025 Major League Rugby season has been and gone, and just like that there is only 1 round of regular season action remaining! Four more teams secured their places in the 2025 post-season over the weekend with just 1 spot still up for grabs, being fought over by MLR’s oldest rivals, the Seattle Seawolves and San Diego Legion.

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, NARDB’s weekly article that highlights and examines the standout stats from each round of MLR action! This week’s article covers the penultimate round of MLR regular season action: Round 16. These articles aim to recognise achievements by players and/or teams that may have gone unnoticed or flown under the radar otherwise, providing fans with some extra insight and context every week to add an extra level to MLR! As always, Appearance Achievements are up first!

Appearance Achievements

Round 16 saw a pair of test capped players feature in their 50th MLR match. One has represented the USA Eagles on the international stage, the other has represented Canada. Both have had remarkable impacts on MLR history, and we will start with California native Christian Dyer!

A native of Sacramento, CA and UCal – Berkeley alum, Christian Dyer‘s MLR career got off to a shaky start. He was initially signed with the Dallas Jackals for their inaugural season in 2021. After Dallas deferred their entry to 2022, Dyer was selected by Rugby New York in the supplementary draft but didn’t join the Ironworkers for the 2021 season. In January of 2022 the Houston SaberCats announced that they had signed Dyer for the 2022 season, and his pro career finally got started despite already having earned his test debut as USA Eagle #539 against England in July 2021. Dyer earned 45 appearances for the SaberCats between 2022-2024, starting 44 times including in the team’s first ever playoff game in 2022. He gained just over 1,750m as a ‘Cat including a career high of 719m in 2023 when he scored 9 tries, also a career high. Dyer remains the Houston SaberCats’ all-time leading try scorer with 19 in black and gold, and has been capped 14 times by his country. Dyer was the first player announced by Rugby FC LA ahead of the 2025 season, and has scored an additional 2 tries in 5 games (4 starts) in California, helping the team to it’s first ever postseason appearance. Congratulations, Christian!

Source: @Rugbyfcla via Instagram

Joining Christian Dyer in the half-century club after Round 16 is South African born Edmontonian Dewald Kotze! The test-capped Canadian hooker moved from South Africa to Edmonton, AB at the age of 14, joining the Strathcona Druids before moving to the Canadian National Team development program, the Pacific Pride in 2019. Kotze was named in a 40-man extended Canada squad in June 2021, but would have to wait until 2024 before earning his test debut for his adopted country, a 35-22 victory over Romania in Ottawa. At club level, Dewald Kotze was signed by the Dallas Jackals in January 2022, representing the Texas team for 3 seasons between until their untimely demise in 2024. Kotze earned 36 appearances for the Jackals in that time, starting 29 times and scoring 14 tries including a career high of 11 in 2023 when he scored a MLR-record FIVE tries in a single game for the Jackals against Seattle. The Seawolves clearly liked the look of Dewald Kotze, as they signed him for the 2025 season after the Jackals withdrew from MLR, and he has scored another 3 tries in 14 games (6 starts) in Seattle. Kotze now has 17 tries total and has started 35 of his 50 MLR matches to date, and reached 100 tackles on the season during Round 16, his 3rd 100+ tackle season in a row. Congratulations, Dewy!

Playoff Placements!

As mentioned in the intro, another 4 teams clinched their spot in the postseason during Round 16. three Western Conference teams have secured their spots, and the final spot in the East has been locked up. This section will dive a little deeper into the 2025 playoff placements.

Starting with that final spot in the Eastern Conference. The Miami Sharks pulled off what many fans would’ve thought impossible at the start of the season. They took on the reeling San Diego Legion at Torero Stadium, and came out on top. Although they didn’t secure a try BP, a superb performance from Shane O’Leary (more on that later!) ensured they took 4pts in a 32-36 victory to secure their first ever postseason appearance in just their 2nd season in MLR! The Sharks are now destined to finish 3rd or 4th in the East, facing either the New England Free Jacks or Chicago Hounds on the road. This Sharks victory eliminates the NOLA Gold, who are playing for pride now and will be doing some serious head scratching after arguably their worst season to date. Miami have also made life very uncomfortable for the San Diego Legion, who now must win their final game to have any hope of leapfrogging the Seattle Seawolves and making the playoffs.

Source: @usmlr via Instagram

Moving over to that warzone that is the 2025 Western Conference. As mentioned above the Seattle Seawolves and San Diego Legion are still scrapping over that final playoff spot, but 3 of the 5 teams in the West all secured their spots over the weekend, including the Houston SaberCats who didn’t even have to play! The Legion’s home loss at the hands of the Miami Sharks means they can only get to 8 wins compared to Houston’s 9, handing a 4th postseason appearance in a row to the SaberCats. Although they have two games remaining and are still fighting for home field advantage, and don’t yet know who they will be facing, the ‘Cats no doubt have one eye on the playoffs already. In 3 postseason appearances since 2022, Houston are yet to record a playoff victory. Is the 4th time the charm?

Now onto the team currently sat atop the Western Conference, the Utah Warriors. They actually clinched a playoff spot a day before the Houston SaberCats thanks to a comfortable bonus point victory over Anthem RC at home. The Warriors are currently the top team in MLR with 10 wins and 53pts, but can still fall as low as 3rd due to how close the West is. Even a bonus point victory doesn’t secure 1st place just yet. Utah need Houston to drop points in their final two games to lock that top spot up. Utah face Rugby FC LA in their final game, who sit 2nd in the West on 50pts. A win their would guarantee a home semifinal for the Warriors, as either the 1st or 2nd seed.

Moving on to Rugby FC LA who, like the Sharks in the East, have secured their first ever postseason berth following a 32-43 bonus point road victory over Old Glory DC at the Maryland Soccerplex. Now sat 2nd in the Western Conference, RFCLA will need a bonus point win in their last match against the 1st placed Utah Warriors to give them the best chance of securing home advantage. There’s a ferocious 3-way fight between LA, Houston, and Utah for the top two spots, and fans will be in for a treat in Round 17!

Sensational Sharks!

The Miami Sharks’ superb road victory over the San Diego Legion has already been mentioned a number of times in this article, but now it is time to dive deeper into some of the standout stats from this playoff-clinching win! Miami’s talismanic flanker Manu Ardao notched one of 3 Sharks tries in this match to take take his season total to 5. This equals his total from last season and takes his career MLR total to 10, making him the first player in Sharks history to reach 10 tries scored for the team! Can he get a couple more before the end of the season?

The main story coming out of this game however, was the performance of Shane O’Leary. The Canada-capped Irishman was like clockwork off of the tee, scoring 3 conversions and 5 penalties for 21 of Miami’s 36pts in this game to help them secure their first ever playoff spot! With 60% of both the territory and possession in favour of the San Diego Legion, O’Leary‘s boot was the difference. The Legion only conceded 8 penalties all game but O’Leary and the Sharks kicked 6 of them, converting 5!

Shane O’Leary racks up 21pts from the boot!

Finishing the game with 8/9 from the tee, the former Toronto Arrows fly-half set a new Miami Sharks record for points in a single game, as well as a 2025 high in that same category. His 21pts takes his season total to 90, surpassing Santiago Videla’s 74pts last season to set a new Miami Sharks single season record and climb to 1st place in the entire league for points scored this season! O’Leary’s career total now sits at 153pts including 101 for the Sharks, becoming just the 2nd player in Sharks history to pass 100pts scored for the team behind the aforementioned Santiago Videla. Congratulations, Shane!

Scoring Standouts – Hodgson & Hilsenbeck

On the subject of scoring milestones, following a comfortable 31-10 home victory over Anthem RC, Joel Hodgson has now achieved something that only 10 other players have done. With 2pts scored from a conversion kick, Hodgson’s total now sits at exactly 300pts scored becoming just the 11th player in MLR history to reach 300pts scored in the competition! He is the first Utah Warriors to reach 300pts scored, and the 8th player in MLR history to reach 300pts scored with a single MLR franchise. Hodgson now sits just 13pts back of MLR’s Top 10 Scorers ever, with Seattle Seawolves legend Brock Staller sat on 313pts in total. Congratulations, Joel!

Moving from Utah up to Chicago, where the Hounds are sitting just 2pts off the top of the Eastern Conference after a bonus point victory over the NOLA Gold took them into 2nd. 8 of Chicago’s 38pts came off the boot of US-eligible German international Chris Hilsenbeck, who went 4/6 from the tee. With a total of 84pts on the season, Hilsenbeck moves up to T-2nd in scoring, and sets a new Chicago Hounds franchise record for points in a season, surpassing the previous record of 77pts set by Adriaan Carelse in 2024. Congratulations, Chris!

Wrapping Up

That does it for the Midweek Milestones from Round 16 of the 2025 Major League Rugby Season! Four teams clinch playoff spots, a pair of new half-century club members, and some spectacular scoring achievements! The final week of the regular season is here already. What sorts of standout stats will it leave us with? You’ll have to check in next week’s Midweek Milestones article!

Thank you for reading this edition of NARDB’s Midweek Milestones! If you like this series, please get in touch on social media or share this article to help highlight these achievements! If there’s anything that has been missed that you feel is worth mentioning, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB or James on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! NARDB can also be found on YouTube, at NARStats!

Finally, If you’re looking to get your hands on some of the new Macron merch for 2025 or to add to your jersey collection, visit shopmlr.com to get your hands on all that new gear, and remember to use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off your order!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 13 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

The business end of the 2025 Major League Rugby season is here, so much so that the first team has already been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention! Round 13 of the season is a strange one in that there was a game earlier this week on Monday night, but Round 14 started almost immediately after with a Tuesday night match up. It may have made more sense for the Tuesday night game to be included in Round 13 and Round 14 start on Friday, but there must have been a reason for it…

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones! The weekly article that explores and highlights all of the standout stats from the latest round of MLR action. This article will cover the entirety of Round 13, as well as the first game of Round 14. The purpose of this article series is to highlight some of the milestones or achievements from around the league that might not otherwise get the coverage or recognition they deserve. If you’re a fan of these articles, please go back and read the past editions (if you haven’t already!) and share them with your friends. As is tradition, first up are the appearance achievements!

Appearance Achievements

For the first time in a number of weeks, no players earned their Major League Rugby debuts during Round 13. This is likely because teams are getting the hang of their squad rotation as the midweek games continue to test the depth of every squad. The players earning debuts a few weeks ago are now entering their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th MLR game, giving them valuable exposure to top-level competition and letting coaches know what they’re capable of. However, just because there were no debutants this week doesn’t mean the Appearance Achievements section of Midweek Milestones is empty. Four players entered the half-century club in Round 13, all earning their 50th MLR appearances in the same game: the Western Conference clash between the San Diego Legion and Houston SaberCats.

Starting with the hosting San Diego Legion who had a pair of players celebrating their 50th MLR appearances, both of whom started their MLR careers in Austin with the Gilgronis. First up is Australian hooker Hugh Roach, who joined the AGs ahead of the 2021 MLR season. A former Australia U20 man, Roach started 19 of his 23 games with the Gilgronis from 2021 until their disqualification at the end of the 2022 regular season. He scored 14 tries in black & orange before moving to the Chicago Hounds following the 2022 dispersal draft. Roach scored another 3 tries in 6 games (5 starts) for the Hounds in their inaugural season, before heading to California and signing with the San Diego Legion for 2024. Since then, he’s scored 7 tries in 21 games (all starts) for the Legion, taking his MLR try total to 24. Hugh Roach has started 45 of his 50 MLR appearances since 2021, with just over 1,200m gained and 549 tackles completed including 4 seasons of 100+ tackles including 2025. Congratulations, Hugh!

Joining the 50-club alongside Hugh Roach is Eagle #503, Marcel Brache. Raised in South Africa, Brache represented the USA at the Rugby World Cup in Japan in 2019, before joining the Austin Gilgronis in 2022 from the Western Force. Brache recorded a career high 911m gained in his 13 games with the AGs in 2022, playing alongside Hugh Roach. He joined the San Diego Legion following the disqualification of the Gilgronis and has started 32 of his 37 games for the Legion in his 3 seasons there. Brache has started 44 of his 50 career MLR games, scoring 5 tries in total and running for 2,435m gained. Congratulations on your 50th MLR appearance, Marcel!

Moving over to the Legion’s opposition, the Houston SaberCats, who also celebrated a pair of 50th appearances! Starting in the front row with Pono Davis! The Hawaiian prop began his MLR career with the ‘Cats back in 2022, and has earned all 50 of his MLR appearances with Houston. A crossover athlete from the XFL, Davis played with the American Raptors before entering MLR and earned just the 1 start through his first 2 seasons and 23 games in MLR. Since then however, he has worked his way into the starting lineup more and more often, starting 4 of 17 games last year, and 9 of 10 in 2025 so far. To date, Pono Davis has started 14 of his 50 appearance for the SaberCats, completing 297 tackles but is yet to score a try. Perhaps 2025 is the year? Congratulations, Pono!

Source: @houstonsabercats via Instagram.

The final player joining the half-century club in Round 13, playing for the Houston SaberCats alongside Pono Davis for his entire MLR career to date is South African fly-half/fullback Davy Coetzer! Like Davis, Coetzer started his MLR career back in 2022, exploding onto the scene with 3 tries and 79pts scored in his debut season. Since then, Coetzer has scored another 15 tries to take his total to 18, along with an impressive 349pts scored in total for the SaberCats. Coetzer has started 49 of his 50 MLR appearances to date and is a 2-time All-MLR selection (2nd XV in 2023, Honourable Mention XV in 2024). He is currently MLR’s 8th highest scorer of all time, and the 4th highest among active players. Coetzer earns his 50th MLR appearance after missing a few weeks due to injury, but doesn’t look like he’s lost a step. Congratulations, Davy!

Joe Johnston: New England’s most Capped Player!

On Saturday Joe Johnston, the 2025 Captain of the New England Free Jacks, featured in his 59th match for the franchise, becoming the most capped player in team history! The New Zealand flanker has appeared in 67.82% of all Free Jacks MLR games ever played, starting 47 times and completing 733 tackles to date. Johnston scored his 10th try this weekend while donning New England’s 2025 City Edition jersey, celebrating the 400th birthday of the City of Quincy!

Joe Johnston becomes the most capped Free Jack!

What makes Joe Johnston’s achievement that much more impressive is that he wasn’t with the team for the 2024 season, instead completing his studies in his native New Zealand! Johnston overtook Free Jacks legend John Poland for sole possession of first place. Poland, who would be way out in front if not for injury, is now level with Club Captain Josh Larsen who earned his 58th Free Jacks appearance in the same game. Congratulations, Joe!

Damm Reaches Double-Figures with LA!

Rugby FC LA battled back into the win column to keep their playoff hopes alive, recording a 45-17 victory over Anthem RC. The score line doesn’t tell the true story of the game, as the USA’s rising stars had kept it close for the majority of the match. Anthem pulled the score back to 26-17 with 10 minutes to go, but 19pts in the final 7 minutes from three RFCLA scores including a pair from Captain Jason Damm gave the impression of a blowout.

Damm’s brace in this game took his career total to 19 tries in 59 games, including 10 in 26 games for Rugby FC LA. He becomes just the 3rd player in RFCLA team history (not including Rugby ATL) to score double-figure tries! A capped USA Eagle, Jason Damm joins another pair of internationally capped RFCLA players with double-figure try counts for the team: Canadian Andrew Coe and Fijian Semi Kunatani, both currently on 11 tries for LA. Congratulations, Jason!

Wet Conditions in NOLA make for a record-setting slugfest!

After rain delays forced kickoff back, Friday night’s NOLA Gold v Miami Sharks game finally got underway, but the wet conditions severely affected play and resulted in a close range, grinding affair with plenty of handling errors. The two teams combined for only 387m gained, a total that has been regular eclipsed by single team totals during this season, even though meters total are generally lower in 2025 than in previous years. The Miami Sharks recorded 219m made in their 19-25 road victory, which is the 4th lowest total ever and sets a new MLR record for the lowest ever winning meters gained total! The previous record was the 243m set by the San Diego Legion in Round 3 of the 2025 season.

The NOLA Gold & Miami Sharks set two of the lowest Meters Made totals of all time!

Although the Miami Sharks’ 219m gained is one of the lowest totals of all time, their opponents set an even lower total. The NOLA Gold amassed only 168m gained in this game, becoming the first team in MLR history to record under 200m in a game, and setting a new lowest ever MLR total! Although their 40.51% possession can’t have helped matters, the lion’s share of the blame for these low totals can be attributed to the miserable conditions. But it just goes to show, even the messy games can result in some standout stats!

It is worth re-iterating that meters gained totals are down across the board in MLR’s 2025 season. Four of the 5 lowest team totals ever have already been recorded this season, including both the lowest winning total, and lowest overall total. Even individual player totals are down. The top Meter Eater heading into Round 14 of the 2025 season is Utah’s Jordan Trainor on an even 800m made. That same total would put Trainor 3rd at the same stage of the 2024 season. There were 9 players over 700m gained at this point of the 2024 season, this year, there are only 5. Some of this may be due to MLR switching analytics partner from Mobii to Oval Insights but no matter the cause, meters are harder to come by this year!

No Negatives in the Western Conference

In what seems like a rarity in a two-conference, 11 team league, there are no teams in Major League Rugby’s Western Conference that have a negative points differential after Round 13! The Utah Warriors and Houston SaberCats are both on +68 points on the season in first and second, respectively, then come the San Diego Legion with a solid +24 in third. The 5th placed Seattle Seawolves actually have the 4th best points differential in the West with +11 and finally, 4th placed Rugby FC LA improve to a +/- of 0 following their victory over Anthem RC!

When adding this to the two teams in the Eastern Conference that have positive points differentials (the New England Free Jacks on a league-best +87, and the Chicago Hounds on +33), SEVEN of Major League Rugby’s 11 teams have a positive (or neutral) points difference! All 4 teams with negative points difference are in the Eastern Conference, including a struggling Anthem RC team on a painful -219. Is this the first time in MLR history where no team in a conference has a negative differential!?

Seattle Seawolves pass 200 First XV selections!

With an impressive road victory over the Western Conference leaders the Utah Warriors, the Seattle Seawolves kept their playoff hopes alive! The 2-time Champs earned three First XV selections in Round 13 as Malembe Mpofu and Lauina Futi earned Team of the Week nods for their efforts, along with Nick Boyer on his Seawolves debut! This took Seattle to 16 selections on the 2025 season (tied for 8th) but more importantly, took them over 200 First XV selections all-time!

The Seattle Seawolves pass 200 First XV selections (all-time)

Now on 201 First XV selections in their history, the Seattle Seawolves are just the 2nd team ever to pass the 200 mark behind their old rivals the San Diego Legion, currently on 209. Unsurprisingly, the Top 5 consists entirely of MLR founding members as these teams have played the most games. The Utah Warriors sit 3rd way back on 164, ahead of the NOLA Gold on 159 and the Houston SaberCats on 148. It will be some time before a 3rd team passes the 200 mark, likely not until 2027. Congratulations, Seawolves!

Wrapping Up

That does it for the Midweek Milestones from a busy Round 13 in Major League Rugby! Four new members of the 50-cap club, some new all-time lows, and everyone is keeping positive in the Western Conference! With Round 14 having already kicked off on Tuesday night, what other standout stats will it treat us to over the weekend? You’ll have to wait and see in next week’s edition of Midweek Milestones!

Thank you for reading this edition of NARDB’s Midweek Milestones article! If you like this series, please get in touch on social media or share this article to help highlight these achievements! If there’s anything that has been missed that you feel is worth mentioning, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB or James on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! NARDB can also be found on YouTube, at NARStats!

Finally, If you’re looking to get your hands on some of the new Macron merch for 2025 or to add to your jersey collection, visit shopmlr.com to get your hands on all that new gear, and remember to use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off your order!


Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 11 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Round 11 of the 2025 season saw a bumper seven games during Major League Rugby’s first ever ‘Storm Week, including games on both Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and a number of teams playing two games in 1 round! With so many games, it’s hardly surprising that we saw some standout stats across the league for both teams and players, as well as some incredible appearance achievements!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, the weekly article that keeps fans informed of all the standout stats from the latest round of MLR action! The purpose of this article series is to highlight some of the milestones or achievements from around the league that might not otherwise get the coverage they deserve by the league itself. If you’re a fan of these articles, please go back and read the past editions (if you haven’t already!) and share them with your friends. As with last week, we begin with the appearance achievements

Appearance Achievements – Utah’s First Centurion!

On Saturday, Utah Warriors prop Angus MacLellan was in the starting XV for his 100th MLR game, becoming just the 3rd player in league history to feature in 100 matches! The Michigan native is the 2nd player to reach 100 games played with a single team after JP Smith for the Seattle Seawolves just last week. Although all 3 MLR Centurions (Dylan Fawsitt, JP Smith, and now Angus MacLellan) having represented the United States at test level as USA Eagles, MacLellan is the first US-born player to enter MLR’s ‘100 club’!

Angus MacLellan becomes the first US-Born player to reach 100 MLR Appearances

Major League Rugby

SeasonTeamGPGSTCPACDGMGTacklesKS/KAPts
MLR 2018Warriors99100003156105
MLR 2019Warriors16162000024396010
MLR 2020Warriors55000001083200
MLR 2021Warriors1713000003329200
MLR 2022Warriors155000002057600
MLR 2023Warriors164000002117200
MLR 2024Warriors146000001347500
MLR 2025Warriors14100000277900
Total-10659300001575583015

The Traverse City, MI man has spent his entire MLR career with the Utah Warriors, earning his debut in the league’s inaugural season in 2018 where he started all 9 games for the Warriors, including their lone playoff appearance that year. MacLellan started all of his 30 games for Utah between 2018-2020 and has racked up 59 starts in 100 games in his MLR career to date. Congratulations, Angus! His full career stats in MLR can be seen above.

MacLellan’s impressive accomplishment was not the only appearance milestone during a bumper Rd 11 of MLR action. Another member of the front row earned his 50th MLR appearance in a convincing victory over Anthem RC on Sunday, Miami Sharks prop Alec McDonnell! The Missouri native and Lindenwood alum made his MLR debut with New York back in 2020, but really broke into the league with the SaberCats in 2022, starting 8 of his 9 games for Houston that year. He followed this with 16 appearances and a career high 56 tackles in 2023 before moving from Houston to Miami and signing with the Sharks. McDonnell has earned 24 appearances with the Sharks since, and set a career high 101m gained in their inaugural season in 2024. To date, McDonnell has started 18 of his 50 appearances in the league, and passed 200 career tackles on his 50th cap, congratulations, Alec!

Source: @Miasharksrugby via Instagram

From a 100th appearance to a 50th, and now from a 50th appearance to a bunch of debutants. MLR’s first ever ‘Storm Week’ saw some teams play 2 games within 4 days of each other and as such, squad rotation came into play. Some fringe players that might not have had the chance came in to bolster lineups and as a result, FIVE players earned their MLR debuts in Round 11, with three of them for Anthem RC! Starting in their first game of Round 11, when a trio of front rowers earned their first MLR appearances. Recently acquired on loan from the Chicago Hounds, Indiana native Alexander Hernandez appeared in both of Anthem’s Round 11 matches, coming off the bench in both games! Hernandez was drafted 34th overall in 2024 by the Chicago Hounds out of Marian University, and impressed with the Hounds academy during their fall season, earning an MLR contract. He was loaned to Anthem where he had a better opportunity at earning game time, and that was proved correct. Congratulations, Alexander!

Born in the US but raised in Canada, Neil Trainor was selected 2nd overall in the 2024 MLR Draft by Anthem RC out of Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. The Pacific Pride hooker earned just under 30 minutes of game time for Anthem in a tough 19-60 midweek affair last Wednesday, completing 4 tackles. In that same game, Californian prop Quinton Tindel also earned his MLR debut, coming on for the final 8 minutes and completing 2 tackles. Tindel, an alum of Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo and two-time Collegiate All-American, signed with Anthem RC as a free agent on a Homegrown Player Contract, and has now earned his Pro debut. Congratulations, both Neil and Quinton!

Moving away from Anthem RC and to one of their opponents from Round 11, the Miami Sharks. We have already discussed Alec McDonnell’s 50th MLR appearance, but packing down just behind him in the Sharks second row for the final few minutes of the match was Calvin Ihrig. The Chicago-born Lindenwood University alum discovered rugby which at school in Thailand, and was selected 3rd overall by the Sharks in the 2024 draft, now earning his debut off the bench in a comfortable 31-5 home victory. Congratulations, Calvin! Finally for the MLR debutants from Round 11, we head to the nation’s capital where Irish utility back Declan O’Loughlin made his Pro Debut for Old Glory DC in the final 10 minutes after earning his first pro contract during the DC academy season in the fall. A native of County Galway in Ireland, O’Loughlin made 7m and won a turnover as the Flags fell to the SaberCats in the Houston heat. Congratulations, Declan!

Victory Milestones

As mentioned just above, on Saturday the Houston SaberCats were able to hold of Old Glory DC for a comfortable victory at home, securing their second win in a row and staying atop the ferocious Western Conference. The SaberCats’ 48-27 victory over the Flags marks their 50th victory in MLR dating back to the league’s inaugural season in 2018, and claimed their 50th Try Bonus Point to boot! They hold an all-time regular season record of 50-0-53, and are 0-3 in the postseason. This makes them only the 4th team in MLR history to reach a half-century of victories in the competition. Congrats, ‘Cats!

The Houston SaberCats were not the only team to reach this marker during Round 11, however. The following day, the NOLA Gold recorded a big win over the Seattle Seawolves to claim their 50th MLR win, becoming the 5th team to reach the half-century of victories! The Gold have an all-time regular season record of 50-1-52 and are 0-1 in the postseason. In MLR’s All-Time Regular Season Standings, the Gold (274pts) sit just 9pts ahead of the SaberCats (265pts), both with 103 regular season games played.

Individual Scoring Milestones

Moving from team milestones to player achievements, starting with Tomas Aoake in San Diego. The Legion managed to snap their 4 game losing streak and retain the Cali Cup thanks in part to an Aoake score against Rugby FC LA over the weekend. This the 23rd try of Aoake’s MLR career, with all 23 having been scored for the Legion. The New Zealander’s 23rd tally and 5th of the 2025 season takes him ahead of team legend Nate Augspurger to become the San Diego Legion’s All-Time Top Try Scorer!

Although he had 4 tries in his debut MLR season in 2022, Aoake exploded in the Legion’s record-setting 2023 season, dotting down 11 times and running for 1,160m gained as San Diego finished as runners-up. These are still both career highs for Aoake. With 5 tries this year already to take him to T-12th all-time, how high can he get in 2025? Congratulations, Tomas!

Tomas Aoake becomes San Diego’s All-Time leading Try Scorer!

Moving from California over to the East Coast, the Miami Sharks’ dominant 31-5 victory over Anthem RC secured their 3rd victory in a row, setting a longest-ever win streak for the franchise! This victory was helped by the return of their talismanic Chilean international, Santiago Videla. As well as racking up just under 100m in meters made, Videla slotted 3 conversions and a penalty from the tee for 9pts in the game, taking his MLR total to 106. Scoring 100pts in Major League Rugby is an achievements in and of itself but with 106pts scored for the Sharks, Videla is the first player to pass 100pts scored for Miami! Congratulations, Santiago!

Heading to Texas, where the SaberCats recorded a runaway 48-27 victory over Old Glory DC, thanks in large part to a stellar performance from AJ Alatimu. The Samoan MLR veteran slotted 5 kicks from the tee (2pens, 3 cons) and added a try for 17pts in total from the man who sits 2nd All-Time in league scoring. This is the first time this season that a player has recorded over 15pts scored in a single game, setting a new 2025 record and surpassing the SEVEN players who have all scored 15pts in a game! With 6 weeks of action left in this regular season, will Alatimu’s season-high be beaten?

Alatimu sets new 2025 record with 17pt game for Houston

Miscellaneous Milestones!

Ending with a couple of tidbits from around the league that are worth mentioning and applauding, beginning with the Seattle Seawolves, who came close to a MLR record in their huge 19-60 road victory over Anthem RC in their first game of Round 11. The Seawolves ran riot in the Queen City, scoring 9 tries from 9 different players to equal the Toronto Arrows’ 9 different try scorers from a 31-64 victory over the Utah Warriors way back in 2019. This is T-2nd to only the Dallas Jackals, who scored 10 tries from 10 different scorers with a huge 28-68 road victory last season.

Now to a bit of history from the Chicago Hounds, who fielded their first pair of brothers in their clash with the Utah Warriors on Saturday. Mason Flesch started at lock while his younger brother Noah Flesch was at center for the match at Zion’s Bank Stadium and although they aren’t the first pair of brothers to start a MLR game together (The Suniula brothers come to mind for Seattle in the early years of the league, as well as the Kruse brothers for the Utah Warriors), they are the first pair of Canadian siblings to suit up together in a MLR starting 15. Congratulations to the Flesch brothers from Cobourg, Ontario!

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby via instagram

Wrapping Up

A bumper, 7-game Round 11 brought a bumper edition of Midweek Milestones this week, with all manner of appearance achievements, a new Legion try leader, 50th victories, and much more! With another midweek game to kick off Round 12, as well as a weekend full of MLR action, can we expect the same? You’ll have to check back in next week to find out!

Thank you for reading! If you like this series, please get in touch on social media and share this article to help highlight these achievements! If there’s anything that has been missed that you feel is worth mentioning, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB or James on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! NARDB also has a Youtube channel: NARStats!

Finally, If you’re looking to get your hands on some of the new Macron merch for 2025 or add to your jersey collection, visit shopmlr.com to get your hands on that new gear, and remember to use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off your order!