Background & History

The California Legion were born on the 30th July 2025 upon the merging of two previous California franchises, the San Diego Legion, and Rugby FC LA. They competed in their first MLR season in 2026. The latter Rugby FC LA were a relatively new franchise, moving from Atlanta (where they were Rugby ATL under a different ownership group) to LA ahead of the 2024 season. The San Diego Legion on the other hand, were one of MLR’s founding members and Legion owner Ryan Patterson is head of the MLR board. The California Legion took much of the established branding of the San Diego Legion, and aim to create a ‘single, statewide professional rugby franchise’ in California. Of the merger, MLR CEO Nick Benson said ‘Major League Rugby will always prioritize long-term growth of the game in the U.S., delivering an exceptional on-field product and an incredible fan experience, and The California Legion is a way to showcase that in Southern California’.

In the announcement of the merger, Australian RFCLA Executive and former player Adam Freier was named as California Legion CEO. The ownership structure is unclear, but it’s possible that Legion owner Ryan Patterson and RFCLA owner Peter Sickle and now co-owners. It is also worth mentioning that All Blacks legend Ma’a Nonu has a stake in the San Diego Legion, and French superstar Antoine Dupont owns a stake in Rugby FC LA. It is possible that these two legends of the game are now business partners, but it is also possible that they now have nothing to do with the new California Legion organisation.

The California Legion’s reception was frosty at best among the existing LA and San Diego fanbases, and with MLR fans in general who recognised that they were still losing a franchise. The announcement mentioned that the California Legion would split their home games in 2026 between San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange Country (where RFCLA had hosted 1 game in the 2024 season). However the commitment to the 2026 season from the newly formed California Legion was encouraging. The California Legion seems to have maintained much of the infrastructure of RFCLA and San Diego including the Legion Community Foundation which continues to focus on rugby at a grassroots level through things like establishing Flag Rugby leagues in schools to help solidify pathways to rugby. The contraction of the league left the Legion with 5 home games in 2026, which they split between San Diego, LA, the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Orange County. They got off to a rocky start, falling to Anthem RC (who hadn’t won a game in the 32 previous matches) in their first competitive game, and they 2026 season was a rollercoaster. Despite this, they had good turnout for home games highlighted by the Legion faithful in San Diego, and finished the season in 3rd place with a 5-5 record playing a highly entertaining brand of rugby. They didn’t secure a home semifinal, instead facing the Seattle Seawolves at the formidable Starfire Stadium, but they proved more than up for the task. They defeated the 2x Champs in their own backyard to earn a chance to fight for the Shield in their first year. Unfortunately, awful weather and ill-discipline hindered their game plan, and they were comprehensively beaten by the undefeated Chicago Hounds in the 2026 final.

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Records

2026 MLR Runners-Up

all time

Top Scorer: Coby Miln (130pts)
Top Try Scorer: Joe Mano / Ben Houston (6)
Top Playoff Scorer: Coby Miln (35pts)
Top Tackler:
Top Meter Eater:
Most Capped Player: Gonzalo Bertranou / Jason Damm / Coby Miln / Keni Nasoqeqe / Joe Taufete’e / Justus Tavai / Lance Williams (12)
Most Starts: Gonzalo Bertranou / Jason Damm / Coby Miln / Lance Williams (12)

single season

Top Scorer: Coby Miln (130pts) – 2026
Top Try Scorer: Joe Mano / Ben Houston (6) – 2026
Top Tackler:
Top Meter Eater:

historical performance

2026: 5-0-5 (+53) – 29pts: 3rd

Overall Regular Season Record: 5-0-5
Overall Championship Series Record: 1-1
Championship Series Appearances: 1 (2026)

The Old Mate

Total Possessions: 1
Longest Streak: 1
First Possession: 2026 – Rd 2
Last Possession: 2026 – Rd 3
Successful Challenges: 1
Failed Challenges: 2
Challenge Success Rate: 33.33%
Successful Defences: 0
Failed Defences: 1
Defence Success Rate: 0.00%

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head coach & captain

head coach

• Stephen Hoiles (2026)

captain

• Jason Damm (2026)

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Branding

The California Legion primary logo is almost identical to it’s predecessor, the San Diego Legion. The ‘San Diego’ across the top has been replaced with ‘California’, and the red shield remains, having replaced ‘SD’ with ‘CA’.

As a part of the announcement of the merger, the California Legion released a number of different colour schemes relating to different areas of Southern California, leading some to speculate that the team could have different branding for each city. These can be seen below and correspond to San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, and Long Beach, respectively:

 

 

venues

As mentioned in the ‘Background & History’ section, the California Legion aimed to play their 2026 home games between San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County as well as a number of games in Northern California. For their inaugural season in 2026, The California Legion played 5 homes games at 5 different ‘home’ venues: The Championship Soccer Stadium at Great Park in Orange County, Torero Stadium in San Diego, Wallis Annenberg Stadium in Los Angeles, St. Mary’s Stadium within St. Mary’s College just outside San Francisco, and Heart Health Park in Sacramento, respectively.