Summary of MLR First XV Picks by Country After Three Weeks
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.
From Canada’s perspective there were no selections in Week 1, Nakai Penny from Seattle was the first Canadian selected in Week 2 at openside. Week 3 saw Toronto’s openside Lucas Rumball and hooker Andrew Quattrin selected.
The USA have had 15 selections so far, one of them is their #8, via South Africa, Riekert Hattingh. He has been selected at #8 for all three weeks. The only other player that has multiple selections is the NZ flyhalf for New England, Beaudein Waaka.
Another point of concern is the key role of #10 has been owned by Tier 1 countries, twice by NZ and once by South Africa. There was only 1 USA pick in the halfback pairing, that was San Diego’s #9 Nate Augspurger in Week 1. The prop positions have been dominated by Tier 1 countries (South Africa, Argentina, New Zealand) with USA making a breakthrough this week with loosehead, Jake Turnbull, of Austin. Turnbull is from Australia but is USA qualified.
The cumulative running total after 3 weeks is as follows:
Country
USA 15
SA 11
NZ 6
Canada 3
Australia 3
Argentina 3
Ireland 2
Samoa 1
Fiji 1
WEEK 3 ALL STARS
Country (7 USA, 3 SA, 2 Canada, 2 NZ, 1 Ireland)
1 USA
2 Canada
3 New Zealand
4 USA
5 South Africa
6 USA
7 Canada
8 USA (via SA) (3)
9 South Africa
10 New Zealand (2)
11 USA
12 USA
13 Ireland
14 USA
15 South Africa
WEEK 2 ALL STARS
Country (4 SA, 4 USA, 3 Australia, 1 NZ, 1 Samoa, 1 Fiji, 1 Canada)
1 South Africa
2 New Zealand
3 South Africa
4 Fiji (eligible USA)
5 South Africa
6 Australia
7 Canada
8 USA (via SA)
9 Australia
10 South Africa
11 Samoa
12 Australia
13 USA
14 USA
15 USA
WEEK 1 ALL STARS
Country (4 SA, 4 USA, 3 Argentina, 3 NZ, 1 Ireland)
1 Argentina
2 South Africa
3 Argentina
4 USA
5 South Africa
6 USA
7 South Africa
8 USA (via SA)
9 USA
10 New Zealand
11 Argentina
12 South Africa
13 Ireland
14 New Zealand
15 New Zealand