Tag: NOLA Gold

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 15 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

There are two more teams that are guaranteed a Major League Rugby playoff spot following Round 15 of the 2025 regular season, both in the Eastern Conference! That makes 3 teams now clinched and 5 still up for grabs including all 4 spots in the Western Conference which, with all 5 teams separated by just 7 points, is an absolute warzone. At this point in the season every win is essential, every bonus point in critical, and every mistake could mean disaster. It’s crunch time!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, the weekly article that highlights and examines the standout stats from each round of MLR action! This week: Round 15. The purpose of these articles is to recognise achievements by players and/or teams that may have gone unnoticed or flown under the radar otherwise, providing fans with some extra insight and context every week to add an extra level to MLR! As always, the now-regular Appearance Achievements section is up first!

Appearance Achievements – Tonga’uiha hits 100!

Back on May 16th, MLR and the NOLA Gold celebrated Moni Tonga’uiha‘s 100th Major League Rugby appearance following the Gold’s Round 13 clash with Old Glory DC. As is the case with many of the appearance milestones this season, this was a premature celebration. This game was only the 99th MLR match for the NOLA Gold Captain.

With a bye in Round 14, Moni Tonga’uiha and the NOLA Gold had to wait until this weekend’s Round 15 clash with the Utah Warriors to reach his actual 100th MLR match, and has now become Major league Rugby’s 4th Centurion, the 2nd player to reach 100 appearances with a single team, and the first NOLA Gold player to reach 100 games played for the team! Congratulations, Moni!

Source: @usmlr via Instagram

Since his MLR debut back in the league’s inaugural season in 2018, Moni Tonga’uiha has started 80 of his now 100 games for the NOLA Gold, featuring in every season of the competition to date. He’s scored 15 tries for a total of 79pts including a career high of 4 (and counting!) in 2025. Although MLR’s post states that Tonga’uiha has gained 2,895m, in reality it’s far higher. Capped as USA Eagle #545 against Uruguay in October 2021, the Californian back row has actually gained 4,298m putting him 9th all-time in this category! On defence, Tonga’uiha sits on an even 900 tackles completed at the time this article was published, putting him 6th all-time in this category as well!

No doubt a NOLA Gold legend as well as a Major League Rugby legend, Moni Tonga’uiha has captained the Gold 27 times in total since 2024, and has played alongside his brother Osi Tonga’uiha since Osi’s MLR debut in 2021. Congratulations on a remarkable achievement, Moni!

Although the lion’s share of the attention may go to Moni Tonga’uiha for his 100th Major League Rugby appearance, the NOLA Gold captain is not the only player celebrating an appearance achievement this week. In fact, NOLA’s Round 15 opponents had a milestone of their own to recognise. 2025’s leading try scorer and Utah Warriors stalwart Joe Mano earned his 50th MLR appearance for the Warriors in their nailbiting victory over the Gold on Saturday! Unusually for him, Mano didn’t get on the scoreboard for his 50th MLR appearance but still sits atop the Try Scorers leaderboard with a spectacular 12 tries in his 12 games in 2025!

Source: @utahwarriorsrugby via Instagram

Since his MLR debut in 2021, Joe Mano has started 45 of his 50 appearances for the Warriors, scoring at a lethal pace with 37 tries in total including a high of 14 in 2023 when he finished 2nd in Try Scoring to Paula Balekana’s MLR-record 15 tries. Mano is scoring 0.74 tries per game and currently sits as MLR’s 4th highest try scorer, knocking on the door of the Top 20 Scorers with 185pts to his name! The American Samoan has 3,567m gained in his career including 1,416 in that standout 2023 season alone, and has completed 233 tackles as a winger. Congratulations, Joey!

Balekana records 2nd 10+ try season!

On the topic of 2025’s top try scorers, while Joe Mano still leads with 12, New England’s Paula Balekana isn’t far behind. The Free Jacks’ Fijian flyer recorded his 10th try of the season in their narrow home loss to Old Glory DC, making 2025 the 2nd 10+ try season of his MLR career!

Following on from his MLR-record 15 try season in 2023, Balekana is the 3rd player to reach 10+ tries in 2025 after Joe Mano and San Diego’s Shilo Klein. 24 players have recorded a 10+ try season in MLR but Balekana is only the 4th player in MLR history to record multiple, joining Dylan Fawsitt (3 – 2019, 2023, 2024), Riekert Hattingh (2022, 2023), Joe Mano (2023, 2025)!

Paula Balekana records his 2nd 10+ Try MLR Season!

Both Balekana and Mano are enjoying stellar 2025 seasons, and sit 3rd & 4th on Major League Rugby’s all-time try scoring list with 41 and 37 tries scored respectively. Dylan Fawsitt remains 1st on this list with a massive 64 tries scored and counting, but the two wingers are rapidly catching Seattle Seawolves Captain Riekert Hattingh, who sits 2nd on 48 tries. Congratulations, Paula!

On the subject of the Free Jacks, of note is that the 17pts scored by New England in their Round 15 game takes them over 2,500pts scored as a team since their inaugural MLR season in 2020! Jed Melvin’s 54th minute try (his 8th of the season) took the Free Jacks to 2,503pts scored in total (regular season and playoffs), becoming the 6th team in league history to pass 2,500pts scored, and the first MLR expansion team! Congratulations, Free Jacks!

Old Glory DC are Flying High!

After giving Free Jacks fans some reasons to celebrate above, they may want to look away for this next section. New England’s Round 15 opponents, their Red, White and Blue rivals Old Glory DC got the better of the Free Jacks at Fort Quincy for the 2nd time in as many seasons, squeaking out a 17-20 victory to help clinch their 3rd playoff spot in a row!

Their road victory in Quincy means that Old Glory DC completed the regular season sweep for the New England Free Jacks. To put into perspective just how difficult it is to beat the reigning champs multiple times in a season, this is only the 2nd time in Free Jacks history that they have been swept in a regular season series, and the first time since the NOLA Gold managed it way back in 2021!

Old Glory complete the regular season sweep of the Free Jacks!

This victory takes Old Glory’s current win streak to 4 games, equaling the team record set way back in 2020 where they lost their first ever MLR game, before winning ever other game before the COVID-19 Pandemic cut the season short after only 5 games. Who knows what could have happened had that season not been cancelled?

Although Old Glory DC did not secure the try BP in this game they still came away with 4 points for their considerable efforts, taking them to 44pts on the season with a record of 8-6. This is the first time in team history that the Flags have recorded 8 wins in a single season, and their 44pts in the standings is their best ever season, surpassing the 43pts scored in 2023. There’s still two games to go! Congratulations, DC!

Seawolves Hit 70!

On the topic of new heights, the Seattle Seawolves’ low scoring 14-9 victory over Western Conference Rivals the Houston SaberCats was their 3rd win in a row and 7th of the 2025 season, as well as their 61st regular season win all-time. Adding this to their impressive 9 playoff wins, and this result against fellow MLR founding members Houston is the 70th victory in Seawolves history!

The Seattle Seawolves are just the 2nd team in MLR history to reach 70 victories, behind the San Diego Legion who sit just 1 win ahead on 71 (69 regular season, 2 playoff). Can the Seawolves overtake their historic rivals in 2025, and who will be first to 75? We might have to wait until the start of the 2026 season to find out…

Wrapping Up

Round 15 of the 2025 Major League Rugby season gave us a 2nd 10+ try season, a rare regular season sweep, MLR’s fourth centurion and plenty of other standout stats! The playoff picture continues to unfold, how many teams will secure their place in the post-season in Round 16, and what kinds of standout stats will the next round of Major League Rugby action throw at us? You’ll have to wait for the next Midweek Milestones article to find out!

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 13 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

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

Appearance Achievements

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

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

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

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

Source: @houstonsabercats via Instagram.

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

Joe Johnston: New England’s most Capped Player!

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

Joe Johnston becomes the most capped Free Jack!

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

Damm Reaches Double-Figures with LA!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No Negatives in the Western Conference

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

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

Seattle Seawolves pass 200 First XV selections!

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

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

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

Wrapping Up

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

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

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


Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 12 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

With the Trade/Signing Deadline behind us, Round 12 marks the beginning of the end of the 2025 Major League Rugby season, and the Playoffs are starting creep up. The Quest for the 2025 Shield treated fans to another exciting chapter last week, and this article is here to highlight all of the big numbers from the latest round of MLR action.

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, the weekly series that shines a light on all of the standout stats from each week of MLR action! The purpose of this article series is to highlight some of the milestones or achievements from around the league that might not otherwise get the coverage they deserve. If you’re a fan of these articles, please go back and read the past editions (if you haven’t already!) and share them with your friends. As is tradition, first up are the appearance achievements!

Appearance Achievements

This week’s installment of Appearance Achievements consist of a new member of the half-century club, as well as four MLR debutants. As the midweek games get underway and teams have to rotate squads due to tight turnarounds between games, and teams are getting a chance to blood more prospects who otherwise might not get their chance. It is entertaining for fans, and informative for teams to see what their prospects can do in a full match environment. Before focusing on the MLR Debutants however, the latest member of the half-century club.

A capped Namibian international and long time NOLA Gold scrumhalf, Damian Stevens finally earned his 50th MLR appearance on his 27th MLR start! Since his debut in 2021, Stevens has scored 10 penalties and 18 conversions from the tee with a 70% success rate, and to celebrate his 50th MLR appearance, he dotted down for his 7th career MLR try to pass 100pts and become the 4th NOLA player to reach 100pts scored for the franchise!

Damian Stevens passes 100pts scored on his 50th MLR Appearance

Stevens appeared in all 16 games for the Gold in his debut season in 2021, but the following year was his best to date. 4 tries and 50pts in 14 games, as well as career highs in both metres gained (273m) and tackles completed (47). Stevens has proved a reliable scrum-half that can deliver off the tee when needed, and has been a staple of the NOLA squad for his 5 seasons in MLR so far. Congratulations, Damian!

Moving on to this week’s MLR debutants, starting in Chicago where the Hounds hosted the Miami Sharks at SeatGeek Stadium, where rain and wind resulted in a low-scoring slugfest in which two Hounds earned their MLR debuts. Lock Tavius Sykora-Matthess and Fullback/wing Peyton Wall both came on with roughly 7 minutes remaining to help the Hounds hold on to a hard fought 14-7 lead and both earn their MLR debuts! Signed as a free agent during the off-season, Iowa native Sykora-Matthess was a wrestler and gridiron football player through high school, and played football at Missouri Southern State University before transferring to Iowa Central Community College and switching his focus to rugby. He toured South America with the USA Falcons in 2022 and joined the American Raptors in 2023, playing in Super Rugby Americas for 2 seasons before joining the Hounds academy side in the fall of 2024 and earning a MLR contract for the 2025 season. Peyton Wall did not sign with the Hounds as a Free Agent. Instead, the Indiana native and USA U23s man was selected 10th overall by Chicago in the 2024 MLR Draft out of Indiana University, playing alongside Sykora-Matthess during the 2024 academy season in the fall, because also earning a MLR contract for the 2025 season. Congratulations, Tavius and Peyton!

Source: @Chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

Staying in the Eastern Conference and moving to the NOLA Gold, who travelled to California to face the San Diego Legion at Torero Stadium, looking for their first ever victory against their fellow MLR founding member. Although that victory would have to wait a little longer, two Gold players earned their MLR debuts in the 45-36 loss, including a pro rugby debut for 2024 MLR Draftee Dalton Musselman! A Pennsylvania native, Musselman Captained the Penn State Rugby team for 3 of his 5 years there, and was selected 18th overall by the Gold in the 2024 Draft. The USA U23 fly-half came off the bench for the final 10 minutes, and bagged a try assist on Harley Wheeler’s 78th minute try. Making his MLR debut off the bench alongside Musselman, although with a tad more experience, was former All Blacks 7s and Highlanders utility back Vilimone Koroi, who had been suspiciously absent from NOLA Gold lineups through the first half of the 2025 season. Congratulations to both Dalton Musselman and Vilimone Koroi on their MLR debuts!

Result Irregularities!

It took roughly 120 games, but the first draw of the 2025 Major League Rugby season is in the books! The Seattle Seawolves battled to a 26-26 draw with Western Conference rivals Rugby FC LA at Starfire Stadium. Rugby FC LA had the opportunity to take the win following Jason Damm’s late try which coincidentally, is the 100th try in RFCLA history. RFCLA‘s sharpshooter from the tee, Christian Leali’ifano, had already left the game so the conversion fell to Gonzalo Bertranou, who’s attempt sailed wide.

Seattle and LA battle to a 26-26 tie, the first tie of the 2025 season.

This is the 2nd draw in team history for both the Seattle Seawolves and Rugby FC LA, with LA’s first draw being the most recent stalemate in MLR prior to this game, a 22-22 tie against Old Glory DC in Round 6 of the 2024 season. This is the 10th draw in league history and of those 10 ties, nine have finished with scores in the 20s, and three have finished with a score of 26-26!

The first draw of 2025 wasn’t the only unusual result of Round 12. As mentioned already in this article, the Chicago Hounds and Miami Sharks battled to a 14-7 final score at SeatGeek Stadium, a remarkably low scoring affair for Major league Rugby. In fact, this is the lowest scoring game of the 2025 season and, by a remark coincidence, the lowest scoring game since the Dallas Jackals defeated the Seattle Seawolves, also by a score of 14-7 in Round 12 of the 2024 season! Same round, same score, similar team names (Jackals to Hounds, Seawolves to Sharks), what are the chances?!

Unsurprisingly, the combined score of 21 makes this result the lowest scoring game in both Chicago Hounds and Miami Sharks franchise history, but that didn’t stop MLR’s most prolific try scorer from getting on the board. Dylan Fawsitt scored his 62nd MLR try and his 20th for the Chicago Hounds, becoming just the 2nd player to pass 100pts scored with the franchise! Fawsitt sits behind fellow Irish-born USA Eagle Luke Carty (now with the NOLA Gold) on 127pts, and moves ahead of Adriaan Carelse, who has been sat on 97pts for much of the season with Chris Hilsenbeck taking the lead on kicking duties. Congratulations, Dylan!

Lochore sets 2025 High for Tackles!

Three games in 8 days proved to be too much for the Utah Warriors as they fell 28-12 to Old Glory DC in their 2nd game of Round 12. The Warriors picked up a pair of victories during their ‘Storm Week’ however, including a back and forth win over the San Diego Legion during the week! In this first Utah game of Round 12, Frank Lochore recorded 29 completed tackles to set a new 2025 single-game high for tackles by a player, contributing almost 15% of the Warriors’ 210 tackles by himself!

Utah’s Frank Lochore sets new season high for tackles made in a game

Not only is 29 tackles in a single game a new season-high, it’s tied with 3 other players (Matt Heaton: Rd 5 2020, Cory Daniel: Rd 4 2022, and Thomas Tu’avao: Rd 8 2023) for the 3rd highest tackle count in Major League Rugby history! Lochore’s total has only been bettered by Utah teammate Dylan Nel’s 30 tackles in Round 7 of the 2024 season and MLR’s current record holder: Matt Heaton, who completed 32 tackles for Rugby ATL in Round 2 of the 2022 season. Congratulations, Frank!

Wrapping Up

Four MLR debuts, a new member of the half-century club, and some impressive standout stats in this week’s edition of Midweek Milestones! There are no midweek games this week, giving teams a valuable break before a 6-game Round 13 kicks off on Friday night, running through Tuesday! How many standout stats will the next round of MLR action bring? You’ll have to wait for next week’s Midweek Milestones article to find out!

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 11 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

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

Appearance Achievements – Utah’s First Centurion!

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

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

Major League Rugby

SeasonTeamGPGSTCPACDGMGTacklesKS/KAPts
MLR 2018Warriors99100003156105
MLR 2019Warriors16162000024396010
MLR 2020Warriors55000001083200
MLR 2021Warriors1713000003329200
MLR 2022Warriors155000002057600
MLR 2023Warriors164000002117200
MLR 2024Warriors146000001347500
MLR 2025Warriors11100000236200
Total-10359300001571566015

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

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

Source: @Miasharksrugby via Instagram

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

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

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

Victory Milestones

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

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

Individual Scoring Milestones

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

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

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

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

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

Alatimu sets new 2025 record with 17pt game for Houston

Miscellaneous Milestones!

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

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

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby via instagram

Wrapping Up

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

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 9 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

After Round 9, every team in Major League Rugby has played 8 games with the exception of the Seattle Seawolves and Utah Warriors, who have played 7. This means that the majority of teams have played half of their games in the 2025 regular season! Some, like the Chicago Hounds are flying high with a 7-1 record, while Anthem RC are still after that first victory at 0-8 and teams that started strong like the San Diego Legion are struggling. The mid-season comes quick! Lets dive into some of the standout stats from Round 9 of the 2025 MLR season.

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, the weekly article that highlights the biggest milestones from around Major League Rugby, whether achieved by teams, players, or both. The purpose of these weekly articles is to highlight achievements (both big, and small) that may have gone under the radar in order to give them the attention they deserve, as well as to keep fans informed of some of the big milestones and the less publicized (but no less deserving) achievements around the League for each week! If you want to read previous Midweek Milestones articles, feel free to search ‘Midweek Milestones’, or click on the category just below the title of this article.

RFCLA’s new All-Time Top Scorer

After the demise of the LA Giltinis in 2022, Rugby FC LA is Major League Rugby’s second attempt at putting a team in the City of Angels. Relocated from Atlanta after a new ownership group purchased the Rugby ATL franchise, RFCLA played their first season in 2024, one of MLR’s most recent additions. The team is already developing quite a history, however. Building a fierce rivalry with California neighbors the San Diego Legion, and going toe to toe with the best in the Western Conference, RFCLA are definitely not to be taken lightly.

Christian Leali’ifano becomes RFCLA’s all-time top scorer

For their sophomore season in 2025, LA brought in big MLR names like Billy Meakes and Reece MacDonald, as well as superstars on the word stage like Argentina’s Gonzalo Bertranou, or dual-capped international Christian Leali’ifano, who has been like clockwork from the tee in the first half of this season. Leali’ifano has successfully kicked 25 of his 27 attempts from the tee and is one of only 3 players to have passed 50pts scored so far this season. His 56pts scored in just 7 games also makes him Rugby FC LA‘s all-time leading scorer, ahead of Semi Kunatani who has 54pts off of his 10 tries from last season (including two 7-pointers). Although it’s a young team, becoming the top scorer of a franchise is an impressive achievement, congratulations, Christian!

In the same game that Leali’ifano became RFCLA’s top scorer, Canadian speedster Andrew Coe moved into T-3rd on list, becoming just the 2nd player in team history to reach 10 tries scored with RFCLA behind the aforementioned Semi Kunatani! Coe’s 10th try for LA draws him level with Dan Hollinshead on 50pts and with Hollinshead having recently signed with the New England Free Jacks, Coe looks likely to move ahead of him this season. Congratulations, Andrew!

Team Milestones

Coming off of a few disappointing results in previous weeks, not many people gave the Miami Sharks much of a chance heading into the stronghold that is SaberCats Stadium to face Houston, and yet in this battle of land v sea, the Sharks upset the hosts to claim their first victory since Round 3! Their 31-22 victory lifts the Sharks over 500pts scored as a team, to 512 points scored as a franchise in MLR. Josiah Morra’s try on the stroke of half-time of his Miami Sharks debut (after being loaned there from the Free Jacks) was the score that lifted the Sharks over 500pts. Congratulations, Miami!

Staying in the Eastern Conference, the Sharks weren’t the only team to hit a milestone during Round 9. Heading up to Chicago, where the Hounds held off a spirited Anthem RC side for a 28-20 victory, their 7th win of the season and 19th as a team! With a bonus point victory, this takes the Hounds over 100pts in NARDB’s All-Time MLR Standings, but there’s a big caveat: playoff games are knockout and do not award any points. For the purposes of NARDB’s All-Time Standings, playoff games are included and award points as though they were regular season games.

Using this format, the Chicago Hounds have earned 6pts from playoff games, and 97 from regular season games. It’s a bit convoluted, but there is some value in having an all-time standings table that includes every MLR game ever played. The All-Time Standings page contains a table for every MLR game ever played, as well as all regular season games and all playoff games as separate tables.

Gold Rack Up a Half-Century in New Orleans!

The 2025 season has not began as well as the NOLA Gold would have hoped, managing just 1 win through their first 6 games. However, they have since rattled off two victories in quick succession including a statement 51-29 win over Eastern Conference rivals Old Glory DC in front of a home crowd while wearing their very sharp black city edition jerseys. With 7 tries and 51 points scored this ties a NOLA Gold Franchise record set in Round 2 of the 2021 season for points scored in a match, after a 51-28 victory over Rugby United New York on March 27th, 2021, almost an identical score! This is the first time that the Gold have scored over 50pts in a game since Round 15 of the 2022 season when they secured a 50-21 victory on May 14th, 2022, also against Old Glory DC.

NOLA Gold tie Franchise record for points scored, pass 2,500pts all-time

There’s plenty more to celebrate if you’re a NOLA Gold fan, though. By scoring 4+ tries in Round 9, the Gold secured a much needed try bonus point, which is the 50th Try BP that they have earned in their history! NOLA become the 3rd team to reach 50 Try BPs in MLR (4th if you include the playoffs, but they don’t award table points) behind the San Diego Legion (56) and the Utah Warriors (52). The Gold’s 51pts also takes the team over the 2,500pts scored milestone, becoming just the 5th team to pass 2.5k points scored as a franchise! They now sit on 2,547, with Jonah Mau’s early try in the 2nd minute carrying the Gold over the 2,500 mark.

And there’s even more to celebrate for the Gold! In the same game, Xavier Mignot picked up his 4th, 5th, AND 6th tries of the 2025 season to record his first MLR hat trick, and the 6th hat trick by a NOLA Gold player! He is the 46th MLR player to record a hat trick in the competition, claiming MLR’s 51st hat trick. Congratulations, Xavier!

Appearance Achievements

As usual, there were a number of landmark appearances in Round 9 comprised of a pair of MLR debuts, and another five players all earning their 50th appearance! The two debutants both earned their first MLR appearance in the same game, one for either side of a Western Conference clash between Rugby FC LA and the Utah Warriors. Making his debut first was US-Eligible New Zealander Cole Semu, who came on for the Utah Warriors in the 71st minute and made 3 tackles to help secure the win for the Warriors. Semu was drafted 28th overall by the Warriors out of BYU in the 2024 draft, and he has already played with the USA U18, U20, and U23 sides. Coming on in the final minute of the match for Rugby FC LA was US-born Australian dual-codes player Robert Mapa. The former Brothers Rugby man was included in the LA matchday 23 once already in 2025, but didn’t see action until Round 9 when he made 3m and completed a tackle in his roughly 1 minute of game time. Both young players are now blooded in Major League Rugby, will we see them again soon?

Moving over to the cross-conference clash between the Miami Sharks and the Houston SaberCats in Florida where one player from either side celebrated reaching a half-century of Major League Rugby appearances! For the hosting Miami Sharks, Irish born back rower Ronan Foley played his 50th game, earning his 5th start in as many games for the Sharks after joining the Florida team this season following the demise of the Dallas Jackals. Along with Miami this year and Dallas in 2024, Foley has represented the Seattle Seawolves (2023 – 3 tries in 11 games, 8 starts) and the Toronto Arrows (2021-2022 – 3 tries in 19 games, 16 starts), where he had a standout 2022 season. He racked up over 1,000m gained as a forward and completed 184 tackles, both remain career highs. Foley earned a Team of the Week selection on his 50th MLR cap for his performance in Miami’s surprise victory over Houston. Speaking of the SaberCats, despite the defeat they were able to celebrate the 50th MLR appearance of South African lock Justin Basson, who has started 41 of his 50 MLR games between Rugby ATL (2022-2023) Houston (2024-), scoring 7 tries and averaging 144 tackles per season. Congratulations to both Ronan and Justin!

Source: @HoustonSaberCats via Instagram

Staying in the South but travelling to New Orleans and the Gold Mine, which saw another three players celebrate their 50th Major League Rugby appearance, beginning with the hosting NOLA Gold and 2021 MLR Champion, Luke Carty. the USA Capped Irishman began his MLR career with the LA Giltinis in 2021, earning 18 appearances including 15 during their Shield-winning season in 2021. Following the withdrawal of the Giltinis, Carty headed to Chicago where he scored a career high 69pts for the Hounds in 2023, totaling 127pts in 27 games in the Windy City, where he remains the Hounds all-time leading scorer. He surprised fans by signing with the NOLA Gold ahead of the 2025 season, where he’s scored 31pts in 5 games so far. In his MLR career, Luke Carty has 1 try and 208pts scored with a 67.74% success rate from the tee (84/124). Congratulations, Luke!

Moving to NOLA’s opposition from Round 9, Old Glory DC, who were able to celebrate a pair of 50th appearances, although they did celebrate one a bit prematurely! Cory Daniel has finished as MLR’s Top Tackler twice already in his career, and is the reigning ‘tackle king’ heading into 2025. Old Glory DC celebrated Daniel’s 50th game with DC after last week’s clash with the Seattle Seawolves, but unfortunately this was only his 49th game… Thankfully, this little faux pas can be forgotten as Daniel has now reached 50 games played with the Flags! A Maryland native, USA Eagle Cory Daniel has spent his entire MLR career with Old Glory DC, starting 45 of his 50 games since 2021 and racking up an incredible 770 tackles. This includes two seasons where he recorded over 250 tackles in a season, in 2022 (255) and in 2024, when he set a MLR record 276. Congratulations, Cory!

Source: @Oldglorydc via Instagram

Although Cory Daniel is the only player in this weeks’ Appearance Achievements section to have played all 50 of his MLR games with Old Glory DC, he’s not the only Flags player to reach the half-century mark. New Zealand utility back Jason Emery also played his 50th MLR game for Old Glory DC in Round 9! Emery started his MLR career with Rugby New York in 2022, scoring 48pts in 17 games as the Ironworkers lifted the Shield that year. Across his two years in New York, Emery scored 8 tries and 123pts in 33 games, starting 29 times. Following the withdrawal of the Ironworkers in 2023, Emery signed in LA for Rugby FC LA‘s inaugural season in 2024 before moving back to the east coast this year with Old Glory DC. In his career to date, Emery has scored 147pts with a 73.02% success rate from the tee (46/63) and started 43 of his 50 MLR games. Congratulations, Jason!

Wrapping Up

A new Top Scorer in Los Angeles, a bumper week for the Gold, another handful of players join the half-century club and that’s not even all of the standout stats from Round 9 of Major League Rugby’s 2025 season! What goodies will Round 10 hold for us as we move into the second half of this season, still no closer to knowing who will come out on top? You’ll have to come back next week to find out!

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 8 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Another week of the 2025 Major League Rugby has flown past, and the parity of MLR’s 8th season has arguably never been better. 4 teams in the Eastern Conference won during Round 8, with Rugby FC LA taking the lone victory in the West! Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, a weekly article that highlights the big achievements and standout stats from each round of the MLR season.

If this is your first time reading an article from this series, these weekly articles highlight milestones or standout stats achieved by players and/or teams that may have gone under the radar in order to give them the attention they deserve, as well as to keep fans informed of some of the big milestones and the less publicized (but no less deserving) achievements around the League for each week! If you want to read previous Midweek Milestones articles, feel free to search ‘Midweek Milestones’, or click on the category just below the title of this article!

Beast from the East defeats Best in the West!

The clash of the week for many coming into Round 8 was the San Diego Legion taking on the Chicago Hounds at Torero Stadium. #1 in the West hosting the #1 in the East with the opportunity for the victor to take a commanding hold over their conference! When the dust settled, it was the Chicago Hounds who had emerged as 20-27 winners to stay on top of the Eastern Conference!

The Hounds are developing a reputation as road warriors in 2025. They are currently on a team record 5 game win streak and are yet to lose on the road. Chicago have chalked up road victories against the NOLA Gold, a very impressive Round 1 win over the SaberCats in Houston, and have now handed the San Diego Legion their first home defeat in almost a calendar year! The Legion have not lost at home since a nail-biting 23-24 defeat to the New England Free Jacks in Round 12 of the 2024 season, a span of 321 days! Whats more, it’s the first time that the San Diego Legion have been defeated at Torero Stadium since 26th June, 2021 against the Austin Gilgronis – 1,379 days, although the obvious caveat there is that the Legion did not play at Torero Stadium from 2022-2024.

Legion suffer first home defeat in close to a year

For the San Diego Legion, their 5-game win streak to start the 2025 season seems a very long time ago already. Now sat on a 2-game skid and no longer atop the Western Conference, things don’t get easier for the Legion, as they make their first-ever trip to Quincy to face the resurgent reigning champions, the New England Free Jacks.

LA Make it 4 on the Bounce!

As mentioned above, the Chicago are now on a team-record 5 game win streak, but they aren’t the only team on best-ever form. Rugby FC LA started the season with 3 losses in a row but have since flicked a switch and rattled off 4 wins on the trot, extending a team record win streak following a gutsy 22-24 road victory over the Houston SaberCats! The ‘Cats had the chance to walk away with a draw, but AJ Alatimu‘s last-minute conversion couldn’t curl in, and RFCLA record their first ever victory over their Western Conference rivals!

Between RFCLA and the Chicago Hounds the Western Conference has been blown wide open, with 3 teams separated by 4pts at the top and the Utah Warriors sitting 2pts back with a game in hand! Even the Seattle Seawolves, currently at the bottom of the West, just need a good couple of weeks to get right back in it!

Appearance Achievements

In the now-weekly segment of the Midweek Milestones article, it’s time to recognise the appearance milestones from around MLR during Round 8. This week saw an MLR debut and five players reach 50 appearances, including 3 in one game!

Beginning with the debutant. The San Diego Legion announced the addition of Zak Farrance just before Round 7, and he came off the bench for the Legion in their massive clash with the Chicago Hounds! With experience in the English Championship and nearly a decade of experience playing in France, Farrance made 18 meters and 5 tackles over 32 minutes of game time in his MLR debut. Congratulations Zak, and welcome to MLR!

In the same game that Zak Farrance earned his MLR debut, a trio of players all earned their 50th MLR appearances, including his San Diego Legion teammate, Tavite Lopeti! Raised in the Bay Area, Lopeti represented Saint Mary’s College Gaels and was a Rudy Scholz Award nominee. He declared for the 2021 MLR Draft and was selected 3rd overall by the Seattle Seawolves, with whom he played between 2022-2024. The 2022 MLR Rookie of the Year scored 8 tries in 44 games with Seattle, finishing as MLR Runners-Up in both 2022 and 2024. He left the Seawolves ahead of this season and returned to his home state, signing with the San Diego Legion for 2025. Lopeti becomes just the 2nd MLR Draftee to reach 50 appearances in the competition, and he’s started 38 of his 50 games. Congratulations, Tavite!

Moving over to the Legion’s opposition in Round 8, the Chicago Hounds celebrated a pair of players reaching their half-century of MLR appearances! The first of two Hounds to reach 50 games in MLR is test capped Canadian, Mason Flesch. The Cobourg, ON native began his MLR career with the Toronto Arrows, representing MLR’s lone Canadian outfit from 2021-23, earning 22 starts in 28 games. Following the withdrawal of the team, Flesch followed his Arrows and national team captain Lucas Rumball to Chicago where he has scored 6 tries in 23 games (22 starts). He set personal bests across the board for the Hounds in 2024 and is enjoying another stellar season in 2025. Congratulations, Mason!

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

Coming into the game from the Chicago Hounds bench and earning his 50th cap alongside Mason Flesch was scrum-half Jason Higgins. Born in Ireland, Higgins’ career shares similarities with Flesch’s. Both are former Toronto Arrows that have been test capped for Canada! Higgins represented the Arrows for only a season, scoring 4 tries in 13 games (3 starts) in 2021 before signing with the San Diego Legion from 2022-23. He finished as a MLR runner-up with the Legion in 2023 and scored 8 tries in 20 games over his two seasons in California. Higgins has represented the Chicago Hounds after being traded there in 2023 and has scored another 4 tries in 17 games for a total of 16 tries and 21 starts in his 50 games in MLR. Higgins is also the first (and so far, only) player in MLR history to record hat tricks with multiple teams, having scored one for the Legion in 2022, and another for the Hounds in 2024. Congratulations, Jason!

Staying on the topic of test-capped Canadians, over in Texas Andrew Coe made his 50th MLR appearance as Rugby FC LA earned an impressive win over the Houston SaberCats! A native of Markham, ON, Coe’s MLR journey started when he joined Rugby New York for the 2022 season. He scored 13 tries in 32 games (30 starts) for the Ironworkers, helping them lift the Shield in his debut season in 2022. Coe signed with Rugby FC LA after the Ironworkers withdrew from MLR in 2023, and has scored another 9 tries to take his total to 22 tries in 50 games (48 starts), along with 228 tackles and over 3,400m made in his MLR career to date. Congratulations, Andrew!

Source: @rugbyfcla via Instagram

And to wrap up the new members of the half-century club for this week is 2024 Player of the Year, Wayne van der Bank! A back-to-back MLR Champion with the New England Free Jacks in 2023 & 2024, van der Bank entered MLR in 2022, and has earned all 50 of his appearances with the Free Jacks. He has started 46 times and scored 16 tries including 10 in the 2024 season. The Pretoria native has recently passed 500 career tackles and has 3,139m made to date! Unfortunately, van der Bank’s 50th game did not last long, as he was substituted after only 8 minutes due to a head knock. Hopefully this is precautionary and we’ll see him back for his 51st game soon. Congratulations, Wayne!

Balekana Bags MLR’s 50th Hatty!

Sticking with the New England Free Jacks, their dominant 43-6 win over the Miami Sharks in Quincy was helped in part by Paula Balekana’s 3 tries, recording a hat trick! Given how prolific a try scorer he is, it’s amazing that this is the only first hat trick of Balekana’s MLR career! It takes his career total to 35 tries, putting the Free Jacks’ Fijian Flyer 3rd all-time, behind only Riekert Hattingh (45) and Dylan Fawsitt (59) in terms of tries scored.

Although this was the first hat trick in Paula Balekana’s MLR career, it’s not the first hat trick by a New England Free Jacks player, and it’s definitely not the first hat trick in MLR history. In fact, Balekana is the 6th player to record a hatty as a Free Jack and the 45th player in league history! With Jason Higgins and Dewald Kotze recording 2 hat tricks each and Seattle Seawolves’ Lauina Futi recording 3, this makes Paula Balekana’s hat trick on Sunday the 50th triple in Major League Rugby History! Congratulations!

NOLA’s Du Plessis Reaches New Heights

As Major League Rugby marches closer to it’s 10th season, there are fewer and fewer players around the league who have been here from the start. At this point, they’re pretty much all legends of this league, and that definitely applies to the NOLA Gold’s JP Du Plessis. The South African center spent 3 seasons with the San Diego Legion in the early years of the league, finishing as a MLR runner-up in 2019, the same year that he was named MLR Back of the Year on the back of a 1,200m, 200 tackle year. He scored 9 tries in 26 games (all starts) for the Legion before moving to New Orleans and joining the Gold, who he’s represented in every MLR season since.

JP Du Plessis has scored 22 tries in his 89 MLR games to date (86 starts) and recorded more tackles than any other back in league history, 868. He’s recorded 3 seasons with over 1,000m made including a career high of 1,533 in 2022, and added 73m during Round 8 of the 2025 season to become the first player in MLR history to eclipse SIX THOUSAND meters in the competition! Now sat on 6,026m, Du Plessis has over almost 800m more than the next nearest active player (Riekert Hattingh – 5,296m) and could get close to 7,000m in 2025 if he keeps it up. Congratulations, JP!

Wrapping Up

Major League Rugby’s 50th hat trick, five players join the half-century club, and JP Du Plessis reaches a milestone never seen before in MLR in this week’s edition of Midweek Milestones! What standout stats will Round 9 have for us? Be sure to check back next week to find out!

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 7 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Round 7 of the 2025 Major League Rugby season saw all 5 games on Saturday for the 3rd week in a row, with every game kicking off within 3 hours of each other, so tries, kick-offs, and (most importantly) stats were coming thick and fast! Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, a weekly article that highlights the big achievements and standout stats from each round of the MLR season.

In case you haven’t read any of the previous Midweek Milestones, these weekly articles highlight milestones or standout stats achieved by players and teams that might have gone under the radar in order to bring more attention to them, as well as inform fans of some of the big milestones and the less publicized (but no less deserving) achievements around the League for each match week. If you want to read previous Midweek Milestones articles, feel free to search ‘Midweek Milestones’, or click on the category just below the title of this article!

NOLA Gold reach a century!

Following Utah last week, the NOLA Gold played in their 100th MLR game to become the 3rd team to play their century game this season, and the 5th team in MLR history to reach triple-figures! The Gold broke a strange pattern in their 100th game, becoming both the first team to play their 100th game in front of a home crowd, and the first team to face an expansion team in their 100th game, falling 18-20 to the Chicago Hounds in a nail-biter!

With the NOLA Gold reaching their 100th game, all five of the still active MLR founding member teams have now reached a century of games played! It’ll be a little while before the next team reaches this milestone. The New England Free Jacks are closest, on only 81 games, so we’ll have to wait until at least the 2nd half of the 2026 season!

LA & DC play a Slobberknocker!

The Flags travelled to Los Angeles to face RFCLA in a chaotic cross-conference clash! There were 13 tries in total with a final score of 54-44 to the hosts in what was the 3rd highest scoring game in Major League Rugby history! The total of 98pts falls just behind the 108pts scored in a 49-59 victory for Rugby New York in 2022, and the 101pts scored in a 42-59 victory for Houston the week before!

Unfortunately for Old Glory DC, they have now featured in all of the 3 highest scoring games in MLR history, and have been on the losing side of all three. For 2025, DC seem to be following a pattern of alternating wins & losses. So far this season they have always followed up a loss with a win, and always lost the game after a win. Are they destined for another .500 season?

Old Glory DC have featured in the 3 highest scoring games in MLR history

Moving over to the home side, Rugby FC LA were able to hold on for a victory despite a handful of cards including two yellows and a red to scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou. This victory puts LA on their longest win streak as a franchise, winning 3 on the trot to even up their record at 3-3 so far in 2025! Helping them to that victory was Christian Dyer, a California native and USA Eagle who joined RFCLA from the Houston SaberCats ahead of the 2025 season. Dyer scored his first try with his new team in this game, also marking the 20th try of his MLR career and entering the Top 20 players all time, tied for 20th with the likes of Sam Windsor and JP Smith. Congratulations, Christian!

Appearance Achievements

Checking in on some appearance milestones for last weekend, there was a 50th appearance for the Seattle Seawolves as well as a pair of MLR debuts which is where we’ll start, with Old Glory DC. The section above covers much of the Flags’ game from Round 7, but it didn’t highlight a MLR debut for Welshman Joe Rees. A native of Swansea and former Wales U20 prop, Rees was signed early in the off-season from the English Championship, where he captained London Scottish. Congratulations, Joe, and welcome to MLR!

Round 7’s other debutant was also in the Eastern Conference, for the other team in red, white, & blue, the New England Free Jacks! Canadian Sevens star Josiah Morra came off the bench in the Free Jacks’ sensational comeback victory over the Utah Warriors. Morra is capped for Canada at both Sevens and 15s levels, and actually featured for the Ontario Arrows (the precursor of MLR’s Toronto Arrows) in a 40-14 victory against the Free Jacks in New England’s first ever game as a team. Morra was on the bench earlier this season but didn’t feature, so congratulations on your debut Josiah, and welcome to MLR!

Heading to the Western Conference to recognise a half-century of appearances, Seattle Seawolves center Dan Kriel earned his 50th Major League Rugby appearance in a hard-fought 25-17 victory over Anthem RC in front of a home crowd! The Cape Town native and brother of Springbok Jesse Kriel, Dan joined the Seawolves for the 2022 season and has been a mainstay of the Seattle lineup ever since, becoming the 7th player to earn 50 appearances for the Seawolves. He has recorded well over 3,000m made in his MLR career to date as well as just shy of 450 tackles, scoring 11 tries and 55pts in total. Kriel and the Seawolves have finished as MLR Runners up twice, in 2022 and in 2024, and he was the recipient of the S. Marcus Calloway Award in 2023, honoring the player who shows remarkable passion, excellence, and integrity on and off the field. Congratulations on your 50th MLR appearance, Dan!

Source: @SeawolvesRugby via Instagram

Scoring Standouts

Moving from appearance milestones to standout stats around scoring. There are now 14 teams in Major League Rugby that have scored over 1,000pts, after the Chicago Hounds reached 4-figures during their hard fought victory over the NOLA Gold on Saturday. The Hounds were sat on 996pts scored coming into Round 7, and Dylan Fawsitt’s try (who else?) just before half-time took Chicago over the 1000pts mark! With a 18-20 victory they now sit on 1,016pts scored as a team, and begin the long march to 2k.

Moving from team scoring milestones to player milestones, and moving from Chicago in the Eastern Conference to the Houston SaberCats in the West. The ‘Cats dominated the San Diego Legion (who seem to hate playing at SaberCats Stadium!) to put an end to the Legion’s 5 game win streak, and extend their own win streak to 5 games. South African scrumhalf André Warner dotted down for the SaberCats’ first try in a 34-14 victory, marking his 10th try in MLR! Warner is only the 8th Houston player to record 10+ tries with the team after recording 8 in 2024 and bagging his 2nd in 2025. Congratulations, André!

Staying on the Houston SaberCats, in the same game that André Warner recorded his 10th MLR try, AJ Alatimu came off the bench and slotted a penalty kick to pass 100pts scored as a member of the Houston SaberCats! Alatimu, who started his MLR career with the Seattle Seawolves in 2021, is only the 3rd SaberCat to pass 100pts with the team, behind Davy Coetzer (340) and Sam Windsor (432)! This proved to be a very important 3pts for Alatimu because not only did he pass 100pts with Houston, but it took his career total to 422, passing San Diego Legion legend Joe Pietersen (420) for the 2nd highest poinst scorer in MLR history! He now only sits behind Sam Windsor (595). Congratulations, AJ!

AJ Alatimu becomes MLR’s 2nd Highest Scorer

AJ Alatimu moving into 2nd wasn’t the only bit of movement at the top of the All-Time Scorers List! The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that the above graphic lists Old Glory DC‘s Jason Robertson in 5th place All-Time which, after this weekend, he is! The Kiwi playmaker recorded 13pts in the Flags’ high scoring defeat to Rugby FC LA, setting the MLR Round-High in points for a second week in a row, moving ahead of Mack Mason and into the Top 5! He’s almost guaranteed to pass Toronto Arrows legend Sam Malcolm for 4th this season, too. Congratulations, Jason!

Wrapping Up

The last active founding member team reaches a century of games played, Old Glory DC‘s unfavourable record in high-scoring games, and plenty of scoring & appearances achievements in this week’s edition of Midweek Milestones! Be sure to check back next week to see what standout stats Round 8 of the 2025 Major League Rugby season holds!

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 6 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Round 6 roughly marks the final round of the first third of the 2025 Major League Rugby season, and so far it’s been a thriller. There are historically good teams faltering, there are written off teams on win streaks, and Anthem RC creep closer to that first victory. Welcome to the Midweek Milestones article for Round 6!

Just in case you haven’t read any of the previous Midweek Milestones articles, these weekly posts highlight milestones or standout stats achieved by players and teams that might have gone under the radar in order to bring more attention to them, as well as inform fans of some of the big milestones and the less publicized (but no less deserving) achievements around the League for each match week.

Utah join the 100 Club!

The Utah Warriors join the likes of the Seattle Seawolves, San Diego Legion, and Houston SaberCats to become the 4th team in MLR history to reach 100 games played in the competition! They are the 2nd team to win their 100th MLR fixture, claiming a 27-30 road victory over the Seattle Seawolves to secure their 41st victory as a team. The Warriors have an all-time record of 41-3-56, which includes both 98 regular season games (41-3-54) and 2 playoff appearances (0-2).

The Utah Warriors’ 100th game falls in line with a very strange pattern. All 4 teams that have reached 100 games played in MLR have played their 100th match on the road against a fellow founding member. No team has played their 100th game in front of a home crowd yet!

Heartbreak for Anthem RC

The USA’s rising rugby stars are still looking for their first win as a franchise and came agonizingly close in Round 6 as Anthem RC had their hearts broken by a last minute Davy Coetzer penalty. The aspiring Eagles fell 45-46 in Charlotte, having set new single game franchise records for points scored (45) and tries scored (7). The 45pts scored by Anthem RC in this game accounted for over 10% of the points ever scored by the team!

As further proof that Anthem are closing the gap, their average losing margin in 2024 was an eyebrow raising 23pts. So far in 2025 that has fallen to 15pts and in their last 3 games the gap is, on average, just 2pts. Anthem picked up 1 losing BP all season last year, but have picked up 3 in a row in 2025 (including this game) and have secured try BPs in two of those as well. Although it might not seem like much, Anthem RC are moving in the right direction and it’s just a matter of time before they claim that elusive first win. Will it come before their next bye week in Round 13?

Kicking Credits

A handful of kickers made noteworthy news over the weekend, whether that be for reaching new scoring milestones or other standout stats.

We begin with Jason Robertson, who had arguably a First XV-worthy performance for Old Glory DC as they routed their Eastern Conference rivals the New England Free Jacks in the first of two ‘Red, White, & Blue Bowl’ matchups in 2025. Not only did Robertson pass the 2,000m made mark to become the 5th player to reach 2,000m made with the Flags, but he scored 13pts including a rare drop goal. Amazingly, this is the FIFTH drop goal of Jason Robertson’s MLR career and he now take sole possession of the record for the most drop goals scored in MLR history! What’s more, Robertson missed another drop goal attempt in the same game! He passes San Diego Legion legend Joe Pietersen, who had 4.

On the subject of the San Diego Legion, they recorded a convincing victory over the Miami Sharks in Florida, with Lincoln McClutchie assuming the role of place kicker. The New Zealander converted 3 tries for 6pts, pushing his MLR and Legion total past the 100pt mark to 104! McClutchie is just the 5th player to pass 100pts scored for the Legion, and is currently sat on 23pts this season to add to his 81pts from 2024. Congratulations, Lincoln!

A little way up the road from McClutchie is USA Eagle Luke Carty, who’s enjoying his first season in New Orleans with the Gold. Carty banked another 2pts in the Gold‘s 24-31 loss to Rugby FC LA over the weekend to just nudge his career total over 200pts after coming off of the bench. Although his time with NOLA has only just begun, Carty has already racked up 24pts with the Gold this season and is only the 16th player in MLR history (9th active player) to pass 200pts in the competition! Congratulations, Luke!

NOLA Gold’s Luke Carty

Staying on the subject of kickers but moving to the Gold’s opposition this weekend, Rugby FC LA. The 2nd incarnation of a MLR team in Los Angeles appear to be finding their groove, securing back-to-back victories the last few weeks. In fact, with another 31pts scored over the weekend, RFCLA have become the first 2024 Expansion Team to pass 500pts scored as a franchise! They sit on 506pts scored in total, with Andrew Coe‘s 58th minute try taking the lads from Los Angeles over the milestone.

A key part of Rugby FC LA‘s scoring has been international rugby veteran Christian Leali’ifano. Test capped for both Australia and Samoa, Leali’ifano is currently tied as MLR’s leading points scorer with 40 on the season so far. Coming into Round 6, he had a flawless record from the tee with 15/15, the best record in MLR! It turns out that the 37yo is human after all however, as Leali’ifano missed his first two place kicks of the season in Round 6. Let’s blame them on the wind, shall we?

Appearance Achievements

In what is quickly becoming it’s own segment within these Midweek Milestones articles, there were a number of players celebrating milestone appearances over the weekend, starting with a pair of MLR debuts!

After being named on the bench in Round 5 but not used, Hawaiian former football player Isikeli Kava earned his Major League Rugby debut on the 2nd attempt when he came off the bench for Old Glory DC in the 77th minute of their convincing 28-14 victory over the New England Free Jacks. Kava played with the American Raptors crossover program before joining the Flags for the 2025 season, and made 3 tackles in his MLR debut. Congratulations, Isikeli!

MLR Debutant Isikeli Kava (center)


Round 6’s other debutant was another #18. Nova Scotia native and test-capped Canadian Prop Tyler Matchem came off the bench for the NOLA Gold in the 67th minute to earn his first MLR appearance and help the Gold to salvage 2pts from their 24-31 defeat to Rugby FC LA. Congratulations, Tyler!

From debuts to half-centuries, three US-eligible players reached 50 appearances in MLR over the course of Round 6, including a very impressive MLR first for one of them! Starting on the West Coast with the San Diego Legion, Australian back rower and 2021 MLR Champion Christian Poidevin earned his 50th MLR appearance and his 44th start in the competition! The son of 1991 RWC Winner Simon Poidevin, Christian earned 28 appearances with the LA Giltinis between 2021-2022 before joining the Legion in 2023 where he has earned 22 further appearances. Poidevin is eligible for the USA through his Chicago-born mother, and has scored 13 tries in MLR including 3 in 5 games to start 2025! To date, he has made 1,429m in possession and completed 591 tackles with a high of 200 in 2022. Congratulations, Christian!

Staying in the Western Conference but moving to the Lone Star State, Houston SaberCats’ forward Emmanuel Albert also reaches his 50th appearance in MLR! The Minnesota native has developed into a certified MLR starter over his 4 years in Texas, with 11 of his 14 career starts coming in the last 2 seasons, including 5 starts in 5 games so far in 2025. Albert has scored 3 MLR tries and is approaching both 1,000m made in possession & 350 tackles completed and, after setting career highs in both categories last season, is well on track to do the same again this year! Albert was drafted 2nd overall by the Houston SaberCats in the 2021 MLR Collegiate Draft out of Lindenwood University, meaning that his half-century of games comes with an MLR first: Emmanuel Albert is the first MLR Draftee to reach 50 games played in the competition! This is a testament to the viability of the draft and the player pathway system, as well as to Albert’s hard work and determination. Congratulations, Emmanuel!

Source: @usmlr via Instagram

The final player to enter the 50-cap club in Round 6 is Ex-Rugby New York Ironworker and 2022 MLR Champion, Connor Buckley! The Iona College alum earned his 19th appearance (11th start) for Old Glory DC in their victory over New England, to add to his 31 games for New York between 2021-2023! Buckley has 30 starts in his MLR career and 9 tries including the first (and to date, only) playoff hat trick in MLR history in the 2024 Eastern Conference Semifinal, also against New England. Congratulations, Connor!

Wrapping Up

Another team joins the 100 club, a trio of kickers reach new scoring milestones, and a handful of players earn appearance achievements! That does it for all the standout stats from another week of Major league Rugby action, and the Midweek Milestones article for Round 6 of the 2025 season. Be sure to check back next week for Midweek Milestones from the 7th match week of the 2025 Major League Rugby season, we we see more MLR firsts?

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 5 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

After 5 weeks of Major league Rugby action, we’re beginning to enter the mid-season stretch where teams and fans are getting a decent idea of how their team performs, and who are the teams to look out for. Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, highlighting the Standout Stats from Round 5 of MLR2025!

For those of you who may be new to this series, these weekly articles highlight milestones achieved by players and teams that might have gone under the radar in order to bring attention to them, as well as inform fans of some of the big milestones and the less publicized (but no less deserving) achievements around the League.

Hodgson passes Quarter-Century!

The Utah Warriors are enjoying a very strong start to their 2025 season, sitting 2nd in the Western Conference with a 3-1 record. Although the majority of the kicking duties have fallen to test capped Samoan D’Angelo Leuila, Warriors stalwart Joel Hodgson is proving a very capable back-up from the tee this year. The Newcastle Falcons centurion has 1 try and 6 successful place kicks this season for 18pts on the year including 2pts in the Warriors’ most recent victory over the Miami Sharks, in which they recorded the 50th Try Bonus Point in team history, the third team to do so behind (you guessed it) the San Diego Legion and Seattle Seawolves.

These two points took Hodgson’s career MLR points total to 251pts since making the move to Utah in 2023. This makes Joel Hodgson the first player in Utah Warriors history to pass 250pts scored for the team, and just the 12th player in league history to pass 250pts scored in the competition! He sits 12th all-time in terms of Points Scored in MLR, and may just enter the Top 10 this season. Congratulations, Joel!

Appearance Achievements

The 5th Round of the 2025 Major League Rugby season continued to see players reaching their 50th cap in the competition. Three players reached the half-century, while one other player began their MLR journey, earning their debut over the weekend.

The first of this week’s trio of 50-cappers is test capped Argentinian prop Juan Pablo ‘JP’ Zeiss, who earned his 50th MLR appearance for the Seattle Seawolves, although this was only his 4th game representing the PNW team. Zeiss entered Major League Rugby with the Houston SaberCats in 2022, earning 14 appearances including 13 starts, scoring 2 tries and running for over 500m gained as a front row! Following his debut season, Zeiss headed to Dallas where he earned 32 appearances for the Jackals over two seasons, starting 31 times and scoring a career-high 3 tries in 2023. Now playing in Seattle following the downfall of the Jackals, Zeiss has started a very impressive 48 of his 50 MLR appearances, completing 379 tackles and has 1,359m to his name, putting him in the Top 5 all-time for props! Congratulations, JP!

In what has felt like a weekly occurrence this season, another New England Free Jacks player celebrated their 50th MLR appearance over the weekend, Wian Conradie! The 2023 MLR Forward of the Year and 2x MLR Champion has represented New England since 2021 and became the 6th Free Jack to reach 50 games for the team. Despite missing much of 2024 due to injury, ‘The Bus’ has started 47 of his 50 games and has over 3,250m made and 728 tackles in his MLR career so far, as well as 16 tries including a high of 7 in 2023 when he also finished 3rd in league tackling for the 2nd time (also finished 2nd in 2021)! Congratulations, Wian!

Source: @NEFreeJacks via Instagram

NOLA Gold stalwart and New Orleans native Will Waguespack became the 10th Gold player to reach 50 MLR appearances for the team! Having spent his whole MLR career there after joining ahead of the inaugural season in 2018, Waguespack worked his way into the MLR side through the Gold academy, becoming a regular substitute in 2022 before breaking into the Starting XV in 2024. He started 11 of his 15 games during the Gold‘s best season to date and scored his only MLR try for the team that season. the 6’6 lock has started 22 of his 50 MLR games, and sits just 1 tackle shy of 250 in his MLR career. Congratulations, Will!

Also representing the Gold and in fact replacing Will Waguespack in the second half over the weekend was Kaden Duguid. The test capped Canadian lock earned his MLR debut off the bench for the NOLA Gold and although he may just be starting his MLR career, earning his league debut is a brilliant achievement for the 25yo lock from Edmonton, AB. Congratulations, Kaden!

Meters Made Anomalies

There were some more oddities in Round 5 when it comes to team meters made totals. The NOLA Gold recorded only 228m made as a team in their closely contested match against the New England Free Jacks, which is the 3rd lowest total for an MLR team ever! The Free Jacks weren’t far off of doubling the Gold’s total, racking up 410m made of their own. This figure could reflect the tight nature of the game, or show that the NOLA Gold were less inclined to run kicks back, instead kicking them away. This is supported by the Gold’s 668 kicking meters, but makes for an eyebrow raising stat in isolation!

Similarly, the Chicago Hounds recorded the 3rd lowest winning meters made total in MLR history during their first ever victory over Old Glory DC, making just 20m more than the Gold for a total of 248m compared the their opponents 436m. The top meter eater for the Hounds was Adriaan Carelse with 43m, which would put him 4th on DC for that game. Luckily for the Hounds, they bagged the win thanks to 13pts from the boot of Chris Hilsenbeck, and two tries from Maclean Jones to take his MLR total to 10, becoming the 3rd player to reach double figure tries scored with the Hounds.

Although these anomalies may be a bit ‘in the weeds’, they could make a superb pub quiz answer one day, you never know!

Team of the Week Milestones

By sheer coincidence, the Team of the Week for Round 5 (or as MLR calls it, the First XV) saw not just one, not just two, but three different teams reach three different milestones when it comes to team of the week selections!

With 4 selections in this week’s First XV, the Chicago Hounds move up to 13 selections on the season, more than any other team in 2025 so far! All-time, this moved the Hounds past the 50 selection point, now sitting on 51 thanks to nods for Paddy Ryan (1st of 2025, 3rd career), Mason Flesch (1st of 2025, 5th career), Mac Jones (2nd of 2025, 5th career), and Chris Hilsenbeck (1st career!)!

Moving to a (slightly) more established club, and the Hounds opponents in Round 5, Old Glory DC picked up three selections of their own despite not securing the win, and moved past 100 Team of the Week selections all time! Now on 102 First XV selections thanks to nods for Jack Iscaro (1st of 2025, 9th career), KoiKoi Nelligan (2nd career, back-to-back selections!), and Perry Humphreys (1st of 2025, 2nd career), Old Glory DC sit with the 7th most First XV selections among active teams!

Source: @usmlr via Instagram

From a newer MLR team, to a more established team, to a founding member. The Utah Warriors emerged victorious over the Miami Sharks and picked up just a single First XV selection in Round 5, as Zion Going received the first MLR Team of the Week selection of his career thanks to a 2-try performance. This was the Utah Warriors’ 150th First XV selection, becoming just the 4th team in league history to reach 150 selections! They now sit just one First XV nod behind the NOLA Gold, on 151.

Seattle Scrum Supremacy!

Following the introduction of new law trials for the 2025 Major league Rugby season, there has been much talk about the ‘de-emphasis’ of the scrum. This message has not made it to Washington state, however. The Seattle Seawolves have had 33 scrums of their own so far this season, second only to the Miami Sharks with 40. Unlike the Sharks, however, the Seawolves are yet to lose a scrum on their own put in. They are the only team in MLR that have won 100% of their scrums in 2025!

Although Seattle is having an up and down season to begin 2025, and suffered their first ever defeat to Rugby FC LA over the weekend, at least fans can be sure that the Seawolves scrum will be solid!

Wrapping Up

A points milestone, a trio of half-centuries, a MLR debut, and more! That wraps up the 5th edition of NARDB’s Midweek Milestones! Thanks as always for taking the time to read this article, I hope you enjoyed it at least half as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you really liked it, please give it a share as it helps to support the site and grow Major league Rugby at the same time, win/win! Be sure to check back next week for Midweek Milestones from Round 6 of the 2025 Major League Rugby season, we’re rapidly approaching the half-way mark!

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 3 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

The 2025 Major League Rugby Season is flying, and we’re already three rounds into the new season with plenty to discuss! This article will highlight milestones and achievements from Round 3 that may have otherwise gone unnoticed, while also covering some of the larger milestones from the latest round of MLR action.

Midweek Milestones is a weekly series of articles that aims to highlight milestones achieved by players and/or teams that may go under the radar otherwise, but are no less worthy of recognition and praise. This series of articles will be released midweek (clue is in the name…) each week, and will take milestones from the latest round of MLR matches during the 2025 season.

7th Time’s the Charm!

The Utah Warriors continued their early season form with a convincing 55-21 victory over the NOLA Gold in a cross-conference clash to celebrate their 2025 home opener at Zion’s Bank Stadium on Saturday, marking the Warriors’ first ever victory over the Gold on the 7th attempt!

Entering this game with a 0-6 record against NOLA and a -49 Points Difference, the game remained close until around the 50 minute mark when the Warriors stepped on the gas, scoring 5 second half tries and 8 in total to blow the visitors away. Their 55pts from this game, added to the 45pts scored by Utah in their first game in Round 2, put them on 100pts scored in 2025 in just two games. This equals a MLR record for the fastest team to reach 100pts scored in a season, first achieved by the Austin Gilgronis in 2022 (43-7 & 57-12, also 100pts in their first two games)!

To put the icing on the cake, three of the Utah Warriors’ tries were scored by Joe Mano, earning his 2nd career MLR hat trick to become just the 4th player in League history to score multiple hat tricks in the competition, and the first Utah Warrior! This takes Mano’s career try total to 30, becoming just the 7th player in history to reach 30 tries scored in Major League Rugby! Congratulations, Joe!

Miami Reach 50 Meat Pies!

The Miami Sharks secured back to back wins (just!) to put them atop the Eastern Conference following a bruising game against Anthem RC on Friday night, with the USA’s Rising Stars coming closer than ever to their first win. Despite efforts to make it interesting at the end in classic Sharks fashion, Miami edged a 31-32 victory on the road, picking up 4 tries and a bonus point for their considerable efforts.

Of these four Miami tries, the third was scored by Ben Bonasso which on it’s own is simply a try in a close game. However, this try marked the 50th in Franchise history for the Sharks! They proceeded to add a 51st try from Tomas Bekerman to secure the Try Bonus Point late in the game, but the milestone try belongs to Ben Bonasso and the Sharks franchise, congratulations!

‘The Mechanic’ Hits a Half-Century

A strong runner and a formidable tackler, Joe ‘The Mechanic’ Johnston is playing in his 4th Major League Rugby Campaign in 2025 and, on Sunday reached 50 games played in the competition! Johnston has represented the New England Free Jacks for his entire MLR career, joining ahead of the 2021 season and playing with New England through their first Championship victory in 2023. He returned to his native New Zealand for 2024 in order to finish his studies but returned to Quincy this season, much to the delight of fans.

In each of his MLR seasons so far (not including 2025), Johnston has made over 500m in possession and completed well over 150 tackles, finishing in the Top 10 MLR tacklers twice (2021 & 2022), and achieving personal bests in both categories in 2022 (592m and 220 tackles). As of this article he has 1,739m made and 622 tackles completed (#24 all time). Johnston has started 39 of his 50 appearances in MLR (78%) and scored 8 MLR tries to date, and has been serving as the New England Captain for their 2025 season, where he was named as the Free Jacks’ Player of the Match on his 50th appearance. Congratulations, Joe!

Source: @NEFreeJacks via Instagram

The Legion pass 3,000!

The San Diego Legion continued their impressive start to the season with a bonus point victory on the road against Old Glory DC, with the 10-26 storyline perhaps flattering the visitors, as a frigid Maryland Saturday made for a low scoring, stop-start game. The San Diego Legion only managed 243m gained in total (compared to Old Glory’s 396m), setting a new MLR record for the lowest meters gained total in a winning effort, surpassing the previous record of 274m set by the Houston SaberCats in Round 4 of 2021!

Christian Poidevin’s 2nd try of the 2025 season secured the try bonus point for the Legion in the final few minutes, marking his 12th career MLR try. This try also pushed the San Diego Legion over the 3,000pts scored milestone as a franchise, becoming just the 2nd MLR team to pass the 3k mark after the Seattle Seawolves back in Round 1 (read more on that here)! The Legion now sit on 3,004 points scored, just behind their rivals the Seawolves, on 3,037.

Struggles in Seattle

On the topic of the Seattle Seawolves, their uncharacteristic start to the 2025 season looks to have gone from bad to worse following a narrow 21-24 defeat to the Houston SaberCats, falling to 0-2 on the season. As mentioned in a previous NARDB Article analyzing the increase in cards in recent MLR seasons, the Seattle Seawolves had never received a red card coming into the 2025 season. Unfortunately, that changed in dramatic fashion on Saturday evening.

In the 71st minute, while still holding a 17-21 lead, Pago Haini was showed a straight red card, becoming the first Seawolves player to ever receive a red card. An unenviable record that I’m sure Haini would rather forget. Houston would score to take the lead shortly after, before Juice Gumede was also shown a second straight red card in the 76th minute to reduce Seattle to 13 men for the final few minutes! The Seawolves had gone over 100 MLR games without seeing a red card, and suddenly two come along at once! Seattle will likely be without Haini or Gumede for the next few weeks, depending on their suspensions.

Sadly for Seawolves fans, that wasn’t quite all the bad news. They only managed 213m made in this game compared to Houston’s 387m made. This is the 2nd lowest carrying meters total in MLR history, only just ahead of the 202m made (also by the Seattle Seawolves) in Round 13 of the 2022 season against the Austin Gilgronis.

Source: @SeawolvesRugby via Twitter/X

It wasn’t quite entirely doom and gloom for the Seattle Seawolves, however. If any fans are looking for something to celebrate from this game, they did take a losing bonus point from this game and prevent the Houston SaberCats (their Western Conference rivals) from taking a try bonus point from this game.
On top of this, Seawolves’ South African hooker Kerron van Vuuren made his MLR debut for Seattle, becoming the 150th player to represent the team in an MLR game. van Vuuren scored a try on debut to cap off a milestone game for both him and the team, even if the result didn’t go the way they hoped.

In Conclusion

A first for the Utah Warriors, the San Diego Legion reach 3k, the Miami Sharks pass 50 tries scored, and more! That’s all for the 3rd edition of Midweek Milestones from Round 3 of Major League Rugby’s 2025 season.

If you like this series, please let me know on social media and share this article to help highlight these achievements! If there’s anything that may have been missed that you feel is worth mentioning, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB or James via social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay and @NARDB on Bluesky!

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