Round 7 of MLR saw the most Canadian players in action with 13 starting and 15 in the reserves. San Diego lost their first match and now share the lead in the West with Houston, Chicago remain top in the East. There were 4 Canadian try scorers, all in the New England v Utah match, Brock Webster, Nic Benn, Andrew Quattrin and Cameron Nordli-Kelemeti getting tries according to MLR stats.
MLR Round 6 saw 21 Canada eligible players in action, 10 starting and 11 in the reserves. Tyler Matchem and Kyle Steeves saw their first action in the reserves, Shane O’Leary got his first start, the first time a Canada eligible player started at #10 this season. Andrew Coe, Jack Shaw, Andrew Quattrin and Shane O’Leary scored tries.
There were 25 Canadian players in action in Round 5 of the MLR, 8 starting and 17 in the reserves. It was the first appearance for Kaden Duguid and Gabe Casey in the match 23.
There were 24 Canadians in action this weekend in MLR, 13 starting and 11 in the reserves. San Diego remains the only undefeated team and tops the West Conference, Chicago tops the East Conference.
MLR Round 3 saw 23 Canadian players in the rosters, 10 starting and 13 in the reserves. Lucas Rumball made the MLR Team of the Week. San Diego is the only team at 3-0 and Utah are the only other undefeated team at 2-0. Canadian referees have an important role in MLR as well, below is a list of Canadian referees participating in the MLR this season.
MLR Week 2 wrapped up with only 12 Canadian players in action (8 starting, 4 reserves) as New England, Seattle and Old Glory had byes. Cooper Coats and Spencer Jones made the MLR team of the week. San Diego is the only 2-0 team going into Round 3.
There were 21 Canadian players in action (out of 46) in MLR Round One, 11 starting, 10 in reserves and 25 not in action. Looking through the match stats for impact players, Mason Flesch has the high tackle count (12) for Chicago in their win over Houston. Andrew Coe was 3rd in metres made in the LA match with 62, Piers von Dadelszen was 4th in tackles made with 19 for New England. Cooper Coats was 4th in defenders beaten (2) in his match with New Orleans. Jesse Mackail made a big impact coming in as reserve hooker for Seattle and scoring 2 tries.
A couple of MLR preseason news items that impact Canadian rugby fans. The LA franchise is in Fiji to play the Drua this evening, the team includes 6 Canadian players. Also the Seattle Seawolves match vs Canada Selects, scheduled for Feb. 7th has been called off, the Seawolves will play the local Seattle club side instead.
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.