Tag: Seattle Seawolves

MLR Player Move Summary: November 4-10, 2024

NAR Database

James Deeley

For the 2nd week in a row, three pages are required for the graphic to summarise all the moves around MLR from last week! In total there were TWENTY-SIX re-signings around the league, 10 completely new signings from outside MLR, four players returning to MLR after some time playing elsewhere, and 3 inter-league moves. This article will go into more detail on all the activity from last week, allowing you to stay up to date on all the goings on ahead of the 2025 season! As always, we start with the first page of our summary, and jump into the returning players:

MLR Player Moves Summary: November 4-10, 2024 (1 of 3)
Relentless Re-Signings

As mentioned in the introduction, Six MLR teams announced the return of 26 players from their 2024 rosters who will return for 2025, including NINE for the San Diego Legion alone. The Legion appear to be announcing their entire roster between November 1st to 15th, and announced all their locks, back rows, scrum-halves, and fly-halves last week! We will get into the new additions for the Legion later in the article, but returning to the Legion in the second row are Charlie Hewitt and Brandon Harvey. MLR veteran Hewitt, a Champion with New York in 2022, has 68 caps and 34 starts in MLR since 2018, and scored 1 of his 3 tries in 2024, earning 3 starts and 11 appearances in his first year with the Legion. Brandon Harvey earned his MLR debut in 2024, making 3 starts in 5 games for the Legion and running for over 100m gained in possession. Also announced as returning for San Diego were Jay Tuivaiti and Vili Helu, who can both play on the flank. Tuivaiti scored 2 tries in 8 games (all starts) for the Legion in his debut MLR season in 2024, and Helu appeared in all 17 Legion games (12 starts) and has 61 MLR appearances since 2020, closing in on 1,500m gained and 500 tackles made in his MLR career. Capped USA Eagle Paddy Ryan will return to the Legion back row along with Australian veteran Christian Poidevin. Ryan was a late addition in 2024, earning 2 starts and 7 appearances for the Legion after joining from the English Champinoship, and 2021 MLR Champion Christian Poidevin returns for his 5th MLR season and 3rd with the Legion after an injury-affected 2024 . Poidevin has 10 tries in 45 MLR appearances (40 starts) since 2021, including 6 tries in 17 games for the San Diego Legion over the last two seasons.

Moving away from the pack to the Legion’s half backs, Connor Tupai will return in the 9 jersey for San Diego after scoring 5 tries in 15 games (14 starts) in 2024, completing over 120 tackles on defence. Wallabies legend Matt Giteau will not be returning for the Legion in 2025 after re-announcing his retirement, but Lincoln McClutchie and Harris Rutherford are returning. McClutchie was the Legion’s starting 10 for much of the first half of the season last year, finishing 6th in MLR scoring with 2 tries and 81pts in 12 games (8 starts). US-eligible Scottish fly-half Harris Rutherford didn’t get many minutes in 2024 as the Legion’s 4th 10 behind McClutchie, Giteau, and Josh Henderson, but still earned 3 MLR appearances, scoring 14pts and earning a Team of the Week selection in Round 17. That just about does it for the Legion’s returning players announced last week, and we’ll see the returning back line players in next week’s summary!

It’s not quite the 9 re-signings of the Legion, but the Houston SaberCats were also busy with 5 re-signings of their own. Recording a MLR-best 14-2 regular season in 2024, the SaberCats fell short in the playoffs and will be looking to take it a few steps further in 2025. Fly-half/fullback Davy Coetzer will return for a 4th season with Houston after signing a long-term contract through 2027. Coetzer has scored 16 tries and 291pts in 42 MLR games (all starts) for the SaberCats, and is MLR’s 9th highest points scorer of all-time. Joining Coetzer in the back line will be former Toronto Arrow Tautalatasi Tasi. Tasi has 4 tries in 20 MLR games since 2023 including 2 in 10 games (all starts) for the SaberCats in 2024. Also returning is 2024 Co-Captain Nathan den Hoedt, a 2021 MLR Champion with LA has 56 appearances under his belt including 24 with Houston since 2023. As well as den Hoedt, the SaberCats pack will see the return of lock/back row Johan Momsen and front row Pita Anae-Ah Sue. Momsen, MLR’s Forward of the Year in 2021, has just under 750 tackles made in his 66 games in MLR, scoring 13 tries including 1 in his 13 games (12 starts) in his first season with the SaberCats in 2024. Anae-Ah Sue is also returning for his 2nd season with Houston in 2025 after he scored 4 tries in 13 games (all starts) in their very strong 2024 season.

MLR Player Moves Summary: November 4-10, 2024 (2 of 3)

Staying in the Western Conference, the Utah Warriors continue to announce their returnees following the exodus of a few weeks ago, confirming that 4 Warriors veterans will be returning. Fan favourite centre Paul Lasike will return for a 5th season with Utah in 2025 after earning a career high 11 appearances (all starts) in 2024, and setting a career high in tackles with an even 100. Fellow long-time Warrior Emerson Prior will return for a 4th season after the Canadian prop was drafted 37th overall by Utah in 2021. Prior has 32 MLR appearances (16 starts) since 2022 and set career highs in both meters gained and tackles made in 2024. Also returning for a 4th season with Utah will be US-eligible kiwi scrum-half Zion Going, who has 4 tries in 34 games (16 starts) for the Warriors since 2022 and is another player who set career highs in meters gained and tackles in 2024. In fact, Going started more games in 2024 (9) than he had in the previous two seasons combined (4+3=7). Finally, promising Utah local Tomasi Tonga is back once again. Tonga has 3 tries in 18 games (7 starts) for the Warriors since 2022 but had limited game-time in 2024 with just the 1 game. He’ll no doubt be hoping to get those numbers back up in 2025.

The final returnee in the Western Conference is capped Canadian international hooker Jesse Mackail, who will return to the Seattle Seawolves for 2025. Mackail did not feature for the Seawolves in 2024, but spent the pre-season with Seattle before having to return to Canada.

Still on the many, MANY re-signings announced last week but moving over to the Eastern Conference, the Miami Sharks announced a trio of returnees including Captain Tomás Cubelli. Cubelli was the first player ever announced by the Sharks, and the Los Pumas veteran appeared in 11 games (10 starts) for the Sharks in their inaugural season. Along with Cubelli, the Sharks announced the return of a pair of capped Uruguayan internationals in Tomás Inciarte and Manu Ardao. Centre/scrum-half Inciarte scored 3 tries in 15 games (all starts) for the Sharks, completing just shy of 150 tackles on defence, and back row Ardao scored 5 tries in his 12 games (also all starts), carrying for well over 550m gained with ball in hand.

Finally, the reigning Champions announced the return of four depth pieces for their title defence. Kiwi prop Malakai Hala-Ngatai was a regular for the Free Jacks in 2024, scoring 3 tries in 15 games (7 starts) and carrying for over 200m gained as a front row. New England announced the return of a pair of veterans in Isaac Olson and Foster DeWitt, both test capped for Canada. Isaac Olson has earned 13 appearances (1 start, 1 try) for the Free Jacks since 2022, and Foster DeWitt has 3 tries and 9 starts in 35 games in the same timespan. Both Olson and DeWitt return for their 4th MLR seasons with the Free Jacks in 2025. Last but not least, Boston born Irish wing/centre Killian Coghlan also returns after earning 4 MLR appearances off the bench in 2024.

Source: @NEFreejacks on Instagram
New Names Entering MLR

Now that the heaps of re-signings are out of the way, we can move on to the new players joining MLR teams for the first time and will make their Major League Rugby debut in 2025. Another pair of Canada Sevens players step back from the national program and will enter MLR next season, following Brock Webster and Josiah Morra last week. Back row Matt Oworu will link up with a number of Canadians in Chicago with the Hounds. Born in Canada but raised in Zimbabwe, Oworu has been capped for both the 7s and 15s national sides, most recently starting at 12 for Canada’s November test against Chile in Romania. Also entering MLR from the national program is Cooper Coats, who played for the Ontario Arrows in their exhibition season in 2018 before entering MLR as the Toronto Arrows in 2019. Coats will join fellow Canadians Callum Botchar and Kaden Duguid with the NOLA Gold, and is also capped for Canada at both 7s and 15s level, most recently coming off the bench for Canada’s test against Chile, the same game that Oworu started.

On top of their 9 re-signings covered earlier in this article, the San Diego Legion announced the addition of 4 new faces for their 2025 roster. Waratahs veteran and capped Wallaby Jed Holloway heads to California, having made his test debut against Argentina in 2022 as Wallaby #955, and can play lock or loose forward. Holloway will be joined by fellow Australian flanker Brad Wilkin, a former Wallabies U20 player who played alongside Holloway at the Waratahs between 2017-2018. Wilkin joins the Legion following the demise of the Melbourne Rebels. The Legion back row is going to be packed with Australians, as the team announced the addition of promising young prop Jimmy Hokafonu from Eastwood in the Shute Shield, and finally the addition of capped Samoan prop Brook To’omalatai, a late blooming prop who caught the eyes of the Legion during the 2024 PNC, where he played on the Samoan side that defeated the USA in the 3rd place playoff.

MLR Player Moves Summary: November 4-10, 2024 (3 of 3)

Along with Matt Oworu from the Canadian sevens program, the Chicago Hounds announced the signing of fellow Canadian Noah Flesch. The younger brother of current Hound Mason Flesch, Noah joins from the Pacific Pride, Canada’s high performance pathway, and earned his full test debut over the weekend as Canada faced Chile in Romania. Another young talent joining the Hounds for 2025 is Australian utility back Ben Pollack, an Australia U19 & U20 player who enters MLR from Gordon in the Shute Shield, earning his 50th first grade appearance for the Highlanders in 2024. Finally for the Hounds, a veteran Scottish lock joins their pack in Hamish Bain, who played under former Hounds Head Coach Rob Webber for the Jersey Reds during their dominant 2022/23 Championship Season. Bain, a former Glasgow Warrior, joins from Vannes in the French Pro D2.

Finally for new faces joining MLR for 2025 is long-time Sharks hooker Kerron van Vuuren, who will enter the Seattle Seawolves front row after representing the Sharks Currie Cup side, and progressing to represent the senior team in both Super Rugby and the URC, and helping them to their first Challenge Cup title in 2024.

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby
Familiar Faces, Inter-League Signings, and Other News

Unusually for Major League Rugby, last week saw teams announce the return of 4 players who had played in MLR prior to last season, but played elsewhere in 2024. This includes a pair of familiar faces for the San Diego Legion, who were by far the busiest team last week. Both returnees come from their record-breaking 15-1 season in 2023 where they finished as runners-up. 2023 All-MLR First XV scrum-half Richard Judd returns after spending 2024 with the Hurricanes in Super Rugby, and Kiwi hooker Shilo Klein also returns having spent 2024 between the Blues in Super Rugby, and North Harbour in the NPC. Judd earned an MLR-high 6 Team of the Week selections in 2023, tied with then-Legion teammate Nate Augspurger, and scored 7 tries in 14 games (all starts). Klein added another 2 tries in 15 games (4 starts), and racked up over 300m gained in possession. The return of Judd and Klein will be a huge boon for the Legion in 2025.

The New England Free Jacks also have the benefit of a familiar face returning in Joe ‘The Mechanic’ Johnston to add to their already deep back row. a 2023 Champion with New England, Johnston earned 48 MLR caps for the Free Jacks between 2021-2023, starting 37 times and scoring 8 tries while completing over 575 tackles. He returned to New Zealand to finish his education in 2024, and played with Bay of Plenty in the NPC. Unlike the 3 familiar faces just mentioned, the final returnee joins a different team to the one he previously played with in MLR. Tongan born, Hawaii raised prop Ma’ake Muti featured in 6 games for the LA Giltinis in their Shield-winning 2021 season, before joining the American Raptors and spending a couple of seasons playing in Super Rugby Americas. For 2025, Muti joins the Miami Sharks. This may be following the announcement that the Raptors would not be playing pro rugby in 2025.

Onto the inter-league signings. Seeing new players from flashy overseas leagues is without a doubt exciting, but to have players moving between MLR teams and generating these ‘organic’ moves, helps to build rivalries between fanbases and is great news for the league. Firstly, we learned of the desitination of another ex-Dallas Jackals player in Dewald Kotze, the capped Canadian hooker signing with the Seattle Seawolves for 2025. Kotze scored 14 tries in 35 games (29 starts) across 3 seasons with the Jackals, including 11 in 17 games in 2024 that featured a MLR record FIVE-TRY performance against the Seawolves, who selected him 10th overall in the Dispersal Draft for Jackals players. The Seawolves’ signing of Kotze may explain why USA Eagle hooker Joe Taufete’e is moving on from Seattle, instead signing with the NOLA Gold who are putting together an exciting looking team for 2025. The Gold will be the 4th different team in as many seasons for the 2021 MLR Champion Taufete’e, who is Eagle #466.

Source: @nolagoldrugby on Instagram

And finally, to finish off this weeks summary article we have yet more news from the San Diego Legion. The California club announced the return of 2023 draftee James Rivers for 2025. English born Rivers was selected 10th overall by the Legion and spent 2024 on loan with Anthem RC, making over 130 tackles in 13 games (11 starts) during their inaugural season. On the topic of Legion draftees, San Diego also confirmed the signing of 2024 7th overall pick Inoke Waqavesi for 2025, drafted out of Saint Mary’s College where he played alongside 1st overall pick Erich Storti, Waqavesi can play across the back line. The Legion also confirmed the signing of academy product Aidan Konja out of SDSU as a homegrown player, and he will continue to develop in the Legion system in 2025.

That, finally, is the end of NARDB’s summary of all of the moves around Major League Rugby for the week of November 4-10, 2024. Feel free to share or quote this article but please do credit NARDB, and we look forward to seeing just how busy this week will be for player moves. Summaries articles and graphics are posted every monday on this site and across social media. be sure to follow @Jamdelay/@NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @MLRStats on Instagram & Threads.

MLR Player Move Summary: October 21-27, 2024

NAR Database

James Deeley

Another week gone by, and another boat-load of player moves to break down around Major League Rugby. This is your weekly summary of new signings, re-signings, and departures from last week, October 21st to October 27th, 2024. It’s a multi-page summary graphic again this week, and here’s Page 1:

Re-Signings Galore

The Miami Sharks are going steady with their re-signings, announcing another pair of returning players for their 2025 campaign. US-born Argentinian back row Ben Bonasso will return for his 5th MLR season and the 2nd with the Sharks, and veteran hooker Sean McNulty will also return for Miami in what will be his 7th season in the competition. Both Bonasso and McNulty are capped USA Eagles and both have also won an MLR Shield in their careers, McNulty with the LA Giltinis in 2021 and Bonasso the following year for Rugby New York, actually playing against McNulty’s Seattle Seawolves in the final that year. Both players also have over 50 MLR appearances, and were core pieces of the Miami Sharks squad for their impressive inaugural season in 2024.

The Chicago Hounds also continue to announce the return of players from their impressive 2024 season. The Hounds confirmed that Canadian National Team captain Lucas Rumball, will return for their 2025 season, as will Irish winger Michael Hand II, who impressed with 3 tries in 8 games while on loan to the Miami Sharks in 2024. Rumball, a long-time Toronto Arrow before their demise in November 2023, currently sits 2nd on MLR’s All-Time top tacklers list on 880, and will no doubt be eying the 1,000 mark in 2025.

Finally for re-signings, the back-to-back reigning Champion New England Free Jacks announced a quartet of familiar faces that will be back at Fort Quincy next season. Canadian international and 2024 S. Marcus Calloway Award recipient Ben LeSage will return for his 6th MLR season (3rd with New England), and back row monster and Namibian international Wian Conradie will also return having missed a huge chunk of the 2024 season with injury. Fellow Namibian international Le Roux Malan also returns after his heroics in the 2024 MLR Championship Game. Malan’s last 2 MLR tries have come in consecutive MLR finals, scoring against the Legion in 2023, and the Seawolves in 2024. Speaking of the 2024 final, the MVP of that game is back for his first full MLR season. Jed Melvin was a late addition to the Free Jacks in 2023, but scored 4 tries in 8 games (including a hat trick), and was named MLR Finals MVP for his performance at Snapdragon Stadium. The New England Free Jacks seem to have the majority of their 2024 roster returning, and will no doubt be a force to be reckoned with again in 2025.

New Signings – Warriors fill out and Free Jacks beef up

The New England Free Jacks weren’t just busy with re-signings last week. The reigning champs also added a pair of new faces to their roster for 2025 in the form of Fijian prop Jone Koroiduadua, and Kiwi lock Sam Caird. Koroiduadua joins the Free Jacks from the Fijian Drua in Super Rugby, and although missing out on the 2023 Rugby World Cup due to injury, earned his test debut for Fiji during the 2024 Pacific Nations Cup. 6’7 lock Sam Caird joins from Northland in the NPC, where he has played since 2019 after a couple of seasons with Waikato. Caird helped the New Zealand U20 side to a U20 World Championship Final victory in 2017, and has also represented both the Waratahs and Highlanders in Super Rugby, as well as the Kintetsu Liners in Japan. Both Koroiduadua and Caird add plenty of size to what is already a formidable Free Jacks pack.

MLR has a strong connection with New Zealand’s National Provincial Championship (NPC) competition, as the two leagues have no overlap, allowing players to play professional rugby year-round between New Zealand and the USA. This is why so many MLR names head to Aotearoa during the off-season, and so many new MLR signings come from NPC sides. This is no different this offseason, and the Utah Warriors added four NPC players last week. The Warriors announced the signing of Logan Crowley (the son of former Canada head coach Kieran Crowley) from the Taranaki Bulls, who was signed with the Warriors ahead of 2024 but did not feature, instead remaining in New Zealand. The Warriors also announced the signing of Australian prop Remsy Lemisio, a teammate of Sam Caird’s at Northland. Lemisio played with the Australian U20 side before moving to New Zealand to play with Northland in 2023. The Warriors also went shopping in North Harbour, adding back row Tamarau McGahan who has represented the team since 2020, and Manawatū, adding Turbos centre Kyle Brown who has played in green since 2023.

The only inter-league move last week saw former NOLA Gold center/fly-half Rodney Iona join the Seattle Seawolves for 2025. Iona scored 4 tries and 128pts in 23 games (all starts) for NOLA between 2023-2024, but his departure from the Gold was announced by the team on October 7th. It seems like the Samoan international then signed on with the 2024 runners-up as a free agent, with the Seawolves announcing the signing of Iona on October 24th.

Departures – Destination Unknown

On the topic of the NOLA Gold, they continued to bid farewell to members of their 2024 team, thanking Sean Paranihi and Sebastiano Villani for their service. Paranihi earned 18 appearances for the Gold (16 starts) between 2023-2024, completing 111 tackles, and US-eligible Italian scrumhalf Sebastiano Villani was drafted 2nd overall by the Gold out of St. Bonaventure in 2022, earning 9 MLR appearances (1 start) since then. This takes the number of departures announced by the NOLA Gold to 9, while former French international Kélian Galletier is the only addition confirmed by the team.

Source: @nolagoldrugby on Instagram

So ends another weekly wrap up of all the goings on during MLR’s 2024/25 offseason. This summary is going up a few days late (apologies for that) so we already know MLR teams are keeping busy as we move into November. Stay tuned for this week’s summary next monday!

If you’re looking to jump into the end of season sales, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off your order!

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.

Player Movement around MLR: September 30 – October 6, 2024

NAR Database

James Deeley

Another week deeper into the Major League Rugby off-season, and still no word on the Dallas Jackals dispersal draft. Player moves are still few and far between, with only 1 move confirmed last week. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing to talk about however, with plenty of action taking place off the pitch. Here’s everything you may have missed last week:

Kruse heads to the PNW

Last week, the Utah Warriors announced the departure of 17 players that would not be returning in 2025. NARDB understands that this was the choice of the team and these players were let go, rather than leaving of their own volition. One of these former Warriors found a new home almost immediately, with the Seattle Seawolves announcing the addition of USA Eagle #538 Mika Kruse for their 2025 season.

Kruse was the 10th player in MLR history to reach 50 caps in the competition on April 23rd, 2022, and has earned 80 MLR appearances as of the conclusion of the 2024 season including 51 for the Utah Warriors since 2021. Adding his 8 tries in 29 games for the Glendale/Colorado Raptors to his 18 for the Warriors, Kruse has scored 26 tries in MLR. This puts him 8th on MLR’s All-Time leading try scorer list, and he’s the 6th highest MLR Meter Eater, on 4,218m. Still only 26, Kruse is a great addition for the Seawolves and he’ll fill the gap left by Conner Mooneyham on the wing.

Source: Seattle Seawolves
Chicago add Coaching Pair

Moving to the sidelines, newly appointed Chicago Hounds Head Coach Chris Latham announced a pair of Assistant Coaches for their 2025 campaign.

Latham announced fellow Australian Todd Dammers as Forwards Coach, after the pair previously worked together with the South’s Rugby Club in Australia. Dammers has previously served as an Assistant coach for the Samoan National Team in 2019 (also alongside Latham), as well as the Director of Rugby at Sydney University and Forwards Coach with the Tokyo Black Rams in Japan’s Top League. Dammers joined the Hounds from Brisbane Boys College where he was serving as Director of Rugby.

As well as adding Dammers, the Hounds bring in former Leinster centurion and Toronto Arrows center Noel Reid as Backs Coach. Reid, who is capped for the Irish national team and played at Leinster with former Hounds player Dave Kearney, a minority owner of the Hounds with his brother Rob. As well as earning over 100 appearances with Leinster, Reid represented the Leicester Tigers and London Irish in the English Premiership, as well as Agen in France. He finished his playing career with the Toronto Arrows for the 2023 MLR season, where he earned 7 appearances and scored 1 try. Signed to play with the Arrows for the 2024 MLR season, when the Arrows withdrew from Major League Rugby Reid moved to a coaching role with the Arrows Academy, now known as The Rugby Academy. Reid also served as the Head Coach for the Markham Irish in the Greater Toronto Area in 2024.

Hoiles Returns to LA

Moving further from the pitch still, from the sidelines to the offices. Rugby FC LA announced the hiring of former Wallabies international Stephen Hoiles as Director of Rugby for the 2025 & 2026 MLR seasons. The former Waratahs & Brumbies man is no stranger to MLR or even to LA, having served as Forwards & Defence Coach of the LA Giltinis in their Shield-winning inaugural season in 2021. He was appointed as the Head Coach of the Giltinis for the 2022 season, prior to the disqualification and subsequent folding of both the Giltinis and the Austin Gilgronis during the ‘Gilly-Gate’ fiasco. Hoiles returned to his native Australia and took up a position as Head Coach of his former club team, the Randwick Galloping Greens. Hoiles coached Randwick to the Shute Shield title in 2023, the club’s first title since 2004 when Hoiles was a player. He followed his 2023 up by being named as the Shute Shield Coach of the Year in 2024, and now returns to LA.

Hoiles’ appointment with RFCLA is as Director of Rugby, his first such role. It is unclear if he will also be taking on coaching duties while in this role, similar to Seattle‘s Allan Clarke, who serves as both DoR and Head Coach of the Seawolves, or if RFCLA will be announcing a Head Coach in the near future.

Source: @rugbyfcla on Instagram

There’s your round-up for last week around Major League Rugby. These summaries are released every Monday to ensure you stay up to date on all the big news around MLR with NARDB!

Major League Rugby’s All-Time Top 10 Meter Eaters!

NAR Database

James Deeley

Last week we took a close look at Major League Rugby’s All-Time leading try scorers. This week, it’s time for the ‘Meter Eaters’, MLR’s all-time Meters Gained Leaders! Different to Meters Ran (which totals all meters ran by players with the ball), Meters GAINED only accounts for forwards running, and gaining ground. MLR’s All-Time Meter Eaters are as follows:

As you can see from the leaderboard, which includes the average Meters Gained per Game (MGpG) of each player, only 9 players have passed the 4,000m mark. Of those 9 players, only 3 players in MLR history have passed the 5,000m mark. At the top of this list is long-time NOLA Gold center JP du Plessis who has gained 5,849m in his 84 MLR games to date and 3 seasons with over 1000m gained. Du Plessis is roughly 120m ahead of San Diego Legion & Utah Warriors legend Mikey Te’o, who hung up his boots following the 2024 season after 7 seasons, in 4 of which he recorded over 1000m gained. 3rd place is Seattle Seawolves stalwart Riekert Hattingh with 5,221m gained and two 1000m+ gained seasons, the final player over the 5000m mark and MLR’s leading forward in this category.

Of the remaining 6 players that sit between 4,000m & 5,000m, 3 represented the Chicago Hounds in 2024 including back-to-back Back of the Year Billy Meakes (2021-22, the only player in this list with a MGpG over 80), and USA Eagle & 2023 MLR Runner-up Nate Augspurger. The Seawolves’ newest acquisition Mika Kruse is also in this group, having amasses the majority of his 4,218m gained with the Utah Warriors between 2021-2024. The New England Free Jacks’ Fijian flyer Paula Balekana is the final player over the 4,000m milestone, just behind the only other forward in the Top 10 in NOLA Gold‘s 2024 Captain and USA Eagle Moni Tonga’uiha.

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby on Instagram

Bringing up the rear of the Top 10 is Rugby FC LA‘s Irish center Will Leonard, just shy of 4,000m on 3,963m after amassing much of his total with Rugby New York (2019-2021) and Rugby ATL (2022-2023). Leonard is almost guaranteed to pass 4,000m if he returns for 2025, as are a number of big names that are sat on the outside of the Top 10, hoping to break in. The likes of Leonard‘s former ATL teammate, and current Anthem RC standout Te Rangatira Waitokia (3,937m), and a trio of other Chicago Hounds in Julián Domínguez (3,745m), Bryce Campbell (3,715m), and Luke White (3,665m) will be hoping to see their names on this list following the 2025 season.

MLR’s all-time Top 10 Meter Eaters leaderboard is primed to be an entertaining race during the 2025 season with plenty of movement. This will be one of the many sub-plots around MLR’s 2025 season, and keeping an eye on this and other All-Time Top 10 leaderboards could provide fans with an additional level of entertainment to the quest for the Shield next season!

Player Moves around MLR: September 23-29, 2024

NAR Database

James Deeley

After a few weeks with very little to no news around player movement for the 2025 MLR season, the last week of September saw a relative flurry of activity! With still no confirmation regarding the Dallas Jackals dispersal draft, let’s jump in to what we do know.

The week began with an announcement from Anthem Rugby Carolina announcing that they had acquired 2024 Rookie of the Year Junior Gafa from the New England Free Jacks on a permanent basis in exchange for quite the haul. I won’t dive into that trade here, as I wrote an article doing just that earlier in the week. Anthem RC announced this trade on the 24th which is why it’s included in this Player Move summary, despite the MLR Trade Wire stating this transaction was from September 21st (see below).

Source: MLR Trade Wire

As well as this big trade between Anthem RC and the New England Free Jacks, last week saw a trio of MLR players hang up their boots. Ben Fry, a former Wales U20 back row who represented the Dallas Jackals for his lone MLR season in 2024. Fry’s season was heavily impacted by injury, although he still made an impact with 2 tries and over 375m gained in 6 games (all starts). Nick McCarthy, the Michigan-born Ireland U20 scrum-half and UAS Eagle earned 16 MLR appearances (13 starts) for the Chicago Hounds in their best MLR season to date in 2024, starting both playoff games as the Hounds gave the Free Jacks a run for their money in the Eastern Conference Final. It’s worth stating that McCarthy has the honour of being the first player to ever win test caps for a major rugby nation as an openly gay man, what an inspiration! Finally on the retirements front is McCarthy’s teammate, Leinster legend who represented Ireland at the 2015 Rugby World Cup and owns a minority stake of the Chicago Hounds with his brother Rob, Dave Kearney, who announced his retirement in an interview with the Irish Independent. Kearney, who turned 35 mid-way through 2024, seems to have taken a chance to paly for a team he co-owns, and started 8 of his 9 MLR appearances.

Player Move Summary: September 23-29, 2024

Last but by no means least, the Seattle Seawolves announced an addition for the 2025 season, 6’6 South African lock Malembe Mpofu! 28yo Mpofu joins the Seawolves from the Airlink Pumas in South Africa’s Currie Cup competition, where he was playing alongside former Toronto Arrow and Rugby Canada scrum-half, Ross Braude. Mpofu helped the Pumas to their first ever Currie Cup championship in 2022, earning his debut in Round 1, and helped them return to the final one again the following season, finishing as runners up to the Free State Cheetahs in 2023.

Player move summaries like this will come out almost every week of the MLR off-season, assuming there are moves to cover. Stay up to date with all the movement around MLR with NARDB!

Source: @SeawolvesRugby on Instagram

The Top 10 MLR Try Scorers of All-Time!

NAR Database

James Deeley

Although a young league, MLR already has it’s fair share of legends, with try-scoring machines coming and going, or 1-season anomalies lighting up opposition and scoring week in, week out then struggling to repeat that scoring prowess the following year. This post will highlight the Top 10 MLR Try Scorers of All-Time (2018-2024), some of the most consistent scorers in the league. Here is that List:

To those already familiar with Major League Rugby, you are bound to know Dylan Fawsitt. The league’s all-time leading try scorer is no stranger to that title, and 2024 marked his 3rd MLR season with 10+ tries scored. Although fans may think of Fawsitt in a New York jersey, a personal best of 14 tries for the Chicago Hounds (that jointly led MLR in 2024 with Utah’s Michael Manson) ensured that plenty of Hounds fans got to know him very well. Fawsitt was MLR’s all-time leading scorer heading into the 2024 season and he still holds the crown, adding another achievement to his long list as the first player in MLR history to pass 50 tries scored in the competition. Fawsitt‘s 14 tries this season are now that gap between him and 2nd place, Seattle Seawolves talisman Riekert Hattingh.

Hattingh sat 3 tries behind Fawsitt entering 2024, but an injury-marred season affected his bid for first, scoring 3 tries and being sidelined for large chunks of the season. A formidable tackler with a nose for the try line and the only forward in MLR history with over 5,000m gained, Seattle fans will be hoping to see their Captain return to form and close the gap to Fawsitt in 2025.

Photo: Mike Conners (@mikeconnersphoto23)

A long way behind Fawsitt and Hattingh comes the pack, led by Utah Warriors & San Diego Legion legend Mikey Te’o on 32. Te’o announced his retirement following the 2024 season so 32 is where he will stay (notwithstanding a comeback!), along with the only other inactive player on this list, John Ryberg. Affectionately nicknamed the ‘bicep with eyeballs’, Ryberg is worth mentioning because he hasn’t played in MLR since 2022 but still sits 7th on the all-time list with 29 tries, helped by a 13-try season for the Glendale Raptors in 2019, and 9 tries for the LA Giltinis in their 2021 Shield-winning season.

Sandwiched between Te’o & Ryberg are some of the most lethal runners in MLR today. Back-to-Back MLR Champion Paula Balekana, ferocious runner Julián Domínguez, and MLR legend (and current USA Eagle) Nate Augspurger, sat on 31, 31, and 30 tries respectively. This is where I think the real fight is going to go down in 2025, with 3rd place on the all-time list up for grabs. Any fan who wants a little something extra to cheer for next season should keep an eye on this!

This isn’t to say that the other names in the Top 10 can’t set the cat amongst the pigeons. A strong bounce-back season for the Utah Warriors could see Mika Kruse (8th – 26) and Joe Mano (T-9th – 25) close the gap, or even Michael Manson if he can get close to the 14 he scored in 2024. There’s also the 4th Chicago Hound on this list, Mark O’Keeffe (T-9th – 25). A strong runner and prolific scorer in his own right who could notch up a few of his own to interfere with his teammates’ numbers. Let’s not forget about the names sitting just off this list looking to crack the Top 10, the likes of Ed Fidow with NOLA, Ina Futi in Seattle, and Te Rangatira Waitokia with Anthem RC (all on 21). Everyone likes to see tries, and this list is a long way from settled.

Photo: Utah Warriors