Rugby ATL host Rugby United New York in a nailbiting Eastern Conference final!

The home side claimed the only try of the game, with replacement prop Alex Maughan scoring in the 75th minute. This try could hardly have come at a better time, with NY leading 3-9 up until that point from the boot of Harry Bennett, despite an ATL penalty being the first score of the game from the boot of Bautista Ezcurra, who went 1/3 from the tee this game.

Maughan’s try brought the score to 8-9 so it was down to Kurt Coleman to nail the conversion, and he made no mistakes! This took the score to 10-9 for the hosts, who manage to hold on for the last few minutes to book their place in the 2021 MLR Final as Eastern Conference Champions!

The LA Giltinis visit the Snake Pit to face Rugby ATL in what would be a Major League Rugby classic!

The home side got on the board first through Adriaan Carelse, who converted his own score to give ATL a 7-0 lead before DTH van der Merwe scored LA’s 50th try of the season in the 30th minute, although the conversion was unsuccessful. just 5 minutes later LA Lock Luke White was handed a straight red card for a headbutt in a ruck clearance, and LA were down to 14 men for 20 minutes, with White not allowed to rejoin the game.

With LA a man down, ATL raced out to a 17-5 lead by the 50 minute mark, and just needed to hold on until the final whistle. LA broke through in the 75th minute and Luke Carty successfully converted Angus Cottrell‘s try, but it wasn’t enough.  Rugby ATL handed LA just their second defeat of the season, by a scoreline of 17-12. Rugby ATL made 280 tackles as a team, tying the all-time MLR single game record for tackles by a team, set by the Seattle Seawolves in Round 5 of 2018.

Rugby ATL host the New England Free Jacks at Lupo Family Field, in a game that was far closer than the final scoreline suggests.

Rugby ATL racked up 3 tries before the half hour mark, racing out to a 19-3 lead before the visitors fought their way back to a 19-18 battle entering the final quarter of the game.

Entering the final 10 minutes, the Free Jacks were penalised with 2 yellow cards for infringements on their own line, reducing them to 13 men for the rest of the game. Rugby ATL’s Ross Deacon dotted down for the Try BP for the home side, and to take the score to 26-18 before Mark O’Keeffe added a flourish in the 78th minute to secure the game and deny the Free Jacks a losing bonus point.

Despite ATL being given two yellow cards of their own in the 79th & 80th minutes, there was no further scoring and the home side took this contest by a score of 33-18.