The final game of the 2022 regular season saw the Seattle Seawolves travel down the west coast to face the LA Giltinis at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

With the disqualification of the Austin Gilgronis the day before this game, the Giltinis moved into the #1 spot in the Western Conference and a bye to the Conference Final, which they would host. With a strong win in this game, LA could have potentially hosted the Championship Final (should they make it). However, an injury-stricken Seawolves side produced a shock victory over the men from Los Angeles, with a 27-35 bonus point win. As a result, the New England Free Jacks finish first overall, and will host the Championship final should they make it that far.

Two days after this game on June 7th, 2023, after the regular season had concluded, Major League Rugby announced that the LA Giltinis were disqualified from the 2022 season for a ‘violation of league rules’ similar to the case of the Austin Gilgronis just days before. Both Austin and LA were owned by Australian fitness tycoon Adam Gilchrist (hence the ‘Gil’ names), leading many to speculate that there was a link. With LA now disqualified, the Houston SaberCats become the #1 seed in the West and will host the Western Conference Final against the winner of the Western Eliminator between Seattle and the San Diego Legion, who find themselves catapulted into the post-season.

Following the disqualification, the Giltinis franchise was put up for sale with Gilchrist looking to leave the rugby business in North America. In late October 2022, the league announced that no buyer had been found for either the Giltinis and Gilgronis and that neither team would compete in the 2023 season, effectively folding both franchises. This would be the last game in Giltinis club history.

The 2nd ever ‘Gil-grudge match’ sees the Austin Gilgronis travel to LA from Texas to face their cousins, the LA Giltinis.

The Giltinis lifted the Gilly’s Cup after emerging victorious in a low scoring, 10-8 victory after Will Magie missed a conversion on the final act of the game that would’ve drawn Austin level following a Chris Mattina try well after the clock turned red.

Rugby New York travel across the country to face the LA Giltinis at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The hosts broke the stalemate in the 12th minute and never looked back, racking up a final score of 43-0 against a New York side that had beaten the Giltinis just the season before. At the time, this scoreline was the biggest shutout in Major League Rugby history, until the Toronto Arrows would beat the Dallas Jackals 57-0 in Round 15 of the 2022 season. This also marked the biggest defeat in Rugby New York history.

With this victory, the LA Giltinis capture the ‘Champagne Cup’ (contested annually between New York and LA) for the first time, making the contest 1-1 all-time.

The LA Giltinis host the San Diego Legion at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Round 7 of the 2022 Major League Rugby Season.

This game marked the first ever contest for the ‘Cali Cup’, an intra-season trophy contested by the California teams similar to the Texas Cup. This was not however the first time these 2 sides had met, playing each other twice in the Giltinis’ 2021 Championship campaign.

In 2021, the Giltinis won both of their games against the Legion, and continued this form into 2022, emerging as 26-13 victors to claim the Cali Cup.

The New England Free Jacks travel across the country to face the LA Giltinis at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in California.

The hosts emerged as 19-15 victors following a hard fought game in which the Free Jacks completed 243 tackles in total. This set a new seaon-high for 2022, and was the 3rd most in MLR history behind two 280-tackle efforts. This is also a new high for the most tackles made in a loss.

In their Inaugural Season, the LA Giltinis host a home MLR Final against Rugby ATL. This is arguably the best match up in the league, with LA & ATL finishing 1st & 2nd in the regular season overall standings.

LA did NOT score first for a change, with ATL fly-half slotting a penalty in the 15th minute to give them a short lived 0-3 lead before Wallabies legend Matt Giteau levelled things up in the 19th minute. A few minutes later, the dam burst with John Ryberg scoring 2 tries in quick succession, one of which was converted to give LA a 15-3 lead before Marko Janse van Rensburg swung the momentum back with a converted try just before half time. Half-time score now 15-10.

Giteau landed another penalty early int he second half to bring the momentum back to the home camp, before a DTH van der Merwe try from a disrupted ATL lineout took the score further from the visitors grasp, before late penalties from Giteau and Luke Burton put the game to bed despite a late consolation try from Ross Deacon.

Final score: LA Giltinis 31, Rugby ATL 17. The LA Giltinis become MLR Champions in their inaugural season in the competition!

The LA Giltinis host the Utah Warriors for the Western Conference Final, and the chance to face Rugby ATL in the MLR Grand Final!

As they did so many times through the regular season, LA were the first on the scoreboard even if it did take 35 minutes.  LA took this 7-0 lead into the break, but it was quickly erased early in the second half by two penalties from the boot of Hagen Schulte, before a try under the posts from Sama Malolo in the 58th minute gave Utah a 7-13 lead to carry into the last 20 minutes.

It took 10 minutes for LA to shift the momentum, and they did so with a 68th minute try from Ryan James. The conversion was missed however, so Utah held on to a narrow 12-13 lead into the last 10 minutes. It took until the 77th minute for Harrison Goddard to connect again with Ryan James, who scored his second try of the game with a fantastic finish! James becomes only the 2nd player in MLR history to score multiple tries in a single playoff game.

LA advance to a home MLR Final against Rugby ATL!