Tag: New England Free Jacks

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

James Deeley

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

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

Appearance Achievements

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

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

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

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

Hounds complete Perfect (Regular) Season!

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

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

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

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

Scoring Stats

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Newest Member of the 1000 Tackle Club!

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

Scorigami Check

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

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

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

Wrapping Up

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

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

You can find NARDB/James on social media here: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Finally, if you’re looking to pick up some new gear, visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

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

James Deeley

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

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

Appearance Achievements

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carty sets single season record!

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

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

Scoring Stats

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

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

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

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

Player Milestones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scorigami Check

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

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

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

Wrapping Up

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

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

You can find NARDB/James on social media here: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Finally, if you’re looking to pick up some new gear, visit rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 7 of the 2026 MLR Season!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

The second half of the 2026 Major League Rugby season is underway and every try, every bonus point, and every win is absolutely vital! Every team now has 4 games remaining, but 6 teams into 4 playoff spots doesn’t go and nobody wants to miss out. It’s going to be carnage!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, the weekly article that gets into the numbers from the latest round of MLR action and pulls out the extreme, the unusual, and the standout stats! Round 7 is back to a full compliment of 3 games over the weekend, throwing up plenty of numbers for us to get into and as is tradition, we start with the appearance achievements!

Appearance Achievements

On Sunday, a 3rd member of MLR’s 2022 Collegiate Draft Class reached a half-century of appearances in the competition. Canadian prop Cali Martinez has developed into a regular front row starter for Old Glory DC and made his 50th appearance for the Flags in Round 7, joining teammate Collin Grosse and 1st overall pick Sam Golla in the half-century club!

Drafted out of the University of British Columbia after playing with the Thunderbirds, Martinez was the highest drafted Canadian in MLR history when he was selected 3rd overall by Old Glory DC in 2022 (Since surpassed by Neil Trainor in 2024). Along with Grosse & Golla, test capped Canadian Cali Martinez joins Conner Mooneyham (2020) and Emmanuel Albert (2021) as the 5th draftee in MLR history to reach a half-century of appearances in the competition! Martinez has gone from starting 1 game in 12 in his debut season, to 4 starts in 16 games in 2024, then 8 in 17 last season and 4 in 5 so far this year. He is earning more meaningful minutes each year and at just 29, Martinez is only just entering his prime as a front row. Congratulations, Cali!

Lining up opposite Martinez and Old Glory DC on Sunday were the Seattle Seawolves, who had a second player reaching their 100th Major League Rugby appearance, both of their career and for the Seawolves: Long time Captain Riekert Hattingh became the 6th player in league history to reach 100 caps, dating back to MLR’s inaugural season back in 2018! Hattingh has started every single one of his 100 games for Seattle, becoming the 3rd player to reach 100 starts in the competition, and joins Angus MacLellan (Utah), Moni Tonga’uiha (NOLA), and Seawolves teammate JP Smith as the only players to have earned 100 appearances with a single MLR team!

As if earning 100 starts in 100 games wasn’t an impressive enough achievement for 2x MLR Champion Hattingh, he’s currently MLR’s 2nd highest try scorer with 48 scores and 250pts scored, and is also 2nd all-time for metres gained with over 5,750m gained in possession behind only JP du Plessis on 6,234m. On his 100th Seawolves cap, Hattingh also became the 4th player in MLR history to pass 1,000 tackles made in the competition following Lucas Rumball, Dylan Fawsitt, and Johan Momsen! It doesn’t take too much math to figure out that Riekert Hattingh has averaged just over 10 tackles per game for 100 games across 9 seasons. Hattingh is a true MLR great and is very deserving of his double-milestone game, and it’s a bonus that the Seawolves were able to secure the win on the road. Congratulations, Riekert!

Team Milestones

The second half of the 2026 MLR season means that teams are coming up against opponents that they have already faced this year with the chance to sweep the regular season series on the line, and the Seattle Seawolves – complete with new Centurion Hattingh – recorded the first sweep of the season over Old Glory DC. These sides have met 7 times in total, but the Seawolves have only been the home team in this match up twice. The Seawolves and Flags previously met in Rd 2 where Seattle took a 33-16 victory in front of a home crowd and despite a 3-game skid after this, the Seawolves just seem to have DC’s number this year with a 25-30 victory at George Mason University. The conbines score for this Seattle Seawolves v Old Glory DC series is 63-41 in favour of Seattle, who pick up the maximum 10pts compared to DC’s 1.

The Chicago Hounds would (somewhat unsurprisingly) record their first sweep of 2026 shortly after Seattle on Sunday Night Rugby. Anthem RC remain the only team so far this season that have managed to keep the Hounds under 40pts scored after their 19-33 clash in Rd 2, and despite scoring 6 tries and 36pts in their trip to Seatgeek Stadium, it wasn’t enough to overcome the monster that is the 2026 Chicago Hounds. The home side raced out to a 9-try, 61-36 victory to bag the full 10pts from their series against the Rising Stars, 94-55 the combined score.

This huge win for the Chicago Hounds set a whole handful of records. After tying their franchise best 59pts scored earlier this season, the Hounds set a new franchise record for points scored, passing 60 for the first time. The combined score of 97pts was the highest scoring game ever for both the Hounds and Anthem RC, and is tied for the 4th highest scoring game in MLR history! The Hounds extend their run with The Old Mate to 5 games, and equal their longest ever win streak at 6 games. Will they set yet another franchise record next week?

Over in New England, the new-look Free Jacks have been struggling to get their season going so far but, after a franchise worst defeat at the hands of the California Legion back in Rd 2, the defending champions rallied in front of a home crowd to squeak a 26-21 victory in their second meeting with the Legion, thanks in part to the four yellow cards handed out to California. This game marked the 100th MLR game in franchise history for the Free Jacks, and their 91st regular season game all time!

The Free Jacks are the 6th franchise in MLR history to reach 100 games played (regular season + playoffs) and the first non-founding member to reach this milestone! Of the 6 teams to have reached 100 games played in Major League Rugby (Seattle, San Diego, Houston, Utah, NOLA, and now New England), the Free Jacks are only the 2nd team to play their 100th game in front of a home crowd and only the 3rd team of those 6 to record a victory in their 100th game, marking their 70th win as a franchise. Congratulations, Free Jacks!

Player Milestones

There is no doubt that rugby is a team game, but that doesn’t mean that individuals shouldn’t be congratulated for their achievements! The appearance achievements were already covered at the start of this Midweek Milestones article, so let’s get into some of the other individual achievements from Round 7, sticking with the New England Free Jacks to start us off!

As mentioned above, the defending champions earned their 70th win as a franchise in their 100th game on Sunday against the California Legion, but earning that win required an enormous defensive effort. In total, the Free Jacks completed a mammoth 226 tackles last weekend, easily the highest team total of Round 7. The starting back row led that effort with a combined SIXTY tackles, including 26 from returning Captain Joe Johnston (the Round Leader for this week), and 23 from former Maori All Black Jacob Norris. These 23 tackles took Norris’ 2026 tackle count to 105, becoming the first player this season to pass 100 tackles made, averaging a ridiculous 17.5 tackles per game and actually equalling his metres gained so far this season. Congratulations, Jacob!

On the topic of some bonkers numbers, the Chicago Hounds didn’t just set team records in their big win against Anthem. For the 2nd time this season, Brock Webster was named Player of the Week in Round 7 (technically the 2nd week in a row because there was no PotW in Round 6…) for another explosive performance! Webster set a new 2026 high with a whopping thirteen defenders beaten. To put that in perspective, the entire Free Jacks 23 recorded 12 defenders beaten. The previous 2026 season high of 11 was set by Ed Timpson back in Rd 1, which is still impressive considering he started on the bench!

If it wasn’t for the Player of the Week selection however, Webster’s performance may have been overshadowed by another of the Chicago Hounds back three, 2025 MLR Rookie of the Year Peyton Wall! The Indiana native and MLR Draftee dotted down for a try of his own and recorded an impressive 8 defenders beaten, but that’s not the highlight. That comes when you look at the metres made. Peyton Wall recorded an incredible 191m made which, when you add in the 20 post-contact metres, is a new 2026 high of 211m made. This smashes the previous season high of 165m set by Ryan James for the California Legion back in Round 2, and is the first time that a player has recorded over 200m in a game since Jade Stighling logged 229m gained for the Seattle Seawolves in Round 17 of last season. Congratulations, Peyton!

Wrapping Up

Round 7 of the 2026 Major League Rugby season gave us a pair of appearance achievements, a bundle of team milestones, and a handful of individual milestones! With the competition only getting more intense, here’s hoping that Round 8 will throw up just as many standout stats for us to cover in next week’s edition of Midweek Milestones!

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Midweek Milestones! Please feel free to let me know what you thought of this article on social media, or let me know about a milestone that I may have missed!

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

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

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

Appearance Achievements – Duncan Matthews

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

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

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

O’Keeffe passes 5k!

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

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

Hounds’ Hat Trick Hero!

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

The Chicago Hounds’ New Top Scorer!

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

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

Team Stats

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

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

Tackle Milestones

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

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

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

Wrapping Up

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

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Midweek Milestones! I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I enjoy writing them, and find them interesting and engaging. Please feel free to let me know what you thought of this article on social media, or if you’ve found a milestone that I may have missed!

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MLR Player Moves Summary: March 2nd, 2026 – March 15th, 2026

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

Welcome to the final NARDB Player Moves Summary of the 2025/26 off-season! Over the last 6 months, this series has aimed to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season. This final article follows the same pattern as the last few weeks, but unlike the usual 1-week timeframe this edition covers a couple of weeks to account for the drop in Player Moves as squads report to camp. The summary graphic for Player Moves announced between March 2nd and March 15th is below, followed by the intra-league moves.

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

Intra-League Signings

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Additions

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

Draftees turning Pro

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

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

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

Departures

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

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

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

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

Wrapping Up

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

Thank you, as always, for tuning in to these Player Moves articles throughout the off-season! Even if there are a few last minute surprise Player Moves, these will be covered individually on socials rather than in a weekly summary. Regular articles on NARDB will now shift from Player Moves to Midweek Milestones during the season in addition to a few additional articles through the season. If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site in general, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

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

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

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

There’s been an increase in Player Moves from around the league compared to the last few weeks which means there’s plenty of news to talk about: Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Moves Summary series! These weekly articles aim to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season. As always, let’s start with the summary graphic for Player Moves announced between January 12th and January 18th, 2026, followed by the re-signings section:

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

Re-signings

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

@seawolvesrugby via Instagram

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

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

Intra-League Signings

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

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

@chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

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

New Additions

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

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

@legion.rugby on Instagram

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

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

Departures

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

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

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

@rugbycanada via Instagram

Retirements

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

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

@devinshort_ via Instagram

Wrapping Up

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

Thank you very much for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! As mentioned, it seems like things are picking up again on the Player Moves front so be sure to come back next Monday to find out more about all of this week’s news. If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Thread, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

Finally, if you’re looking to jump into the January sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com OR rugbynow.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

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

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

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

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

Re-Signings

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

@chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

Intra-League Signings

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

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

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

@chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

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

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

@seawolvesrugby via Instagram

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

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

New Faces

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

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

@nefreejacks via Instagram

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

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

Departures

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

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

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

@capibaras_xv via Instagram

Wrapping Up

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

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

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

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

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

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

Re-Signings

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

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

Via @chicagohoundsrugby on Instagram

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

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

Intra-League Moves

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

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

Source: @anthemrugby via Instagram

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

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

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

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

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

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

@anthemrugby via Instagram

Draftees Turning Pro

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

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

Source: @nefreejacks via Instagram

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

Departures

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

@nec_gr_official via Instagram

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

Wrapping Up

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

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

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

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

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

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

Re-Signings

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

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

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

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

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

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

Source: @anthemrugby via Instagram

Intra-League Signings

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

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

Source: @nefreejacks via Instagram

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

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

Source: @oldglorydc via Instagram

New Additions

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

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

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

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

Departures

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

Source: @rcnarbonnais via Instagram

Missed Moves & Retirements

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

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

Source: @watergush_official via Instagram

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

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

Wrapping Up

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

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

MLR Player Moves Summary: December 1 – December 7, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

December has arrived and the 6 remaining Major League Rugby teams are getting deep into their Christmas shopping ahead of the 2026 season. The schedule for next year’s campaign has been made public, it’s just over 100 days until MLR rugby returns! Between re-signing known quantities, and picking up standouts from the fallen teams after what has been (and continues to be) a frenetic and defining off-season for the League.

Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Move Summary Article series! Every week, these articles aim to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season. This series only covers the players announced by the teams themselves, but that doesn’t mean that NARDB isn’t listening to any rumours that are out there. As always, the summary graphic for Player Moves between December 1st to 7th, 2025, followed by the re-signings section:

The 2-page Summary Graphic for all Player Moves around Major League Rugby last week: December 1-7, 2025

Re-Signings

On 2nd December, Old Glory DC announced the return of DMV native and West Point grad KoiKoi Nelligan for his 4th Major League Rugby season in 2026. The 26yo hooker was selected in the 3rd Round of the 2022 MLR Draft, 34th overall by the San Diego Legion, and was traded to his hometown Old Glory DC shortly afterwards in exchange for a pick that was eventually used to draft James Rivers 10th overall in 2023. Since moving to the Flags, Nelligan has scored 5 tries in 31 appearances, and set career highs across the board in 2025 when he started 5 of his 16 games, scoring 3 tries and recorded 127m gained in possession and 114 tackles completed, more than doubling his career total in both categories and earning a pair of Team of the Week selections for his efforts last season. Nelligan is the first hooker announced by Old Glory DC for their 2026 campaign, and only the 2nd front row player after Bart Vermeulen.

A couple of days later, Old Glory DC also announced the return of Californian lock and MLR draftee Bill Whiteside for his 3rd season with the team in 2026. The Lindenwood alum declared for the 2022 MLR Draft and was selected in the 3rd Round, 29th Overall by New York and spent the 2023 season with the Ironworkers but did not feature at MLR level. Following the Ironworkers’ withdrawal from Major League Rugby in November 2023, Bill Whiteside was named in the Old Glory DC ‘greater training squad’ ahead of the 2024 season, where he earned his pro debut for the Flags. He earned 12 appearances (4 starts) for Old Glory that year, gaining just shy of 50m in possession and completing 58 tackles. Whiteside returned for the 2025 season, matching his 4 starts from the season before in 1 additional appearance to take him to 25 in his career. He also completed a career high 64 tackles to help the Flags qualify for their 3rd straight postseason. Bill Whiteside will join the likes of Tevita Naqali and 2023 1st overall pick Rick Rose in the Old Glory DC second row in 2026.

Kicking off the week in the PNW came the announcement that the Seattle Seawolves had re-signed Major League Rugby veteran scrumhalf JP Smith for his 8th season with Seattle in 2026. Since entering MLR ahead of the 2019 season, Smith has earned a plethora of achievements: A MLR Champion and Finals MVP in 2019, 2x Runner-up in 2022 & 2024, 3x All-MLR Selection including a 1st XV nod in 2022, and an 2024 MLR Ironman (appeared in every game) to just kick things off. Smith is one of only 4 players to earn over 100 appearances in Major League Rugby, and is currently tied for 2nd with former Utah Warrior Angus MacLellan on 106. He was the first player in League history to reach 100 appearances with a single club (closely followed by MacLellan) and has the 2nd most starts in League history with 96, behind Dylan Fawsitt on 101. The Seawolves stalwart has recorded over 1,700m gained in possession and has completed 711 tackles, more than any scrumhalf in League history (4th among backs, behind 3 centres)! Internationally, the South African earned his test debut for the USA (for whom he is eligible on residency) as Eagle #572 in July 2024 against Romania in Chicago, and has earned 9 caps for the Eagles since. JP Smith is the only scrumhalf announced for the Seattle Seawolves so far but with buckets of League and test experience, will be an invaluable addition right in the middle of things for the Seawolves.

Source: @seawolvesrugby via Instagram

On 3rd December, the New England Free Jacks announced a pair of returning halfbacks for their 2026 title defence. The Free Jacks confirmed the return of US-eligible scrumhalf Oscar Lennon for his 3rd season, having scored 3 tries and 33pts across 21 games since 2024, including a pair of tries and 28pts total in 16 games in 2025 alone. He set career highs with 215m gained and 60 tackles completed to more than triple his career totals in both categories. A 2x Champion, Lennon will be part of a scrum-half tandem with Ethan McVeigh and may enjoy a jump in game time now that long time Free Jacks scrumhalf John Poland has moved on. Announced alongside Oscar Lennon was Boston born Harrison Boyle who is returning for a 4th MLR season in 2026. Capable of playing fly-half or fullback, Boyle first played with the Free Jacks between 2021-2022 before returning to New Zealand to complete his education. He has started 24 of his 41 MLR appearances for New England across 3 seasons, scoring 3 tries including a pair in 2025 where he recorded a career high 315m gained to help the Free Jacks secure their 3rd successive MLR Shield, the first of Boyle’s career. With Joel Hodgson signed at fly-half and Mitch Wilson returning as likely fullback, Boyle is likely to serve as a very capable back-up both those positions in 2026.

Intra-League Signings

The Seattle Seawolves kicked off their Player Moves for last week with the announcement that they had added capped USA Eagle Paddy Ryan for their 2026 campaign. Born and raised in County Kildare in Ireland, Ryan earned his international debut for the USA as Eagle #560 in 2023 while playing in the English Championship for Coventry, having previously played for the Bedford Blues as well as Prem side Northampton, with whom he won the Premiership Rugby Cup in 2019. Ryan entered MLR with the San Diego Legion late in the 2024 season, and represented the Legion through the 2025 campaign, earning 15 appearances (6 starts) and completed over 100 tackles in 2025 alone, averaging 13.5 tackles in his 8 appearances during an injury-hit season. With San Diego merging with RFCLA to form the California Legion, Paddy Ryan became a free agent and it’s the Seattle Seawolves who won the sweepstakes to sign him. Interesting tidbit, he is the 3rd ‘Paddy Ryan’ to have played in Major League Rugby, and all 3 have played for the San Diego Legion at some point in their careers.

Shortly after the Seattle Seawolves got the ball rolling, Anthem RC jumped in with a new acquisition of their own: Julian Roberts. A Life University graduate in 2023, Roberts declared for that year’s MLR Draft and was selected 6th overall by the NOLA Gold, where he played from 2024-2025. He was named as NOLA Gold’s Rookie of the Year for 2024, scoring 2 tries in 11 games (4 starts) and racking up over 350m gained in possession. Despite the Gold’s struggles the following year, Roberts enjoyed a breakout season. He started all 10 of his appearances, scoring 4 tries and gained more than double the metres of his rookie season, up to 740m while also doubling his tackle count from 18 to 36 in 1 fewer appearance (albeit far more minutes). He also earned a MLR Team of the Week selection for his performance in Round 9. This is a good move for Anthem RC, who now have the likes of Conner Mooneyham, Malacchi Esdale, and Julian Roberts in the back three. Two of which are already capped USA Eagles and if his performances keep improving, 25yo Julian Roberts may well earn a cap of his own.

Roberts wasn’t the only former-NOLA player heading to Charlotte. On 3rd December Anthem RC announced the addition of former Gold Captain, Major League Rugby veteran and capped USA Eagle Moni Tonga’uiha for their 2026 season. An MLR original, Tonga’uiha is one of only 4 players to have passed 100 games in the competition, earning all 102 of his appearances with the NOLA Gold between 2018-2025. He has scored 16 tries to date including a career high of 5 in 14 games in 2025, when he also recorded over 120 tackles completed for the 5th successive season. This pushed Tonga’uiha’s career tackle total over 900, and he is currently sat 7th all-time with 911. This goes along with the 2nd most metres gained of any forward in League history, 4,317m. With the likes of Makeen Alikhan, Sam Golla, and Johan Momsen already signed to the Anthem RC back row, there is going to be a lot of competition – and power – at the back of the Anthem scrum in 2026!

Source: @anthemrugby via Instagram

Anthem RC weren’t quite finished there, however. On 5th December they announced the signing of 28yo Tennesseean prop Oli Kane to add to their 2026 pack. Kane attended the University of San Diego and declared for the 2022 MLR Draft where he was selected in the 2nd Round, 21st Overall, by the San Diego Legion. He earned his Pro debut in the final round of the 2023 regular season against the Seattle Seawolves, and earned 13 appearances for the Legion in total including 9 in 2025 alone, and will be hoping to make his first professional start for the Rising Stars in 2026. Kane joins capped USA Eagles props Payton Telea-Ilalio and Alex Maughan at Anthem RC, with likely a few more props yet to be announced.

Over to Chicago where the Hounds announced they they had added another big addition to their stacked roster for 2026: 2025 Championship MVP Brock Webster! The Ontario native has been capped for Canada at both 7s and 15s level, and started his MLR journey with the Toronto Arrows back in 2022, earning 5 appearances before joining the Canadian Sevens program. Webster returned to MLR with the New England Free Jacks in 2025, scoring 2 tries and 20pts in total in 16 games (15 starts) during 2025. He was a menace in the 2025 Championship Final, tearing up the Houston SaberCats defence to assist on two of New England’s tries en route to their 3rd successive Shield, the first of Brock Webster’s career. Webster was deservingly named Man of the Match for the Final, capping off his stellar 2025 season with an All-MLR Honorable Mention. Following a dramatic change in Major League Rugby and a shift in the League’s attitude towards Canadian players, Webster becomes the 3rd Canadian signed for the Chicago Hounds, joining fellow test capped Ontario natives Mason Flesch, and Hounds & Canada Captain Lucas Rumball in the Windy City.

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

To round out last week’s intra-league signings, on Sunday evening Old Glory DC announced the addition of test capped Eagles prop and MLR veteran Paul Mullen for the 2026 season. Born and raised on the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland, Mullen represented Munster age grade sides as well as the Ireland U19s before moving to Texas in 2011, studying at Texas A&M University. When professional rugby returned to Texas in 2018, Mullen signed with the Houston SaberCats and earned 7 starts in 10 games for the ‘Cats between 2018-2019, also earning his test debut for the USA as Eagle #525 in 2018. Mullen had a short stint with the San Diego Legion in 2020, starting (and winning) all 5 games before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When Major League Rugby returned in 2021, Mullen had joined the Utah Warriors, playing there between 2021-2024 and earning 57 appearance (37 starts) and recording his first 100+ tackle season in 2023. Last season Mullen played with the NOLA Gold, appearing in all 16 games in New Orleans, starting 11 times and completing a career high 115 tackles to take his career total well over 500. In total, Mullen sits on 60 starts in 88 MLR games, with 541 tackles completed and 793m gained, as well as 39 appearances for the Eagles. Paul Mullen will join the likes of Cali Martinez and fellow NOLA Gold refugee Bart Vermeulen in the Old Glory DC front row, and his level of experience will prove invaluable during the 2026 campaign. Old Glory DC will be the 5th MLR team that Mullen has represented.

Departures

On 2nd December 2025, French side Nissa Rugby in the Nationale (3rd Tier) announced the signing of former NOLA Gold Captain and test capped Samoan back row Jonah Mau’u for their 2025/26 season. Born in Australia and raised in New Zealand to a Samoan father and Croatian mother, Mau’u entered Major League Rugby ahead of the 2024 season, signing with the NOLA Gold. He made an immediate impact, scoring 6 tries in 12 games (all starts) and gaining over 800m in possession while completing 134 tackles in defence. Mau’u was named 2024 NOLA Gold Forward of the Year for his efforts. He returned for the 2025 season where he served as NOLA Gold Captain and was a rare bright spot in a forgettable season for the team. He scored a further 8 tries in 15 games (14 starts) and set a career high with over 180 tackles completed. Jonah Mau’u was the only Gold player that earned an All-MLR selection during the 2025 season, and finished his MLR career with 14 tries in 27 games (26 starts), gaining just under 1,500m in possession and completing 315 tackles. With the NOLA Gold withdrawing from the competition and only 6 teams competing in 2026 and spots for international players very hard to come by, it’s unfortunate that a player of Jonah Mau’u’s calibre could not find a home in MLR for next season. Regardless, we wish him the very best of luck in France!

Source: @nissarugby via Instagram

Also headed overseas is 2023 MLR Draftee James Rivers, who signed with Hong Kong Scottish for their 2025/26 Hong Kong Premiership season. Born in England, Rivers moved to Hong Kong with his family during High School and has represented their U20 side before moving to the US to attend the University of Arizona, earning 2 MVP nods while there and captaining the Wildcats rugby side in his senior year. Rivers declared for the 2023 MLR Draft and was selected 12th overall by the San Diego Legion before being loaned to Anthem RC for the 2024 MLR season. Rivers started 11 of his 13 games for the Rising Stars that year, gaining over 150m in possession and completing 132 tackles, before returning to the San Diego Legion for their 2025 season. He earned a further 3 appearances for San Diego that season, but following their merger with Rugby FC LA to create the California Legion, he became a free agent. With Hong Kong qualifying for their first ever Rugby World Cup in 2027, and as a former U20 player, it’s very possible that James Rivers is headed back to Hong Kong to position himself for the national team for that tournament and we wish him the very best of luck with that!

New Additions

On the 5th December 2025, the New England Free Jacks announced a trio of new faces would be joining the reigning champions for their title defence in 2026. The Free Jacks announced that New Zealanders Nathan Salmon, Reuben Palmer, and Tayne Hemopo will be heading to Quincy next season. 20yo winger Nathan Salmon joins from Northland in the NPC, where he earned 17 appearances over the last two seasons playing under Free Jacks Head Coach Ryan Martin, who he now follows to Major League Rugby. Reuben Palmer has been playing Premier Grade rugby with the Dunedin Sharks for the past two season, developing in the Otago and Highlanders system after playing with the Highlanders U20 side. At 6’7, the 21yo lock will certainly stand out in the New England pack. Finally, soon to be 21yo back row/lock Tayne Hemopo joins the Free Jacks from the Tasman Mako, where he earned 5 starts in 8 appearances during the 2025 NPC season, having joined them on a development contract in 2024 after coming through the Crusaders pathway. The New England Free Jacks are certainly making the most of their international connections in order to rebuild their roster for 2026!

Wrapping Up

That does it for probably the busiest week of the 2025/26 off-season so far! Besides Major League Rugby revealing the full 2026 schedule as well as Sunday Night Rugby matchups, last week saw 6 intra-league moves including the 2025 Championship MVP heading to Chicago, 4 re-signings, 3 new additions, and two departures for 15 player announcements in total across 5 of MLR’s 2026 teams! For yet another week, the California Legion remain silent on player moves. NARDB can confirm that the Legion are signing players but have not announced any yet, and likely plan to unveil their entire roster in one go, rather than dedicate time to announcing each player in turn to build hype with their (very delicate) fanbase. To each, their own.

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