The MLR have announced their 2025 schedule that runs from the weekend of Feb 15/16 to June 7/8 with the playoffs to follow. The league now has 11 teams with Dallas Jackals dropping out this season. There will be 5 Western Conference teams, Seattle, San Diego, LA, Utah and Houston and 6 Eastern Conference teams, New England, DC, Miami, New Orleans, Chicago and Charlotte in the East.
Seattle is closer to BC and the Seawolves were initially seeded with Canadian talent by Curry Hitchborn when MLR first started in 2018, and Seattle won the first two titles in 2018 and 2019. But now Seattle have lost that Canadian connection, only Reid Davis appeared sporadically in the roster this season, and he wasn’t in the match day 23 for Seattle this weekend. The Free Jacks however boasted 9 Canadians in the roster in the Championship match, so who which team were we pulling for… O Canada.
Seattle and New England will meet in the MLR final. Seattle won the first two years of MLR championships after the league started, 2018 and 2019. New England are defending champions, 2023. The other two title winners are no longer in the league, LA Giltinis 2021, and Rugby New York 2022. The 2020 season was cancelled due to Covid.
There were four conference semi-finals taking place over the weekend, 5 of the 8 teams have Canadian players in the roster with 20 players participating. New England Free Jacks have the largest number of Canadian players dressed with 9 representing, Dallas have 4, DC have 3, Chicago have 3 and NOLA has 1.
The regular season has wrapped up, the playoff picture is set but won’t start for a few weeks to allow for the international test window. The playoffs start on July 20th with New England hosting Old Glory, Houston hosting Dallas, New Orleans hosting Chicago and Seattle hosting San Diego.
There’s one week left in the regular season. The West playoff picture is clear, Houston will host Dallas and Seattle will host San Diego. In the East the top four playoff spots are known but the order can still be changed based on next weekend’s results, currently it would be New England hosting DC and NOLA hosting Chicago.
There are two weeks left in the regular season and the playoff bound teams have been set in the West with Houston claiming top spot, followed by Seattle, San Diego and Dallas. In the East there’s New England, New Orleans, DC and Chicago in the top four spots with Miami still mathematically alive but looking doubtful for a playoff spot. There were 32 Canada-eligible players in action, 18 starting and 14 in reserves.
There are 3 weeks left in the regular season with the top 4 teams in each conference entering post season play. Currently in the West, Houston, Seattle and San Diego have clinched playoff spots, in the East, New England and New Orleans have clinched playoff spots. There were 34 Canadian players in action, 17 starters and 17 reserves.
Week 14 of MLR wrapped up with 30 Canada-eligible players in action, 15 starters and 15 in reserves. Houston and New England remain top of the West and East conferences. Scoring tries this week were Andrew Coe, Jack Shaw, Andrew Quattrin and Ethan Fryer.
Week 13 of MLR wrapped up with 22 Canada-eligible players in action, 16 starters and 6 in reserves. Half of the Canadian starters were with the New England team who field 8 Canadian starters on the day. Houston and New England remain top of the West and East conferences.