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.
The MLR kicked off this weekend with six matches, four on Saturday. We’ve highlighted the Canadian players who are in the match day 23 for the various teams.
Reid Watkins first shows up in our database in 2017 when the BC Bears won the national title over the Ontario Blues, the precursor to the Toronto Arrows. Reid Watkins was the backup #9 behind player/coach Phil Mack. Phil Mack would go on to be player/coach for Seattle in their two championship seasons. There’s a MLR/Seattle connection already.
Conor McCann was one of the bright stars in Canadian rugby a decade ago. He came into our view in the summer of 2011 when he helped Ontario win the Victoria International 7s U18 division. He made the tournament all-star team along with another top player, Justin Douglas, who went on to be a mainstay on the national 7s team. He played for the invitational DHL XV (Derek Hyde-Lay) that year, along with John Moonlight, Connor Braid, Conor Trainor, against the Canada U20 team, he would have been 17 or 18 at the time. He would go on and play for the Canada U20 team the next two years, 2012 and 2013. He compiled 60 points over the two tournaments making him Canadas all-time leading scorer in the JWRT at the time, a record that may still stand.
The MLR Draft for the 2022 season took place today. There were 3 rounds with university players from USA and Canada eligible.
MLR have released their all-star team and runners up. They released a 1st team, 2nd team and Honorable Mention. It’s interesting to note where the best players are from, here is a breakdown by country.
The MLR title match between LA and Atlanta had Canadian players on each team. On the Atlanta side were Matt Heaton, openside, and Conor Keys, second row. On the LA team were DTH on the wing and Corey Thomas at #8.
The MLR season is close to wrapping up with the semis taking place this weekend. On Saturday it will be the East final with NY @ Atlanta. Quinn Ngawati is on the wing for NY and Matt Heaton will be openside for Atlanta, Conor Keys is in the reserves for Atlanta.
With the playoff picture set, the last week of the regular season had some upsets as playoff teams rested key players.
There’s one week left in the MLR regular season but the playoff picture is already set. LA will go through as West winners and Utah as #2, Austin can’t catch either team and will finish 3rd.