Tag: Seattle Seawolves

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