The Miami Sharks travel across the country to face Rugby FC LA at Dignity Health Sport Park in a cross-conference clash, and one of the longest road trips in the league.

This marks the first meeting between the Sharks and RFCLA, and it proven to be a feisty one! It seemed like it would be a back and forth slugfest, with a low scoring first half that saw Miami score 2 tries to LA’s 1, but the score was level at 10-10. The second half, however, was a very different story.

A 53rd minute Miami try from Nick Grigg took the score to 10-15 to the visitors, and this would be the final Sharks score of the day. Rugby FC LA went ont he offensive with terrifying results, scoring 35 unanswered points and 4 second half tries for a 45-15 victory to keep their playoff hopes alive. For the Sharks, a heavy defeat puts a blow in their post-season aspirations, now sitting 9pts back of Old Glory DC for the final playoff spot in the East, with 4 games to play.

The Second instance of the 2024 Cali Cup sees the San Diego Legion travel down teh I-5 to Los Angeles to face Rugby FC LA at Dignity Health Sports Park.

The hosts were faster out of the gates and spent the early game on the front foot. An errant pass from the Legion fell at the feet of LA’s Will Leonard who fly-hacked it through for speedster Jack Shaw to jump on the end of to open the scoring. Scrumhalf and Captain Niall Saunders made no mistakes with the conversion and LA were up 7-0 around 12 minutes in. Shortly after, LA were forced to make some early substitutions as Andrew Coe went off for an HIA (he would return) and Theo Vukasinovic left early with an injury. Just as Coe returned having passed his HIA, the Legion were given a yellow card to put them down to 14 men and almost immediately after, a cynical foul from SD hooker Hugh Roach put him in the bin too. With the Legion now down to 13 men for almost an entire 10 minutes, Semi Kunatani burst through to extend LA’s lead to 12. The Legion, rattled early in the game, seemed to find their footing as their yellow cards expired, and Tiaan Loots got them on the board. The gap now 5pts after Matt Giteau nailed the conversion, but this wouldn’t last long as Kunitani would rumble over for a 7pt try, his 2nd of the game and 7th of the season right before half-time to give the hosts a comfortable 19-7 lead.

Whatever Legion coach Danny Lee said to his squad in the break seemed to work, as they came out flying. Christian Poidevin just about made it over for the first score of the 2nd half, before big lock Jay Tuivaiti added a 3rd try about 10 minutes later. Both conversions missed which meant that LA still lead 19-17, but the momentum had very clearly shifted to the visitors. The next 20 minutes was a back and forth of thunderous collisions and ill-discipline was beginning to creep into LA’s game as their defence struggled to contain the Legion. At the 75th minute mark, Giteau split the uprights from the tee to give the Legion their first lead of the game, 19-20 with 5 minutes to play. Minutes later, Connor Tupai secured the try BP for San Diego off a beautiful play from Danny Christensen, and Alex Horan’s successful meant that LA would miss out on the losing BP, falling 19-27 to their California rivals.

The San Diego Legion secure the 2024 Cali Cup with a season sweep of Rugby FC LA, and move to 3rd in the Western Conference.

Rugby FC LA host the New England Free Jacks at Dignity Health Sports Park in a cross conference clash during week 9 of the 2024 season.

RFCLA were able to put pressure on the Free Jacks early as the visitors mishandled the kick-off, but their defence held firm. LA had the majority of the ball early, but where unable to convert. The Free Jacks began to shift the momentum and 15 minutes in, opened the scoring with an Andrew Quattrin 7-pointer as he broke the LA line. The Free Jacks kept on the pressure and extended their lead to 0-17, before the hosts hit back on the stroke of HT through Jack Shaw for a score of 7-17 at the break.

The Free Jacks would open the second half scoring through a remarkable finish by Reece MacDonald, who dived on a loose ball that was basically in the hands of the LA defender in the try zone. After TMP review the try was awarded, securing the Try BP for the visitors. Unfortunately, MacDonald injured himself in the process, and the Free Jacks will hope that he recovers quickly. Semi Kunatani, a stand out for LA despite his yellow card, would claw one back for LA, but the Free Jacks would score a Potroz penalty and a 5th try in the closing stages to put the game well and truly to bed.

New England take a 12-34 victory back to Quincy, and are back in the win column. LA will limp on after what was a bad day for the home sides at Dignity Health Sports Park, with Canada having beaten the USA 7-50 in the Women’s Pacific Four Series opener prior to this MLR Game.

The Seattle Seawolves travel down the west coast to face Rugby FC LA at Dignity Health Sports Park in a Western Conference Clash.

Although it took almost 20 minutes, the Seattle Seawolves took the lead through the boot of Sam Windsor and never looked back. Their convincing 5-try, 5-36 victory puts them into first in the Western Conference and top of the entire MLR.

Seawolves Captain Riekert Hattingh scored 2 tries in this game, the 40th and 41st of his MLR career. Hattingh is just the 2nd player in MLR history to pass the 40 tries scored mark, behind Dylan Fawsitt of the Chicago Hounds (on 47 at tiem of writing). Hattingh also gained 83m with ball in hand to take his career MLR total to 5,069m, becoming the 3rd player in MLR history to pass 5,000m gained behind NOLA Gold’s JP du Plessis (5,349m) and San Diego Legion’s Mikey Te’o (5,437m).

The Dallas Jackals travel to the west coast to face the new boys in the Western Conference, Rugby FC LA. This game marks the first game in franchise history for Rugby FC LA, having changed ownership and relocated from Atlanta following the 2023 season.

This proved to be a game of two halves, with the hosts running out to a comfortable lead before the Jackals came back at them in the second half, and snatched the victory with a Martin Elias drop goal in the closing minutes. They were helped in teh comeback by a very effective Jackals rolling maul. Canadian hooker Dewald Kotze scored 3 tries off the back of this to record the 33rd hattrick in MLR history, and the first in Jackals history!