The Chicago Hounds host the New England Free Jacks in a repeat of the 2025 Eastern Conference Final during Round 4 of the 2026 MLR season. This game took place at Geodis Park in Nashville, home of Nashville SC of the MLS, marking the first time that an MLR game has taken place in the state of Tennessee!

Marketed as the Music City Showdown, the Chicago Hounds arrive in Nashville at the top of the MLR standings and remain the league’s last undefeated side after a convincing 48-24 victory over the California Legion in their very wet home opener last week. A the complete other end of the table, the New England Free Jacks didn’t fare as well in their home opener last week, falling 19-21 to Old Glory DC who just seem to have their number. The defending champs fell to 0-2 to start a season for the first time ever, and in the shortened 2026 calendar, will be feeling the pressure to pick up their first win.

Geodis Park was ready to host a party, and the Chicago Hounds got the party started early through Theo Fourie at the back of a maul to give them an early lead, which was cancelled out a few minutes later by a Wayne van der Bank interception, getting the Free Jacks on the board against the run of play to tie things up at 7 after Joel Hodgson added the extras. This score seemed to go straight to the legs of the Free Jacks, who suddenly went on the attack and picked up their first lead of the game through a Nate Sylvia score putting them up 7-12. The defending champs enjoyed that lead for about 5 minutes, before Charlie Abel trundled over to even things up once again before Hilsenbeck added the extras. Another 5 minutes later, the Hounds launched a perfect crossfield kick out wide that was collected on the full my Mason Flesch, who fed it inside to Ruben de Haas for a great try to extend the Hounds’ lead to 21-12 following the conversion. The defining moment of the game came yet another 5 minutes later, when Free Jacks Captain Ben LeSage was deemed to have stamped on the head of an opposing player, and was handed a permanent red card, reducing the Free Jacks to 14 men for the rest of the game. The Hounds capitalised on this almost immediately, with Mark O’Keeffe going in in the corner to secure the Try BP for Chicago, who would add a 5th try before half time through Ollie Devoto to make the score at the break a commanding 33-12 lead to Chicago.

The last time these two sides met, the Free Jacks trailed by 17pts and came back to win in last year’s Eastern Conference Final. In this game however, a very different looking Free Jacks were trailing by 21pts with 14 men, and that was too much to ask. They did open the 2nd half scoring through Sione Tupou to cut the deficit to 14, but the Hounds would add scores from Nathan den Hoedt, a 2nd for Charlie Abel after a great line break from 30m out for the prop, and Emmanuel Albert on his Chicago Debut. This put the Hounds at the half-century mark and while the Free Jacks would have the final say with a great team try finished by Ethan McVeigh to secure the Try BP for New England, Chicago took a convincing 50-26 victory in Nashville. Here’s hoping it’s not too long until MLR returns!

This marks the most points ever conceded by the New England Free Jacks, breaking the previous high of 43 set by the California Legion in Rd 2, and is just the 3rd time ever that the Chicago Hounds have scored 50+ in a game! The Hounds successfully defend The Old Mate (the first successful defence this season), and have scored 8 tries in each of their last two games. They improve to 3-0 and top the MLR standings heading into week 5, where they face the Seattle Seawolves on the road. The New England Free Jacks fall to 0-3, the only winless team in MLR. They return home to Quincy to face Anthem RC next week, desperate for a win.