background & History

The New Orleans (NOLA) Gold were founded in 2017 as a founding member of Major League Rugby and they have competed in every season of MLR to date, 2018-2024. NOLA Gold is owned by founder Tim Falcon, the owner of Falcon Law Firm and since 2020, French Top 14 side ASM Clermont Auvergne have owned a minority stake of the team. NOLA Gold took part in the first ever MLR game, a 26-35 away victory against the Houston SaberCats.

The NOLA Gold have the unenvious record of having the longest postseason drought in MLR history, having never qualified for the Championship Series in 6 seasons. They missed out by 2pts in 2021, and by just 1pt in 2019, prior to the introduction of the Conference system. For the 2024 season, MLR announced the expansion of the Championship Series from 6 teams to 8, meaning that 66% of the league will qualify for the post-season. Finishing 2nd in the Eastern Conference with a record of 10-6, the NOLA Gold finally ended their post-season drought and qualified for their first Playoffs in 2024. As the higher seeded team, the Gold hosted the Chicago Hounds (also in their first ever playoff game) in the Eastern Conference Semifinal, where they fell 21-45. With inconsistent performances haunting their 2023 & 2024 seasons, the Gold will be looking to return to the post season in 2025 and make a deep run for the Shield. Despite a first post-season qualification and arguably best-ever regular season, NOLA Gold announced that they were parting ways with Head Coach Cory Brown after only 1 season.

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records & Record Holders

all time

Top Scorer: JP Eloff (219pts)
Top Try Scorer: Pat O’Toole, Eric Howard, Cam Dolan (15)
Top Playoff Scorer: Rodney Iona (6pts)
Top Tackler: Moni Tonga’uiha (789)
Top Meter Eater: Moni Tonga’uiha (4,157m)
Most Capped Player: Moni Tonga’uiha (88)
Most Starts: Moni Tonga’uiha (70)

single season

Top Scorer: JP Eloff (141pts) – 2019
Top Try Scorer: Tristan Blewett (12) – 2019
Top Tackler:JP du Plessis (178)
Top Meter Eater: JP du Plessis (1,533m) – 2022

historical performance

2018: 3-0-5 (-82) – 17pts: 6^th
2019: 9-0-7 (+60) – 54pts: 5^th
2020: 3-0-2 (+33) – 16pts: 3rd in Eastern Conference
2021: 10-1-5 (-3) – 51pts: 3^rd in Eastern Conference
2022: 4-0-12 (-159) – 25pts: 5^th in Eastern Conference
2023: 7-0-9 (-96) – 35pts: 4^th in Eastern Conference
2024: 10-0-6 (+61) – 50pts: 2^nd in Eastern Conference (Conference Semifinalist)

Overall Regular Season Record: 46-1-46
Overall Championship Series Record: 0-1
Championship Series Appearances: 1 (2024)

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Head Coach & Captain

head coach

• Nate Osborne (2018-2021)
• Kane Thompson (2022-2023)
• Cory Brown (2024)
• Danny Lee (2025)

captain

• Taylor Howden (2018)
• Eric Howard (2019-2020)
• Kyle Baillie (2021)
• Cam Dolan (2022-2023)
• Moni Tonga’uiha (2024)

logo & Jersey

The NOLA Gold logo has barely changed at all since the founding of the club in 2017. It depicts a shield divided into quarters of Gold & White, with ‘NOLA’ written across the quarters. Atop the shield logo is a golden crown which has changed very slightly through the years. There have been minor variations to this logo, with a recurring one being Mardi Gras beads hanging from the crown (see above).

In 2018, the NOLA Gold jerseys were primarily gold with faded hoops for home, and primarily white with faded gold accents. Since 2019, the Gold have always had at least one jersey divided into quarters (similar to their logo) and coloured with alternating Gold and black or white sections. For many seasons the Gold also had a special Mardi Gras jersey that was alternating hoops of the traditional purple, green, and gold. In 2024, this Mardi Gras jersey, which was always very popular, became the Gold’s regular away jersey.

venue

For their first two seasons in MLR (2018-2019), the NOLA Gold played their home games out of Joe Zimmerman Stadium at Archbishop Shaw High School a 3,000 capacity natural turf field that was branded as ‘Gold Stadium’. For the 2020 season and beyond, the Gold moved homes to the Gold Mine on Airline (formerly Shrine on Airline, or Zephyr Field), a 10,000 seater Baseball stadium in Metairie, Louisiana owned by the State of Louisiana. The Gold have been the only tenants of the Stadium since 2020, perhaps allowing for the ‘Gold Mine’ name.