April 1
Utah Warriors 25 v San Diego Legion 40 @ Zions Bank Stadium 7pm PT
Utah in 6th place in the West have no Canadians in the roster.
San Diego, second in the West, feature Michael Smith as starting openside with Jason Higgins as reserve scrum half.
Michael Smith was the top tackler in the game with 22 tackles made.
[ed. good to hear from Jamie Cudmore again. Also kudos to them for putting out their long list, hint, hint, BC.]
The Atlantic Selects, Atlantic Canada’s renewed high performance Men’s Rugby team, announced today their 2nd ever match. The team was founded in the fall of 2021 to help rebuild high performance Rugby in Atlantic Canada, and travelled to Toronto in October to play the Toronto Arrows.
March 26
Old Glory DC 22 v New Orleans Gold 31
@ Segra Field 12pm PT
DC are last in the East at 0-6. Jake Ilnicki starts at tighthead, Luke Campbell at #8, Doug Fraser on the wing.
March 19
Utah Warriors 24 v Toronto Arrows 27 @ Zions Bank Stadium 1:30pm PT
Utah are in 5th place in the West at 2-3. They have no Canadians in the roster.
Toronto are in 5th place in the East at 2-3. They have Keith and Quattrin in the front row, Sheppard and Ciulini in the second row, Rumball and O’Neill in the backrow. The first start for James O’Neill. Braude starts at scrum half, Richardson in the centres, McCann at fullback and Webster on the wing. Nine Canadians in the starting XV. In the reserves are McRogers, Brouwer, Rowland, Wadden and Kelly.
Matches are streamed live at therugbynetwork.com
March 12
Rugby ATL 29 v Austin Gilgronis 14
@ Silverbacks Park – 12pm PT
The top two teams in the league go head to head.
Atlanta at 3-1 feature Matt Heaton at openside with Conor Keys on the bench.
Austin don’t have any Canadians in the side.
Matt Heaton scored a try in the game for Atlanta.
As we noted after Week 2, Austin look the team to beat this year and are the only undefeated side now. The following are the match results, Canadian players in the rosters, match highlights and the standings after Week 5.
Austin still look the team to beat and this week they face a stern challenge as they travel to Seattle to play another undefeated side, the Seattle Seawolves. The result may give a hint as to who has edge in the race for the title this year.
We took a look at the Country of Origin/Eligibility for the weekly MLR All Star picks, called the First XV. We’ve seen, from Canada’s example, that selecting a national team from those who simply make the MLR isn’t sufficient to qualify for the World Cup. The MLR, currently, isn’t of high enough quality compared to other professional leagues in Europe and the southern hemisphere. Players have to consistently excel in the MLR to be competitive at the international level. Players who get regular game time in leagues like France’s Top 14 should be considered ahead in development.
After two weeks Austin Gilronis look to be the dominant team. The Giltinis won the title last year, is it the Gilronis turn this year? Both teams are owned by Australian business man Adam Gilchrist and his Loyals Rugby group. The formula seems the same, seed the team with top level Tier 1 players in key positions. Last year it was Matt Giteau and Adam Ashley-Cooper leading Giltinis to the title. The Gilronis this week feature 5 South African, New Zealand, Australia players in the forwards and a halfback pairing of South Africa and Australia, add in an Argentinean on the wing and an Irishman in the centres to complete a dominant international roster. We’ll see how they do this week against last year’s semi-finalists Utah.
Week 2 kicks off Thursday evening in Seattle, on Friday the Toronto Arrows host LA in Langford. There are four games slated for Saturday. We’ll track the Canadians in the team lists.