Tag: Old Glory DC

NARDB’s Ranking of the MLR2025 Home Jerseys

NARDatabase

James Deeley

On Tuesday December 3rd, 2024, almost entirely out of the blue save a vague TRN tweet, Major League Rugby revealed the home and away jerseys for all 11 teams for the 8th season of the competition in 2025. Similar to last year, the jerseys were announced league-wide but unusually, they were announced shortly after 9am EST, differing to many league announcements that typically come at noon or 1pm EST to accommodate the west coast. Unless you’re an early riser out west, you could have missed the drop! Unlike last year’s jersey reveals that were posted on January 10th, MLR fans know all what all 22 kits look like roughly five weeks earlier, and long before the holidays.

I am often hard on MLR, because I believe they can and should succeed in making rugby a major sport in the North American market, and often disagree with and/or criticize their moves. However, to be able to reveal every single kit for the 2025 season 3 weeks before the holidays, after announcing the partnership with Macron just a few weeks prior on November 13th, is a phenomenal achievement. It’s worth noting that kits are only available for pre-order right now and won’t be delivered until January or February, but at least MLR fans will know what they’re getting if they ask Santa for a 2025 jersey. This is excellent work from MLR, Macron, and all 11 teams.

Now, to the matter at hand. This article will outline my personal rankings of the home kits of all 11 MLR teams for 2025. This is not to say that this ranking is correct, or that you are wrong if you prefer another jersey, but is just to offer my opinion. If you disagree, please let me know your favourites in the comments section below, but please keep things civil. We are all rugby and MLR fans, and ‘Kitmas’ is always the major event of the off-season, kick-starting the hype for the upcoming season. With that said, lets get into it. Here are my rankings of MLR’s 2025 home kits, followed by an explanation of each ranking. A reminder that each row is also ranked, left to right:

Excellent – Chicago Hounds

As anyone who has seen my jersey rankings from previous years will know, I’m a sucker for hoops and a collar. The Chicago Hounds stick with a winning formula and it looks so clean. The thick stripe bordered by two thin stripes fits really well, and both the team and Macron logo sit perfectly on the chest. The Hounds continue to evolve their hooped kit first seen in 2023, adding the collar in 2024 and removing the hooped sleeves for 2025, making them a flat shade of that trademark green. The houndstooth edges stay on the sleeves (an amazing little detail), and feature subtly in the numbering on the back of the jerseys. Another really strong kit from the Chicago Hounds, and my personal favourite home jersey for 2025. The Rugby Network even pitted the Hounds jersey against the Free Jacks jersey in the ‘Battle of the Hoops’, and Chicago just took the win: 51.2% to 48.8%!

Excellent – New England Free Jacks

Another Eastern Conference team sticking to their classic ‘hoops & collar’ look are the reigning champs, the New England Free Jacks. Always high on my jersey rankings, the Free Jacks’ design for their ‘Club’ (home) kit is really quite simple, seemingly random hoops of red, white and blue throughout, based on the Serapis Flag used by John Paul Jones during the Battle of Flamborough Head during the Revolutionary War. Very Free Jacks. Similar to their previous kits is not a criticism, as New England deliver excellent kits year in and year out, and the addition of ‘Lets Ride’ to the bottom of the jersey is a wonderful touch. The jersey sponsor remains the same as pervious years and fits very well on the chest, and the team and Macron logos fitting perfectly into that red stripe is very pleasing.

Excellent – Seattle Seawolves

The third and final home kit in the ‘Excellent’ tier is the more subtle hoops and collar approach of the Seattle Seawolves. As the saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I am very fond of the Seawolves’ return to their classic colours. Echoing the ‘traditional’ colours of Seattle’s sports teams, the light green accents really pop against the navy. The green Macron logo is a nice touch, and the jersey sponsor isn’t invasive. The subtle hoops are alternating nods to the mountainous ‘Pacific Northwest Cascade and Olympic Landscapes’ and the ocean waves of the Puget Sound. I was never particularly high on the Seawolves move to more black primary jerseys, and I’m looking forward to seeing this ‘classic’ look on the pitch in 2025.

Great – Utah Warriors

The first non-hooped jersey on the list. The Utah Warriors are another club with consistently strong jerseys, with their 2023 away being one of my all-time favourites. Their 2025 home kit sees a return to the more bold designs after a safe (but strong!) 2024 selection. The mountains of Utah feature prominently in the Warriors’ home kit for next season, and the black and red colours are always a strong combination. Breaking with tradition slightly, the four red lines that represent ‘Community, Family, Tradition, and Respect’ differ from previous years. These lines are present in every single Utah Warriors jersey, and they do not run across the chest as they typically have in the past, instead running over the left shoulder and behind the team logo. I really like this small change that keeps with a Warriors’ tradition, but I’m curious to see what that looks like on the back of the jersey.

Great – Anthem RC

Anthem RC’s late addition for the 2024 season meant that I didn’t have a chance to fairly rank their kits from last season (click here for my first impressions video). Fortunately, it looks like the World Rugby, USA Rugby, and MLR partnership team have gone with a very similar design for this season’s home jersey. The mission statement of Anthem RC is to develop the next generation of USA Eagles ahead of the home World Cup in 2031. as such, they have stuck with the ‘rising stars’ background and although the number of stars has been reduced, I think this works better as a more predictable pattern. The black detailing around the edges of the sleeves and neck has been changed to a dark grey that fits with the great shade of blue, but my favourite change is to the Anthem RC logo itself. Going from white last year to gold this year is a huge improvement and really pops on the chest. The gold Macron compliments it well too. We’ll have to wait and see if a jersey sponsor goes on there, but based on this picture alone, I’m a big fan of this combination.

Great – Miami Sharks

If you thought last year’s Miami Sharks jerseys were bold, wait until you see their 2025 kits. This home kit with it’s blurred pattern evokes imagery of waves of blue waters washing up on a Florida beach at sunset. the Miami Vice-esque kit is bright, bold, vibrant, and bonkers. In their young history, the Miami Sharks already seem to have nailed the ‘Miami’ vibe to their kits, and the pink and light blue fit in with other sports teams around the city. The jersey sponsor, although large, doesn’t feel intrusive and the white goes with the Macron logo. This choice may be a surprise to some, but a unique choice is exactly what I expected from the Sharks, and I’m glad I haven’t been disappointed! I’m curious to see how the numbering will look on the back, however.

Solid – NOLA Gold

Why fix what isn’t broke? Similar to the New England Free Jacks, the designs for the NOLA Gold haven’t changed a great deal, and in NOLA’s case the home kit has varied very little since 2021. Although some fans (myself included) may prefer the black and gold quartered jersey that the Gold used as their 2023 away kit, There’s no denying that the lighter gold and white is a solid jersey. A few small changes for this year sees the addition of white to the gold sections to give the impression of shimmering scales, and the quarters divided with a diagonal line across rather than dead horizontal. The horizontal like works well with the classic Gold jersey, and the Macron and team logos alternating colours works. Another jersey sponsor not taking over the entire jersey is very welcome, too!

Solid – San Diego Legion

This one may raise some eyebrows. Having being harsh on the Legion last year for revealing their ‘Military Series’ jerseys that gave the impression that there were more Legion jerseys on the way, those camo jerseys turned out to just be the Legion’s 2024 kits. This, coupled with San Diego being the only team to opt out of the City Jerseys, left much to be desired. The Legion’s 2025 kits however, are much improved. The Legion have traditionally been black and red (similar to the Utah Warriors), this year the choices are black or red for home or away. I think this black home kit is pretty sharp, and work really well with the white collar and edging, reminiscent of an All Blacks jersey. For history nerds like me, the ‘lightning’ motif in the background is reminiscent of ‘fulmina’, used in the insignia of some units of the Roman Army (such as Legions). This may have been unintentional, but it’s a nice touch nonetheless! There’s no jersey sponsor on the image above, so I’m curious to know how that would look on the kit. Additionally, as mentioned the Legion are traditionally red & black so although this is a clean look, how would it look if the white parts were red?

Fine – Old Glory DC

Now we move into the home kits that, in my opinion, aren’t anything special, but aren’t awful. At the top of this list is Old Glory DC. Although the Flags do stick with their typical ‘Red, White, and Blue,’ ‘Stars and Stripes’ brand, this year’s iteration falls a little flat compared to some of their previous home jerseys. It seems that OGDC have moved away from red as a jersey colour, but this kit looks as though the main colour is supposed to be a navy but because of the outline of all the starts it looks more like a grey. Although the stripes at the edges and on the collar are sharp, coupled with the lack of jersey sponsor, the kit looks like a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, or a souvenir shirt from the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France, thank the Old Glory DC home kit. It actually looks like it could be a USA National Team kit or piece of merch, which I suppose is a good thing given that the team is named after the US Flag. This kit isn’t bad, it’s fine. I’m sure plenty of DC fans will pick these jerseys up and they’ll look fine on the field, but compared to some of the other home kits around MLR for 2025, this kit doesn’t stand out. Perhaps they are trying to get away from similarities to the other red, white, and blue team in the Eastern Conference?

Fine – Rugby FC LA

For their sophomore season, Rugby FC LA’s home kit is a very similar colour to their 2024 away jersey. The light blue remains but the ‘wave’ effect is gone, replaced with…static? I’m not sure what the pattern is supposed to be, or how that relates to LA, but it’s a good shade of blue that invokes the blue summer sky, as well as the blue sea on the yellow beaches. The darker seams work with it as do the darker areas up the sides. The yellow around the neck and sleeves is another carry over from last year’s away kit, but bonus points for the addition of the collar. Although this is a fine jersey that, like Old Glory DC, many fans will pick up, it doesn’t improve on the darker blue of their 2024 Home kit. I was hoping to see the purple of RFCLA’s 2024 City Jersey make a return in some capacity, but there’s always next year.

Meh – Houston SaberCats

Another of my braver choices in this list, but this one comes with a few caveats. Last year, I docked the San Diego Legion points for seemingly not having their jerseys ready on time. In 2021 I gave ATL and LA an F by default for not revealing their jerseys in time. This ranking is (partly) similar to that. Let’s start with the good. I’m glad to see the SaberCat logo is sticking around. I was worried that following Houston’s subtle ‘rebrand’ that the Cat was gone, but it makes up the background pattern across most of this shirt. The black and yellow has always been a strong combination and that hasn’t changed with the SaberCats’ 2024 home kit, but here we encounter one of the issues. It looks black and yellow. A few weeks ago Houston announced a very subtle re-brand, moving from yellow to gold and seemingly adopting their wordmark as a new primary logo. Why do that if you’re sticking with yellow on the pitch? Is it just that it’s too subtle to notice? In which case why announce the change at all? It’s a strange one. And talking of strange, I may have been burying the lead here a bit. Where is the crest? It’s bizarre to announce the adoption of a new primary logo and then leave it off the jerseys. Without the crest it looks like a training kit or athleisurewear, (especially looking at the flat black sections on the shoulders) rather than the primary jersey. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this jersey is bad. There’s just a few odd choices in here. It’s a bit more ‘huh?’ than ‘meh’. If I were a Houston SaberCats fan, I’d stick with last season’s home jersey.

There you have it, NARDB’s ranking of all 11 Home Jerseys for Major League Rugby’s 2025 season. As mentioned at the start of this article, there are bound to be people that disagree with this list, and that’s absolutely fine. One of the most fun parts of ‘Kitmas’ (as it’s affectionately known among MLR fans) is debating each kit with other fans. That is exactly what this article is hoping to generate, passionate debate for the kits we’ll be watching on the field in 2025. NARDB’s ranking of the Away kits for 2025 will be coming in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Do you agree with these rankings? Do you disagree? Do you agree with some but not with others? Please let me know in the comments section below but please keep things civil. These rankings with snippets of each explanation are also live on my personal Twitter/X @JamDelay, please feel free to comment there as well or on Bluesky, also @JamDelay.

A reminder that all jerseys are available to pre-order now! Visit shopmlr.com to place your order and let me know which jersey you’ve gone for! A reminder, using code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout will get you 15% off of your order.

MLR Player Movement Summary: November 25-December 1, 2024

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Another week gone and another Monday rolls around, which means it’s time for your weekly summary of player moves from around Major League Rugby from November 25-December 1, 2024! As always, this article will provide a little bit more context for all of last week’s moves, as well as add a few stats and a summary graphic to keep MLR fans up to date with all of the off-season moves. Last week, two teams began their 2025 announcements, so rest assured these summaries will stay busy through the holidays! As always, here is the first page graphic of last week’s summary:

MLR Player Moves Summary: November 25-December 1, 2024 (1 of 2)
Regular Re-signings

As with all of these summaries, we begin with the players returning to their teams for another season. Last week we had 11 resignings across 5 teams, including a trio each for the Houston SaberCats, Miami Sharks, and Rugby FC LA. Starting with the Houston SaberCats, who announced the return of Keni Nasoqeqe, Drew Wild, and Louritz van der Schyff for their 2025 campaign. Nasoqeqe, a US-eligible Fijian forward who has played 7 seasons in MLR through 2024, returns for his fourth season with Houston in 2025. The 6’4 lock/back row is an MLR stalwart with 74 appearances in his career so far, starting 52 times and scoring 10 tries. He represented the USA in a non-capped game against Stade Toulousain in September 2023. Kiwi fullback Drew Wild returns for his 3rd season with the SaberCats, having scored 5 tries in his 22 games (all starts) since joining in 2023. Wild spent this offseason playing with the Manawatu Turbos in New Zealand’s National Provincial Championship (NPC), where he’s played since 2019. Finally for Houston, lethal South African centre Louritz van der Schyff returns for a fourth MLR season. Van der Schyff has scored 14 tries in his 28 games (also all starts) for the ‘Cats since 2022, completing over 200 tackles and gaining over 1,500m in possession.

Moving on to the Miami Sharks, who continue to announce their 2025 squad at a steady pace. They will have back front rows Alec McDonnell and Jonas Petrakopoulos, as well as fullback/wing Marcos Young for their sophomore season in Major League Rugby. Missourian prop Alec McDonnell is a MLR veteran, having earned 42 appearances since 2020 between New York (2020), Houston (2021-2023), and Miami (2024), setting career highs in starts (4) and Metres Gained (101) with the Sharks and recording in 3rd season in a row with over 50 tackles completed. Another MLR veteran is Dutch-born prop Jonas Petrakopoulos, who has 51 appearances and 10 starts, and was teammates with McDonnell in New York in 2020, before moving to Rugby ATL (2021-2023), re-uniting with McDonnell in Miami for 2024. The 2021 MLR Runner-up set career highs across the board in 2024, in appearances (16), starts (5), Metres Gained (76) and Tackles Completed (55). Texas born Florida raised Marcos Young will enjoy his 3rd season in MLR in 2025, having represented Old Glory DC in 2023 before joining the Sharks. Young has 6 tries in his 28 MLR games to date, earning 14 of his 23 starts with the Sharks and setting a career high in tackles last season with 82.

A third team with three returnees last week is Rugby FC LA, who began announcing their 2025 squad on Monday November 25th. Capped Canadians Andrew Coe and Conor Young will return for their second seasons in LA, as will USA Eagle Jason Damm, who followed the franchise from Atlanta. A 2022 MLR Champion with Rugby New York, Canadian 15s and 7s capped winger Andrew Coe has scored 20 tries in his 44 MLR games since 2022, including 7 in 12 games for LA in 2024! He’s gained over 3,000m in his career to date, and completed over 200 tackles. Fellow test capped Canadian Conor Young is back for a 3rd season in MLR after lifting the Shield with the New England Free Jacks in 2023. Like Petrakopoulos for Miami, Young set career highs across the board in 2024, including 103 tackles completed. Finally returning for RFCLA is stand-out forward Jason Damm, who scored 7 tries in 15 games (14 starts) and completed a very impressive 172 tackles in 2024. Damm has 48 career appearances in MLR, has gained over 2,000m with ball in hand, and completed over 500 tackles since 2019.

Finally for re-signings, the San Diego Legion continue to wrap up their roster announcements with the return of Aminae Amiatu-Tanoi for 2025. The former USA Hawk was signed with the Legion in 2023 but didn’t feature. He played with the Utah Selects in the Fall of 2023 and earned his MLR debut in 2024, making 4 appearances off the bench for the Legion. He’ll be looking to earn his first start in 2025. Over in the Eastern Conference, Old Glory DC began their roster announcements yesterday (December 1st) and are following a ‘Advent Calendar’ style to their reveals. They announced the return of MLR veteran front row Quentin Newcomer. Newcomer, who can play either side of the front row, spent 3 seasons with the New England Free Jacks (2020-2022) before being traded to Old Glory DC, and has earned 51 MLR appearances to date, scoring a try in each of his last 3 seasons.

MLR Player Moves Summary: November 25-December 1, 2024 (2 of 2)
Intra-League Moves

Just a reminder, an intra-league move occurs when an MLR player moves to a different team within MLR, rather than an inter-league move which would be a player moving to MLR from the Pro D2 or vice-versa, for example. We’ll get to the inter-league moves in a bit. There were only a pair of intra-league moves last week, but they were big! Rugby FC LA‘s first player announcement of the off-season was the signing of Houston SaberCats veteran and USA Eagle #539, Christian Dyer. A California native and UC-Berkeley alum, Dyer signed with the Dallas Jackals before they deferred their entry into MLR, and was selected by Rugby New York for 2021, but did not play in MLR until the follow season with the SaberCats. Dyer scored 19 tries in 45 games (44 starts) with Houston between 2022-2024, gaining over 1,750m and completing over 250 tackles. The utility back is a huge addition for RFCLA, and a big loss for Houston both on the field and off of it.

The second intra-league move sees another Dallas Jackal find a new home for 2025. Canadian-eligible Irish back row Ronan Foley was selected 14th in the Dispersal Draft by the Miami Sharks, who confirmed the signing last week. Foley joins another Irish ex-Arrow Shane O’Leary in Florida, although the two never represented Toronto together. Foley has scored 8 tries in his 45 MLR games to date (39 starts) between Toronto (2021-2022), Seattle (2023), and Dallas (2024), running for over 2,250m gained and completing just under 500 tackles.

New Additions

After the San Diego Legion were the busiest team for much of the start of November, the title of busiest team stays in California but moves up the I-5 to Los Angeles, as Rugby FC LA announced a trio of new signings to go along with their three returnees and the addition of Christian Dyer. 23yo English hooker Ben Sugars joins the team from the NSW Waratahs in Super Rugby, where he was playing as injury cover after helping the Randwick Galloping Green to a Shute Shield title in 2023 under RFCLA’s new Director of Rugby, Stephen Hoiles. This will be Sugars’ first full-time professional rugby contract. LA also announced the addition of veteran Argentinian international scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou, who has represented Los Pumas at the 2019 & 2023 Rugby World Cups, earning over 60 test caps to date. Bertranou joins from Cardiff Rugby in the URC, having represented the Jaguares for their entire Super Rugby tenure, as well as Benetton and the Dragons, also in the URC. In addition to Ben Sugars, RFCLA DoR Stephen Hoiles has brought in back row and former Australia Sevens player Tim Anstee for their sophomore season. Anstee played in 24 tournaments for the Aussie Sevens side between 2016-2020, during which time he worked with Hoiles. Following his time with the Sevens team he signed with Western Force, playing in 45 games between 2021-2024, also playing with Eastwood in the Shute Shield, where he caught the eye of RFCLA Assistant Coach and 2021 MLR Champion, Dave Dennis.

Heading over to the Eastern Conference and the addition of another Australian to MLR, the Chicago Hounds announced the signing of Sydney native Mitch Short for their 2025 campaign. Short, a scrum-half, represented Randwick in the Shute Shield between 2015-2017. He played in Super Rugby with the Western Force (2017) and the Waratahs (2018-2020), before heading to the French Top 14 to play with Racing 92. Following a season with Racing, Short moved to the Pro D2 to play with Beziers between 2022-2024, and now heads to SeatGeek for 2025!

Staying in the Eastern Conference, the NOLA Gold announced the signing of a pair of new faces, including a Capped Canadian international for their 2025 season. Nova Scotian prop Tyler Matchem joins from Canada’s high performance development academy, the Pacific Pride. Matchem represented the Canada U20s in 2022 and the Canada Selects in a pre-season clash with the Seattle Seawolves in February 2024. He earned his test debut as #510 against Tonga in the 2024 PNC, and joins fellow Canadian internationals Cooper Coats and Kaden Duguid in New Orleans. Additionally, the Gold announced the signing of another French veteran in the form of winger Xavier Mignot. Capped once for France in 2016, Mignot played with his local team, CS Bourgoin-Jallieu, in the French Pro D2 for the 2013/14 season, before signing with Grenoble and representing them in the Top 14 between 2014-2017. Mignot moved to Lyon in 2017 to play with LOU, earning over 120 appearances in France’s top flight with LOU alone, scoring 30 tries across the Top 14, Challenge Cup, and Champions Cup. Mignot joins his compatriot Kélian Galletier in New Orleans.

Thus concludes another busy week of activity around Major League Rugby! With Rugby FC LA‘s announcements in full swing and Old Glory DC getting started on their own, expect it to be another busy week around the league. Maybe we’ll even hear something from Anthem RC, who have been eerily quite for the last month. NARDB helps to keep fans informed with all the movement around MLR, as well as posting the most interesting and informative stats about Major League Rugby!

Be sure to follow NARDB across social media to see player moves as they happen, as well as to see the summary graphics, and support the site. Find us on Instagram/Threads @MLRStats, Twitter/X at either @NARugbyDB or @JamDelay, and on Bluesky at @NARDB or @JamDelay! If you’re looking for some rugby-related Christmas shopping, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRStats’ at checkout for 15% off your order!

Major League Rugby Releases Full Schedule for 8th Season in 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

On November 19th, a gloomy Tuesday deep in the off-season, Major League Rugby announced it’s full slate of regular season games for it’s upcoming 2025 season that kicks off on February 15th, 2025. With it, there were a number of tidbits surrounding venues for 2025, and as with almost everything when it comes to Major League Rugby, it was not without it’s share of controversy.

For those of you who prefer to listen than to read, below is a video I made (NARStats on Youtube) that basically summarises this article. Give it a watch and let me know what you think!

The Facts

Let’s start with the facts. The 2025 Major League Rugby season will begin on Saturday February 15th, 2025 with a 88 game regular season spread over the 17 weeks to June 8th, 2025. From there, the Post-Season will begin with the Conference Semifinals, Conference Finals, and finally the 2025 Championship Game to finish a 95 game season. The beginning of the season is a few weeks earlier than last year, and the regular season is squeezed from 18 weeks to 17 to ensure that the season is finished by the July test window that wreaked havoc on the post-season in 2024. This is a good thing. The 2-week break between regular season and playoffs in 2024 stopped all the momentum that a great regular season generated, and caused a lot of the more casual fans to forget that the MLR season hadn’t actually finished yet.

The season will kick-off with the Miami Sharks playing host to Old Glory DC in an Eastern Conference clash, the first of 3 games on February 15th that unfortunately all have some overlap with one another. The Utah Warriors pulled the short straw and have to sit through a week 1 bye. This is pretty silly on the surface, but with only 11 teams in the competition this year there was always going to be an odd one out.

The reigning Champion New England Free Jacks start their 2nd title defence in a row on the road against Rugby FC LA, and play 5 of their first 6 games on the road. This may be because of the climate in Massachusetts in February/March, similar to how the Toronto Arrows would always start their season with a huge number of road games, although the Chicago Hounds in Illinois play 3 games at home in their first 5 games in a similar climate. Round 1 treats us to a classic MLR rivalry when the San Diego Legion host the Seattle Seawolves on February 16th, as well as the Cats v Dogs game, when the Chicago Hounds travel to Texas to face the Houston SaberCats.

Venue Changes

The release of the 2025 schedule brought with it a bit of news regarding venues for 2025. In typical MLR fashion, the schedule released with venues listed, spoiling a few surprises for eagle-eyed fans. Firstly, that all of the San Diego Legion’s home games were listed as TBD suggesting a move away from the venue of the 2024 Championship Game, Snapdragon Stadium. Sure enough, a few hours after the schedule was released, Legion season ticket members received an email confirming the rumour that the Legion were returning to Torero Stadium, their home from 2018-2021 and the venue for the 2018 & 2019 MLR Finals. For Legion fans, they had been waiting for Snapdragon to be completed and were treated to a truly world-class venue, only to take a step back to a much smaller, older venue. However, this will no doubt help the team save on costs, and a large contributing factor to moving back to Torero was to ensure good time slots for Legion games that just weren’t available at Snapdragon.

Source: San Diego Legion

Staying in California, mere minutes after all teams announced the schedule and the buzz was at it’s max, Rugby FC LA slipped in the news that they were moving from Dignity Health Sports Park to the 2,145 seater Wallis Annenberg Stadium within UCLA, which will host 6 of RFCLA’s 8 home games in 2025. The team also announced that there were two ‘marquee’ matches with venues still to be announced, indicating a larger venue may be hosting their season opener against the New England Free Jacks, and the Cali Cup clash with the San Diego Legion. Also included in LA’s announcment was the news that they would begin to reveal their roster for 2025 on Monday, November 25th, so keep an eye on NARDB’s social media and summary articles over the next few weeks!

RFCLA & the San Diego Legion appear to be the only teams relocating for the entire season, but Anthem RC appear to be playing a number of games at the Mecklenberg County Sportsplex in Matthews, NC. The first of which is to support the Carolina Ruggerfest. Pro teams supporting local rugby, you love to see it! Additionally, the Utah Warriors will be returning to America First Field towards the end of the season, likely for another ‘Warriorsfest’ party that reported an attendance of over 10,000 for their final game of 2024.

Mid-week Matches and Player Welfare

As mentioned in the introduction, the 2025 regular season has been squeezed from 18 weeks to 17. As a result, a small number of the 88 games will be played during the week on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays. In 2025 there will be 7 games played mid-week. This blurs the lines of when one round of matches starts and another begins, and is a bit of a shift from a league that has typically only had one or two matches a season played on a “school night”.

Of the 11 teams competing in MLR in 2025, only the Miami Sharks will avoid a mid-week game. The New England Free Jacks, Anthem RC, San Diego Legion, NOLA Gold, Houston SaberCats and Old Glory DC will play in one each, while Rugby FC LA, the Utah Warriors, Seattle Seawolves, and Chicago Hounds will play in two each. From a fan perspective, this is not ideal. In general, teams have made good progress in making a day out of attending a game and at weekends. For example the Free Jacks turn every home game into a different themed festival. The majority of fans obviously don’t have to worry about work or school on Friday/Saturday/Sunday, can bring kids along, etc. For these mid-week games, fans will get home from work already tired and have to head straight out into the heavier traffic to get to games. In general, we can expect to see lower attendances for these games. Judging by the reaction on social media, many fans are confused as to why MLR have shifted to mid-week games at all.

Finally, to the controversy surrounding these midweek games and player welfare. For all of the games held during the week, teams will often be playing a second game that weekend. For example, in Round 11 Anthem RC host the Seattle Seawolves on Wednesday, April 23rd, before flying to Miami to face the Sharks on April 27th, just 4 days later with travel. Similarly, the Seawolves will finish their game against Anthem, only to fly to New Orleans to face the Gold on the same turnaround. Rugby FC LA have it really tough that same week, facing the New England Free Jacks on Tuesday, April 22nd only to then fly the roughly 2,500 miles back to LA to host the San Diego Legion on the Saturday. The Legion who only have to travel the roughly 100 miles down the I-405. Unsurprisingly, playing so many high intensity, professional games has implications for Player Welfare, and the United States Rugby Players Association (USRPA) & Major League Rugby Players’ Association (MLRPA) jumped on this. Here is their statement:

Source: United States Rugby Players Association

At the most basic level, without ensuring the safety of the players, they will stop playing in MLR and without players, Major League Rugby cannot hope to grow. With teams only getting 4 days between games, and in many cases needing to travel large distances to make their next games, to claim this is ‘at least four “clear days”‘ rest is a tough sell. The fact that the league rolled out this schedule without consulting the PA is, unfortunately, not a huge surprise to anyone who has been following the league for some time. I encourage everyone reading this article to check out the USRPA’s site at rugbyunionnow.com.

To conclude, we have a kick-off date for the 2025 MLR season, and a full 88 game regular season that is going to be excellent quality professional rugby games that will continue rivalries that have been forged over past seasons, and maybe even generate some new ones. It’s fantastic news that MLR has avoided the July test window to allow the season to run uninterrupted, but the league needs to be careful not to jeopardise player welfare with a compressed schedule.

Thank you very much for reading, what’re your thoughts on the schedule and mid-week games? Did you notice the venue changes? For more news and stats around Major League Rugby, be sure to follow James and NARDB on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram & Threads, and either @JamDelay or @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, or @JamDelay/@NARDB on Bluesky.

The Most Carded Active Teams in MLR

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Last week, NARDB posted a graphic and article analysing the overall number of cards shown per Major League Rugby season, identifying trends and offering explanations for the reasons behind them. That article can be found here. As promised, this is a continuation of that. We’ll be breaking down the most carded teams in MLR, both all-time and per season, while also highlighting some of the most carded teams and games in Major League Rugby history.

As identified last week, MLR put in place a new Match Official Management Team ahead of the 2024 season. This was a contributing factor to the huge increase in cards handed out this year and this article will focus on the 2024 season above others, as it is (obviously) the season most likely to influence how carding in the 2025 season will unfold.

The below graphic shows how many cards in total each active MLR team has received all time, as well as each team’s Yellow Cards per Game (YCpG) and Red Cards per Game (RCpG) and their most heavily carded seasons:

How often each active MLR team are shown yellow & red cards. Table is sorted by YCpG

There are only two active teams in Major League Rugby that are averaging over 1.0 yellow card per game, and both of those enjoyed their inaugural season in 2024. The Miami Sharks averaged 1.13 YCpG, and Rugby FC LA lead the league in this unenviable category, with a huge 1.38 YCpG. Both Miami and RFCLA are head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the league, with the San Diego Legion sitting third with only 0.75 YCpG. This means that RFCLA average an additional yellow card than the Legion every 2 games, and Miami average an extra yellow every 3 games. In fact, with 3 red cards and a whopping 22 yellow cards for 25 cards total in 16 games, RFCLA‘s inaugural season this year was the most cards a MLR team has ever received in a single season.

The caveat to this is that with the Miami Sharks and RFCLA competing in their first MLR season in 2024, the sample size for these two teams is far lower than most other teams in the league. However, the Sharks and RFCLA were not the only expansion teams in 2024. MLR’s partnership with USA Rugby and World Rugby, Anthem RC, have the same sample size and ARC are sat right in the mid-table on a 0.69 YCpG. Nice. This is level with the 2024 regular season leaders the Houston SaberCats, and the 2024 Champions the New England Free Jacks. Anthem RC received literally half as many yellow cards as RFCLA in as many games. This will not be the record that Rugby FC LA’s players and coaches enjoy, and I’m sure their new coaching team for 2025 will be working hard to not see a repeat of this.

As mentioned in last week’s article, the 2024 Major League Rugby season saw a big jump in the number of both yellow and red cards shown compared to previous seasons. As a result, in addition to the 3 expansion sides, four active MLR teams received a season high in total cards in 2024. The San Diego Legion, NOLA Gold, Seattle Seawolves and Old Glory DC. A fifth team, the Utah Warriors, tied their most carded season with 14 yellows and a red, level with their 2023 season.

The Seattle Seawolves are worth mentioning for a couple of reasons. Firstly and most impressively, they have played the most games of any team in MLR, at 105 in total since 2018 and In that time they have only received 56 yellow cards in total. This is tied with Old Glory DC for the lowest YCpG among active teams, at only 0.53, roughly 1 yellow card every two games. Old Glory DC have received 4 red cards total, however. The Seattle Seawolves, remarkably, have never had a player red carded. They have gone 105 games without seeing a red card, the only other active team in MLR to have never received a red card is the Miami Sharks, who have only played 1 season. 56 yellow cards in 105 games is excellent discipline from the 2x MLR Champions. However, in 2024 they received the 2nd highest number of yellow cards among active teams with 20, and are just the 2nd team in league history to have been shown 20+ cards in a season (behind RFCLA, also in 2024). The Seawolves received 35.7% of every yellow card they’ve ever had in the 2024 season alone.

As mentioned above, Rugby FC LA were the most carded team in Major League Rugby in 2024, setting a new record for the number of cards received by a team in a single season. Despite the jump in cards in 2024, last season did not see the most carded game in MLR history. That honour goes to an infamous game between the Dallas Jackals and the Chicago Hounds in the final round of the 2023 regular season. This match, a nail-biting 28-29 victory for the visiting Hounds, saw a brawl shortly after half time, resulting in five red cards, two for the Jackals and 3 for Chicago. Add this to the 4 yellow cards the Hounds received throughout the match and this becomes the most carded game in MLR history at 9. Unsurprisingly, the 9-card punch-up contributed significantly to Round 18 of the 2023 season becoming the most carded round in MLR history with 13 yellows and 6 reds handed out in total.

Proportion and amounts of Yellow & Red Cards in the Western Conference in 2024

Last week’s article went some way to explaining why (in theory) 2024 saw a noticeable jump in cards. That explanation can be found at the bottom of that article, and centres around MLR’s introduction of a Director of Match Officials, and a Match Official Management Team. As mentioned at the start of this article, the 2024 season, being the most recent, will give us the best idea of how the 2025 season may unfold, so let’s jump into how regularly each team was carded last season.

The above graphic shows the breakdown of cards for the 2024 Western Conference. This includes the Dallas Jackals, who unfortunately will not compete in 2025. Of the 180 yellow cards shown in 2024, 105 were shown to Western Conference teams, that’s 58%. Of those went to the top 3 most yellow carded teams, Rugby FC LA & the Seattle Seawolves (as mentioned earlier), and the San Diego Legion. Even the best regular season team in MLR, the Houston SaberCats, recorded close to 1 yellow per game (0.81 YCpG) and four of the six teams in the Western Conference had a YCpG over 1. The picture looks similar when we turn to red cards. A record 17 reds were shown in 2024, and 9 of those (53%) were shown to Western Conference teams. When remembering that the Seattle Seawolves received 0 red cards, that evens out to almost 2 reds for each of the five remaining Western Conference teams. Unsurprisingly, the most carded team in 2024 received the most red cards in the West, averaging around 0.19 RCpG, over double the Western Conference average of 0.09 RCpG. Is there something about the way that Western Conference teams play that causes them to be carded more? Possibly. If I knew the reason/s why this was the case I would probably have a much higher paying job, but I believe there is value in identifying these patterns.

Moving over to the Eastern Conference, after a quick look at the below graphic a couple of things should stand out almost straight away. Firstly, the lack of red (with one obvious exception). The Eastern Conference received 8 of 2024’s 17 red cards, with five of those going to the NOLA Gold. The Gold received more red cards than any other team last season and recorded a whopping 0.29 RCpG, significantly higher than even RFCLA. NOLA’s indiscipline counteracted the three teams in the East who didn’t see red (the Chicago Hounds, Miami Sharks, and the Champions, the New England Free Jacks), bringing the RCpG in the east to 0.08, essentially identical to the West.

Proportion and amounts of Yellow & Red Cards in the Eastern Conference in 2024

The second stand out, when looking at the above a little deeper, should be the numbers of yellows shown to teams in the east. The Western Conference teams were all in the teens and above, but the East only saw one team in the teens: The Miami Sharks on 18. The remaining 5 teams received between 10-12 including Old Glory DC, a historically low-carded team (0.53 YCpG, level as lowest among active teams in MLR). Old Glory DC received 12 cards in total (10y, 2r), the joint-least carded team in 2024 with Anthem (11y, 1r), Chicago (12y, 0r), and New England (12y, 0r). with the Sharks collecting almost a quarter of the yellow cards in the east, and the NOLA Gold collecting almost two thirds of the reds, there’s room for improvement on both sides, and with the Gold bringing in a new Head Coach in Danny Lee for 2025, will we see a decrease in reds down in Louisiana? For the remaining four teams in the east, while I’m sure all coaching teams would rather see fewer cards shown to their squads, they’re being carded a whole lot less than the Western Conference, and are all below the YCpG average of 0.73 for the East.

As mentioned earlier and last week, while I have presented a theory as to why the number of red & yellow cards increased across the league generally in 2024, the reasons for certain teams being carded more than others could be down to ‘over-zealous’ individuals, it could be down to the way certain teams play (giving away more penalties generally likely results in more yellows from repeat infringements, for example), or it could even be down to the officiating team on the day. There aren’t numbers available (publicly, anyway) for which officials hand out the most cards, but if there is an interest in that then NARDB will happily dig into that. In the meantime, for any questions or comments, feel free to leave them under this article or reach out to @MLRStats on Instagram and Threads, or either @JamDelay or @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X.

MLR Player Move Summary: October 7-13, 2024

NAR Database

James Deeley

The 2024/25 Major League Rugby off-season seemed to explode into life last week, with a flurry of activity from a number of teams that made for a busy news week, a welcome change to the sparse announcements through September. This article will cover all the major moves from around Major League Rugby for last week, ensuring you don’t miss a thing! As always, here’s the graphic summarizing all of the confirmed moves from October 7th to October 13th, 2024:

Source: @MLRStats on Instagram
Dallas Dispersal Draft Fallout

As revealed by both NARDB and Americas Rugby News last week, the Dispersal Draft for Dallas Jackals players took place on September 25th, with no public announcement from MLR of either it’s taking place, or the results (despite a statement to the contrary). There were three trades on the day of the Dispersal Draft, but they didn’t appear on the MLR Trade Wire (which is notoriously slow to update) until October 9th, hence their inclusion on this week’s summary.

Two of these three trades are completely administrative, with Anthem RC acquiring the 5th pick in the Dispersal Draft from Old Glory DC in exchange for 2025 Salary Cap Space ($ amount unknown). ARC then flipped this pick to Rugby FC LA (who used it to select Vaughen Isaacs) along with 2025 Salary Cap Space ($ amount unknown) in exchange for the 2nd pick in the Dispersal Draft, which Anthem used to select Makeen Alikhan (who was playing for the Jackals on loan from English Premiership side Harlequins), it’s uncertain if Alikhan will return to MLR. The final trade is for an actual player. Old Glory DC picked up Argentine prop JP Zeiss with the 16th pick in the dispersal draft and immediately flipped him to the Seattle Seawolves in exchange for 2025 Salary Cap Space ($ amount unknown). Zeiss has 46 MLR caps to date across 3 seasons, starting 44 times and scoring 5 tries. He’s also completed over 350 career tackles.

Short Term Stints Across the Pond

We learned of a pair of players headed over to the UK on short-term deals to hone their game. English Premiership side the Bristol Bears announced the return of 2024 MLR Champion and newly-capped USA Eagle Toby Fricker on a 3 month contract as injury cover, and towering Seattle Seawolves lock Isaia Lotawa is headed to RGC 1404 in Super Rygbi Cymru as part of a player exchange made by former RGC player and current Seawolf Huw Taylor.

Fricker joined the New England Free Jacks late in the MLR season, earning 6 appearances including all 3 of their Playoff games en-route to the 2024 Shield, a 11-20 victory over the Seattle Seawolves which Fricker started. Isaia Lotawa didn’t feature in the 2024 final, but came off the bench in Seattle’s Western Conference Final victory over the Dallas Jackals. Lotawa earned 5 appearances for the Seawolves in 2024 and has 9 to date, including 2 starts. Both Lotawa and Toby Fricker will return to MLR for 2025, so no need for fans to worry!

Source: @bristolbearsrfc on Instagram
New Faces

Following news on October 2nd that 17 players would not be returning for 2025, the Utah Warriors began re-filling the roster by announcing the addition of 5 young, local players including two of their three 2024 MLR Collegiate Draftees. 2nd Round Pick (16th Overall) Tielu Sagala and 3rd Round Pick (28th Overall Cole Semu are officially MLR-ers. Sagala won 3 state Championships each with the 7s & 15s side at BYU, while New Zealand born Semu, also a BYU alum, has represented the USA at U18, U20, and U23 levels already. Also added by the Warriors were Papa Matelau & Mason Barker (the brother of Warriors alum Zak Barker), both of whole have represented the USA at age-grade level, and Tesimale Niupulusu, a 290lb monster front row who has been impressive in both Rugby League and Union in the Utah area.

In addition to Utah, Old Glory DC announced their first acquisition for the 2025 campaign, picking up veteran Welsh center Steffan Hughes from the Dragons in URC, where he has played since 2022. Hughes joined the Dragons in 2022 on a short-term basis but quickly earned an extension and became the team’s Captain for the 2023/24 URC season. Hughes had joined the Dragons from his local URC club the Scarlets, where he had played since 2013, earning well over 100 URC appearances and won the URC Championship in 2016/17. He captained the side through the 2019/20 & 2021/22 seasons and will add valuable experience to the Flags squad in 2025.

Source: @OldGloryDC on Twitter/X
RFCLA Build New-Look Coaching Team

Following the announcement from on October 4th that former LA Giltinis Head Coach Steven Hoiles was returning to MLR as Director of Rugby and Head Coach of Rugby FC LA, the team continued to add to their coaching squad last week with another pair familiar names. 2021 MLR Shield-Winning Captain and former Wallaby Dave Dennis returns to LA, now on the sidelines as RFCLA‘s Senior Assistant Coach, and former Austin Gilgronis and Chicago Hounds Head Coach Sam Harris takes up a position as Attack Coach.

Dennis already has an impressive trophy cabinet as a player. A Super Rugby Championship with the Waratahs in 2014, two Premiership trophies in 2016/17 & 2019/20 as well as a European Champions Cup in 2019/20 all with the Exeter Chiefs, and a MLR Shield with the LA Giltinis in 2021. He’ll be looking to add a second Shield as a coach in 2025. Sam Harris is likely well known around MLR already, having led the Austin Gilgronis through the 2021-2022 seasons before moving to Chicago to lead the Hounds through their inaugural season and the majority of the 2024 campaign before being let go in Round 15. He holds a 29-1-31 record as an MLR head coach, but will coordinate the RFCLA attack in 2025.

Source: @RugbyFCLA on Instagram
Steady Stream of Departures in New Orleans

On October 2nd the Utah Warriors announced the departure of 17 players that raised the eyebrows of many around the league, and it seems the Warriors were not the only team going through significant roster changes ahead of 2025. Throughout last week the NOLA Gold announced the departures of 5 players in total, one almost every day. Rodney Iona, Augusto Böhme, Maciu Koroi, OJ Noa, and Sam Klimkowski were all thanked for their contributions to the Louisiana team individually.

No doubt the names to stick out from this list will be Rodney Iona and Maciu Koroi. Iona has scored 4 tries and 128pts in 23 games (all starts) across 2 seasons for the Gold, and Koroi has earned 33 MLR appearances for the Gold over 3 seasons, starting 7 times and scoring 3 tries. Chilean international hooker Böhme and Samoan back rower OJ Noa both joined the Gold for the 2024 season and both earned 9 appearances, helping the Gold to finally end their MLR Playoff drought. Ohioan prop Klimkowski was drafted 13th overall by the LA Giltinis in 2021 and played with the NOLA Gold Academy side in the fall of 2022, finally earning his MLR debut for the Gold in 2024, when he featured in 4 games, starting 1.

These moves were not included on the Player Move Summary graphic as we are not yet sure of the destination of any of these players. It’s possible we could see them suiting up for another MLR team in 2025, for example. If/when I hear of any of these players signing with another team, the move will be included on that week’s graphic. It’s worth keeping an eye on NOLA to see if they continue to announce more departures this week, and who they bring in to replace these names.

Source: @nolagoldrugby on Instagram

A far longer summary article for a far busier week around Major League Rugby to start October. It seems like the off-season is really picking up, and we could be getting many more announcements over the next few weeks. Watch this space for summary articles each week, or follow @MLRStats on Instagram and @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X.