The highlight so far this week was Dewald Kotze scoring 5 tries for Dallas in the match against Seattle. Rob Povey got his first start at #10 for Utah, Tyler Wong got his first appearance in the reserves. Cali Martinez earned his second start at tighthead prop for Old Glory.
With only four matches this weekend it was the lowest number of Canadians playing this season, 8 starters, 7 in reserve for a total of 15 in action. There are four players who have been starters in all 5 weeks, Mason Flesch for Chicago and Dewald Kotze, Mitch Richardson and Nic Benn for Dallas.
There were 33 Canada-eligible players in action on the weekend in Week 4 of MLR, 24 starting which is the highest number this season. Houston remains the only undefeated side in the competition.
There were 32 Canada-eligible players in action in Week 3, 18 starters and 14 reserves. Some of the highlights, Ben Lesage scored a try in his third successive match for New England. Mitch Richardson, Nic Benn, Dewald Kotze scored in the Dallas win over Anthem. Mason Flesch was top ball carrier for Chicago and Matt Heaton topped the tackle stats in the LA match.
There were 18 Canadian players starting in Week 2 and 13 in the reserves, for a total 31 dressing on game day. That was down 5 from Week 1 where 36 of the 46 Canada-eligible players were in action. Ben Lesage and Andrew Quattrin scored tries for the second week in a row for New England, Shane O’Leary had the top stat for running metres for Miami in their match, Matt Heaton was top of the tackle stats for LA in their match.
There were 36 Canadian players in action in Week 1 with some making an impact on the score sheet and the stats department. Spencer Jones scored the first try by a Canadian in MLR 2024 in the Utah v Houston match but it was Dewald Kotze who lit up the scoreboard with a hat trick of tries in the Dallas v LA match, in that match Andrew Coe had two tries for LA and Mitch Richardson added a single for Dallas. In the New England v Anthem match Ben Lesage scored 2 tries and Andrew Quattrin added one for NE.
This year according to our calculations there are 47 Canadian players in the MLR rosters. There are 24 in the Western Conference and 23 in the Eastern Conference. The largest number of Canadian players are on the New England Free Jacks (12), there are 3 teams with 7 players LA, Dallas and Utah. There’s one team with no Canadians, Houston Sabercats.
World Rugby has announced a partnership with USA Rugby and MLR to launch a new MLR expansion club in Charlotte, North Carolina, named Anthem Rugby Carolina. The initial roster will “feature players from various MLR teams who are eligible to compete on behalf of the USA in international competition”.
Major League Rugby has announced its 2024 schedule which starts on March 2nd. The regular season is 18 weeks and then the top 8 teams will start the playoff round in July.
It was shocking news for the Canadian rugby community, in particular MLR fans and Arrows supporters, as both the Arrows and MLR announced they won’t participate in the 2024 MLR season. The MLR went even further announcing the “Toronto Arrows will cease operations, effectively immediately”.