Tag: MLR2027

MLR Player Movement Summary: September 7th – October 25th, 2026

James Deeley

There’s no denying that it’s been a very slow Major League Rugby off-season for player movement so far. Aside from the now routine migration of players from North America’s top flight to New Zealand’s National Provincial Championship, fans haven’t really been given a great deal to talk about in terms of transfers. You would’ve been forgiven if you were expecting a flurry of activity immediately after the draft but it seems like teams are staying quiet on signing their new draftees for the time being.

The good news is that player contracts for MLR expired at the end of September, and with the vast majority of the league on 1yr contracts for the 2026 season that means that all 5 teams are going to have a lot of work to do over the next few weeks and months to build their rosters for 2027. While we wait for that news to come out, there are a few sparse moves to talk about.

Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Movement summary article, covering each and every signing around Major League Rugby during the 2026/27 Offseason. These summaries aim to keep fans engaged in MLR and keep a bit of attention on North American rugby while fans wait for the games to kick off in the spring. It’s also the only place that provides a recap of every MLR signing on a regular basis, providing fans with an easy way of keeping up to date with both their team and the competition in the run-up to the 2027 season!

Intra-League Moves

Fans have waited almost 2 months since the 2026 MLR College Draft and 4 months since the end of the 2026 season, but finally on 21st October the first confirmed signing for the 2027 MLR season was announced when the Seattle Seawolves confirmed the signing of former NFL Defensive Tackle and California Legion front row, Justus Tavai!

California native Tavai grew up playing football, playing at the University of Hawai’i and San Diego State before signing with the NFL’s New England Patriots as an undrafted free agent in 2023. He and his two older brothers, Jahlani and J.R. Tavai, have also featured in the NFL, with Jahlani representing the Patriots in the Super Bowl in 2025. After Justus was cut from the Patriots roster, he joined the American Raptors organisation in Colorado, specialising in converting crossover athletes to rugby. He earned a spot on the Raptors roster for their 2024 Super Rugby Americas season and following the SRA campaign, he joined Belmont Shore RFC back in California. Belmont Shore served as a feeder team to Rugby FC LA for the 2025 MLR season and, with RFCLA dealing with an injury crisis in the front row, Justus Tavai was signed to the MLR side in April.

Tavai would earn 4 appearances for RFCLA in his debut season, starting once and adding two tries for 12pts total to help the team qualify for the post season for the first time in their short history. Tavai didn’t feature as LA fell to the Houston SaberCats in the Western Conference Semi-final. Following the 2025 season, RFCLA merged with the San Diego Legion to form one team representing the whole of California, and Justus Tavai was re-signed to represent that team for their inaugural 2026 campaign. In his sophomore season in MLR, Tavai tripled his appearances from the season before, appearing as a reserve in all 12 of the California Legion’s games in 2026, including both their semi-final victory over the Seattle Seawolves, and the Championship Final where they fell to the Chicago Hounds. Tavai added a third career try last season, and set career highs in both metres gained (74m) and tackles made (43).

As mentioned, Justus Tavai is the first confirmed signing of the offseason not just for the Seattle Seawolves but for any MLR team ahead of the 2027 campaign. This makes it difficult to say where he might fit into the Seawolves lineup, but at 6’3 and over 290lbs Tavai has proven himself as a reliable front row reserve on a team that made it all the way to the Championship Final, and Seattle fans should be excited about that!

Departures

Even though this article only goes back as far as late September, there was a move all the way back on September 10th. The DHL Stormers of the URC and Currie Cup competitions announced their lineup for a pre-season clash with the Bulls. Nothing unusual there. However, starting at scrum-half for the Stormers was former SaberCats and Seawolves 9, Andre Warner.

The Saffa-heavy Houston SaberCats announced the addition of Andre Warner back in January 2024 ahead of that year’s campaign, and the Cape Town native deservedly earned All-MLR First XV honours for his performance in his debut MLR season, scoring 8 tries in 15 games (all starts) and completing just shy of 120 tackles. He returned for a second season with Houston in 2025, recording another 4 tries in 12 games as well as 5 try assists to help the ‘Cats earn their first MLR Championship appearance, falling to the New England Free Jacks in Rhode Island.

After scoring 12 tries in 27 games over 2 seasons with Houston, the SaberCats’ shock withdrawal from MLR meant that Warner had to find another team to represent. He headed from Texas up to Washington State to join the Seattle Seawolves, who had a healthy South African contingent of their own in 2026. Warner added another 4 tries in 11 games as a Seawolf, also contributing 8 try assists and 13 defenders beaten in a solid season in the PNW, helping Seattle to finish the regular season in 2nd place before falling to the California Legion in the Semifinals. He was named both Seawolves Players’ Player of the Year, and Coach’s Player of the Year for his performance in 2026. Over his 3 seasons in MLR, Warner scored 16 tries in 38 games, starting 37 times and recording 13 try assists and over 250 tackles made (as a scrum-half!).

A couple of weeks after Warner appeared in the Stormers lineup, the team announced that Andre Warner had joined the team on a 6-month loan from September 2026 – February 2027 as part of the partnership between the URC side and the Seattle Seawolves. This suggests that Warner will likely be returning to Seattle for the 2027 Major League Rugby season which could make for quite a crowded scrum-half position with JP Smith and Solomon Williams.

The month of October kicked off with another departure and it was a biggie. Old Glory DC fans may want to skip over this one. The Flags squeaked into the postseason in 2026 but were without their talismanic playmaker Jason Robertson, who had quite rightly returned to his native New Zealand to be with his partner for the birth of their child. Robertson then linked up with Bay of Plenty and joined the Steamers for the 2026 NPC, where he’d previously played between 2018-19. On 1st October, the Yakult Levins Toda of Division 3 of the Japanese Rugby League One announced that they had signed Robertson for their 2026/27 season!

Robertson was playing for the Bay of Plenty Steamers in the Mitre 10 (now the NPC) when his signing was first announced by Old Glory DC in November 2019, ahead of their inaugural 2020 campaign. Even though that season was cut short by COVID-19 after only 5 rounds, DC were sitting on a 4-1 record with Robertson leading the league in scoring on 67pts in just 5 games, and 3 Team of the Week selections to boot. He kept up this lethal scoring with the league returned in 2021, recording his first 100pt season with 108pts in 14 games to finish 3rd league wide, also racking up a career high of 908m gained and 92 tackles completed. With a full MLR season under his belt, Robertson then headed to France having recorded a huge 175pts in just 19 MLR games.

Following stints with RC Narbonne in the Pro D2 and Aviron Bayonnaise in the Top14 between 2022-2023, in September 2023 Old Glory DC announced that Jason Robertson would be returning to the club for the 2024 MLR campaign, and he picked up right where he left off. Robertson appeared in all 17 games for the Flags in 2024, starting 15 times and recording over 500m gained in possession and career highs of 129 tackles made (his first 100+ tackle season) and 138pts scored which remains a single-season Old Glory DC scoring record through 2026. Unfortunately for Robertson and DC, he suffered a season ending injury mid-way through the 2025 campaign, and was sidelined for the rest of the year but not after adding 54pts to his career total in just 7 games played. Robertson returned to fitness in time for 2026 and it was like he’d never been gone. He was selected for the Team of the Week five times and finished 4th in scoring with 88pts in 10 games and a career high 3 tries to take his MLR total to 10 before heading back to New Zealand. For his efforts in 2026, Robertson was named to the All-MLR First XV (his second All-MLR selection), named Old Glory DC Players’ Player of the Year, and was the inaugural recipient of the MLR Comeback Player of the Year Award.

All in all, Jason Robertson has proved a prolific points scorer as well as a first-class playmaker in Major League Rugby. He finished the 2026 season with 455pts scored in his 53 game career with Old Glory DC, making him one of only 6 players to score over 400pts in MLR where he sits as the league’s 4th highest scorer. Robertson now takes his many talents to Division 3 of the JRLO, which runs from December 2026 to late May 2027 so rules him out of almost the entirety of MLR’s 2027 season. Congratulations, Jason! You will be missed in MLR and in DC especially!

For the Flags, following Simon Cross’ move to Director of Rugby Development and Player Pathways, they recently appointed Agustin ‘Cuca’ Cavalieri as their Head Coach, formerly of Anthem RC. Could Old Glory DC bring in a certain USA Eagles Fly-Half who played under Cavalieri for the Rising Stars in 2026? We shall see.

Typical for the 2026/27 MLR offseason so far where we have been drip-fed news and signings, the next departure wasn’t until a few weeks after news of Robertson’s move to Japan broke. On 14th October KHAOS Sport, the agency that represents Chicago Hounds back row and test capped Canadian Matt Oworu, announced that Oworu had signed with Biarritz Olympique in the French 2nd tier, the Pro D2.

Born in Canada, Oworu was raised between Canada and Zimbabwe, where he began playing rugby and represented both the Zimbabwe U18 & U20 sides, captaining the former at the famous Craven Week. He returned to Canada for University and joined Canada’s High performance program, the Pacific Pride, before entering the Canadian Sevens system. Oworu made his debut for the Canada Sevens side in Vancouver in 2021, and has since played over 100 games across 25+ tournaments for the Canada Sevens team. His performance for the Sevens Squad soon got the attention of the Canadian Men’s XV side, and Oworu was included in the squad for Canada’s 2022 summer tests, where he earned his test debut off the bench in a 45-0 win over Belgium. He’s earned 17 test caps for Canada to date, with his most recent coming in November 2025.

After committing to the 15s game in 2024, Oworu signed with the Chicago Hounds ahead of their 2025 campaign. He earned 13 appearances in his debut season, starting 3 times and completing just under 100 tackles to help the Hounds qualify for the postseason, where they fell to the New England Free Jacks in heartbreaking fashion in the Eastern Conference Final. Oworu came off the bench in both of the Hounds’ playoff games that year, and returned for a second season in Chicago in 2026. Oworu’s 2nd season in MLR was interesting. His season was significantly impacted by injury which ruled him out of a large chunk of the campaign (as well as national team selection), managing only 3 appearances on the year. He had a huge impact in those 3 games, however. Oworu started all 3, earned a MLR Team of the Week selection in Round 5 where he recorded his first of two MLR tries, beating 12 defenders on 130m gained to equal his 2025 total in 10 fewer games. As well as an offensive threat, Oworu averaged over 14 tackles per game for 43 in his limited appearances in 2026, helping the Hounds to record MLR’s first ever perfect season and ending the year as a Champion.

Matt Oworu now takes his talents to France where he joins the likes of fellow Canadians and MLR Champions Andrew Quattrin and Cole Keith (both in the Nationale), as well as the likes of Tyler Ardron (Top14) and Evan Olmstead (also Pro D2). The Pro D2 has probably the longest season in pro rugby with a 30-round regular season followed by playoffs running until early June. Unfortunately for Hounds and Canadian MLR fans, this all but rules Matt Oworu out of returning for the 2027 season, but is an fantastic opportunity for a talented player. Congratulations, Matt!

Oworu wasn’t the only Canadian making the trip across the pond however. In fact, he wasn’t even the only Chicago Hounds player to do it recently. On 21st October, a week after Oworu’s representation announced that he had joined Biarritz in the Pro D2, the Newcastle Red Bulls announced that they had signed 2026 MLR Forward of the Year Mason Flesch until the end of the 2026/27 PREM Rugby campaign! With the English top flight running to at least early June (before playoffs), this rules him out of returning to MLR in 2027.

Flesch is one of a number of Canadians heading to the UK for the 2026/27 season following Rugby Canada’s partnership with the 2nd Tier CHAMP such as former Arrows teammates Spencer Jones and Shane O’Leary, but his move is not part of this agreement and he is the first Canadian to sign with a team in the top flight PREM in 7 years. The Cobourg, ON native developed at the Al Charron National Training Centre between 2019-2021 where he played with both the Rugby Canada Men’s Development Academy, and the Pacific Pride. Flesch also represented the Canada U20s at the Junior World Trophy in 2019. He first stepped into professional rugby with the Toronto Arrows during the 2021 MLR season, where he earned 7 starts in 10 games during a tough season that the Arrows spent entirely on the road (due to COVID-19 restrictions). His solid debut season got the attention of the national team and in September 2021, Mason Flesch earned his test debut for Canada (#478) in a 34-21 victory over the United States in St. Johns, NL. Flesch would represent Canada’s lone MLR franchise for 3 seasons between 2021 and 2023, when the Arrows ceased operations. He earned 27 appearances in total for Toronto, starting 22 times and enjoyed a breakout year in a another tough season for the Arrows in 2023, when he started all 14 of his appearances, made over 100 tackles, and gained over 400m in possession.

Following the demise of the Toronto Arrows organisation, Flesch was selected by the Chicago Hounds in the dispersal draft along with former Arrows Captain Lucas Rumball. He made an immediate impact in his first season with the Hounds in 2024, starting 13 of his 14 appearances during the regular season and scoring his first 3 MLR tries. He started both of the Hounds playoff games that year as they advanced to the Eastern Conference Final where they fell to the Free Jacks. Flesch finished his first year with the Hounds with career highs across the board, gaining over 500m in possession and completing over 130 tackles to earn a spot in the All-MLR Second XV. The big 6’5 forward continued to improve in 2025. Although he took a step back in metres gained, he doubled his try total from the season before, scoring 6 times in 13 games during the regular season to ensure the Hounds made the playoffs, where he once again started both of their postseason games, but where Chicago once again fell to the Free Jacks in the Eastern Conference Final, this time in heartbreaking fashion. Along with his 6 tries Flesch set a career high of 165 tackles made and was named to the MLR Team of the Week 3 times.

Mason Flesch has just continued to get better and better, as shown by his incredible 2026 season. A lethal ball runner and potent offensive weapon, Flesch scored 8 tries in 9 games as part of a formidable Chicago Hounds side that romped through the regular season. He would add another try in each of their playoff games, this time lifting the 2026 MLR Shield to cap off the league’s first perfect season, 12-0. Flesch finished the year with a ridiculous 10 tries in 11 games, scoring more tries in 2026 than he had in his 5 previous seasons combined! With 100+ tackles made for the 4th consecutive season to boot, Flesch hoovered up the awards. He was named Chicago Hounds Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year, earned his first All-MLR First XV Selection, and capped it off by being named MLR Forward of the Year for 2026.

Flesch has been a standout for club and country for a while. In the international game, Flesch has started every game for Canada in over a year and has earned 27 test caps to date including their most recent win over the USA in Japan, in which he scored a try. With Canadians now counted as international players in MLR, Flesch was one of a handful of Canucks that is good enough to warrant using a precious foreign player spot on, but it was becoming obvious that he was good enough to play in some of the top leagues in the world. The question was where he would end up, and now we have our answer! The Newcastle Red Bulls are looking to make a mark on the PREM this season, and hopefully Mason Flesch will be a key part in their success. At only 26, he has a lot of rugby left to play. Congratulations, Mason!

Wrapping Up

Given the whirlwind that was the 2025/26 MLR offseason, it seems hard to believe that MLR fans have gone roughly two whole months with only 5 moves to discuss but as mentioned in the intro, the 2026/27 offseason is proving very slow to get started on player movement. There have been a handful of test capped Canadians that have found contracts in England thanks to a partnership between the English 2nd Tier CHAMP Rugby and Rugby Canada, but these Canucks were not current MLR players in 2026 so haven’t been included in this article. Nevertheless, this is great news for fans of Canadian rugby and NARDB wishes them the very best of luck as roughly the same amount of Canadians that played in MLR in 2026 are now playing pro in England!

These Canadians looked farther afield than MLR for professional contracts in large part due to MLR’s reclassification of Canadians as international players as part of a shift towards a larger focus on US talent. This had a massive effect on the number of Canadians playing in MLR in 2026 and looks set to continue into 2027 as a pair of the Chicago Hounds’ Shield-Winning Canadians found spots overseas with Matt Oworu signing in Biarritz, and MLR Forward of the Year Mason Flesch joining the Newcastle Red Bulls in the PREM. Another international player, MLR’s 4th highest scorer Jason Roberston, heads to Japan so Old Glory DC will be without their talismanic playmaker next season. Robertson won’t be adding to his career total of 455pts scored for the Flags, at least not in 2027.

The rest of this articles news comes from the Seattle Seawolves. Fans will probably be relieved that Andre Warner’s move to the Stormers in the URC was confirmed as a 6-month loan as part of the agreement between the two sides. Warner’s likely return in 2027 gives newly drafted Seawolf Solomon Williams another mentor along with JP Smith. Seattle were also the first MLR team to start announcing their roster for the 2027 season with the addition of California Legion front row Justus Tavai, fresh off a Championship run! Fingers crossed that we’ll hear about a few more Seawolves signings in this coming week, as well.

Thank you as always for giving this article a read and making it all the way to the end! If you enjoyed it, please share it so other fans can stay informed of all the player movement around Major League Rugby. If there are any moves that were missed, please let us know by tagging us on social media or sending them our way directly. James and NARDB can be found on social media here:  @MLRStats on Instagram, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

Finally, if you’re looking to pick up some new rugby gear be sure to visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Movement Summary: August 10th – August 30th, 2026

James Deeley

The previous NARDB Player Movement article mentioned that moves might be few and far between, at least until after the 2026 MLR College Draft when teams start to sign their new draftees to deals for 2027. That certainly seems to have been the case, with signings of 2026 MLR names very sparse through the month of August. Of course, following the demise of Anthem RC after their World Rugby funding dried up, a 5-team competition is going to have less movement in general than previous off-seasons. Hopefully one day we’ll get back to double digit teams and 3/4 page Player Movement summaries but for now, we can spend more time on each of the few moves there have been so far this off-season.

Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Movement summary article, covering each and every signing to, from and within Major League Rugby during the 2026/27 Offseason. These summaries aim to keep fans engaged in MLR and keep a bit of attention on North America’s top rugby competition while fans wait for the games to get rolling again in the spring. It’s also the only place that provides a recap of every MLR signing on a regular basis, providing fans with an easy way of keeping up to date with their team in the run-up to the 2027 season.

Because of low volume, this Player Movement Summary covers every move over a 3-week period from August 10th to August 30th, but will not cover the Draft. All information on the 2026 MLR College Draft can be found here, and if/when teams officially sign their new draftees, they will be covered in future editions of this article series. As always, a summary graphic for all player moves covered in this article can be found below:

Short-Term Departures

As you may have noticed from it’s title, this article covers all moves from August 10th. However, the first sighting of this period wasn’t until the 18th when French club Oyonnax announced that they had signed Chicago Hounds tighthead prop Charlie Abel as a medical joker for the first chunk of the 2026/27 Pro D2 season.

The 34yo Australian is enjoying a career year. He earned four Team of the Week selections and scored 3 tries in 10 games (8 starts) for the Chicago Hounds in 2026, starting both of their playoff games to help the team to their first MLR Shield off the back of the first perfect season in MLR history. For his excellent 2026 season, Abel was named to the All-MLR First XV. Not long after, Abel was called up to the USA Eagles squad for the North American leg of the World Rugby Nations Cup where he earned his test debut as Eagle #604 in a victory over Spain.

Although new to test rugby, Charlie Abel definitely isn’t new to MLR. In fact, 2026 wasn’t even his first Shield! Abel first entered the competition with the LA Giltinis ahead of their inaugural season in 2021. He started 14 of his 16 appearances for the Giltinis, and was LA’s starting loosehead as they defeated Rugby ATL 31-17 in the Championship Game, claiming the Shield in their very first season. Abel would earn another 15 appearances (8 starts) for LA in 2022, before the team was disqualified prior to the post-season, and ultimately folded. As one door closed however, another opened. Abel was selected by the Chicago Hounds in the Expansion/Dispersal draft, and has played in green & white ever since.

Abel has been a stalwart of the Chicago team since their very first season, helping the expansion side through the rough early days to an unbeaten Championship. He’s earned over 50 appearances for the Hounds, and is sat on 85 total games in MLR with 59 starts and 11 tries scored, 7 of which have been for Chicago. He’s also gained over 1,500m in possession in his MLR career so far, and has racked up 732 tackles made, finishing with over 100 tackles in 5 of his 6 seasons. To relieve Hounds fans, Abel’s contract with Oyonnax does not rule him out a return to MLR for 2027. He’s playing in France due to an injury to regular prop Ali Oz, who is expected to be sidelined for several months with a hamstring injury. There’s plenty of time for Oz to recover and Abel to return to MLR for next season, but in the meantime it’s a great opportunity for a US-capped prop to stay sharp in what is probably the best 2nd tier competition in the world. Congratulations, Charlie!

Full Season Farewells

While Charlie Abel’s French adventure is a short term deal that does not rule him out from a return to MLR in 2027, there were a couple of departures that likely will make it tricky for players to play pro rugby in North American next year. On 21st August, newly promoted English Championship side Rotherham announced their starting line-up for a pre-season fixture with Oundle RFC. Included in the starting XV was a name familiar to Seattle Seawolves and Canada fans: Dewald Kotze. The South African born Alberta native was announced by the side the following day for their 2026/27 Championship campaign which runs from mid-September 2026 to the end of May, 2027.

Kotze has earned over a dozen test caps for Canada since his debut against Romania in 2024, with the most recent coming in Canada’s Nations Cup fixtures back in July. He entered MLR with the Dallas Jackals for their inaugural season in 2022, starting 3 of his 4 games in his debut season, before becoming an regular starter the following year. Over the next two seasons with the Jackals, Kotze started 26 of his 32 games to help turn the team from a 0-16 team in 2022 to playoff contenders in 2024. He scored 14 tries in total including a career high of 11 in 2024 when he finished level with NOLA’s Taniela Filimone as MLR’s 3rd highest try scorer that year. The bulk of these 11 tries came in one game against the Seattle Seawolves, where Kotze scored an incredible FIVE tries, which remains an MLR record.

Although the Seawolves scraped a victory in that game, Kotze clearly impressed them. After the Dallas Jackals withdrew from the competition, Seattle picked him up and he played with the Seawolves for a further two seasons. Kotze would start 15 of his 26 games for the Seawolves, scoring an additional 5 tries to take his career total to 19 tries in 62 games (44 starts). He passed 500 career tackles in MLR during the 2026 season, averaging 9 tackles per game across his career which rose to 12 per game this season. Kotze has recorded over 100 tackles in 5 of his 6 MLR seasons, and gained over 600m in possession. Now that Canadian players are no longer considered domestic in MLR, it’s possible that Kotze traded in some uncertainty for a full season contract in England, and Canadian fans should be happy to see a regular international getting the opportunity across the pond. He links up with former New England Free Jacks scrum-half and 2x MLR Champion Cam Kelemeti with the Titans. Very best of luck, Dewy!

A few days after Rotherham announced the signing of Dewald Kotze, the announcement came that another MLR-er would be heading to Yorkshire. On 26th August, fellow Yorkshire based CHAMP rugby side the Doncaster Knights announced that they had signed former MLR draftee and 2026 Old Glory DC Young Player of the Year Aidan King for their 2026/27 campaign! The US-born Australian raised back row heads to the UK after a pair of solid seasons in Major League Rugby.

Having grown up playing rugby in Queensland, Aidan King headed back to the US for school, enrolling at Penn State. Upon his graduation, he declared for the 2024 MLR College Draft and was selected in the 1st Round, 6th overall by the NOLA Gold, and was included on their MLR roster ahead of the 2025 season. Aidan King could’ve easily been named the MLR Rookie of the Year for his performance during hid debut season. In a tough year for the Gold, he was a standout. King appeared in 14 of NOLA’s 16 games in 2025, starting 9 times and averaging 11.8 tackles per game for a total of 166 on the season, also adding his first pro try and over 100m gained in possession. Unfortunately this was his only season in New Orleans, as the team withdrew from MLR in the offseason, adn King headed northeast to join Old Glory DC for 2026.

In his sophomore season, King kept up his reputation as a reliable tackler, holding his own against other DC tackle machines Ben Bonasso and Cory Daniel, recording 113 tackles in 9 games, starting all 9. This actually took his tackle per game average over 12, sitting on a huge 279 in just 23 games (18 starts). His ball carrying also improved, passing 200m gained on the season for an average of 23 per game and beating 13 defenders, he was named as the Old Glory DC Young Player of the Year for his efforts. King now joins up with fellow MLR alum Ben Sugars at the Knights where US fans should keep a keen eye on his minutes, even if it’s unlikely that he’ll return to MLR for 2027. Congratulations Aidan, and best of luck in the Championship!

Sandwiching those two moves to the Championship was the announcement from Red Hurricanes Osaka on the other side of the world, who announced that they had signed Anthem RC lock Will Sherman for the Japan Rugby League One D2 season! The Utahn lock was a standout at UCLA, where he was named Collegiate All-American as well as both UCLA Players’ Player and Forward of the Year before a busy summer where he toured South America with the USA U23s, and declared for the 2025 MLR College Draft before heading down to Sydney to play with Randwick in the Shute Shield. In that draft, he was selected 1st overall by Anthem RC, becoming the 2nd UCLA Bruin to be drafted 1st overall after Eric Naposki in 2021.

Unsurprisingly, after going 1st overall Will Sherman was signed to the Anthem RC MLR squad for the 2026 season where he appeared in all 10 games for the rising stars, starting 6 times. He started in Anthem’s first game of the season against the California Legion, completing 19 tackles to help the team record their first ever victory, and scored his lone MLR try off the bench during their second (and unfortunately, final) victory of the year over the Seattle Seawolves a few weeks later. Although this was only his first season of pro rugby, Sherman’s performance was good enough to earn him a contract overseas in a league that boasts the likes of former MLR standouts Reece MacDonald, Dylan Nel, and Frank Lochore.

With Anthem no longer operating after the 3 years of funding from World Rugby expired at the end of the 2026 season, the entire Rising Stars roster is looking for playing opportunities for next season. Sherman has found that opportunity all the way in Japan. Although the JRLO has a tendency to bury international players to limited minutes, Sherman is the first #1 pick in MLR history to play overseas instead of in MLR, with the JRLO D2 season running from December 2026 to May 2027. Just like Dewald Kotze, this doesn’t leave a lot of time for Sherman to return to MLR for the business end of the 2027 season, but it’s a possibility. US fans may be disappointed not to see Sherman in MLR next season, but should be happy that a homegrown talent has earned a contract overseas. Congratulations, Will!

It appears that Will Sherman isn’t the only big MLR forward headed to Japan. On 22nd August, the Tokyo Gas Blue Flames in Division 1 of Japan’s Top East League posted their matchday squad for a pre-season clash with the Daigas Struggers. Included in the reserves for that match was New England Free Jacks lock and test capped Canadian Piers von Dadelszen, who earned his team debut a week later against the AZ-COM Maruwa Momotaro’s.

The BC native earned his test debut for Canada in 2022 while he was attending the University of Oxford in the UK, and was signed by the Free Jacks in late 2023 ahead of the 2024 MLR season. Von Dadelszen was a regular in the New England lineup in his debut season, earning 17 appearances starting 11 times that year. He added two tries and gained just shy of 250m in possession, completing over 120 tackles on defence to help the Free Jacks lift their 2nd Shield in a row in 2024. For his efforts that season, he was named the 2024 Free Jacks Rookie of the Year. Von Dadelszen returned for a second season with the Free Jacks in 2025 and remained a high impact player for the defending champions. He started 15 of his 16 games that year and completed a career high 145 tackles as he helped New England to lift their 3rd successive MLR Shield. The 2nd in as many seasons for Piers von Dadelszen.

Piers von Dadelszen was one of the few Canadians to return to the Free Jacks for 2026, as MLR removed the domestic status from Canadian players which drastically reduced the number of Canucks in the league, and forcing New England to pivot away from their Canadian core. As a result, the 2026 season was tough for the team. they missed out on the playoffs with a 3-7 record, finishing 5th. Nevertheless, von Dadelszen continued to be a regular in the Free Jacks squad, starting all 8 of his appearances. For the 3rd season in a row, he recorded over 100 tackles made, averaging an impressive 14.3 tackles per game with 114 in his 8 matches.

Internationally, Piers von Dadelszen started every single game for Canada in 2025 as well as the first two matches of their Nations Cup campaign in 2026. In fact, Canada’s victory over Zimbabwe in their final test of the July series was the first game that didn’t feature von Dadelszen in the lineup since their clash with Romania in November 2024. Unlike other moves in this article, von Dadelszen’s move to Japan doesn’t rule him out of returning to MLR for the 2027 season. The Japanese Top East League regular season runs from September to December, with the playoffs (the National Amateur Championship) running from December to late January. With MLR likely to start in March 2027, he has plenty of time to return to Quincy, should he re-sign at all. As a final point, he isn’t the only MLR name on the Blue Flames roster. He’ll link up with former San Diego Legion man Rhian Stowers, as well as former Toronto Arrows and Houston SaberCats centre, Tautalatasi Tasi. Best of luck, Piers!

Wrapping Up

It’s been another quiet 3 weeks in terms of player moves. Only 5 moves were confirmed, all from MLR to elsewhere in the world with only a couple of these allowing for a return to MLR for the 2027 season. Obviously, the big moves into MLR during this period was the 2026 College Draft, however until the 5 remaining MLR teams confirm that they have signed their new draftees for the 2027 season, they won’t be covered in these Player Movement articles. NARDB has all the details of the 2026 MLR College draft on a dedicated page which can be found here.

Thank you as awalys for giving this article a read and making it all the way to the end! If you enjoyed it, please share it so other fans can stay informed of all the player movement around MLR so far! If there are any moves that were missed, please let us know by tagging us on social media or sending them our way directly. James and NARDB can be found on social media here:  @MLRStats on Instagram, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

Finally, if you’re looking to pick up some new rugby gear be sure to visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!