Tag: Utah Warriors

MLR Player Moves Summary: November 24 – November 30, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Autumn turns to Winter as Major League Rugby’s tumultuous 2025/26 offseason trundles on and of course, Happy Thanksgiving to all! Let’s be thankful that there was no bad MLR news last week, and we still have a professional men’s league in the United States. Continuing the pattern of the last few weeks, five of the 6 teams stayed busy over the last 7 days and this article will dive into every single Player Move from around the league last week, with the California Legion remaining quiet yet again.

Welcome back to NARDB’s Player Move Summary Article series! Every week, these articles aim to keep fans up to date on every single player announcement to, from, and all around Major League Rugby ahead of the 2026 season, which we are hoping to more details about very soon. Although NARDB does keep one ear to the ground for rumours, this series only covers moves that have been officially announced by teams. As always, the summary graphic for Player Moves between November 24th to 30th, 2025, followed by the re-signings section:

A Summary of all Player Moves around Major League Rugby from November 24-30, 2025

Re-Signings

The New England Free Jacks appear to be announcing their 2026 roster in batches, and kicked off last week’s re-signings with another trio of US-eligible returnees starting with 2024 MLR Player of the Year, Wayne van der Bank. the South African centre returns for a 5th season with the Free Jacks and will be classed as a domestic player in 2026 having met the 5yr residency threshold for US-eligibility. Van der Bank has scored 16 tries in his 57 game MLR career (48 starts) since 2022, including 10 tries in 16 games during his spectacular 2024 season when he also set career highs in metres gained (1,333m) and tackles (187). Unsurprisingly, he took a step back in 2025 with 1 try and 8 starts in 14 games, but he did pass both 3,000m gained and 550 tackles in his MLR career and helped the Free Jacks to their, and his, 3rd successive MLR Shield as he came off the bench in the Championship Final to secure a 28-22 victory over the Houston SaberCats. Already a key player for the Free Jacks, Wayne van der Bank’s value has only gone up now that he is US-eligible on residency. Will we see him in a USA jersey in 2026?

Source: @nefreejacks via Instagram

Along with the return of Wayne van der Bank, the New England Free Jacks also announced the return of Tongan prop Tevita Sole, who is also playing in his 5th Major League Rugby season in 2026. Like van der Bank, this would make the 26yo US-eligible based on residency and therefore classed as a domestic player next season. A 3x MLR Champion, Sole has 37 MLR appearances including 6 for the Miami Sharks on loan in 2024, before returning to the Free Jacks to come off the bench in the 2024 Championship Final. He set career highs in appearances (12) and starts (5) in 2025, completing 60 tackles to pass 200 in his career (222) and scoring his 2nd career MLR try. Joining van der Bank and Tevita Sole on the New England Free Jacks roster for 2026 is Boston-born winger Killian Coghlan, returning for his 3rd MLR season. Raised in Ireland, Coghlan started more games in 2025 (5) than he appeared in the year before (4), recording 200 of his 210m gained and 23 of his 29 career tackles in a solid year to help lift his 2nd successive Shield in 2025.

On November 25th, Anthem RC once again got involved in re-signings, announcing the return of 2024 MLR Rookie of the Year and All-MLR Honorable Mention, Junior Gafa. The 24yo former Brown University football player was drafted 23rd overall by the New England Free Jacks in the 2023 MLR Collegiate Draft before being loaned, then permanently acquired, by Anthem RC. Gafa already has 6 tries and over 1,500m gained in his 25 game MLR career (all starts), averaging 111 tackles per season through his first two years in the competition. He started all 12 of his games in 2025, scoring 2 tries with over 400m gained and just shy of 100 tackles completed. Junior Gafa is a really promising US centre so it’s superb for Anthem RC to lock him up for the 2026 season where he is currently the only out-and-out centre. He was included in the USA’s Extended Player Squad for 2025, but has yet to make his test debut for the Eagles.

Anthem RC weren’t quite finished with their Player Moves for the week with Junior Gafa, however. On 29th November the Rising Stars announced the return of a pair of young US talents for their 2nd MLR seasons in 2026, starting with Charlotte native Alejandro Martinez Tapia. The 23yo back row is a Lindenwood University alum, where he earned All-American First Team honours in 2024. Signed to a homegrown player contract for the 2025 season, Alejandro Martinez Tapia started 9 of his 12 appearances for the Rising Stars, completing 90 tackles and gaining over 175m in possession. Also returning to Anthem RC for their 2026 campaign is 23yo Georgia-born centre EJ Freeman, who was drafted 12th overall by Anthem in the 2024 MLR Draft out of the University of Arizona. Freeman started 7 of his 13 appearances in 2025 and had a decent case for Rookie of the Year votes early in the season. He scored 1 try and completed over 70 tackles for Anthem in his debut season. With both Alejandro Martinez Tapia and EJ Freeman only 23 years old, they have plenty of time to build on already solid talents. They are exactly the kind of players that Anthem RC is looking for.

Moving North to Washington, DC, on November 26th Old Glory DC announced their first player of the week when they confirmed that English back three player Perry Humphreys would be returning for his 3rd year with the Flags in 2026. Although Humphreys signed a 2yr contract extention part way through the 2025 season, Major League Rugby’s shift towards more of a focus on domestic players, coupled with a chaotic off-season, may have interfered with that. However, that doesn’t look to be the case and the Worcester Warriors centurion is back in the nation’s capital. Humphreys has started all 23 of his MLR games for Old Glory DC so far, with over 1,100m gained and an even 100 tackles completed. He scored 6 of his 8 MLR tries in 2025, where he set a career high with 594m gained and earned 3 MLR Team of the Week selections.

Source: @oldglorydc via Instagram

The Flags weren’t quite finished there though. On 28th November, the day after US Thanksgiving, Old Glory DC announced the return of capped Scotland international Damien Hoyland for his 3rd season in Major League Rugby. The former Edinburgh centurion has started each of his 25 MLR games for Old Glory DC since entering MLR in 2024, averaging 83m per game so far for over 2,000m gained in his career already. Wing/Full-back Hoyland set a career high with 1,073m gained in 2025 and was one of only 3 players league-wide to record over 1,000m during the 2025 season. His return to MLR in 2026 comes as something of a surprise, as earlier in the off-season the Scottish Rugby Union announced that Damien Hoyland was one of 6 centrally contracted players for their Sevens program, which many fans figured would rule him out of the MLR season, but thankfully for Old Glory DC fans, that’s not the case.

Intra-League Moves

The Seattle Seawolves announced the first new addition from within MLR last week on 25th November when they announced the addition of former Houston SaberCats lock and capped USA Eagle Marno Redelinghuys for their 2026 campaign! Born and raised in South Africa, the 32yo lock/back row entered Major League Rugby in 2020 with Rugby ATL, earning 17 starts in 19 games for the RATLers between 2020-2021 and finishing as MLR Runners-Up in 2021, with Redelinghuys starting in the 2021 Championship Final against the LA Giltinis. Following the 2021 season, Marno Redelinghuys moved to the South-African heavy Houston SaberCats where he played between 2022-2025. While with the ‘Cats, Redelinghuys started 46 of his 51 appearances in black & yellow, recording over 100 tackles in his last 3 successive MLR seasons and tying his career high in appearances (17) and starts (15) in 2025 to help the Houston SaberCats earn their first two postseason victories as they advanced to the 2025 Championship Final where they fell to the New England Free Jacks. Redelinghuys also started in this final, becoming a 2x MLR Runner-Up. He became US-eligible on residency in 2025, and a stellar 2025 season led to his inclusion in the USA’s squad for their July tests, where he earned his test debut as Eagle #588 against Belgium on 5th July.

Redelinghuys wasn’t the only Houston SaberCats forward to find a home for 2026 last week, however. On 26th November Anthem RC announced their first international player of the off-season, 2021 Major League Rugby Forward of the Year, Johan Momsen! Although not classified as a domestic player, Momsen is no stranger to MLR. He signed with Rugby ATL ahead of their inaugural season in 2020, and was superb for the RATLers the following season when they finished as MLR Runners-Up to the LA Giltinis, with 5 tries in 17 games along with 500m gained and over 200 tackles. The South African lock/back row represented Rugby ATL until their relocation to LA in 2023, and signed with the South African-heavy Houston SaberCats. He represented the ‘Cats for two seasons, starting 29 of his 32 games in black & yellow, and recorded a career high 220 tackles in 2025 when he appeared in all 19 of Houston’s games as they secured their first ever playoff victory and advanced to the 2025 Championship Final. In his 6 seasons in MLR so far, Johan Momsen is a 2x Runner-Up and 4x All-MLR selection. In total, Momsen has 16 tries in 85 MLR appearances (78 starts) since 2020 and has racked up just under 2,500m gained in possession as a forward. He currently sits as MLR’s 3rd highest tackler ever with a whopping 961 tackles completed, averaging 11.3 per game. His experience will be invaluable to a young Anthem RC pack in 2026, a brilliant pick-up for the Rising Stars.

Source: @anthemrugby via Instagram

Later on the 26th, the New England Free Jacks made a big splash with the announcement that they had signed two stand-out MLR veterans for their 2026 campaign, starting with long time Old Glory DC back row Jama Fa’anana-Schultz! A month ago, DC announced that ‘JFS‘ would be leaving the team after spending 6 seasons there between 2020-2025, and now we know his destination for next season: Quincy. Fa’anana-Schultz has 70 MLR appearances to date (67 starts) between his time in DC and his debut MLR season with the Houston SaberCats in 2019. He’s scored 16 tries including a high of 4 in 2025 when he passed both 3,000m gained in possession and 650 tackles made in his career. Although he had struggled with discipline earlier in his career, Fa’anana-Schultz appears to have rectified that in recent seasons and even enjoyed stints as the Old Glory DC Captain. JFS will fit nicely into the Free Jacks back row, a replacement for the likes of Jed Melvin who has been included in the Blues training squad in Super Rugby. As a capped US Eagle (#534), Fa’anana-Schultz has the added bonus of being a domestic player in 2026.

Alongside the signing of Jama Fa’anana-Schultz, the New England Free Jacks also announced the addition of former Utah Warriors fly-half Joel Hodgson for their 2026 campaign. A PREM Rugby centurion with the Newcastle Falcons, English 10 Hodgson spent 3 seasons with the Utah Warriors from 2023-2025, scoring 329pts in his 49 games with a 64.61% success rate from the tee and 12 tries scored including 7 in a stellar 2025 season. Hodgson is a 2x All-MLR selection and has gained over 2,000m in his MLR career so far with 298 tackles, averaging (as near as makes no difference) 100 tackles per season for the Warriors, unusually high for a fly-half! Although not classified as a domestic player like Fa’anana-Schultz, Joel Hodgson is a great pick up for the Free Jacks, and fills the sizeable hole left by the departure of Jayson Potroz. NARDB understands that this signing was made before the news of the Utah Warriors’ withdrawal from MLR earlier this month.

Source: @nefreejacks via Instagram

To finish last week’s intra-league moves, on 30th November Old Glory DC announced that they had signed former NOLA Gold winger Harley Wheeler for their 2026 campaign. A Life University alum, Wheeler signed with the NOLA Gold ahead of the 2020 season and appeared in every game during the COVID-shortened season. A former USA U20 and USA Falcons player, Harley Wheeler returned to MLR for the 2022 season after a year away from the competition, and represented the NOLA Gold again from 2022-2025. In total, Wheeler has scored 10 tries in 43 MLR appearances (33 starts) across 5 seasons with the Gold, including a high of 6 in 2022, and 2 in just 5 games during the 2025 season. Following the announcement that the NOLA Gold would be withdrawing from MLR in August 2025, Harley Wheeler became a free agent. He will be playing in his 6th season in Major League Rugby in 2026, and his 1st not for New Orleans.

New Signings

The Chicago Hounds also announced a new addition for their 2026 season, but this one came from outside of Major League Rugby. On 24th November the Hounds announced the addition of South African-born Australian hooker Theo Fourie, who joins from the Queensland Reds in Super Rugby. Having moved to Australia with his family when he was young, Theo Fourie played with Souths Rugby in Queensland where his head coach was Todd Dammers, who is currently serving as an Assistant Coach with the Chicago Hounds. Fourie joined the Reds academy side in 2019 and was chosen for the Wallabies U20s in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way. He joined the Melbourne Rebels as a Training Squad player in 2021 and eventually made his Super Rugby debut in 2023. Since then, he has represented the NSW Waratahs (2024) and the Queensland Reds (2025) in Super Rugby. Welcome to MLR, Theo!

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

Departures

On November 25th, 2025, French side US Carcassonne announced the addition of South African Hooker Kerron van Vuuren as a medical joker. A former regular with the Sharks of the URC, van Vuuren spent 2025 with the Seattle Seawolves, where he completed exactly 100 tackles and scored 2 tries in 11 games, starting 9 times, to help the Seawolves squeeze into a postseason spot by a single point. Van Vuuren heads to France to cover for Ian Boubila, who is out until ‘late 2025’ with a knee injury. This leaves the door open for van Vuuren to return to MLR in 2026 but with MLR’s shifting stance towards international players, this may prove unlikely. Regardless, very best of luck in the Pro D2, Kerron!

Wrapping Up

That does it for all the Player Moves around Major League Rugby from last week, and another bumper edition of NARDB’s Player Moves Summary article series! As with the last few weeks, 5 of the 6 teams were very active, with the exception of the California Legion. Another 8 re-signings including a former Player of the Year for the New England Free Jacks, and former Rookie of the Year for Anthem RC. 5 familiar players will be plying their trade for different teams in 2026 including a former Old Glory DC captain, and 2021 Forward of the Year. A new face arrives in Chicago from Super Rugby, a former Seattle Seawolves hooker heads to France, and a true MLR Legend hangs up the boots!

Thank you very much for reading this week’s Player Moves Article! These article are posted on the site and on social media every Monday, so be sure to check back next week for all the lastest moves! If there are any Player Moves that you notice, or just to say what you think about these articles or the site, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Finally, if you’re looking to jump into the offseason sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Moves Summary: August 18 – October 5, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

It was a while ago now, but Major League Rugby’s final event of 2025 is now in the books, with teams selecting 26 college athletes from schools around the US and Canada to create the 2025 MLR Draft Class. Congratulations to first overall pick Will Sherman, who joins Anthem RC from the UCLA Bruins!

Draftees will now negotiate with the team that selected them for a contract and once those signings are confirmed, they will be included in these articles. We now enter the deep dark offseason, with no major news on the 2026 season likely to come before US thanksgiving. Buckle up, because player moves might be a light in the dark!

Welcome back to the latest edition of NARDB.com’s Player Moves Summary! As always, these articles aim to keep MLR fans up to date on all the retirements, signings, re-signings, and departures of players to/from Major League Rugby teams for the 2026 season. Typically these articles will be released every Monday and cover the week just gone, but that will depend on the number of moves in the previous week. Due to a tumultuous 2025 off-season and uncertainly rampant around the league and it’s fanbase, these (usually weekly) articles are very few and very far between, with only a handful of moves in the over six weeks since the last Player Move Summary! We kick off with a pair of retirements from the Western Conference.

Player Moves around MLR: August 18th to October 5th, 2025

Retirements

On 25th August, Irish lock Gavin Thornbury announced his retirement on Instagram. The former Connacht and Northampton man started all 8 of his appearances for the Utah Warriors in 2025, Captaining the side to their best ever regular season finish with a 11-5 record and 58pts. The Warriors finished as MLR’s top team during the 2025 regular season under the leadership of the big 6’8 second row Thornbury, and secured their first ever playoff victory to advance to the Western Conference Final, where they fell to the Houston SaberCats. Although his lone season in MLR was disrupted with injury, Thornbury still averaged almost 10 tackles a game for a total of 78, and recorded 38 lineout takes for the Warriors.

Source: @utwarriorsrugby via Instagram

Moving up to the Pacific Northwest for the other retirement of the week, Seattle Seawolves stalwart Cam Orr announced that he was hanging up his boots just a couple of days after Thornbury, on 27th August, 2025. Cam Orr joined the Seawolves ahead of the 2024 season and almost immediately made the #1 jersey his own, starting 32 of his 33 appearances for Seattle across 2 seasons, scoring 5 tries in total and completing just shy of 300 tackles. He was one of only a handful of players to start every game for his team in 2025, starting at loosehead all 17 times for Seattle. Orr’s scrummaging helped him to earn All-MLR nods for both of his seasons in Major League Rugby: A First XV selection in 2024, and a Second XV selection in 2025. Following the 2025 season, Orr returned to his native Australia and was named to the Brumbies squad to take on none other than the British & Irish Lions during their tour of Australia. Not a bad final professional game!

Very best of luck in retirement to both Gavin Thornbury and Cam Orr!

Departures

Moving from retirements to players heading to ply their trade outside of MLR, starting with the 3x reigning Champions. In early October, New England Free Jacks scrum-half Oscar Lennon returned to the Bristol Bears on short-term contract having previously represented the Bears in the 2022/23 season before heading to MLR. For the Free Jacks, Lennon scored 3 tries and 33pts in 22 games, starting 9 times and helping the Free Jacks lift their two most recent Shields (2024 & 2025). Lennon returns to the Bears as injury cover for England International Harry Randall, which does not rule him out of returning for the Free Jacks in 2026. Staying on the Free Jacks, on 26th August 2025, French Pro D2 side Valence Romans announced the signing of test capped Canadian hooker Andrew Quattrin as a medical joker for their 2025/26 campaign. Quattrin is a true MLR veteran, having played 4 seasons with the Toronto Arrows from 2019-2022 before joining the New England Free Jacks (via 3-way trade!) ahead of the 2023 season, winning 3 MLR Shields in a row in Quincy from 2023-2025. To date, ‘Q’ has scored 22 tries in his 96 MLR appearances, starting 82 times and racking up 845 tackles completed with over 2,600m gained in possession. He is the inaugural winner of the S. Marcus Calloway Community Impact Award in 2022, and has earned 3 All-MLR selections including 2 Honourable Mentions (2023, 2025) and a Second XV selection in 2024.

Source: @VRDRRugby via Twitter/X

Although Quattrin only joined Valence Romans on a short-term deal as a medical joker, he is covering the absence of Issal Hamel who isn’t expected to return until at least February due to a knee injury sustained while representing Algeria. This would rule Quattrin out of the start of the 2026 season should he intend to return, but (look away now, Free Jacks fans) with the Pro D2 being a marathon campaign that runs from late August to June, it’s possible that this move would rule him out of the 2026 MLR season. A farewell statement from the Free Jacks suggests that fan-favourite Quattrin may not be back for their 2026 campaign. Very best of luck in France, Q!

Staying in France with a signing that seems a little more permanent, RC Narbonnais in the French 3rd Tier, the Nationale, announced the signing of test capped Argentinian winger Axel Müller for their 2025/26 season. Müller had represented Old Glory DC in the last two Major league Rugby campaigns, helping them to qualify for the post-season in both years. He started all 24 of his appearances for the Flags and scored 13 tries with just shy of 1,600m gained in possession. He scored 8 of his tries in the 2025 season alone, including a hat trick in Old Glory DC’s dramatic road win over Miami to kick off the 2025 season. Müller where he gained over 900m and earned an All-MLR Second XV Selection for his performance. Very best of luck in France to Axel Müller, as well!

Source: @rcnarbonnais via Instagram

Staying on the subject of Old Glory DC, over the last few weeks the Flags have announced the departures of a trio of players from the organisation: Ignacio Dotti, Tommaso Boni, and Martin Vaca. Old Glory DC announced the departure of Uruguayan lock Ignacio Dotti back on August 28th. Dotti started 10 of his 17 appearances for the Flags over the last two seasons, scoring 1 try and completing 99 tackles. He passed 50 MLR appearances in 2025, having earned 36 appearances for the NOLA Gold between 2019-2022. Dotti has over 1,100m gained in MLR, as well as over 370 tackles completed.

The departure of Italian center Tommaso Boni was announced on 12th September. Capped for both Italy and the USA, Eagle #557 Boni joined Old Glory DC ahead of the 2024 season, and started 16 of his 20 appearances for the Flags across two seasons. He gained over 900m and completed 123 tackles including 99 in the 2024 season alone. Boni earned his test debut for the USA in 2023, shortly before he joined MLR and Old Glory DC. Finally, Argentinian hooker Martin Vaca was confirmed to be departing Old Glory DC on 19th September also after 2 seasons with the Flags, just like both Dotti and Boni. The former Narbonne man scored 7 tries for Old Glory DC in 14 games, starting 10 times and completing 114 tackles in 2024 alone.

NARDB undestands that nothing has been announced regarding the next step for Ignacio Dotti, Tommaso Boni, or Martin Vaca. Once any announcement is made public, their profiles will be updated.

Heading over to the Beehive State and the Utah Warriors, who are on firmer ground than a month or so ago if rumor is to be believed. The Warriors’ fanbase and forwards pack took another hit on September 16th however, as it was revealed that reigning MLR Forward of the Year Frank Lochore would be joining Dylan Nel and former Utah Warriors Head Coach Greg Cooper at NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu in the Japanese League One Division Two.

The Kiwi’s departure from Utah was first noted in an article by Joe Harvey on September 10th, highlighting his record-breaking season and mentioning that Lochore would be heading to Japan following the 2025 NPC season with Hawke’s Bay. Lochore had a huge impact on the Utah Warriors during his two seasons in Major League Rugby, completing 522 tackles in just 34 games for the team for an average of 15.4 tackles per game. This includes setting a new MLR record of 301 tackles in the 2025 season alone, becoming the first player in league history to record over 300 tackles in a season, increasing his average to 16.7 tackles per game! Of his 34 appearances for the Utah Warriors since 2024, Frank Lochore started 33 times and scored 7 tries with just shy of 1,100m gained in possession, proving that he wasn’t just a defensive monster, but a true talent on both sides of the ball. Having been named in the All-MLR First XV for both of his seasons in the competition, it’s obvious that calling Frank Lochore an elite player is far from controversial. Very best of luck in Japan, Frank!

Source: @nec_gr_official via Instagram

Wrapping up

A pair of retirements, some short-term contracts as players head to Europe as injury cover, and a heap of departures, that does it for this edition of Player Moves around Major League Rugby! As mentioned at the start, the aim was to publish these Player Move Summaries on a weekly basis but due to the scarcity of player moves so far this offseason, this article covers a 7 week period!

If the last MLR offseason is anything to go by though, player moves started to pick up in October so fingers crossed that’s the case this time around and more Player Move Summaries will be coming your way soon!

Thank you very much for reading! If there are any player moves that you notice, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Finally, if you’re looking to jump into the End of Season sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

MLR Player Moves Summary: July 21 – August 17, 2025

NARDatabase

James Deeley

As the young 2025/26 Major League Offseason approaches it’s first big event in the MLR Collegiate Draft scheduled for August 21st, the League will be painfully aware that much of the discourse surrounding Major League Rugby has not been about the 2025 edition of the draft lately, and barely about any players at all.

With news that the San Diego Legion and Rugby FC LA are merging to form the California Legion, as well as the withdrawals of the NOLA Gold and Miami Sharks all but confirmed (although not by the League themselves, and there has been no word from the Sharks at all), NARDB is hoping that the worst is now behind us. As things stand, MLR will move forward with a 8-team competition in 2026 but of course, those teams need players, which brings us to the purpose of this article.

Welcome back to the latest edition of NARDB.com’s Player Moves Summary! These articles will keep MLR fans up to date on all the retirements, signings, re-signings, and departures of players to and from Major League Rugby teams for the 2026 season. Typically these articles will be released weekly on Monday’s, but due to a lack of moves over the last few weeks, this article covers the period from 21st July to August 17th, 2025. Obviously with news of the league’s contraction still very fresh, player moves might take a while to pick up, but these articles will keep up up to date, nevertheless! As with the end of every season, some players have decided that they have played their last campaign, and have called time on their career. This article will start by recognising the MLR legends that have done just that.

Source: @MLRStats on Instagram

Retirements

Beginning in Chicago, where a USA Eagle and Hound #1 has hung up his boots. Bryce Campbell, Eagle #497, announced his retirement on instagram after 3 seasons with the Chicago Hounds where he scored 4 tries and started 45 of his 48 appearances in green & white, and Captaining the side through their inaugural season in 2023. Prior to the Hounds, the Indiana University grad represented both the Glendale Raptors in 2018, and the Austin Gilgronis from 2021-2022, where he also captained the AGs through the 2021 season. Outside of MLR, Campbell spent two seasons with London Irish, helping them earn promotion from the Championship back to the Premiership, playing there for the 2019-20 season. In total, Campbell earned 84 MLR appearances across 6 seasons of competition, starting 81 times and scoring 11 tries. He racked up over 4000m gained in possession and 730 tackles completed including a career high of 158 in 2025, his final season. Internationally, Bryce Campbell earned his test debut against Romania in 2016, and earned 47 appearances for his country in total, representing the Eagles at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. All the best in your retirement, Bryce!

Unfortunately for the USA, Campbell was not the only Eagle to announce the end of his playing career in the last few weeks. On 23rd July 2025, Christian Dyer announced the end of his playing career on instagram at the age of 27 after spending 4 seasons in Major League Rugby between the Houston SaberCats (2022-2024) and Rugby FC LA (2025) in his home state of California. Having played rugby and gridiron football through high school, Sacramento native Dyer continued to play rugby at UC Berkeley before signing with the Dallas Jackals for the 2021 MLR season. This was a big year for Dyer, who earned his international Sevens debut in Vancouver, and his test debut as Eagle #539 against England in July, the first of his 14 test caps. Dyer had to wait for his MLR debut however. Once the Dallas Jackals deferred their entry to 2022, Dyer was selected by Rugby New York in the dispersal draft, but didn’t end up signing in the Big Apple. He signed with the Houston SaberCats ahead of the 2022 season, and scored 19 tries in 45 games across 3 seasons for the ‘Cats, including a high of 9 in 2023. Following 3 seasons in Texas he returned to his home state, signing with Rugby FC LA for the 2025 season, helping them qualify for the postseason for the first time in club history and scoring 2 tries in 6 games in California. In total, Dyer scored 21 tries and 109pts in 51 MLR appearances, starting 48 times and recording just shy of 2000m gained (1,987m) in possession, and 287 tackles. Very best of luck in what’s next, Christian!

Source: @usarugby via Instagram

Departures

Maybe Christian Dyer had an idea about what was going down with the creation of the California Legion, who knows? Staying on the subject of Rugby FC LA, they are also be saying farewell to 2024 MLR Back of the Year Reece MacDonald. The kiwi fullback will be plying his trade in Japan after signing with the NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu in JRLO Div 2. MacDonald won two Shields with the New England Free Jacks from 2023-2024, scoring 12 tries and 86pts in 30 games including 10 in his Back of the Year season in 2024 when he also gained 1,535m in possession. MacDonald made a high-profile move to Rugby FC LA for the 2025 season, and still scored 3 tries and 33pts in 10 games (6 starts) despite missing a hefty chunk of the season with injury. In his career, Reece MacDonald score 15 tries and 119pts in 40 MLR games, starting 34 times and gaining 3,331m in possession.

Source: @nec_gr_official via instagram

MacDonald isn’t the only Green Rockets signing that will be familiar with MLR fans, as on the same day that the club announced his signing, they also announced the addition of Utah Warriors stalwart Dylan Nel for their 2025/26 campaign. Nel, the 2024 Utah Warriors Forward of the Year, spent two seasons at Zion’s Bank, scoring 6 tries and completing 362 tackles in 27 games (26 starts) including a high of 234 in 2025, finishing 3rd League wide. Nel was a significant contributing factor to the Warriors finishing as the top team in MLR during the regular season and earning a spot in the postseason for the first time since 2021. He started both of their playoff games in 2025, defeating the Seattle Seawolves to advance to the Western Conference Final where they fell to the Houston SaberCats. Nel follows his father-in-law to Japan, former Utah Warriors head coach Greg Cooper, who now serves as head coach of the Green Rockets.

Moving to the other side of the California merger but sticking with Japan, Australian fullback Rhian Stowers has signed with Tokyo Gas in the Japanese 4th tier, the Top East League. Stowers played his debut MLR season with the San Diego Legion in 2025, starting 6 of his 10 appearances and scoring 3 tries while racking up 590m gained including 150m in a single game for the Legion in Rd 12.

Best of luck in Japan to Reece, Dylan, and Rhian!

Although he converted from football relatively late in his career, the meteoric rise of former Portland State University Defensive Lineman Tonga Kofe continues! The 6’2, 300lb+ giant signed with the Utah Warriors ahead of the 2024 MLR season, earning his professional debut as he came off the bench 6 times in his debut season. In his sophomore season in 2025 however, Kofe proved a fearsome scrummager. He earned his first pro start, starting 14 of his 16 games and completing over 100 tackles to help the Utah Warriors top the league during the regular season, making it all the way to the Western Conference Final where they fell to the Houston SaberCats. Kofe’s strong performances earned him a call up to the national team for the USA’s July tests, where he earned his test debut as Eagle #587 as a starter against Belgium. He earned 3 caps for the Eagles in July, and was included in their squad for the 2025 Pacific Nations Cup. On 16th August 2025, Prem Rugby side Leicester Tigers announced the signing of Tonga Kofe for the 2025/26 Prem season, marking the next chapter in Kofe’s short but already storied rugby journey. Best of luck with the Tigers, Tonga!

Source: @leicestertigers via Instagram

Temporary Departures

In addition to the confirmed departures above, there was one move that was slightly more unusual. Jeremy ‘Missile’ Misailegalu is spending the Major League Rugby offseason with RC Arka Gdynia in Poland’s professional league, the Ekstraliga. Misailegalu finished as a MLR runner-up with the Houston SaberCats in 2025 and for any ‘Cats fans concerned about his departure, his agency (Westsyde Pathways) strongly suggests that this move is just for the offseason, hence this move is in it’s own ‘Temporary Departures’ section.

Misailegalu, a 2018 MLR Champion with the Seattle Seawolves, has finished as a MLR runner-up twice. He played with Rugby ATL in their 2021 season when they fell to the LA Giltinis in the Final, and represented the Houston SaberCats in 2025, who fell to the New England Free Jacks in the 2025 Championship. To date, Misailegalu has scored 11 tries in his 61 MLR appearances for 4 teams across 6 seasons of competition, starting 47 times. He’s recorded over 2000m gained in possession and just shy of 300 career tackles (293). Best of luck in Poland, Missile!

Source: @westsydepathways via Instagram

Misailegalu wasn’t the only MLR player to head elsewhere for the offseason, however. Rugby FC LA saw another pair of names heading overseas, starting with MLR veteran Jurie van Vuuren. The South African lock signed with the Boland Cavaliers for their 2025 Currie Cup campaign. Van Vuuren has played in MLR since 2020, representing the Utah Warriors from 2020-2023 before moving to RFCLA for two seasons from 2024-2025. In total he scored 10 tries in 68 games, starting 60 times. He recorded over 1800m in possession and 717 tackles completed including a high of 199 in 2021. The Currie Cup doesn’t overlap with the MLR season so it’s a possible that van Vuuren returns in 2026, should he sign with the California Legion.

In a similar boat to Jurie van Vuuren is US-eligible Irish age grade representative prop Alessandro Heaney, who signed a short-term deal with the Cornish Pirates in the English 2nd tier, Champ Rugby, for the remainder of 2025. Heaney stepped up in a big way for RFCLA after their forward pack was hit with a wave of injuries. Despite not earning a start in 2024, he started 12 of his 15 games in 2025 and completed 118 tackles to help LA qualify for the postseason for the first (and as it turns out, last) time! Heaney went to school in the south of England so it’s a move that makes sense, but he has value as a domestic player in MLR so we could see him back for 2026 should he sign with the California Legion.

Source: @cornishpirates via Instagram

Wrapping Up

These Player Move Summaries are few and far between at present, but will pick up speed as the 2025/26 Major League Rugby offseason rumbles on. Although this is only the 2nd of the offseason and the 2025 MLR Collegiate Draft is only a few days away, there were a handful of moves to cover, and no doubt there will be plenty more as the fallout from a frenetic few weeks is realised.

Thank you for reading! These articles will pick up in regularity as the player moves do, with the articles coming out every Monday at their peak. NARDB continues to strive to keep fans informed and aware of the goings on around both the league and around each team.

If there are any player moves that you notice, you can let NARDB/James know on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site. Finally, if you’re looking to jump into the End of Season sales or pick up some discounted merch, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from the 2025 Conference Finals!

Featured Photo Source: @wadebphotos

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Following a 17 round regular season and two weeks of intense playoff action, the 2025 Major League Rugby Conference Champions have been declared and the MLR Shield awaits. The Eastern Conference Champion will face off against the Western Conference Champion in the 2025 Championship at Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island to determine who will lift the 2025 Shield. Welcome back to Midweek Milestones!

This is NARDB’s weekly article that highlights and examines the standout stats from each round of MLR action! The purpose of this article is to bring attention to achievements, milestones, and standout stats achieved by players and teams throughout MLR with the aim to give them the recognition and applause they deserve. The penultimate article of the 2025 season will cover the two Conference Finals matchups. Because it only covers a pair of games, it is a shorter than average article, but hopefully one that is just as interesting!

The Championship Clash!

Following the Conference Finals last weekend, we now know the two teams that will fight it out to lift the 2025 MLR Shield! The New England Free Jacks claimed their 3rd straight Eastern Conference Championship with a 21-20 victory following a heartbreaking final minute missed penalty from the Chicago Hounds. The Free Jacks saw off the Miami Sharks in the Conference Semifinal, before defeating the Chicago Hounds in the Eastern Conference Final for the 2nd straight year to earn their 3rd Championship appearance in a row with a chance to lift their 3rd Shield in as many seasons and cement their legacy as a dynasty!

By contrast, before 2025 the Houston SaberCats had never won a Major League Rugby playoff game despite qualifying ever year since 2022, including as the top team in MLR in 2024. This year, the ‘Cats qualified 2nd in the Western Conference with a 10-6 record and 54pts (just 1pt behind the Free Jacks). Houston earned their first playoff victory over a spirited Rugby FC LA side in the Conference Semifinals, before dominating the top regular season team in the Western Conference Final, the Utah Warriors.

The SaberCats racked up 33pts on the road against the Warriors, scoring more points than any other team in the 2025 postseason, surpassing the 32pts scored by the New England Free Jacks in their victory over Miami which remains the biggest margin of victory in this year’s postseason so far. The SaberCats also became the first team to score 5 tries in a 2025 playoff game which, when added to their 4 tries from the Western Conference Semifinal, takes their playoff try total to 9 in 2025 compared to the Free Jacks’ 7. For those wondering, the MLR Playoff record for points in a game is 46, set by the Seattle Seawolves in a Conference Final victory against the Houston SaberCats in 2022. The Seawolves scored 6 tries in that game, and 12 postseason tries total that year, both also MLR records although the Chicago Hounds matched the record of 6 tries in a postseason game with their 21-45 victory over the NOLA Gold in last year’s Eastern Conference Semifinals.

A head-to-head comparison for the Championship can be found below, showing just how tight this clash is on paper. The New England Free Jacks look to have the advantage in the set piece (both scrums and lineouts), but concede far more penalties which the Houston SaberCats may want to consider exploiting with AJ Alatimu’s boot, given how few tries the Free Jacks conceded. Worth noting is the head-to-head record of these two sides. The Houston SaberCats have never defeated the Free Jacks, 0-4. The Championship game would be a great time to get their first!

Head-To-Head: Free Jacks v SaberCats

Hilsenbeck Hits One Hundred!

Although the game definitely did not end the way that he or the Chicago Hounds hoped, former German international turned aspiring USA Eagle Chris Hilsenbeck still racked up half of the Hounds’ 20pts in the Eastern Conference Final. The 33yo fly-half scored 22pts in Chicago’s two playoff games this year, and was sat on 99pts scored this season heading into this game. This means that despite the Hounds’ defeat, Chris Hilsenbeck became the first (and so far, only) player to pass 100pts scored in the 2025 MLR season, and that still deserves some praise. Congratulations, Chris!

Chris Hilsenbeck now sits 13pts ahead of the next highest scorer, Joel Hodgson on 96pts for the Utah Warriors. With only the Championship Final left to play in the 2025 Major League Rugby Season, Hilsenbeck is almost guaranteed to finish as the League’s top scorer in 2025, and he has a good chance of being the only player in the entire league with over 100pts this year. Only AJ Alatimu with the Houston SaberCats has a realistic chance of also scoring 100. He is currently sat 9pts away on 91, so while 100pts is achievable, MLR’s all-time leading playoff scorer would need to score 19pts in what would be a Championship Performance for the ages to pass Hilsenbeck.

As an aside, Alatimu would need 16pts to become the first play in MLR history to reach 100pts scored in the playoffs. Additionally, he is currently MLR’s 2nd highest scorer all-time with 497pts scored in total so is almost guaranteed to become only the 2nd player ever to pass 500pts scored in MLR following Sam Windsor, who remains MLR’s all-time leading scorer on 595pts.

The Top Scorers heading into the 2025 Championship, showing the gap between Hilsenbeck & Alatimu

Wrapping Up

As mentioned in the introduction, with only two games in the Conference Finals, standout stats for this week’s Midweek Milestones are hard to come by, resulting in a shorter than usual article. Despite that, this article still took a deeper look at the match-up for the 2025 Championship Game and highlighted MLR’s first (and only) 100+ point scorer this season: Chris Hilsenbeck! Check in next week for a mini Midweek Milestones from the final game of the 2025 Major League Rugby season, the Championship game at Centreville Bank Stadium in Rhode Island!

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from the 2025 Conference Semifinals!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

From 8 teams qualifying for the 2025 Major League Rugby playoffs, only 4 remain after the Conference Semifinals. There are only two weeks left of arguably the most competitive season of MLR that we have seen to date, and the competition is only getting tougher!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, NARDB’s weekly article that highlights and examines the standout stats from each round of MLR action! This article will cover the four Conference Semifinal matches. These articles aim to recognise achievements by players and/or teams that may have gone unnoticed or flown under the radar otherwise, providing fans with some extra insight and context every week to add an extra level to MLR! For a change, there weren’t any appearance achievements to report in the Conference Semifinals, so we’ll start with something speedy!

Balekana bags a speedy score!

The back-to-back defending Champion New England Free Jacks didn’t take long to open their 2025 playoff account, with just 19 seconds passing before the Free Jacks’ Fijian try machine Paula Balekana crossed for his 13th of the season! This sets a new record for the fastest playoff score in Major League Rugby history, surpassing a 45 second Fa’asiu Fuatai try for the Rugby New York Ironworkers back in 2023! Congratulations, Paula!

Paula Balekana scores the fastest try in MLR Playoff history!

Balekana’s speedy score was roughly 12 seconds off of the fastest ever MLR try, scored by Conner Mooneyham for the Seattle Seawolves straight from kick off after only 7 seconds in 2023! Balekana now sits just 1 try behind Utah’s Joe Mano for the league lead in tries scored, and both men are closing in on Balekana’s single season record of 15 tries set in 2023. With both the Free Jacks and Utah Warriors advancing to their respective Conference Finals, will we see more tries from either of them?

Playoff Placements!

The MLR Championship Final is now under 2 weeks away and as mentioned in the introduction, the 8 playoff teams have already been sliced in half and four teams remain in the hunt for the 2025 Shield. In the Western Conference, two teams earned their first playoff wins to set-up a completely new Conference Finals matchup. Having not featured in the postseason since 2021 when they faced the juggernaut LA Giltinis, the Utah Warriors faced the 2024 runners-up Seattle Seawolves playing in their MLR-leading thirteenth playoff match. In typical Warriors style, they raced out to a big lead before the Seawolves mounted an admirable comeback that fell just short, 23-21. The Warriors will host the Houston SaberCats who, after qualifying for the playoffs for the 4th year in a row, finally earned their first postseason victory with a nailbiting 27-21 victory over playoff debutants Rugby FC LA, ending the game with two players in the bin!

The 2025 Playoff Picture following the Conference Semifinals

There’s a very different story over in the Eastern Conference, where a repeat of the 2024 Eastern Conference Final awaits! The defending champion New England Free Jacks recorded the biggest victory of the 2025 Conference Semifinals, defeating the Miami Sharks 32-10 to match the scoreline of the San Diego Legion’s 2023 Western Conference Final victory over the Seattle Seawolves. The Sharks were heavy underdogs in their first ever playoff appearance, but should be proud of their 2025 season and look forward to a strong 2026. In the other Eastern Semifinal, the Chicago Hounds made it entertaining for the home crowd as they trailed 10-16 to Old Glory DC at half time, before shutting the Flags out in the 2nd half to take a 27-16 victory. Both sides were looking for a shot at revenge against the Free Jacks who knocked them both out in 2024, and it’s the Hounds that will get the chance. New England defeated Chicago 23-17 in last year’s Eastern Conference Final, will it be the same outcome a year later?

Free Jacks Statement Win

After getting off to a shaky start to the season, the New England Free Jacks are speeding towards that Threepeat with a big win over the Miami Sharks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. They were one of only two sides (along with the Houston SaberCats) to score 4 tries in the 2025 Conference Semifinals, and scored 32pts, more than any other team in the postseason so far!

Source: @nefreejacks via Instagram

The Free Jacks’ 22pt winning margin in a 32-10 victory is the 2nd largest winning margin in MLR Playoff history, tied with the San Diego Legion’s 32-10 win of their own over the Seattle Seawolves in 2023. The largest winning margin in a Major League Rugby playoff game is 24pts, achieved twice. First by the Seattle Seawolves in a 43-19 victory over the San Diego Legion in 2022 (those two have been rivals since the League started!), and then equaled by the Chicago Hounds in a 21-45 victory over the NOLA Gold last year which is also both the highest scoring playoff game in league history (66), and the highest points total by a single team in a playoff game (45)! Will we see any new records set in the 2025 post-season?

Houston Hits 100!

The Houston SaberCats scored 4 tries and 27pts in their muddy victory over Rugby FC LA in the Western Conference Semifinals, taking them to 102pts scored in the playoffs in total! AJ Alatimu’s 66th minute penalty took them into triple figures. They are just the 5th team in Major League Rugby history to pass 100pts scored in the postseason!

The SaberCats are the 4th active MLR team to pass 100pts in the playoffs behind the Seattle Seawolves (358), the New England Free Jacks (174), and the San Diego Legion (also 174), as well as the inactive Rugby New York Ironworkers (144). Congratulations, ‘Cats!
The Chicago Hounds are likely next to hit this milestone. Currently on 89pts scored in the postseason, they could also pass the 100pts mark in their Eastern Conference Final clash with the Free Jacks this weekend.

Wrapping Up

For the first time this season, this week’s Midweek Milestones article doesn’t have any appearance achievements! With the playoffs now rolling, a whole new area of standout stats and records are just waiting to be broken! The Conference Semifinals already gave us the fastest playoff try in MLR history, as well as the T-2nd biggest winning margin in playoff history and the 5th team to reach 100pts scored in the postseason. With only 3 games left in the 2025 season, what other standout stats will we see?

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 17 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

17 weeks of Major League Rugby action have been and gone, and in what seems like the blink of an eye, the 2025 Regular Season is at an end. For three teams, their season is over and the off-season awaits full of planning for the MLR Draft in August, and the 2026 season. For four teams from each Conference, it’s crunch time. The Playoffs await!

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, NARDB’s weekly article that highlights and examines the standout stats from each round of MLR action! Just because the regular season ends with Round 17 that doesn’t mean there wasn’t still plenty to talk about. These articles aim to recognise achievements by players and/or teams that may have gone unnoticed or flown under the radar otherwise, providing fans with some extra insight and context every week to add an extra level to MLR! As always, Appearance Achievements are up first!

Appearance Achievements

The final round of the season often brings interesting lineups. Teams that are already securely in the playoffs with no chance of securing home advantage and only a narrow chance of moving positions sometimes reward depth players that have worked hard in camp all season. This gives teams a chance to see what their prospects can do at professional match level, and also exposes the players to valuable high-level game time. With the season staying so competitive right up until the final whistle of the final game, there were only a couple of unusual lineups, including a few MLR debuts!

The Miami Sharks secured their first ever Playoff berth last week, qualifying for the postseason in just their 2nd season. They were almost destined to face off against the defending champion New England Free Jacks as the 4th seed and decided to rest the majority of their starters this week. In fact, only Santiago Videla remained in their starting lineup from last week as Chase Schor-Haskin scored his first MLR try on his first MLR start, Isaac Bales came off the bench for his Sharks debut and first MLR appearance since 2023, and two players earned their MLR debuts!

Starting on the wing for the Sharks was 2024 Draftee Jake Negrete. The St. Mary’s College alum was selected in the 2nd Round, 20th overall by the Houston SaberCats in 2024, before moving to the Sharks back in May. Although the details of the move haven’t been disclosed, Negrete finally made his MLR debut in a 42-17 defeat to the Seattle Seawolves in the Fish Bowl. Congratulations, Jake! Unfortunately, his debut lasted only a few minutes before he had to leave the pitch, so wishing him a safe and speedy recovery! Also earning his first MLR appearance was Blake Pereda, a new signing announced by the Sharks during the week. NARDB is unclear if this deal was signed prior to the 2025 signing deadline in May, or if Pereda is injury cover but regardless, the Miami Tridents player came off the bench for the final 35 minutes of action. Congratulations, Blake, and welcome to MLR!

Source: @utwarriorsrugby via Instagram

As two players earned their MLR debuts for the Sharks in the East, in the West a Utah Warrior joined the half-century club. Since joining the Utah Warriors ahead of the 2022 season, US-eligible New Zealand scrumhalf Zion Going has scored 8 tries and started 29 of his now 50 MLR appearances, and is enjoying a stand-out season in 2025! Going appeared in all 16 of the Warriors’ regular season games this year (a career high), starting a career high 13 times and scoring 4 tries, completing 85 tackles, and gaining 266m, all three are new career highs. Congratulations, Zion! It seems apt to wrap up Going’s career year by celebrating his 50th MLR appearance but with the Warriors finishing top of the league, could he also celebrate it with a Shield? We’ll have to wait and see…

Hounds Hit Half-Century!

In the same round that Zion Going earns his 50th MLR appearance for the Utah Warriors, the Chicago Hounds celebrate their 50th game played in Major League Rugby! The Eastern Conference Hounds secured a hard fought 15-12 victory over the Houston SaberCats in the Dogs v Cats match to clinch their first ever home playoff game, in their 50th MLR match!

Since joining in 2023, the Hounds have an all-time regular season record of 22-1-25 as well as an even record of 1-1 in the postseason thanks to their Conference Final run in 2024. With 4pts in their nail-biting win over the SaberCats, the Hounds also draw to within 1pt of the LA Giltinis in the all-time MLR standings. Congratulations, Chicago!

Source: @Chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

Playoff Placement

As mentioned off the top, Major League Rugby’s 11 teams has been whittled down to 8 that advance to the 2025 postseason. This section will take a look at the playoff histories for each team, and some standout stats around the postseason.

In the Eastern Conference, the defending champion New England Free Jacks claim the top spot for the FOURTH year in a row to qualify for the post season for the 4th time in succession. The back-to-back Champions had a shaky start to the year, but have recovered well and banked a 11-5 record in their bid for the threepeat! They will face a team that has been a bit of a boogeyman for them, the Miami Sharks. The 4th seeded Sharks are enjoying their playoff debut in 2025 after qualifying with a franchise-best 8-8 record with 41pts. The Sharks have defeated the Free Jacks twice in their short history, but never in Quincy. Could we see an upset for the ages?
Over to the other matchup in the Eastern Conference, hosted by the 2nd seed Chicago Hounds at SeatGeek Stadium, as mentioned above. One of the Hounds’ key targets in 2025 was to host a playoff match and they hit that target with a strong 11-5 record. This matches the Free Jacks’ record and the Hounds took it to New England all year, in the end finishing only 2pts behind them due to a pair of extra Try BPs earned by the Free Jacks. Like the Sharks, this is by far the best regular season in Hounds history and the 2nd year in a row that they have qualified. Back in 2024, they routed the NOLA Gold on the road before falling to the Free Jacks in the Eastern Conference Final by the skin of their teeth. The Hounds want to at least match that, and are out for revenge. Standing in their way first however, are Old Glory DC. The Flags qualified with a matching record to the Sharks, 8-8, but finished with 4pts more thanks to their 4 additional bonus points. DC, like Chicago, are looking for revenge over the Free Jacks who have knocked them out in both of the last two seasons. Will 3rd time be the charm?

Now to the Western Conference which has produced the #1 team in the entire league for the 3rd year in a row. In 2025, the Utah Warriors finish as the Top team in MLR with the same 11-5 record as both New England and Chicago, but with 58pts in total. A franchise best season from the mountain men. The Warriors end MLR’s longest playoff drought and qualify for the postseason for the first time since 2021, where they will face the 4th seeded Seattle Seawolves, playing in their MLR-leading sixth postseason at the expense of their rivals, the San Diego Legion. 2024’s runners-up finish with a 8-7-1 record, just 1pt ahead of the Legion. Finally, last seasons top seed finishes 4pts behind Utah in 2nd with a 10-6 record. The Houston SaberCats clinched home advantage with a win in their last game of the season to qualify for the 3rd year on the trot, but are yet to record a playoff victory. The ‘Cats will face a run ‘n gun Rugby FC LA team, who finished 2pts ahead of Seattle with the same 8-7-1 record to earn their playoff debut in their 2nd season.

The 2025 Playoff picture at the end of the Regular Season

Wrapping Up

That does it for a ‘Playoff Prep’ edition of Midweek Milestones. A pair of MLR debuts, a team and a player join the half-century club, and a bumper overview of the 2025 playoff picture! The business end of the Major League Rugby season is here, with all four matchups looking to be thrillers. Midweek Milestones will continue through the postseason, so be sure to check back next week for all sorts of playoff stats!

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 16 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

Round 16 of the 2025 Major League Rugby season has been and gone, and just like that there is only 1 round of regular season action remaining! Four more teams secured their places in the 2025 post-season over the weekend with just 1 spot still up for grabs, being fought over by MLR’s oldest rivals, the Seattle Seawolves and San Diego Legion.

Welcome back to Midweek Milestones, NARDB’s weekly article that highlights and examines the standout stats from each round of MLR action! This week’s article covers the penultimate round of MLR regular season action: Round 16. These articles aim to recognise achievements by players and/or teams that may have gone unnoticed or flown under the radar otherwise, providing fans with some extra insight and context every week to add an extra level to MLR! As always, Appearance Achievements are up first!

Appearance Achievements

Round 16 saw a pair of test capped players feature in their 50th MLR match. One has represented the USA Eagles on the international stage, the other has represented Canada. Both have had remarkable impacts on MLR history, and we will start with California native Christian Dyer!

A native of Sacramento, CA and UCal – Berkeley alum, Christian Dyer‘s MLR career got off to a shaky start. He was initially signed with the Dallas Jackals for their inaugural season in 2021. After Dallas deferred their entry to 2022, Dyer was selected by Rugby New York in the supplementary draft but didn’t join the Ironworkers for the 2021 season. In January of 2022 the Houston SaberCats announced that they had signed Dyer for the 2022 season, and his pro career finally got started despite already having earned his test debut as USA Eagle #539 against England in July 2021. Dyer earned 45 appearances for the SaberCats between 2022-2024, starting 44 times including in the team’s first ever playoff game in 2022. He gained just over 1,750m as a ‘Cat including a career high of 719m in 2023 when he scored 9 tries, also a career high. Dyer remains the Houston SaberCats’ all-time leading try scorer with 19 in black and gold, and has been capped 14 times by his country. Dyer was the first player announced by Rugby FC LA ahead of the 2025 season, and has scored an additional 2 tries in 5 games (4 starts) in California, helping the team to it’s first ever postseason appearance. Congratulations, Christian!

Source: @Rugbyfcla via Instagram

Joining Christian Dyer in the half-century club after Round 16 is South African born Edmontonian Dewald Kotze! The test-capped Canadian hooker moved from South Africa to Edmonton, AB at the age of 14, joining the Strathcona Druids before moving to the Canadian National Team development program, the Pacific Pride in 2019. Kotze was named in a 40-man extended Canada squad in June 2021, but would have to wait until 2024 before earning his test debut for his adopted country, a 35-22 victory over Romania in Ottawa. At club level, Dewald Kotze was signed by the Dallas Jackals in January 2022, representing the Texas team for 3 seasons between until their untimely demise in 2024. Kotze earned 36 appearances for the Jackals in that time, starting 29 times and scoring 14 tries including a career high of 11 in 2023 when he scored a MLR-record FIVE tries in a single game for the Jackals against Seattle. The Seawolves clearly liked the look of Dewald Kotze, as they signed him for the 2025 season after the Jackals withdrew from MLR, and he has scored another 3 tries in 14 games (6 starts) in Seattle. Kotze now has 17 tries total and has started 35 of his 50 MLR matches to date, and reached 100 tackles on the season during Round 16, his 3rd 100+ tackle season in a row. Congratulations, Dewy!

Playoff Placements!

As mentioned in the intro, another 4 teams clinched their spot in the postseason during Round 16. three Western Conference teams have secured their spots, and the final spot in the East has been locked up. This section will dive a little deeper into the 2025 playoff placements.

Starting with that final spot in the Eastern Conference. The Miami Sharks pulled off what many fans would’ve thought impossible at the start of the season. They took on the reeling San Diego Legion at Torero Stadium, and came out on top. Although they didn’t secure a try BP, a superb performance from Shane O’Leary (more on that later!) ensured they took 4pts in a 32-36 victory to secure their first ever postseason appearance in just their 2nd season in MLR! The Sharks are now destined to finish 3rd or 4th in the East, facing either the New England Free Jacks or Chicago Hounds on the road. This Sharks victory eliminates the NOLA Gold, who are playing for pride now and will be doing some serious head scratching after arguably their worst season to date. Miami have also made life very uncomfortable for the San Diego Legion, who now must win their final game to have any hope of leapfrogging the Seattle Seawolves and making the playoffs.

Source: @usmlr via Instagram

Moving over to that warzone that is the 2025 Western Conference. As mentioned above the Seattle Seawolves and San Diego Legion are still scrapping over that final playoff spot, but 3 of the 5 teams in the West all secured their spots over the weekend, including the Houston SaberCats who didn’t even have to play! The Legion’s home loss at the hands of the Miami Sharks means they can only get to 8 wins compared to Houston’s 9, handing a 4th postseason appearance in a row to the SaberCats. Although they have two games remaining and are still fighting for home field advantage, and don’t yet know who they will be facing, the ‘Cats no doubt have one eye on the playoffs already. In 3 postseason appearances since 2022, Houston are yet to record a playoff victory. Is the 4th time the charm?

Now onto the team currently sat atop the Western Conference, the Utah Warriors. They actually clinched a playoff spot a day before the Houston SaberCats thanks to a comfortable bonus point victory over Anthem RC at home. The Warriors are currently the top team in MLR with 10 wins and 53pts, but can still fall as low as 3rd due to how close the West is. Even a bonus point victory doesn’t secure 1st place just yet. Utah need Houston to drop points in their final two games to lock that top spot up. Utah face Rugby FC LA in their final game, who sit 2nd in the West on 50pts. A win their would guarantee a home semifinal for the Warriors, as either the 1st or 2nd seed.

Moving on to Rugby FC LA who, like the Sharks in the East, have secured their first ever postseason berth following a 32-43 bonus point road victory over Old Glory DC at the Maryland Soccerplex. Now sat 2nd in the Western Conference, RFCLA will need a bonus point win in their last match against the 1st placed Utah Warriors to give them the best chance of securing home advantage. There’s a ferocious 3-way fight between LA, Houston, and Utah for the top two spots, and fans will be in for a treat in Round 17!

Sensational Sharks!

The Miami Sharks’ superb road victory over the San Diego Legion has already been mentioned a number of times in this article, but now it is time to dive deeper into some of the standout stats from this playoff-clinching win! Miami’s talismanic flanker Manu Ardao notched one of 3 Sharks tries in this match to take take his season total to 5. This equals his total from last season and takes his career MLR total to 10, making him the first player in Sharks history to reach 10 tries scored for the team! Can he get a couple more before the end of the season?

The main story coming out of this game however, was the performance of Shane O’Leary. The Canada-capped Irishman was like clockwork off of the tee, scoring 3 conversions and 5 penalties for 21 of Miami’s 36pts in this game to help them secure their first ever playoff spot! With 60% of both the territory and possession in favour of the San Diego Legion, O’Leary‘s boot was the difference. The Legion only conceded 8 penalties all game but O’Leary and the Sharks kicked 6 of them, converting 5!

Shane O’Leary racks up 21pts from the boot!

Finishing the game with 8/9 from the tee, the former Toronto Arrows fly-half set a new Miami Sharks record for points in a single game, as well as a 2025 high in that same category. His 21pts takes his season total to 90, surpassing Santiago Videla’s 74pts last season to set a new Miami Sharks single season record and climb to 1st place in the entire league for points scored this season! O’Leary’s career total now sits at 153pts including 101 for the Sharks, becoming just the 2nd player in Sharks history to pass 100pts scored for the team behind the aforementioned Santiago Videla. Congratulations, Shane!

Scoring Standouts – Hodgson & Hilsenbeck

On the subject of scoring milestones, following a comfortable 31-10 home victory over Anthem RC, Joel Hodgson has now achieved something that only 10 other players have done. With 2pts scored from a conversion kick, Hodgson’s total now sits at exactly 300pts scored becoming just the 11th player in MLR history to reach 300pts scored in the competition! He is the first Utah Warriors to reach 300pts scored, and the 8th player in MLR history to reach 300pts scored with a single MLR franchise. Hodgson now sits just 13pts back of MLR’s Top 10 Scorers ever, with Seattle Seawolves legend Brock Staller sat on 313pts in total. Congratulations, Joel!

Moving from Utah up to Chicago, where the Hounds are sitting just 2pts off the top of the Eastern Conference after a bonus point victory over the NOLA Gold took them into 2nd. 8 of Chicago’s 38pts came off the boot of US-eligible German international Chris Hilsenbeck, who went 4/6 from the tee. With a total of 84pts on the season, Hilsenbeck moves up to T-2nd in scoring, and sets a new Chicago Hounds franchise record for points in a season, surpassing the previous record of 77pts set by Adriaan Carelse in 2024. Congratulations, Chris!

Wrapping Up

That does it for the Midweek Milestones from Round 16 of the 2025 Major League Rugby Season! Four teams clinch playoff spots, a pair of new half-century club members, and some spectacular scoring achievements! The final week of the regular season is here already. What sorts of standout stats will it leave us with? You’ll have to check in next week’s Midweek Milestones article!

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 15 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

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

Appearance Achievements – Tonga’uiha hits 100!

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

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

Source: @usmlr via Instagram

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

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

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

Source: @utahwarriorsrugby via Instagram

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

Balekana records 2nd 10+ try season!

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

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

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

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

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

Old Glory DC are Flying High!

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

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

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

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

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

Seawolves Hit 70!

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

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

Wrapping Up

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

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 12 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

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

Appearance Achievements

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

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

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

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

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

Source: @Chicagohoundsrugby via Instagram

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

Result Irregularities!

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

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

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

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

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

Lochore sets 2025 High for Tackles!

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

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

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

Wrapping Up

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

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

Midweek Milestones: Standout Stats from Round 11 of MLR2025!

NARDatabase

James Deeley

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

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

Appearance Achievements – Utah’s First Centurion!

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

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

Major League Rugby

SeasonTeamGPGSTCPACDGMGTacklesKS/KAPts
MLR 2018Warriors99100003156105
MLR 2019Warriors16162000024396010
MLR 2020Warriors55000001083200
MLR 2021Warriors1713000003329200
MLR 2022Warriors155000002057600
MLR 2023Warriors164000002117200
MLR 2024Warriors146000001347500
MLR 2025Warriors14100000277900
Total-10659300001575583015

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

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

Source: @Miasharksrugby via Instagram

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

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

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

Victory Milestones

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

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

Individual Scoring Milestones

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

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

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

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

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

Alatimu sets new 2025 record with 17pt game for Houston

Miscellaneous Milestones!

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

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

Source: @chicagohoundsrugby via instagram

Wrapping Up

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

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

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