Tag: Old Glory DC

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from the 2026 MLR Playoffs!

James Deeley

The 2026 Major League Rugby season was always going to be a sprint rather than a marathon and after months of waiting for kickoff, we find ourselves at the end of the season in the blink of an eye. Despite contracting to just 6 teams, the 2026 Campaign proved thoroughly entertaining with a competitive regular season and a pair of entertaining semifinals (albeit for very different reasons), culminating in a massive rugby party for the Championship Game in Chicago.

After a week off, welcome back to the final Midweek Milestones article of the 2026 season! This series dives into all the standout stats, player, and team milestones from the latest MLR games, so that ‘statsheads’ like myself don’t miss a thing. Although this series has been weekly for most of the season, rather than having a separate article for the Semifinals and Championship, this article will cover the entire playoffs as a whole. With an emphasis on ‘postseason’ stats, this article will likely end up longer than normal anyway given the sheer number of records that seemed to have been broken! Breaking with tradition slightly, this article will be split into the Semifinals, and the Final. Let’s start with the Semis!

The Semifinals

Appearance Achievements

The 2026 Semifinals saw a pair of players reach a half-century of appearances in major League Rugby, one in each match-up! Starting chronologically as the Semifinals kicked off with the Seattle Seawolves hosting the California Legion at the formidable Starfire Stadium in Tukwila. The Legion’s starting hooker, capped USA Eagle and 2019 World Rugby Men’s Player of the Year Nominee Joe Taufete’e is playing in his 5th MLR season for his 5th different team, finally reaching his half-century of appearances in the competition!

Born in American Samoa, ‘Big Joe’ earned his test debut for the USA Eagles against South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England, earning his test debut on the sport’s biggest stage before ever playing a professional game. This changed in early 2016 when he joined the San Diego Breakers in the short lived PRO Rugby competition. Following it’s only season of play, Taufete’e returned across the pond to join the Worcester Warriors in the English Premiership, playing there from 2016-2020. It was while playing for Worcester that Taufete’e became the first (and to date, only) player from a ‘tier 2’ nation to be nominated for World Rugby Men’s Player of the Year. Following his time with the Warriors, and a stint in France with Lyon, Taufete’e returned to California to join the LA Giltinis for the 2022 season. To date, Taufete’e has scored 23 tries in 37 games for the USA, with the most recent coming in July 2022.

Although he played a cup of coffee with the Leicester Tigers during the 2022/23 Premiership season, Taufete’e has played in every season of MLR since 2022, representing the LA Giltinis (2022), Houston SaberCats (2023), Seattle Seawolves (2024), NOLA Gold (2025), and now the California Legion, where he now reached 50 appearances, starting 35 times. He’s appeared in all 11 games for the Legion so far this season, starting 7 times and scoring 3 tries to take his career total to 19, including a high of 8 in 14 games for the Seawolves in 2024. Congratulations, Joe!

The day after Taufete’e earned his 50th MLR appearance, another front rower earned his 50th MLR appearance in the other Semifinal between the Chicago Hounds and Old Glory DC. Brazilian prop/hooker Wilton Rebolo came off the bench in the Hounds’ demolition of DC to earn his half-century of appearances, starting 13 of his now 51 games in MLR, 4 of which came for the Hounds in 2026.

The São Jose dos Campos native is a Brazilian veteran, having earned his test debut for the national team back in 2015 (the same time as Taufete’e was earning his debut with the USA, coincidentally). He signed with the Austin Gilgronis ahead of the 2020 season but a knee injury in the pre-season meant that he played no part that year, which only lasted 5 rounds before it was cancelled due to COVID-19. He returned to MLR in 2021, this time as a member of the Rugby New York Ironworkers. Rebolo, the first Brazilian to play in MLR, represented New York for 2 seasons, starting 7 of his 27 games and scoring 2 tries. He earned 5 starts in 15 games (both still his career highs) in 2022 to help the Ironworkers to lift the Shield that season, ending the campaign as an MLR Champion before heading to Australia where he had earned a contract with the Western Force, becoming the first Brazilian to play in Super Rugby.

Rebolo returned to MLR in 2024, joining the Australian-heavy Rugby FC LA after they relocated from Atlanta. He earned 2 starts in 7 games for RFCLA during their debut season, before joining the Houston SaberCats the following year, where he scored his 3rd career MLR try and earned 10 appearances to help the ‘Cats advance to the 2025 Championship Game where they fell to the New England Free Jacks. Following the surprise withdrawal of the SaberCats from MLR following the 2025 season, Rebolo joined the Chicago Hounds, where he earned 4 starts in 7 appearances as a part of their undefeated campaign, and made it to his 3rd final to claim his 2nd Shield. Congratulations, Wilton!

Matthews passes 5k!

Lost among the disappointment of the Seattle Seawolves’ elimination from the 2026 season following their loss to the California Legion was a remarkable achievement by one of their main metre eaters this year. Although they fell to the Legion, the Seattle Seawolves recorded over 500m gained, with 142 of those gained by one man alone, Duncan Matthews.

This is the highest metres gained total of the entire 2026 Postseason, and pushes him over 800m gained on the season, averaging 80.6m in each of his 10 appearances this year and finishing as the Round Leader for metres gained no fewer than three times in 2026. What’s unbelievable about Matthews, is that this average is actually down on his career average, which sits at 87.9m gained per game across his 57 game career with the Seawolves so far. The more mathematically inclined readers made have already put together that this means that in the Semifinal match, Duncan Matthews’ career metres gained total passed 5,000m!

Matthews is just the 7th player in MLR history to have passed the 5km gained mark, and his average is far higher than any of the 6 players above him which includes the likes of MLR legends Mikey Te’o, Billy Meakes, and Paula Balekana! Matthews’ 806m gained in 2026 is the most of any player this season, and over 100m higher than Brock Webster in 2nd with 667m gained for the Chicago Hounds. He recorded 28 defenders beaten and scored 3 tries to take his career total to 20, knocking on the door of MLR’s Top 20 try scorers. Congratulations, Duncan!

Semifinal Scoring Stats

The first of the two 2026 MLR Semifinals was defined by a kicking duel between Seawolves fly-half Davy Coetzer, and his California Legion counterpart Coby Miln. Both had been dynamite from the tee all year, with Miln entering the postseason as MLR’s top scorer, and Coetzer not far behind. It was a back and forth opening 40 minutes and at the break, the score was even at 16-16 with only 1 try scored. 22 of the 32pts in the first half were scored by either Coetzer or Miln, with both players flawless from the tee and equal on 11pts each.

As the second half progressed, Coetzer and Miln remained neck and neck, and even as the Legion began to pull away on the scoreboard, these two stayed neck and neck. It wasn’t until Coetzer missed a 70th minute conversion, and Miln slotted a penalty 4 minutes later, that there was daylight between the two. The two playmakers had combined for 42pts and gone 16/17 from the tee, with Davy Coetzer scoring 19pts to Coby Miln’s 23. The New Zealander went 9/9 from the tee, equalling a record for most successful place kicks by a player in a single MLR game, set by Toronto Arrows legend Sam Malcolm back in 2019 and equalled by AJ Alatimu in 2022, although neither Malcolm (9/10) nor Alatimu (9/12) went 100%! Unsurprisingly, Miln’s 23pts is a new Legion single game record, passing his own previous record of 18pts. It’s also a new MLR record for the most points scored by a player in a MLR playoff game, surpassing the 21pts scored by Alatimu for the Seawolves against the (San Diego) Legion back in 2022! Congratulations, Coby!

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Prior to the 2026 postseason, the highest scoring playoff game in MLR history was a 73pt Western Conference Final match back in 2022, where the Seattle Seawolves defeated the Houston SaberCats 27-46. 4 years later, the Seattle Seawolves were involved once again as that record was broken. Despite playing in front of a home crowd at Starfire Stadium, their fortress where they had won 21 of their last 24 games heading into the postseason (including against the California Legion just the week before…), the Seawolves came out on the wrong side of this one. They fell 34-43 to a clinical Legion side, with both sides combining for 77pts, the highest scoring playoff game in MLR history! While the previous record had stood for years, this one wouldn’t stand for long at all, though.

Less that 24 hours later the Chicago Hounds hosted Old Glory DC in the second Semifinal of 2026 and as mentioned above, it was a demolition. The Hounds put up a huge 59pts against the Flags who probably gave them the toughest time during the regular season, and the final scoreline of 59-22 only looks somewhat reasonable due to two late scores from DC. The combined score of 81pts surpasses the 77pts of the previous semifinal and sets a new record for the highest scoring playoff game. How long will this one last?

The Hounds have now scored 61pts, 59pts twice, and 57pts during the 2026 season. The 59pts scored against DC is the highest points ever scored by a team in a MLR Playoff game, surpassing the previous record of 46pts scored by the Seattle Seawolves back in 2022, when they defeated the Houston SaberCats 27-46 in the Western Conference Final. The 37pt winning margin also sets a new record for the largest margin of victory in a MLR playoff game, replacing another Seawolves record of 24pts when they defeated the San Diego Legion 43-19 in the 2022 Western Eliminator. This 24pts was tied by the Chicago Hounds themselves when they defeated the NOLA Gold 21-45 in the 2024 Eastern Conference Semifinals. For the cherry on top of their huge victory over perennial playoff contenders Old Glory DC, the Hounds’ 8 tries in this game took them over 250 tries scored in Major League Rugby! Chicago moved up to 254 tries scored after the Semifinal, with Peyton Wall’s 33rd minute score marking the 250th try in franchise history.

The Final

Champagne Sundays

It is a safe bet that the weather for the 2026 Major League Rugby Championship game in Chicago was the worst of any final in league history, with torrential rain cancelling other events across the city. It didn’t dampen the spirits of the 4,400+ fans that turned up to SeatGeek Stadium to watch the hometown Chicago Hounds take on the California Legion for what would’ve been the first Shield for either side. If you are reading this article, you likely already know the result. The Chicago Hounds capped off a perfect season with the perfect ending, defeating the Legion 35-17 to record the first undefeated season in MLR history, going 12-0 through the regular season and playoffs. The nearest any other MLR team has come to a perfect season was the 2023 San Diego Legion team that went 16-2, but one of those losses came in the Final where they fell to the New England Free Jacks, also in Chicago but with far better weather!

The 2026 Chicago Hounds will go down in MLR legend as the first perfect season and the most dominant side in league history. It’s hard to make the case against them being the best side the league has ever seen, they don’t seem to have an obvious weakness, they can play all kinds of different styles, and their depth is incredible. Yes the 2026 campaign was only a maximum of 12 games, down from the 18 or 19 games required to make the final in previous seasons, but you can only play what’s in front of you, and boy did the Hounds do that. They recorded over 550pts and 81 tries scored in just 12 games, scoring at least 4 tries in every single match, regular season or playoff. For context, their 461pts scores in the 10-game 2026 regular season is higher than last year’s champions, the New England Free Jacks, scored across the sixteen game regular season last year!

In a year of high scoring postseason games, the 2026 Championship was no different. Yes, at a combined 52pts it was far lower than the 77pts and 81pts of the Semifinals, but this is the highest scoring Final in Major League Rugby history, surpassing the previous record of 50pts on the final kick of the game from Chris Hilsenbeck. This previous record was set just last year when the New England Free Jacks defeated the Houston SaberCats 28-22 in Rhode Island to claim their 3rd Shield in a row.

Finals Scoring

As mentioned, it was Chris Hilsenbeck’s penalty in the final minute of the game that cemented the 2026 Final as the highest scoring Championship game in league history, but that was only one of his six successful kicks from the tee throughout the game. Capped by the USA USA Eagle went 6/7 in miserable conditions, notching 3 penalties and 3 conversions for 15pts in total to tie the record for the most points ever scored by a single player in a Championship game, set by Jayson Potroz for the Free Jacks in 2024. These 15pts pushed him over 100pts on the season this year, moving into MLR’s Top 20 Points scorers with 224pts scored across his MLR career including 52pts in the playoffs, the highest among active players and 4th all-time. Congratulations, Chris!

Hilsenbeck’s 15pts made a large chunk of the Chicago Hounds’ 35pts on the night. As with many things the Hounds have done this season, this is also a record. It’s the most points ever scored by a team in the Championship game, just overtaking the LA Giltinis in their 31-17 victory over Rugby ATL in 2021 and marks the 3rd time that a side has scored over 30pts in the Final along with the Rugby New York Ironworkers, who defeated the Seattle Seawolves 30-15 back in 2022.

On the subject of scoring, now that the season is complete we know the identity of the top scorer from the 2026 season and it’s someone who has already been mentioned in this article for breaking records but isn’t a Chicago Hound! In his debut season in Major League Rugby, fly-half Coby Miln appeared in the maximum of 12 games to help the California Legion advance to the Championship game in their first season post-merger, scoring a huge 130pts in total to finish as MLR’s Top Scorer in a season where this author doubted if any player would even break 100! Finishing 26pts head of both Davy Coetzer & Chris Hilsenbeck (tied for 2nd with 104pts each) that included 35pts in the playoffs, Miln recorded a success rate of over 85% from the tee which is easily the highest among players that have finished the season as Top Scorer, and his 10.8pts per game is the highest by a top scorer since Jason Robertson’s 13.4ppg back in 2020, when the season was cancelled after 5 games! Congratulations, Coby!

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If scoring over 100pts in MLR’s 2026 ‘sprint season was a big ask, scoring 10+ tries looked almost impossible. However, just as there were 3 players to break a century in points scored, there were a pair of players to reach double-figures in tries scored and this time, they both represent the newly crowned Champs, and both dotted down in the Championship game! Finishing the season in 2nd place with a hugely impressive 10 tries scored in his 11 appearances is Canadian international Mason Flesch, who split his season between lock and back row across his 11 starts in 2026, and reached double figures with a somewhat trademark Flesch score in the Final. The former Toronto Arrow entered his 3rd season with the Hounds on 9 tries scored in his MLR career, and more than doubled that in a breakout campaign that saw him pick up 3 MLR First XV selections this season and put his name up as a Forward of the Year candidate!

In any other season, Flesch’s 10 tries in 11 games would be extraordinary. To achieve that and finish second in tries scored however, is almost unbelievable. But that is exactly what happened this season, with Mason Flesch sat behind Chicago Hounds hooker Theo Fourie who averaged a try a game in 2026, finishing with 11 tries scored in his 11 appearances (10 starts) en route to the Shield! The Super Rugby front row was brought in as a replacement for outgoing MLR legend (and all-time leading try scorer) Dylan Fawsitt, and it’s safe to say that he was up to the huge task of filling that gap in the Hounds pack. Fourie was at the centre of the fearsome Chicago set piece, and completed 79 tackles of his own while beating 13 defenders to earn a pair of MLR First XV selections. The 21 tries scored by Fourie and Flesch alone accounted for over a quarter (25.9%) of all Hounds tries this season, and isn’t far behind the New England Free Jacks’ team total of 29 tries scored in the entire 2026 season. Congratulations, Mason & Theo!

The ‘Curse of First’

Earlier in this article mentioned the 2021 season where the LA Giltinis lifted their first and only MLR Shield. For a long time, they were the first and only side in Major League Rugby to have topped the standings in the regular season, and went on to lift the Shield in the same season. The Seattle Seawolves, who have made it to 4 finals and lifted the Shield twice in the early years of the league, never finished as regular season leaders. None of the New England Free Jacks teams during their threepeat run did either. In fact, the only time the Free Jacks did finish as regular season leaders was in 2022, the season before their first Shield when they were knocked out by eventual Champions Rugby New York in the Eastern Conference Finals. This rather bizarre pattern has been dubbed ‘The Curse of First’, but even that couldn’t defeat the 2026 Chicago Hounds.

Completing the first undefeated season in MLR history, the Hounds overcome ‘The Curse of First’ and become the first team in 5 years (and just the 2nd team ever!) to finish the MLR regular season as league leaders and lift the Shield in the same season. It serves as further proof that absolutely nothing was going to stop the Chicago Hounds from claiming their first MLR Championship, but is the curse gone for good, or just for this year? League leaders are still 2-8 when it comes to lifting the Shield, but we’ll have to wait for 2027 to find out…

Wrapping Up

With the Shield having been awarded, the 2026 Major League Rugby ‘Sprint Season’ has come to an end. Although shorter than previous years and probably less far-reaching, it was no doubt entertaining and one of the more competitive seasons from week to week, if not from game to game. With the obvious exception, any team could beat any other team on any given week, and it took until the very last regular season game to decide the playoff match-ups. In the end, the best team (possibly ever) lifted the Shield, bringing the first MLR Championship to Chicago. Congratulations to the Chicago Hounds from the staff to the players to the fans, your deserving 2026 Major League Rugby Champions!

As the curtain has fallen on the 2026 campaign, so it does on these Midweek Milestones articles also. Whether you read one paragraph 6 weeks ago, only read this article, or came back every single week, thank you. Please let us know if you enjoyed these articles, what you liked about them or what we could improve, or if anything was missed throughout the postseason. Who knows what the long dark off-season may bring, but there are USA & Canada international matches to look forward to soon, followed by the 2026 MLR Draft likely some time in August, and there’s bound to be all sorts of other news sprinkled in over the next weeks and months. Thanks again for reading Midweek Milestones, and welcome to the off-season!

You can find NARDB/James on social media here: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

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

MLR Player Movement: 2026 Season End – July 5th, 2026

James Deeley

It’s been a couple of weeks since the Chicago Hounds lifted the Shield on a soaking wet Sunday evening at SeatGeek Stadium, and the lack of Major League Rugby is starting to set it. However, just because there are no more matches doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to talk about. The Nations Championship and Nations Cup competitions have kicked off and will provide a month of top quality test matches every weekend, the 2026 MLR Collegiate Draft will be held in roughly 6 weeks time, and between then and now, there will be all sorts of tidbits involving players, teams, and MLR itself!

While Midweek Milestones tends to be NARDB’s go-to articles while matches are being played, during the off-season the news shifts to player signings and as the purpose of this site is to keep fans as imformed as possible, it would be remiss of us to go without summarising all the player movement to, from, and within Major League Rugby. These summaries will be a constant throughout the MLR offseason, and will be weekly at most depending on the volume of player moves each week. Welcome to the first Player Movement summary of the 2026/27 off-season, covering the end of the 2026 season to July 5th, 2026!

Below is a summary graphic of all the moves this offseason so far:

Retirements

At the end of any professional sports season there will be a number of players who decide to call time on their career and hang up their boots. 2026 is no different, and there have already been three retirement announcements including a pair of MLR veterans, and it important that fans get the opportunity to recognise their outstanding careers, and say thank you.

The first player to announce his retirement after the 2026 MLR season actually announced it before his final game. On 17th June, a few days before the Championship game, English centre Ollie Devoto announced that he would be hanging up his boots at the conclusion of the 2026 MLR season. Devoto already had an impressive career before entering MLR for the 2025 season, having developed through the Bath system in England, he earned his Premiership debut in 2012 at the age of 18, and represented the club for 4 years, also representing the England U20 side before earning his test debut with England in the 2016 Summer Internationals. When the 2016/17 Premiership season started Devoto was still playing, but now representing the Exeter Chiefs. He played with the Chiefs from 2016-2024, earning over 100 appearances for the club and winning almost everything there was to win at club level including the Premiership Cup twice (2017/18, 2022/23), the Premiership itself twice (2016/17, 2019/20) while finishing as runners-up three times (2017/18, 2018/19, 2020/21), and even the European Champions Cup in 2019/20!

Ollie Devoto’s Exeter Chiefs resume alone would make for an outstanding pro career, but when his time with the club came to an end he headed across the pond to play in MLR, and represented the Chicago Hounds for 2 years. In his debut season with Chicago, Devoto averaged almost 10 tackles per game for 152 in his 16 appearances, starting all 16 and contributing an assist and 3 tries on over 450m gained to earn an All-MLR 2nd XV Selection. Returning for a second year with the Hounds after a heartbreaking defeat to the New England Free Jacks in the Eastern Conference Final, Devoto improved his production in half as many games on a dominant Hounds team, scoring another 3 tries and assisting a further 2 scores in 8 games (all starts) and making 16 tackles with 45m gained in the Championship Game as the Hounds claimed their first MLR Shield. Capping off his pro career with another Championship, Ollie Devoto can now add ‘MLR Champion’ to his already impressive resume. All the best in your retirement, Ollie!

The first retirement of the offseason proper was on the West Coast over in California. On June 27th, Fijian born loose forward Keni Nasoqeqe announced the end of his professional career after 8 seasons playing in MLR. Nasoqeqe began playing rugby at Lelean Memorial School in Fiji before moving to California in 2015 where he joined Belmont Shore RFC. It would be a few more years before he turned pro, joining the San Diego Legion ahead of their 2019 campaign. In his debut MLR season, Nasoqeqe started 12 of his 13 appearances for the Legion, gaining over 300m in possession while completing 138 tackles on defence to help the Legion advance to the Championship game (not for the last time in his MLR career), where they fell to the Seattle Seawolves in the dying seconds.

Nasoqeqe played with the San Diego Legion for 3 seasons between 2019-2021, earning 28 appearances (22 starts) and scoring 5 tries before swapping the beaches of California for Space City, joining the Houston SaberCats. He would spend the next 4 seasons in Black & Yellow, earning 17 appearances in 3 of his 4 seasons there for 63 appearances in total and starting 32 times including a career high of 14 in 2022. It was with the SaberCats that Nasoqeqe made it to his 2nd Championship game in 2025, coming off the bench as they fell to the New England Free Jacks. Following the unexpected withdrawal of the SaberCats from MLR, Nasoqeqe headed back to California to finish his career with the new look California Legion for the 2026 season. He appeared in every single Legion game during the season, starting 7 times and became a MLR Centurion after earning his 100th appearance to help them advance to their first, and his 3rd MLR Championship, falling to the Chicago Hounds. In total, 3x MLR Runner-Up Keni Nasoqeqe started 61 of his 103 appearances across 8 seasons, scoring 10 tries on over 1,800m gained in possession, and completing over 700 tackles on defence. Congratulations on a great career, Keni!

A few days after Keni Nasoqeqe announced his retirement, another MLR veteran did the same. On 3rd July, USA Eagle #525 Paul Mullen called time on his professional career following his ninth season in the competition in 2026. Born and raised in Ireland, Mullen played age-grade rugby for Munster under-18s, 19s, and 20s, as well as for Ireland under-19s before moving to Texas in 2011. When professional rugby came to Texas, the Houston SaberCats signed Mullen ahead of the inaugural season of Major League Rugby in 2018 and he would play with the ‘Cats for two seasons from 2018-2019, starting 7 of his 10 games with the team. While with the SaberCats, he was called up to the USA national team and earned his test debut in a 62-13 victory over Russia in June 2018, before heading to the UK where he played with the Newcastle Falcons in the Premiership and Doncaster Knights in the Championship during the MLR off-season before returning stateside.

For 2020, Paul Mullen moved from Texas to California and joined the San Diego Legion where he started all 5 games as the team went 5-0 before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When professional rugby returned to North America in 2021, Mullen had signed with the Utah Warriors where he would spend 4 seasons and is arguably the team he is most well known for playing with. Between 2021-2024, Mullen would start 37 of his 57 games for the Warriors, gaining over 120m in each season for over 600m gained for Utah in total including a career high of 193m in 2022. He also recorded his first 100+ tackle season, completing 112 tackles in 14 games in 2023. Following the 2024 campaign, the Utah Warriors cleaned house and bid farewell to over a dozen players from their squad, including Paul Mullen who headed from Utah to New Orleans to join the NOLA Gold where he had another productive year. For the Gold, he completed a career high 115 tackles and appeared in all 16 games (11 starts) that NOLA played that year, passing 500 tackles made in his MLR career as a prop.

With the NOLA Gold withdrawing from the competition after the 2025 season Paul Mullen moved to his fifth different MLR franchise when he joined Old Glory DC in the nation’s capital. He started all 11 games for the Flags in the shortened 2026 campaign, completing 74 tackles to help the team squeeze into the postseason when they unfortunately ran into the juggernaught Chicago Hounds in the semifinals. Along with representing his adopted country, Paul Mullen has started 71 of his 99 appearances (yes, 99!) throughout his 9 seasons in Major League Rugby across 5 different franchises, gaining over 800m in possession and completing over 600 tackles. Congratulations on a fantastic career, Paul!

Heading Across the Pond

Along with the trio of retiring legends, five players from the 2026 season have picked up contracts across the pond for the upcoming 2026/27 seasons in european competitions. This is not uncommon and shows the talent on display in Major League Rugby this year. Of these 5 Europe-bound players, 3 of them are headed to the UK so let’s kick it off there.

Starting in New England, where the Free Jacks never quite got it together for the 2026 season, and missed out on the postseason despite showing glimpses of the x3 Champions that we are used to seeing. One of their (many) new signings for 2026, Kienan Higgins, took a detour on the way to Boston to join Edinburgh Rugby in the URC on a short term deal before linking up with the Free Jacks prior to the start of the season. Clearly Higgins impressed in the Scottish capital, as on 27th May (yes, long before the MLR season was over) the club announced that they had signed Higgins to a full one-year contract for the 2026/27 URC season, linking up with his younger brother Riley. Higgins started all 9 of his games for the Free Jacks in 2026, contributing 2 tries and an assist on over 325m gained with ball in hand and averaged 13.4 tackles per game for a total of 121 on the season. Best of luck, Kienan!

Staying in the UK but moving from Scotland and the URC down to England and CHAMP Rugby, the fully professional 2nd tier of English Rugby. On 19th June 2026, the Doncaster Knights announced the signing of English hooker Ben Sugars from the California Legion for their 2026/27 Campaign. The Super Rugby capped Ben Sugars spent two season in MLR playing with Rugby FC LA (2025) and the California Legion (2026), starting 14 of his 22 games and scoring 6 tries in total, 4 of which came in 2026 to help the Legion end the season as Runners-Up. Sugars completed just under 200 tackles (198) and gained well over 350m in his MLR career and now returns home after a few years in Australia and the USA. Congratulations, Ben!

Sugars isn’t the only MLR player heading to England after the 2026 season, however. On 1st July, London Scottish announced that they had signed Patrick Beattie for their upcoming campaign. Scottish, who had played in CHAMP rugby in 2025/26, finished 13th and lost their relegation playoff to Blackheath, so will be playing their 2026/27 season in the semi-professional National League 1, but this is still a high standard of rugby. What is interesting is that Patrick Beattie is a MLR draftee, having been selected 26th overall by RFCLA out of Long Beach State University in 2024. The California native spent the 2025 season with RFCLA where he was teammates with Ben Sugars, before signing with Old Glory DC for the 2026 season. Beattie is yet to make his MLR debut, but now heads overseas for the chance of more gametime. Congratulations, Patrick!

Moving now away from the UK to the south, but not too far south. A pair of MLR names will be headed to France to compete in the French 2nd tier in 2026/27, the Pro D2. On June 25th, Stade Montois in the south of France announced the addition of Australian back row Baden Godfrey who joins after playing his debut season in MLR with Anthem RC in 2026. The 23yo Godfrey appeared in all 10 games for the Rising Stars is 2026, starting half of them and scoring 3 tries on 290m in possession beating an impressive 23 defenders. Despite not starting half of Anthem’s games this season, Godfrey averaged over 11 tackles per game and finished as their 2nd highest tackler with 112, just behind captain Johan Momsen on 119. Best of luck in France, Baden!

Godfrey will be joined in France by California Legion standout and fellow Australian Ben Houston, though not on the same side. On 1st July, Aurillac in central France announced the addition of 27yo Randwick back row after two years in MLR with RFCLA (2025) and the Legion (2026). He started all 22 of his appearances in MLR, scoring 14 tries in total including 6 in 8 games for the Legion this year in addition to a pair of assists and 13 defenders beaten en route to the 2026 Championship, which he started. Houston has averaged just under 11 tackles per game for 241 in total, gained over 900m in possessionand heads over to France as an MLR runner-up. Very best of luck in France, Ben!

Wrapping Up

A trio of retirements and five named headed to ply their trade in Europe in the Autumn just about does it for a relatively busy first few weeks of the offseason! As mentioned in the intro, these articles will come out most weeks depending on the volume of player movement to, from, and around MLR as we head deeper into the offseason. To reassure fans who may have noticed that all 8 of these moves are from MLR (retirements included), but this is typical for the early off-season as teams elsewhere in the world are busy recruiting for their upcoming seasons, but here in North America we have a long time to wait until the hype starts to build for the 2027 season.

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

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

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

James Deeley

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

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

Appearance Achievements

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

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

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

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

Hounds complete Perfect (Regular) Season!

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

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

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

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

Scoring Stats

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Newest Member of the 1000 Tackle Club!

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

Scorigami Check

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

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

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

Wrapping Up

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

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 8 of the 2026 MLR Season!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

There’s just under a third of the regular season still to play but we’re rapidly approaching the business end of the 2026 Major League Rugby season, and the first team has already locked in their place in the postseason! Other teams are still a week or two away from their clinching scenarios, but Round 8 definitely shook up the standings, and produced some standout stats in the process!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, the weekly article that dives into the numbers from the latest round of MLR action and pulls out the extreme, the unusual, and the standout stats! As already mentioned, Round 8 of the 2026 season really mixed the table up, and threw out some interesting numbers in the process, as usual! Let’s jump into the traditional Midweek Milestones start, with an appearance achievement!

Appearance Achievements

There’s one appearance achievement this week, and for the 2nd week in a row it belongs to an Old Glory DC player! Talismanic fly-half Jason Robertson earned his 48th start in his 50th appearance for the Flags in their nail-biting victory over their rivals the New England Free Jacks to record their 4th straight win in the Red, White and Blue bowl. That matchup is almost guaranteed to produce a close, entertaining game, but the Flags just know how to come out on the right side of it. On this occassion, it was thanks to a Man of the Match performance from Robertson in his 50th MLR game!

The New Zealander joined Old Glory DC ahead of their inaugural season in 2020, starting all 5 games before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the point the season was paused, Robertson had scored 2 tries and a huge 67pts in his 5 games, leading the entire league. He returned for the 2021 season with the Flags and continued to score at an impressive rate, recording 108pts in 14 games that season to finish 3rd league-wide, and gaining over 900m in possession. He had recorded 175pts scored in just 19 games for DC between 2020-21, averaging 9pts per game!

Following the 2021 MLR campaign, Robertson headed to France to join RC Narbonnais in the Pro D2 before joining Aviron Bayonnaise in the Top 14, once of the best professional rugby leagues in the world. After 3 years in France, Robertson returned to MLR and Old Glory DC ahead of the 2024 campaign and he picked up right where he left off, with a career high 138pts in 17 games (15 starts) including his first postseason appearance. Not only was this a career high in points, but it remains the Old Glory DC single-season record for points scored! Robertson was named to the All-MLR Honorable Mention XV for his efforts in his return.

‘Robocop’ has spent his entire MLR career with Old Glory DC, and has been a standout in each of the 5 seasons in which he has competed. He earned 2 team of the week selections in 7 games in 2025 before suffering a Lisfranc injury that sidelined him for a year, but now he’s back on the pitch and doesn’t seem to have lost a step at all! In his now 50 game MLR career, Jason Robertson has racked up 9 tries and 429pts scored for Old Glory DC, still hovering around that 9ppg average and making him MLR’s 3rd highest scorer of all time with a 70.62% success rate from the tee (125/177). Congratulations on earning your 50th MLR cap, Jason!

Hounds make it 7 in a row!

It seems like every week so far this season, the Chicago Hounds set or break a new record. Whether it be a franchise record for points scored, a huge performance from one of their players, or being the first team to secure their spot in the 2026 MLR Playoffs. The Hounds have been dominant so far this season, and have to record to back it up, sitting 7-0 and fourteen points ahead of the 2nd placed Seattle Seawolves!

The California Legion gave them their biggest test of the year so far last weekend, leading 19-12 at the half to mark the first time this year that the Hounds have trailed after 40 minutes, and the first time that they have not claimed the try bonus point in the first half. Chicago came out firing in the second half however, and after 20 minutes of great defence from the Legion, the dam burst and the Hounds ran away with a 26-36 road victory to sweep the regular season series against the California Legion.

This 7th consecutive victory sets a new franchise best win streak for the Chicago Hounds, surpassing the previous record of 6 achieved from Rounds 3-9 of the 2025 season. It also matches their longest possession of The Old Mate at 6 games (from their previous victory over the California Legion in Round 3, to this win in Round 8), also achieved during the same run last year. Congratulations yet again, Chicago!

Player Milestones

Like most weeks, Round 8 saw a handful of players reach some highly impressive individual milestones that absolutely deserve recognition, which is exactly the purpose of this article, so let’s get started with some tackle machines!

As mentioned above, the California Legion gave the Chicago Hounds their toughest test of the season in Round 8 and although they came up short, there still something for Legion fans to cheer about. MLR veteran and 2021 Champion Billy Meakes was one of only 2 Legion players to record double digit tackles made in that game, recording 12 completed tackles just behind Ed Timpson’s 14 completions. These 12 tackles took Meakes’ career total past 750 tackles made in total, becoming the 21st player in league history to pass that milestone, and just the 3rd back!

Already a member of the 5,000m gained club (sat 4th all-time on 5,622), Billy Meakes is now sat on 752 tackles made across his 79 game MLR career. This works out as 9.5 tackles per game as a centre! Meakes has recorded over 130 tackles completed for in 4 of his 5 seasons prior to 2026 (falling just short with 92 in his debut 2021 season), including back to back seasons with over 150 tackles in 2022-23. Meakes is currently above his average with 62 tackles in 6 games so far and while it may be a push, another 100+ tackle season isn’t quite off the table yet. Congratulations, Billy!

Moving a little further up the table from Billy Meakes at 750 tackles and across the country from Sacramento to DC, where Old Glory Captain and USA Eagle Ben Bonasso led from the front in his teams fourth straight victory over the defending champs, as mentioned earlier. Bonasso was one of the highest tackles on the Flags, recording 15 completed tackles to take his career total over 900 tackles completed! The Connecticut born, Buenos Aires raised back row moves up to 908 total tackles completed across his 75 game MLR career, starting 67 times and averaging 12.1 tackles per game.

Bonasso is currently tied for 5th player league-wide on 96 tackles for the 2026 season so far, and will likely pass 100 to record the 5th 100+ tackle season of his career which includes 4 seasons with 160+ tackles made, and a career high of 199 (so close!) for the New York Ironworkers back in their Shield winning season in 2022. Congratulations, Benja!

MLR ‘Scorigami’ for Round 8!

For those of you that follow this site on socials, you may have noticed that NARDB has been posting ‘Scorigami’ updates after each round this season. Scorigami was coined by Jon Bois in 2014 as a method of tracking all final scores in the NFL and has since grown in popularity and spread to other sports leagues, with a ‘Scorigami’ being a score that has never occurred before. NARDB has applied the same method to Major League Rugby but does not take credit for starting this, as I believe it began on the r/MLRugby subreddit.

The table below breaks down the three results from Round 8 of the 2026 Major League Rugby season, including how many times each score has occurred in the past and when, or if the final score is a MLR Scorigami!

26 – 36 57 – 21 Old Glory DC 24-23
2nd Occurrence🚨 SCORIGAMI! 🚨3rd Occurrence
26 – 36
2023 – RD 13		 23 – 24
2024 – RD 12
NOLA rugby 23 – 24
2022 – RD 3
Note: MLR Scorigami only takes into account the final score, and does not (yet) go deeper into whether the home/away score configuration has also happened before. For example, Old Glory DC defeated New England 24-23 as the home side, but this is counted as the same score as when New England defeated the San Diego Legion 23-24 as the away side.

Wrapping Up

The first playoff spot has been claimed thanks to a franchise-best win streak, one of MLR’s all-time top scorers reaches a half-century of appearances as his team sweep their rivals for the 2nd year running, and some big tackle milestones!

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Midweek Milestones! Hopefully I will see you next week, when we find out what sort of Midweek Milestones a high-stakes Round 9 will give us!. Please feel free to let me know what you thought of this article (and the new addition of the Scorigami Summary) on social media, or if you’ve found a milestone that I may have missed!

You can find NARDB/James on social media here: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

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



Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 6 of the 2026 MLR Season!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

In what feels like the blink of an eye, the midway point of the 2026 Major League Rugby season has been and gone! With only 10 games per team, there hasn’t been much room for errors so far this year and as we enter the final 5 game stretch, it’s crunch time!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, the weekly article that gets into the numbers from the latest round of MLR action and pulls out the extreme, the unusual, and the standout stats! Even though Round 6 only had a pair of matches, the numbers from these 2 games threw up quite a lot of interesting stuff, so let’s get into it!

Appearance Achievements

As usual we kick things off with the Appearance Achievements, and there’s just the one this week but for the second time in 2026, it concerns Major League Rugby veteran and Chicago Hounds forward Luke White!

A few weeks ago, Luke White became the 6th player in MLR history to reach 100 appearances in the competition and coming off the bench again in Week 6 during their hard fought victory over Old Glory DC, White becomes just the 2nd player to reach 50 appearances for the Chicago Hounds! White follows Maclean Jones into Chicago’s half-century club. Congratulations!

Seawolves earn 73rd win!

The Seattle Seawolves got their season off to a flying start with a home victory over Old Glory DC back in Week 2, which marked the 72nd victory in team history to tie with long time rivals the San Diego Legion with the most wins in Major League Rugby History!

As impressive an achievement as this is, you may be forgiven for beginning to think it was more of a curse. The Seawolves have been struggling with injuries for the entire season so far, and went on a 3-game losing streak after earning this 72nd win. That changed last weekend however, as they put in a clinical performance to claim a bonus point victory over the New England Free Jacks at the formidable Fort Quincy! The 11-27 victory is the 73rd in Seawolves history to take them ahead of the San Diego Legion as the team with the most wins in MLR history!

As the only remaining founding member of Major League Rugby, the Seattle Seawolves have played more games than any other team, recording their 73 victories in 127 games for a win rate of 57.48% and combining 64 wins in 114 regular season games (56.14%) with a remarkable 9 wins from 13 post-season matches (69.23%) that includes four visits to the MLR Championship Game, lifting the Shield twice! Congratulations, Seawolves!

Their opponents on Sunday, the New England Free Jacks, are really not far behind however with 69 wins in their 99 MLR games since joining in 2020 (2 seasons after Seattle!), with an incredible win rate of 69.7% across all games. They are 4 wins behind Seattle with at least 5 games left in 2026. It’s a tough ask, but I would never count them out.

Scoring Milestones

As mentioned, there were quite a few standout stats in Week 6 considering there were only a pair of matches, and most of them relate to scoring milestones so let’s get stuck in and while we’re talking about the Seattle Seawolves, let’s start there!

There was a bit of a twist ending to the Seawolves’ road victory over the Free Jacks. Seattle managed to secure the try bonus point with their 4th try of the game right at the death through Tiai Vavao’s first pro try and with the clock in the red and the game already won, who should step up to take the conversion but long time Seawolves captain, Riekert Hattingh. I know Seattle have had some injury trouble but I didn’t expect the big back row to be lining up a shot at goal, and he absolutely smashed it!

Having channelled his inner John Eales, Hattingh becomes the first forward in MLR history to score a conversion kick, and those 2pts actually took his career total to an even 250pts scored in the competition, joining his 46 – yes, FORTY-SIX – tries and 3 automatic conversions for tries under the posts (which is no longer a rule in 2026). This puts Hattingh 15th on MLR’s all-time scoring list, and I expect we’ll be talking about him again in next week’s Midweek Milestones, because he’s sat on 999 tackles made. Congratulations, Riekert!

Moving over to the other game of Week 6, where we saw another pair of scoring milestones in a very hard fought Chicago Hounds victory, with Old Glory DC giving them probably their toughest test of the season to date. The 49-31 scoreline isn’t particularly reflective of just how much of a war this game was, and both fly-halves stood out!

Starting with the home side, I mentioned in last week’s Midweek Milestones article that I expected Chris Hilsenbeck’s success rate from the tee to bounce back, and it certainly did in this one! The USA Eagle slotted 4 conversions and 3 penalties, going 7/8 (87.5%) from the tee and racking up 17pts scored to absolutely breeze past both 150pts in his MLR career (thanks to 11pts scored for Rugby ATL in 2023) and 150pts for the Chicago Hounds, reaching 165pts in his 24 game MLR career so far, and we aren’t done there! Hilsenbeck’s 17pts scored ties a single game Chicago Hounds record, matching Nate Augspurger’s total from a hat trick (and 1 auto-conversion) back in 2024. Congratulations, Chris!

Not to be outdone however Hilsenbeck’s opposite number over on the Old Glory DC side, Jason Robertson, also put in a brilliant performance and didn’t just let his place kicking do the talking! Robertson dotted down in both the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes to bag a brace for Old Glory, adding another 4pts off the tee from a pair of conversions for 14pts in total! This takes Robertson’s total up to 412pts scored in his MLR career, becoming the 5th player in League history to pass 400pts scored, and leapfrogging Seattle’s Davy Coetzer (410) for 4th place all-time! In the first Midweek Milestones article of the season I highlighted Coetzer and Robertson as they moved into the Top 5 and mentioned that their scoring battle could be one to watch throughout the 2026 campaign, and it’s just as close now as it was then!

Standout Stats

Flying around the league to give a shoutout to another player that hit a big milestone this week that isn’t quite as flashy as scoring points, test capped Canadian hooker Dewald Kotze recorded more tackles than any other Seawolves player in their road win in New England, completing 15 in total to take his career total over 500! The South African born Canadian now sits on 510 tackles in 56 MLR games (41 starts), averaging 9.1 tackles per game. Not shabby at all for a front row. Congratulations, Dewy!

Wrapping Up

A club half-century, a Major League Rugby first, and a bunch of big scoring milestones from just the two games in Week 6 of MLR’s 2026 campaign. With teams bringing in reinforcements for their playoff pushes, and no room for any slip-ups in the remaining 5 games of the regular season, the action is only going to heat up! Make sure you come back next week to check out all the Midweek Milestones from Round 7 of the 2026 MLR Season!

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of Midweek Milestones! I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I enjoy writing them, and find them interesting and engaging. Please feel free to let me know what you thought of this article on social media, or if you’ve found a milestone that I may have missed! You can find me, or NARDB, on social media here: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky. Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB directly via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 4 of the 2026 MLR Season!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

The 4th round of Major League Rugby’s 2026 season saw some big scores, big tries, and big hats as the league headed to Nashville for the first time ever as the Chicago Hounds took on the New England Free Jacks in the first ever Music City Rugby Showdown! That doesn’t even mention the West Coast Classic on Sunday Night Rugby, or The Old Mate. As always, there was a bunch of standout stats from Round 4, so let’s get into them!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, a weekly article that dives into the numbers from the latest round of MLR action and pulls out the extreme, the unusual, and the standout stats to highlight player or team achievements and milestones that may have otherwise flown under the radar. As always we start with a few appearance achievements, the first of which wasn’t so subtle!

Appearance Achievements

Coming off the bench for the Chicago Hounds in the 45th minute of their huge 50-26 victory over the defending champions in Nashville, veteran forward Luke White became just the 5th player in league history to earn his 100th MLR appearance!

The Sydney, Australia native moved to Colorado in 2015 and joined the Glendale Raptors, then a club side. He is one of very few active MLR players to have played in the short-lived PRO Rugby competition, representing the Denver Stampede in their lone season in 2016. White remained with the Raptors when Major League Rugby was founded, and earned 25 starts in 31 games between 2018-2020, finishing as a Runner-Up in 2019 when he enjoyed a superb season, scoring 3 tries and gaining 1,227m while completing over 150 tackles that year.

Following the withdrawal of the Raptors following the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Luke White headed to the west coast to join the heavily Australian influenced LA Giltinis. It was with the Giltinis that he earned his first (and to date, only) MLR title in 2021, defeating Rugby ATL at the LA Coliseum. White played with the Giltinis for their entire tenure in MLR from 2021-22, earning 16 starts in 21 games in total and becoming the 13th player in MLR history to reach 50 appearances in May of 2022 (taking him almost 4 years to double it!). With the Giltinis also withdrawing from MLR, Luke White was selected by the Chicago Hounds in the dispersal draft, joining the team ahead of their inaugural season in 2023 and playing there ever since.

Following his debut season with the Hounds, White was included in the USA Eagles squad for their 2023 Autumn Internationals, and earned his test debut against Romania as Eagle #561. He’s earned 5 test caps for the Eagles to date and continues to contribute for the Chicago Hounds as he nears his 50th appearance for the team (currently on 48). He is likely to pass 4,000m gained this season as well as 800 tackles made, which puts him in the Top 20 all-time in both categories. There’s no word on whether Luke White will keep playing beyond 2026, but if he ends it with a Shield for the Chicago Hounds in Chicago, what a send off that would be. Congratulations, Luke!

MLR’s 5th Centurion would obviously steal the headlines for standout stats this week, but that wasn’t the only appearance milestone around the league in week 4. Over in California, New York born, Australia raised scrum-half Tas Smith came off the bench for the California Legion in their hard fought win over the Seattle Seawolves to earn his 50th MLR appearance! Smith has represented 3 different sides in MLR, all based in California. He entered the league with the LA Giltinis under Stephen Hoiles in 2022 and actually played alongside Luke White that year before returning to Australia to complete his studies at the University of Sydney in 2023. His 2nd stint in MLR started in 2024 when he joined Rugby FC LA, also under Hoiles. Tas Smith was RFCLA’s most capped player during their time in MLR, appearing in 32 of their 33 games between 2024-2025 and was even on the bench for the 33rd, but was an unused reserve! Staying in California, Smith once again followed Hoiles and much of the RFCLA setup to the California Legion, where he has featured in every game so far this season to reach his half-century! To date, Tas Smith has 16 starts, 3 tries scored on just shy of 600m gained, and an even 150 tackles made. Not too shabby for a scrum-half!

Chicago Defend The Old Mate!

After 2 successful challenges for The Old Mate in a row, the Chicago Hounds became the first team to successfully defend MLR’s Supporters’ Challenge so far this season, scoring 50pts for the 3rd time in team history to see off the New England Free Jacks (incidentally, this is the most points ever conceded by the Free Jacks…) in Nashville. With a successful defence, the Chicago Hounds retain The Old Mate which gives the Seattle Seawolves a chance to take possession of MLR’s newest oldest trophy next week!

First Overall Pick Party in Charlotte!

Heading over to American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, where Old Glory DC picked up a convincing victory over Anthem RC on Saturday, but there was something else worth talking about from this game than just the final score. The broadcast understandably highlighted the clash of Rick Rose and Will Sherman, both 1st overall picks (from 2023 & 2025 respectively) and both playing lock opposite each other, but they weren’t the only 1st overall picks on display.

In fact, there were a total of FIVE 1st Overall MLR draft picks in this game! Four of them playing for Anthem RC: Conner Mooneyham (2020 – Life), Sam Golla (2022 – UC Berkeley), Erich Storti (2024 – St. Mary’s), and Will Sherman (2025 – UCLA), with the aforementioned Rick Rose (2023 – St. Bonaventure) representing Old Glory DC!

This is the most No. 1 Draft Picks to ever feature in a single MLR game, surpassing the previous record of 4 in a match between Anthem RC and the Miami Sharks last season, featuring four of the same five players (Mooneyham, Golla, Storti for Anthem RC, and Rick Rose for Miami) minus Will Sherman, who had not been drafted yet. With only 6 first overall draft picks in MLR history, to have 5 of them feature in a single game is highly unusual!

Metres Milestones

Diving deep into some numbers now and sticking to a First Overall draft pick. MLR’s first ever draft pick in fact: Conner Mooneyham! The Life U alum has been on fire to start his second season with Anthem, scoring 3 tries in 4 games so far including a brace (on his birthday!) in the team’s first ever victory back in Round 1. Mooneyham has already racked up over 250m made this season to take his career total over the 2,500m mark! This is an average of 44.2m made per game over his career but so far in 2026, that average is up at 63m per game. Congratulations on 2.5km, Conner!

Turning our attention to the big men in the forwards, who often find metres made far harder to come by. 2019 World Rugby Player of the Year Nominee Joe Taufete’e made 12 hard-fought metres for the California Legion in their tough victory over the Seattle Seawolves to move past 1,000m in his career! Averaging 23.4m made per game across his 43 match MLR career, Taufete’e’s numbers may seem low when compared to the likes of Mooneyham but ‘Big Joe’ is earning all of those metres the hard way, slogging it out in close range against opposing heavies. Congratulations, Joe!

Coetzer Passes 400!

The Seattle Seawolves made one of the bigger splashes of the off-season in the signing of former Houston SaberCats talisman, Davy Coetzer. Through his first 4 games in the PNW, the South African has proved that he absolutely lives up to the hype! Despite the Seawolves’ loss to the California Legion down in LA, Coetzer picked up 2 tries and another 9pts from the tee to record a new season-high of 19pts scored in a single game, passing the 18pts he scored back in Rd 2, tied with California’s Coby Miln!

This brace takes Coetzer up to 20 career MLR tries, and his 19pts takes him up to a whopping 45pts on the season, which is even more impressive when you consider that the New England Free Jacks have only scored 50pts as a team! What’s more, with this haul of points, Davy Coetzer became just the 4th player in MLR history to pass 400pts scored in the Competition! He joins Joe Pietersen (420pts), AJ Alatimu (504pts), and Sam Windsor (595pts)! The 27yo is in excellent form which should excite any fan of US rugby as he closes in on Eagles eligiblity. Congratulations, Davy!

Wrapping Up

With a 5th Centurion, a ‘Who’s Who’ of first round draft picks, and a handful of individual scoring and metre milestones, that just about does it for this edition of Midweek Milestones! I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I enjoy writing them, and found something interesting. Please feel free to let me know what you thought of this article on social media, or if you’ve found a milestone that I may have missed!

You can find NARDB/James on social media here: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 3 of the 2026 MLR Season!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones from Round 3 of Major League Rugby action in 2026! This weekly series aims to keep fans up to date on some of the individual and team milestones from the latest round of MLR games that may have gone under the radar, but still absolutely deserve some recognition!

I hope that you find this article, and this series, interesting and informative. Who knows, if there is ever a Major League Rugby themed pub quiz, they might come in very handy! As mentioned, this particular article will cover the three matches from Round 3 of the 2026 season, starting off with an appearance milestone for Old Glory DC!

Appearance Achievements

When Collin Grosse came off the bench in the 62nd minute of Old Glory DC’s road victory over the New England Free Jacks at Fort Quincy he became just the 4th MLR draftee ever to reach 50 appearances in the competition behind Emmanuel Albert, Tavite Lopeti, and Conner Mooneyham, earning all 50 with the Flags!

Collin Grosse becomes the first player from the 2022 MLR Draft Class to reach a half-century of games played, ahead of the likes of Sam Golla and DC teammates Cali Martinez and KoiKoi Nelligan, and is the 2nd fastest draftee to reach 50 appearances, reaching the milestone 1,148 days after his MLR debut! Only long time Houston SaberCat Emmanuel Albert, now with the Chicago Hounds, managed it quicker but not by much (1,113 days from MLR debut).

Scoring Milestones

For the most part, the California Legion’s trip to Chicago was as miserable as the weather at SeatGeek Stadium, but despite the relentless rain it wasn’t a complete wash out. Thanks to a late try from Joey Mano, the Legion left the Windy City with a try bonus point, marking Mano’s first score for the Legion and 40th of his MLR career!

On the back of 39 tries during his time with the Utah Warriors including a pair of 14-try seasons in 2023 & 2025, Joey Mano becomes just the 4th player in MLR history to reach 40 tries scored, behind league legends Dylan Fawsitt (65), Riekert Hattingh (48), and Paula Balekana (46)! Mano reached this milestone in just 57 appearances, recording 0.7 tries per game; Highest among MLR’s 40+ try scorers!

Joey Mano may have secured the Try BP for the California Legion, but their scoring was opened by one of his former Warriors teammates: Lance Williams! Like Joey Mano, Williams’ first try for the Legion was also a milestone. It marked his 20th score in Major League Rugby! It may not be the lofty heights of 40 tries, but 20 scores for a hard running, hard tackling back row is no mean feat. There aren’t many players in the league that can boast 20 tries, over 3000m gained, and over 900 tackles like Lance Williams. Congratulations!

In the same game that Julian Roberts recorded the 100th try in Anthem RC team history, fly-half Luke Carty kicked a round-high 14pts to help lift the Rising Stars over the Seawolves. Although this was only Carty’s 3rd game with the Rising Stars after joining in the off-season, these 14pts took the capped USA Eagle over 250 in his MLR career! With 50pts for the LA Giltinis (2021-22), 127pts for the Chicago Hounds (2023-24 – he remains the team’s top scorer!), 49pts for the NOLA Gold last year, and 27pts for Anthem in 2026 so far, Carty has gone 104/152 from the tee in his MLR career for a success rate of 68.42% to go with a lone try scored back in 2024, for a career total of 253pts. He becomes the 13th player in MLR history to pass 250pts scored, congratulations, Luke!

Tackle Milestones

Round 3 saw a trio of players reach significant career tackle milestones, starting with Canadian international and Chicago Hounds back row, Mason Flesch who recorded 7 tackles made in the Hounds’ big home victory over the California Legion to pass 500 tackles made in his 60 game MLR career to average 8.38 tackles per game! Flesch has recorded over 100 tackles in his last 3 seasons including a career high of 165 tackles last season. It’ll be tough to reach triple-figures in the shortened 2026 season, can he do it again?

Moving much closer to the top of Major League Rugby’s all-time tacklers list, Johan Momsen also completed 7 tackles in Round 3 as Anthem RC earned their 2nd win of the season over the Seattle Seawolves in front of a home crowd. As a result, the Anthem Captain became the 3rd player in MLR history to pass 1,000 tackles made in the competition, now sat on 1,004 tackles! Momsen first entered Major League Rugby with Rugby ATL for their inaugural season in 2020, representing the RATLers from 2020-23, finishing as a MLR Runner-Up in 2021 and completing over 600 tackles in his 4 seasons in Marietta before heading to Texas to join the Houston SaberCats where he spent two seasons, completed 345 tackles, and finished as a runner-up for a second time in 2025. Now with Anthem RC, Momsen currently leads the league for tackles made in 2026, completing 43 in just 3 games!

Johan Momsen has recorded 5 seasons in a row with at least 125 tackles completed, including a pair of 200+ tackles seasons in 2021 and 2025, the latter of which was a career high at 220! He looks set to reach triple figures again despite the shortened season and reached 1,000 tackles in just 28 games more than Mason Flesch reached 500, averaging an impressive 11.41 tackles across his 88 game MLR career so far!

The big South African forward passes 1,000 tackles behind Dylan Fawsitt (1,040) and MLR’s All-Time tackle leader, Lucas Rumball! The Canada and Chicago Hounds Captain’s Man of the Match performance in Round 3’s victory over the California Legion saw him score a brace of tries and complete 15 tackles in total to push his MLR-leading tackle total over 1,100 to 1,106 in even fewer games than Momsen, averaging a massive 13.17 tackles across his 84 game MLR career between the Toronto Arrows and Chicago Hounds!

Wrapping Up

Round 3 of the 2026 season brought us the 1st member of the 2022 MLR Collegiate Draft Class to reach 50 appearances, the 3rd MLR player to pass 1,000 tackles completed, and the 4th player in MLR history to reach 40 tries scored, and that’s not even covering everything in this article! I hope you found this informative and entertaining, and please feel free to reach out on social media with any questions. Be sure to come back next week for all the Midweek Milestones from Round 4 of the 2026 MLR season!

If you find any milestones that haven’t been mentioned here, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

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

MLR Player Moves Summary: February 16th, 2026 – March 1st, 2026

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Major League Rugby’s 2026 season kicks off at the end of THIS MONTH! 4 teams have announced their complete squads for the upcoming campaign, but there may still be a few surprises for the 2 remaining teams that have not revealed their full rosters: the California Legion, and the Seattle Seawolves. The California Legion left it late to begin their announcements, and the Seattle Seawolves are right at the tail end of revealing their roster for 2026!

Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Moves Summary series! This series aims to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season. This week’s article follows the same pattern as the last few weeks, but unlike the usual 1-week timeframe this edition covers a couple of weeks to account for the drop in Player Moves announced lately. As the last team to begin announcing their Player Moves (by quite some way), the California Legion are unsurprisingly the only team still going strong with their announcements, and as a result this article is very Legion-heavy. The summary graphic for Player Moves announced between February 16th and March 1st is below followed by the one BIG re-signing of the last couple of weeks:

Summary Graphic of Player Moves around Major League Rugby between February 16 – March 1, 2026!

Re-signings

Seattle Seawolves fans can breath a sigh of relief, as on 23rd February the team confirmed the return of a Major League Rugby and Seawolves legend for his NINTH season in the league and with the team, club captain Riekert Hattingh. The son of capped Springbok Drikus Hattingh and capped USA Eagle himself, Riekert developed in the Blue Bulls system before moving to the US in 2015 and is one of a dwindling number of MLR players that played in the short-lived PRO Rugby competition back in 2016, where he represented the Ohio Aviators. As PRO Rugby was replaced with Major League Rugby, Hattingh signed with the Seattle Seawolves ahead of the inaugural 2018 season, scoring his first MLR try and earning 4 appearances as the Seawolves claimed the very first MLR Shield. Hattingh was a huge part of the Seawolves’ 2nd Shield in 2019, starting all 17 of his appearances, scoring 8 tries and completing 203 tackles and gaining 1,374m in possession, both of which remain career highs through the 2025 season. Skipping forward a few years, it does need to be mentioned that Hattingh was handed a 6-month ban from August 2022 – February 2023 which ruled him out of USA Eagles selection that fall due to testing positive for Tamoxifen, a banned substance under USADA rules. The Seattle Seawolves released a statement which mentioned that “At the time the medication was prescribed, neither Riekert nor the physician who prescribed the medication were aware that the medication was on the Specified Substance list and required a Therapeutic Use Exemption.” and states that “His prescription use did not confer any competitive advantage to Riekert, as reflected in his sanction.” Hattingh accepted personal responsibility for this, and did not miss any of the 2023 Major League Rugby season as a result of this. At face value this seems like an unfortunate mistake rather than anything malicious, and should not take anything away from Riekert Hattingh’s numerous achievements in MLR. A one-club man, Hattingh is undoubtedly a MLR Great already, and likely a first ballot Hall of Famer (if such a thing existed…). Hattingh has started every single one of his 94 appearances for the Seattle Seawolves, scoring 10+ tries on 2 occasions and dotting down 48 times in total, 2nd all-time in MLR behind only Dylan Fawsitt on 65. Hattingh has gained more metres than any other player in MLR history and is one of only 5 players to record over 5,000m gained, sitting 3rd all time on 5,563m. Defensively, he’s recorded over 120 tackles in 4 seasons, and over 200 tackles twice, sitting on 950 tackles made all time which puts him 4th in league history. Now returning to the Seattle Seawolves for a 9th season, Hattingh is likely to pass 50 tries scored, 100 appearances, and 1000 tackles made in 2026! At still only 31yo and with 6 tries scored in 14 games for the Seawolves in 2025 with 139 tackles made, it’s likely that Riekert Hattingh will still be Seattle’s go-to starting Number 8, joining the likes of Marno Redelinghuys, Paddy Ryan, Callum Botchar, and Kalisi Moli as back row options for the Seawolves.

A few days later on 27th February, the Seattle Seawolves announced another returning player from their 2025 squad, veteran Major League Rugby scrum-half Nick Boyer will return for his 9th season in the competition in 2026. The Sacramento, CA native began his MLR career in the league’s inaugural season in 2018 with the San Diego Legion, having graduated from UC-Berkeley. He started 6 of his 8 appearances for the Legion, before earning his test debut for the USA as Eagle #530 when he was called up as injury cover. Nick Boyer represented the San Diego Legion for 2 seasons between 2018-2019, scoring 7 tries on 25 games (17 starts) and recording a career high with 479m gained in possession. He spent a brief season with the Colorado Raptors in 2020, adding 2 tries and appearing in all 5 games before COVID-19 shut the season down. When MLR returned in 2021, Boyer had signed with the LA Giltinis, but was traded to the Houston SaberCats before making his Giltinis debut, where he spent 3 seasons and earned 15 starts in 36 appearances and scoring another 9 tries before re-joining the San Diego Legion for the 2024 season and earning another 9 appearances. Most recently, Boyer was dropped in to the Seattle Seawolves squad late in the 2025 season, and scored 2 tries in 6 games (5 starts) and added a pair of assists to help Seattle secure a playoff spot. In his 81 game Major League Rugby career, Nick Boyer has started 38 games and scored 20 tries and 113pts on just under 1,500m gained, and completed 260 tackles on defence. The 32yo joins the Seawolves as a depth option at 9, playing behind André Warner and competing with Seattle stalwart JP Smith.

Intra-League Signings

As is tradition lately, the California Legion got things started with the first Player Move of the week on 17th February when they announced the addition of US-Eligible Tongan prop Ma’ake Muti for their 2026 squad. A native of Tongatapu in Tonga, Ma’ake Muti moved to Hawaii with his family in 2008 and was a multi-sport athlete through high school, competing in wrestling, shot put, and gridiron football as well as playing club rugby with the Kalihi Raiders. He became a US citizen in 2014 along with his brother Netane Muti who has played in the NFL as a Guard with the Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, and Detroit Lions. Ma’ake Muti played football while attending Azusa Pacific University from 2014-2019, before returning to rugby following his graduation. His pro rugby career got off to a rocky start, as he signed with the Dallas Jackals ahead of their planned entry into MLR in 2021, but when this was pushed back to 2022 he landed in Los Angeles with the Giltinis, earning 6 Major League Rugby appearances off the bench to help the team lift the MLR Shield in their inaugural season. After spending his debut professional season in MLR, the football convert joined the American Raptors in Colorado, playing with the team from 2021-2024 and representing them in the South American Super Rugby Americas competition. Following news that the Raptors would not be playing professional rugby in 2025, Ma’ake Muti was picked up by the Miami Sharks and returned to MLR for their 2025 campaign. Muti appeared in 16 of the Sharks’ 17 games in 2025 including their lone playoff appearance in the Eastern Conference Semifinal. He started 12 times and scored his first career MLR try on 78m (as a prop, remember) and completed 91 tackles in total. Tongan born, US front row now returns to California with the Legion, and is the first out-and-out loosehead prop announced by the team for their 2026 campaign.

The California Legion kept the ball rolling and on 19th February 2026, they announced the signing of a TENTH former Rugby FC LA player ahead of their inaugural season in 2023 Major League Rugby draftee Matt Anticev. A native of Staten Island, NY, Anticev played rugby under USA Eagle and former Rugby New York scrum-half, and current MLR commentator Mike Petri at Xavier High School before attending the College of the Holy Cross for his undergrad. He attended Dartmouth College between 2021-2023 to earn his Masters degree, playing rugby throughout his time there. Upon his graduation, Anticev declared for the 2023 MLR Collegiate Draft and was selected in the 1st Round, 5th overall by Rugby ATL shortly before the news came out that the RATLers were relocating to Los Angeles as Rugby FC LA. The team announced that they had signed the young Fly-half for their inaugural season, and in his rookie year he earned 6 pro appearances including a pair of starts, recording over 50m gained in total. Anticev returned for a 2nd season with RFCLA in 2025 and earned an additional two appearances to bring his career total to 8 and counting. Matt Anticev now returns for a 3rd season in MLR, joining a new team but with a very familiar feel in the California Legion. Anticev is the first Fly-half confirmed by the team, although Tas Smith did fill in at 10 at times for RFCLA.

Following their two new additions from the week of February 9-16, the California Legion would also announce the first player move of the following week when they confirmed the signing of a 2nd fly-half on 22nd February: US-eligible Welshman Steffan Crimp! Born and raised in Wales, Crimp’s mother was born in Indiana and raised in San Diego, making him US-eligible and therefore classified as a domestic player in Major League Rugby. Crimp attended Cardiff Met University and represented the USA U20s against Canada in June 2023, before first entering Major League Rugby with Anthem RC during the 2024 season. In his debut season, Crimp earned 3 starts in 4 games for the rising stars, before being named to the USA Eagles Extended Player Squad for their July tests in 2024. Crimp returned to MLR the following year, signing with the San Diego Legion and enjoying a solid season in 2025, scoring 2 tries and 26pts total (53.85% from the tee) and starting 6 of his 7 appearances, recording over 275m gained. The USA Eagles are relatively thin at the fly-half position, so fans should keep an eye on Steffan Crimp during the 2026 season. He will compete for game time with Matt Anticev as the only other fly-half announced by the California Legion so far.

The Legion followed up the signing of Steffan Crimp with another signing the following day, confirming the addition of California native Ale Lopeti for his 5th Major League Rugby season in 2026. The younger brother of capped USA Eagle Tavite Lopeti, Ale joined the NOLA Gold ahead of the 2022 MLR season after spending the fall of 2021 playing with the Austin Gilgronis academy side, the Outlaws. Lopeti earned his MLR debut and 4 appearances off the bench total during his first season in the competition, upping this to 6 the following year including his first pro start, and scored his first MLR try on just under 200m gained (194) which remains his career high. From 2024, Ale Lopeti became a regular in the NOLA Gold matchday 23. After earning 10 appearances in the previous 2 seasons combined, he earned another 14 in 2024 alone and added another pair of tries while also recording 88 tackles completed, more than double his previous career high of 38. Lopeti enjoyed another career year in 2025, breaking into the Gold’s starting XV and earning 11 of his 13 career starts in 15 appearances that season, scoring 4 of his 7 career tries on 126m gained to pass 500m in his career. Defensively, Lopeti set another career high with 111 tackles made, recording over 100 tackles for the first time in his career.

A few days later, the California Legion announced the signing of a second former NOLA Gold player in Davis, CA lock Chase Jones. A graduate of St. Mary’s College in California, Jones declared for the 2022 MLR Collegiate Draft and was selected in the 1st Round, 6th Overall by the NOLA Gold using a pick acquired from the LA Giltinis. Jones signed with the team ahead of the 2023 season and played with the NOLA Gold academy side in fall of 2022, suffering an serious achilles injury that ruled him out for the entirety of the 2023 MLR season, with recovering lasting until well after the 2024 season had begun, 22months in total. Despite this major set back, Chase Jones remained with the NOLA Gold and re-signed with them for the 2025 season, where he finally earned his pro debut. Jones scored his first MLR try that year, and started 8 of his 11 appearances, completing just under 100 tackles completed in his first real season in Major League Rugby. Like Ale Lopeti, Jones now returns home to California to join the Legion for their inaugural season following the withdrawal of the NOLA Gold from MLR and is the first lock confirmed by the California Legion ahead of the 2026 season.

Averaging an announcement a day over the last week, the Legion announced the addition of another front row on 25th February with the signing of Scottish tighthead prop Michael Scott for his 2nd Major League Rugby campaign in 2026. The Scotsman developed in the Glasgow Warriors system, progressing through their academy before playing with the Ayrshire Bulls in the Super 6 competition from 2021-22. In 2023, he headed to Australia and joined the Northern Suburbs in the Shure Shield competition, representing the Norths between 2023-24 and must have impressed, as he was called up the the NSW Waratahs in Super Rugby as injury cover in 2024, earning his Super Rugby debut against the Moana Pasifika in Round 14. After a couple of years in Australia, Scott signed with the Houston SaberCats for the 2025 MLR season. In his first year in North America, Michael Scott appeared in 18 of the SaberCats’ 19 games, helping the team to a 14-2 regular season record and appearing in all 3 post-season games for Houston, including their 2025 Championship Game defeat to the New England Free Jacks. He earned 3 starts in 18 appearances, and recorded over 75 tackles made before the SaberCats’ surprise withdrawal from Major League Rugby. Now joining the California Legion, Michael Scott will compete for game time with Justus Tavai, the only other tighthead prop confirmed by the team so far.

The Legion continued to monopolise the Player Moves when they announced the addition of Fijian born Major League Rugby veteran Keni Nasoqeqe to their 2026 squad on 26th February! The 32yo lock/back row started is US rugby journey with Belmont Shore RFC in 2015, representing the California club until 2019 when he signed with the San Diego Legion at MLR level scoring 2 tries and starting 12 of his 13 games, earning three MLR Team of the Week selections to help the Legion advance to the 2019 Championship Game against the Seattle Seawolves. He would represent the San Diego Legion for 3 seasons between 2019-2021, earning 28 MLR appearances (22 starts) and scoring 5 tries. Following the 2021 campaign, Keni Nasoqeqe left California for Texas, signing with the Houston SaberCats and representing them for 4 seasons between 2022-2025. Nasoqeqe was a regular in the SaberCats’ matchday 23, and enjoyed a career year in 2024 when he scored a career high 4 tries in 17 games (13 starts) and gained 407m in possession (another career high) while completing 107 tackles in defence, his 3rd 100+ tackle season. Nasoqeqe earned 17 appearances in 3 of his 4 seasons in Houston, including both 2024 and 2025, and is closing in on 100 appearances in his career. He has earned 54 starts in 91 appearances across 7 MLR seasons to date, scoring 10 tries on just under 1,800m gained, and completing 630 tackles. Keni Nasoqeqe now returns to California to join the new-look Legion for their inaugural season in 2026. Although he primarily played in the back row for the SaberCats, the California Legion list Nasoqeqe as a lock (where he does have experience). He would be the first lock announced by the team for 2026, but it is likely that he will serve as a reserve for both the second and back rows of the Legion pack.

Believe it or not, the California Legion weren’t done there! Later on the 26th, the Golden State franchise announced the signing of their ELEVENTH former Rugby FC LA player: Australian loosehead prop Declan Leaney! A native of New South Wales, Leaney played with the famous Randwick Galloping Greens between 2019-2024, a favourite recruiting ground of California Legion (and former RFCLA) head coach Stephen Hoiles. Leaney was a part of the Shute Shield winning Randwick team in 2023, playing through a foot injury after entering the Championship game early. He headed to California to join Rugby FC LA ahead of the 2025 season, and started 2 of his 7 Major League Rugby appearances, earning a Team of the Week Selection on his debut in Round 8. He scored a first MLR try and recorded over 50m gained as well as 57 tackles made to help RFCLA qualify for their first, and only, playoff appearance. Leaney now returns for a 2nd MLR campaign for the California Legion’s inaugural season, and will be competing with new aquisition Ma’ake Muti for the Legion’s ‘1’ jersey in 2026.

Retirements & Departures

Early on 25th February, Missourian prop Alec McDonnell announced his retirement after 6 seasons of professional competition in Major League Rugby. Capable of playing both tighthead or loosehead, McDonnell developed in the famous Lindenwood Lions rugby program, attending LU between 2015-2019. Following his graduation, McDonnell headed to New York and signed with Rugby United New York ahead of the 2020 season where he earned his professional debut off the bench before the season shut down due to COVID-19. When MLR returned for the 2021 campaign, McDonnell had signed with the Houston SaberCats and spent three years in Texas, earning 10 starts in 25 appearances, playing 16 games for the ‘Cats in 2023. Following his time in Houston, McDonnell headed to Florida to join the Miami Sharks for their inaugural season in 2024, earning 16 appearances for the 2nd season in a row, starting 4 times and gaining a career high 101m in possession. He returned for a 2nd season with the Sharks in 2025 and enjoyed a career year, earning a personal best 10 starts in 15 games to pass 50 Major League Rugby appearances across his career and completing 55 tackles, marking the 4th season in a row where he recorded over 50 tackles made (55, 56, 52, 55, talk about consistent!). With the Miami Sharks withdrawing from Major League Rugby during the 2025/26 offseason, McDonnell has made the decision to call time on his playing career after 6 seasons and 24 starts in 57 appearances across 3 teams. This is a shame, as at only 29yo, he is entering prime front row age and had caught the eye of the National Team after a solid 2025 season, having been named as a non-travelling reserve for the Eagles’ July tests following the season. Unfortunately, with significantly fewer roster spots available in MLR in 2026 compared to previous years, playing professionally is no longer a viable career path for players like McDonnell. Regardless, Congratulations Alec on a fantastic career in MLR, and all very best of luck in your next chapter!

In a bit of a jaw-dropping development, on 26th February Old Glory DC announced the departure of starting scrum-half Connor Buckley, thanking him for his contributions to the team just a month out from the start of the 2026 MLR season! This shock departure comes just over a month after Old Glory DC announced that Buckley would return for the 2026 season back on January 20th, and Buckley was included when the Flags confirmed their complete 2026 squad just 2 weeks ago on 16th February. As mentioned in the Player Moves Summary article that covered his re-signing, Buckley has earned 40 starts in 61 appearances across his 5 seasons in Major League Rugby, recording over 200 tackles made and 600m gained, scoring 11 tries. Buckley is a MLR Champion, having lifted the Shield with New York in 2022, and started 21 of his 30 appearances with Old Glory DC from 2024-25. NARDB understands that although Connor Buckley has not officially retired, the New York native will not participate in the 2026 season and may be pursuing opportunities away from professional rugby. Without Buckley, the Flags are now down to John Levfevre and 2024 draftee and academy call-up Aidan Ridgway at scrum-half. Lefevre has experience in the 9 jersey in MLR, but may struggle as a regular starter and Ridgway is yet to make his MLR debut.

Old Glory DC got to work immediately and signed a replacement for Buckley the following day, announcing the addition of New Zealand scrum-half and former Houston SaberCat, Jay Renton for their 2026 squad. A former All Blacks U20 player, Renton played with the Southland Stags in New Zealand’s National Provincial Championship competition between 2017-2024. He first entered Major League Rugby with the Houston SaberCats during the 2nd half of the 2024 season, starting both of his appearances that season and scoring his first MLR try. The following season Renton was a regular in the SaberCats 23, starting 7 times and appearing in 17 of their 19 games, including all 3 playoff contests and finishing as a Major League Rugby runner-up following defeat to the New England Free Jacks in the 2025 Championship Game in Rhode Island. Renton added a 2nd MLR try that year and a pair of assists recording just under 250m gained in possession. Re-entering MLR after playing with the Tasman Mako for the 2025 NPC season, Renton will likely slot in as Old Glory DC’s starting scrum-half with John Lefevre acting as reserve with a handful of starts, and Aidan Ridgway a 3rd string option. The fact that Renton is not classed as a domestic player will make things tricky for DC, but he is a great last minute replacement for Connor Buckley.

Wrapping Up

Unlike recent Player Moves articles, this edition covers the last fortnight of Player Moves rather than just the last week due to the general decrease of announcements across the league, which does make sense given that training camps have begun! This doesn’t apply to the California Legion however, who are yet to announce roughly a third of their roster, even though these players have surely turned up in camp in California. As a result, this week’s article is remarkably Legion-heavy, with 8 of the 13 moves involving new additions for the California Legion’s inaugural squad. However, the Seattle Seawolves helped to mix things up with a pair of re-signings including club legend Riekert Hattingh, and Old Glory DC had to scramble to replace Connor Buckley, who is pursuing opportunities outside of rugby. The California Legion will no doubt still be busy with their Player Moves as we are under 4 weeks out of their opening game against Anthem RC to kick off the 2026 season!

Thank you, as always, for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! We’re no doubt at the tail end of Player Moves ahead of the 2026 season. Be sure to check back here next week (dependant on player moves…) to find out more about all of this week’s news. If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site in general, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

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

MLR Player Moves Summary: February 9th, 2026 – February 15th, 2026

NARDatabase

James Deeley

With the Superbowl now in the rearview and the Six Nations in full swing, it’s rugby’s time to step up. Although we are still around 6 weeks away from the 2026 season kicking off on March 28th, there will be plenty of news and plenty to talk about between now and then including jerseys, pre-season, training camps, and of course the final few Player Moves, which is the purpse of this article!

Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Moves Summary series, covering all the Player Moves around the league last week! As regular readers are well aware, this series aims to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season. This week’s article kicks off in the now-traditional way, with the summary graphic for Player Moves announced between February 9th and February 15th, 2026, followed by the Intra-league moves as for the 2nd week in a row:

Summary Graphic of Player Moves around Major League Rugby between February 9 – February 15, 2026!

Intra-League Moves

The California Legion remain the busiest team in MLR, and once again kicked off last week’s Player Moves by announcing the addition of a Rudy Scholz Award nominee and 2025 MLR Runner-Up with the Houston SaberCats, back row Ronan Murphy! The California native played with the Gaels at St. Mary’s College to earn the Rudy Scholz nomination, before heading to Ireland to attend Trinity College in Dublin in 2021, continuing his rugby journey while there. After returning from Ireland Murphy dipped his toe into Major League Rugby for the first time, signing with the Austin Gilgronis for the 2022 season and earned his pro debut, starting all 3 of his appearances before the AGs were disqualified from the MLR season, folding shortly after. Rather than return to MLR, Ronan Murphy signed with the American Raptors in Colorado for their fall season at the end of 2022, earning a full contract with the team for their 2023 Super Rugby Americas campaign where he earned a number of SRA Team of the Week selections. Following a year playing with the Raptors in the South American top tier, Ronan Murphy returned to Major League Rugby with the Houston SaberCats ahead of their 2024 campaign, where he enjoyed a career year in Texas. He appeared in all 17 games for Houston in his debut year with the team, starting 15 times and scoring 6 tries on 440m gained while also completing a very impressive 172 tackles made to finish as the 4th highest tackler league-wide that season. Murphy would return to the SaberCats for a 2nd season in 2025 but struggled with injury. He still added a 7th career MLR try on another 72m gained, and started 2 of his 6 appearances to help the SaberCats to a 14-2 regular season record, and finished the year as a MLR Runner-Up following defeat to the New England Free Jacks in the 2025 Championship Final. With the Houston SaberCats’ surprise withdrawal from MLR during the 2025/26 offseason, Murphy returns to his home state with the California Legion for their inaugural season in 2026. Ronan Murphy joins a stacked Legion back row, and will compete with the likes of USA Eagles Christian Poidevin & Jason Damm, as well as former RFCLA players Ben Houston and Ben Sugars.

Unsurprisingly, the California Legion would announce the signing of yet another former Rugby FC LA player a couple of days later on February 11th, when they confirmed the signing of Major League Rugby veteran Jurie van Vuuren for his 7th season in the competition in 2026! The former Springboks U20 forward played with The Stormers in Super Rugby (at the time) and both Western Province and the Southern Kings in the Currie Cup before entering MLR with the Utah Warriors in 2020. Van Vuuren would represent the Utah Warriors for 4 seasons, earning 51 appearances in that time (43 starts) and scoring 8 tries on over 1,600m gained while completing 544 tackles made including a high of 199 in 2021, and 3 seasons with over 100 tackles made. During the MLR off-seasons, Jurie van Vuuren played with the Tel Aviv Heat in the Rugby Europe Super Cup so it wasn’t surprising that, when a consortium with significant overlap with the ownership of the Heat took over Rugby ATL and relocated them to Los Angeles, van Vuuren signed with the newly rebranded Rugby FC LA for their inaugural season in 2024. He would represent RFCLA for a further 2 seasons, his 5th & 6th in MLR, starting all 17 of his appearances and adding another 173 tackles including a 4th 100+ tackle season in 2025 when he recorded 133 to pass 700 in his 68 game MLR career through 6 seasons. Van Vuuren added another 2 tries to reach 10 in his career, and over 200m gained to pass 1,800m gained in his career. Jurie van Vuuren started all 13 of his appearances for RFCLA in 2025 under Stephen Hoiles, so will likely earn a number of starts under Hoiles with the California Legion in 2026. He is listed on the Legion’s signing announcement as a number 8 so would join Ronan Foley in competing for game time among a stacked Legion back row.

The final California Legion Player Move from last week came on 15th February when the team announced that they had signed US-born Australian scrum-half Tas Smith to their 2026 squad. Born in New York but raised in Australia, Smith has been selected for both the USA U20s and Australia U20s, but was unable to attend due to COVID-19. He first entered Major League Rugby with the LA Giltinis in 2022, earning 6 starts in 14 games under Stephen Hoiles before the team was disqualified at the end of the season. Smith returned to Australia to complete his studies at the University of Sydney in 2023, but returned to Los Angeles once again in 2024, signing with Rugby FC LA. Over 2 seasons from 2024-2025, Tas Smith appeared in 32 of the franchises 33 games, starting 10 times and scoring 2 tries, also recording a career high 77 tackles in 2024. Having played under Stephen Hoiles at both the Giltinis and RFCLA, it is no surprise that the 24yo has joined the California Legion ahead of their inaugural 2026 season. Smith is the 9th former RFCLA player to join the Legion for 2026, and will likely play behind 2025 MLR Back of the Year Gonzalo Bertranou.

On February 10th, Old Glory DC announced the first Player Move not related to a West Coast team when they announced the addition of former NOLA Gold standout Jordan Jackson-Hope for his 3rd Major League Rugby season in 2026! The Australian centre represented the Junior Wallabies at the 2016 Junior World Championship and made his Super Rugby debut that same year with his local team, the ACT Brumbies. The Canberra native represented the Brumbies in Super Rugby from 2016-2019 before heading to Japan and playing with the Toyko Shokki Shuttles in the JRLO – D2. He also enjoyed a spell with the Sunwolves in Super Rugby in 2020, and represented Tokyo Gas from 2020-2022. Following his time in Japan, Jordan Jackson-Hope headed stateside and signed with the NOLA Gold for their 2023 MLR campaign, and represented the Gold for 2 seasons between 2023-24 where he was a consistent standout in the midfield. Jackson-Hope started all 25 of his games for the NOLA Gold across 2 seasons, gaining over 850m each season and scoring 8 tries in total including 6 in 2024 alone. He completed 238 tackles in total (well over 100 each season) and was named to the MLR Team of the Week 5 times during the 2024 season. Jackson-Hope started the first (and only) playoff game in NOLA Gold team history, gaining over 50m and scoring a try as the Gold fell to the Chicago Hounds in the 2024 Eastern Conference Semifinal. He was named as NOLA Gold’s Player of the Year in both 2023 and 2024, and was selected for the All-MLR First XV for the 2024 season. Following a year away from MLR during which he focused on training and coaching, Jordan Jackson-Hope now joins Old Glory DC for his 3rd season in the competition and will likely be a first-choice 12 for the Flags in 2026, joining former NOLA Gold teammate Ross Depperschmidt in the midfield, as well as possibly Jason Emery and John Powers.

The Seattle Seawolves announced their first intra-league move of last week on February 12th, when they confirmed the signing of US-eligible Irish winger Michael Hand for his 3rd Major League Rugby campaign in 2026! Born in Connecticut but raised in Ireland, Hand played rugby and was a 4x100m sprinter growing up. He attended UC Cork and represented Cork Constitution in the All-Ireland League following his graduationin 2023. At the tail end of that year, the Chicago Hounds announced that they had signed Michael Hand for the 2024 MLR season but before he could earn his MLR debut with the Hounds, he was loaned to the Miami Sharks where he started 6 of his 8 appearances, scoring 3 tries for the Sharks on over 200m gained. Still under contract with Chicago, Hand returned to the Hounds the following season and started all 5 of his appearances during their impressive 2025 season, gaining a career high 310m gained including 86m in the Hounds’ Round 3 drubbing of the New England Free Jacks, scoring a 4th career try and earning his first MLR Team of the Week selection in that game. He suffered a hamstring injury later in the season which impacted his gametime, however. With 4 tries on over 500m gained in 13 MLR games across 2 seasons, Michael Hand is one to watch out for and may even get on the USA Eagles’ radar if he can get some quality game time in Seattle. He will join a Seawolves back three roster that includes Divan Rossouw, Ina Futi, Duncan Matthews, and a new Seawolves signing covered below…

New Additions

In what is a rarity for the 2025/26 Major League Rugby offseason, the Seattle Seawolves announced that they had signed a completely new addition to the league in US-eligible Italian winger Matthias Douglas! Born and raised in Italy but US-eligible through his father, Douglas developed in the Italian domestic leagues, primarily in the Mogliano Veneto system where he played in the Top flight of Italian domestic competition, the Serie A Élite. Douglas has featured for the Italian age grade sides at U18, U20, and U23 level, scoring a try against France during the 2023 U20 Six Nations while playing with URC’s Benetton. That same year he also represented the Italian Sevens side in the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in 2023. The following year, Matthias Douglas returned to Mogliano Veneto and continued to represent Italy at age-grade level, this time with the U23s before heading to Australia in 2025 to join the Wests Bulldogs, playing Premier Grade rugby in Queensland before returning to Italy with Rangers Vincenza, another Serie A Élite. The 22yo enters Major League Rugby from Vicenza, and will join Michael Hand in a strong Seattle Seawolves back three.

Wrapping Up

For the 2nd week in a row there were no re-signings among last week’s Player Moves, and for the 2nd week in a row the California Legion are the busiest team around the league after leaving it late to begin their announcements. The new-look Legion added another pair of former RFCLA players to take their running total to 9 of the 16 players already announced by the team which includes the addition of former Houston SaberCats back row Ronan Murphy, also announced last week. The Seattle Seawolves also stayed busy with the addition of a pair of new wingers for the 2026 season, and Old Glory DC are the first non-West Coast team to announce a Player Move in 2 weeks with the addition of former NOLA Gold standout Jordan Jackson-Hope!

Thank you, as always, for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! We’re no doubt at the tail end of Player Moves ahead of the 2026 season, but the California Legion still have plenty of players to announce yet. Be sure to check back here next Monday (16th February) to find out more about all of this week’s news. If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site in general,, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

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

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

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

As regular readers are well aware, these weekly articles aim to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season. This week’s article kicks off as they all do, with the summary graphic for Player Moves announced between January 26th and February 1st, 2026, followed by last week’s re-signings:

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

Re-Signings

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

@chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

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

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

@seawolvesrugby via Instagram

Intra-League Signings

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

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

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

@legion.rugby via Instagram

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

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

@legion.rugby via Instagram

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

Departures

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

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

@doncasterknights via Instagram

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

Wrapping Up

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

Thank you, as always, for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! A full 1-page summary confirms that Player Moves are still going strong into February, with no doubt more on the way this week. Be sure to check back here next Monday (9th February) to find out more about all of this week’s news. If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site in general,, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.

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