2018 Major League Rugby season

The 2018 Major League Rugby season was the inaugural season of Major League Rugby, an annual rugby union competition sanctioned by USA Rugby. The seven inaugural teams were based in the United States. The competition began the weekend of April 21–22 with three matches, with New Orleans defeating Houston 35–26 to open the season.

Glendale and Seattle were the best two teams at the end of the regular season and won their respective semi-final matches to advance to the championship game at Torero Stadium in San Diego. Seattle became Major League Rugby's first champion team with a surprise come-from-behind 23–19 win in the final over Glendale, who had only lost once previously during the season.

Teams Team Head coach Captain Stadium Capacity Austin Elite Alain Hyardet Andrew Suniula Multipurpose Complex 3,500 Glendale Raptors David Williams Shaun Davies Infinity Park 5,000 Houston SaberCats Justin Fitzpatrick Kyle Sumsion Dyer Stadium 6,000 New Orleans Gold Nate Osborne Taylor Howden Eagle Athletic Facility 3,000 San Diego Legion Rob Hoadley Nate Augspurger Torero Stadium 6,000 Seattle Seawolves Phil Mack Shalom Suniula Starfire Stadium 3,800 Utah Warriors Alf Daniels Paul Lasike Zions Bank Stadium 5,000

Regular season

All seven participating teams played eight matches and received two rounds of byes during the regular season held over ten weeks from April through to June. The schedule was short of a full home and away draw by four match rounds, so each side played two of the other teams twice and four of them only once. The top four teams at the end of the regular season advanced to the MLR playoffs.

Standings The final standings for the 2018 Major League Rugby regular season were:

Matches The following matches were played for the 2018 Major League Rugby regular season:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Playoffs The top four teams from the regular season qualified for the playoffs. The format was two semifinal matches – first versus fourth, and second versus third – followed by a Championship game between the semifinal winners to determine the MLR champion team.

The semifinals were played as a double header at Infinity Park in Glendale on June 30, followed a week later by the final at Torero Stadium in San Diego on July 7.

Bracket

Semifinals

Final

Team statistics

Points by week 12345678910TotalAverage Austin 26 41 38 50 30 17 22 41 – – 31 5 41 33 19 20 17 31 – – 224 23828.029.8Glendale 41 26 19 15 36 29 31 27 – – – – 47 10 37 24 33 11 5 23 249 16531.120.6 26 35 50 38 32 35 – – 20 24 30 36 7 20 24 37 – – 27 31 216 25627.032.0 35 26 – – 17 30 29 31 24 20 26 55 10 47 22 39 46 43 – – 20929126.136.4San Diego 23 39 31 24 35 32 27 31 – – 5 31 – – 39 22 31 17 23 5 214 20126.825.1Seattle 39 23 15 19 – – 31 29 41 32 55 26 20 7 20 19 11 33 – – 232 18829.023.5Utah – – 24 31 29 36 41 22 32 41 36 30 33 41 – – 43 46 31 27 269 27433.634.3

Tries by week 12345678910TotalAverage Austin 4 5 6 7 4 2 3 6 – – 4 1 5 5 1 3 2 3 – – 29 323.64.0Glendale 5 4 2 2 5 4 4 3 – – – – 7 2 5 4 5 1 1 2 34 224.32.8 4 4 7 6 2 5 – – 2 3 3 5 1 2 4 5 – – 3 5 26353.34.4 4 4 – – 2 4 5 4 3 2 4 7 2 7 3 6 5 7 – – 28413.55.1San Diego 2 5 5 3 5 2 3 4 – – 1 4 – – 6 3 3 2 2 1 27 243.43.0Seattle 5 2 2 2 – – 4 5 5 5 7 4 2 1 3 1 1 5 – – 29 253.63.1Utah – – 3 5 4 5 6 3 5 5 5 3 5 5 – – 7 5 5 3 40 345.04.3 Attack Defense

Player statistics The leading scorers in 2018 over the regular season and playoffs combined were:

Leading try scorers No.PlayerTeamTriesexcl.playoffs Totaltries    1 Utah Warriors 8 9 2 Glendale Raptors 6 7 Glendale Raptors 4 7 4 Austin Elite 6 6 5 Houston SaberCats 5 5 5 --> William Rasileka Seattle Seawolves 3 5 5 --> San Diego Legion 5 5 5 --> Houston SaberCats 5 5 9 Utah Warriors 4 4 10 --> Seattle Seawolves 4 4 9 --> Houston SaberCats 4 4 9 --> Austin Elite 4 4 Sources:Americas Rugby News and MLR (archived).

Leading point scorers No.PlayerTeamPointsexcl.playoffs Totalpoints    1 Houston SaberCats 103 103 2 Austin Elite 84 84 3 Glendale Raptors 64 77 4 New Orleans Gold 65 65 5 Seattle Seawolves 60 60 6 Utah Warriors 47 49 7 Utah Warriors 40 45 8 San Diego Legion 42 42 9 Seattle Seawolves 20 41 10 Maximo de Achaval Glendale Raptors 35 35 Sources: Americas Rugby News and MLR (archived).

Sanctions PlayerTeam Red Yellow Suspended match(es): Zachary Pangelinan Houston SaberCats 1 2 vs. New Orleans Gold () Connor Cook Glendale Raptors 1 0 vs. Austin Elite () Ben Landry Glendale Raptors 1 0 vs. Austin Elite () Jake Turnbull Houston SaberCats 0 1 vs. New Orleans Gold () Eric Howard New Orleans Gold 0 1 vs. Houston SaberCats () Ben Mitchell Austin Elite 0 1 vs. Glendale Raptors () Sani Taylor Austin Elite 0 1 vs. Glendale Raptors () Kelepi Fifita Glendale Raptors 0 1 vs. Austin Elite () Sione Tuihalamaka San Diego Legion 0 1 vs. Seattle Seawolves () Matt Trouville Houston SaberCats 0 1 vs. Austin Elite () Maximo de Achaval Glendale Raptors 0 1 vs. Seattle Seawolves () Siaosi Finau Austin Elite 0 1 vs. New Orleans Gold () Pago Haini Houston SaberCats 0 1 vs. San Diego Legion () Taylor Howden New Orleans Gold 0 1 vs. Seattle Seawolves () Hubert Buydens New Orleans Gold 0 1 vs. Houston SaberCats () Chris Slater Houston SaberCats 0 1 vs. Glendale Raptors () Anthony Parry New Orleans Gold 0 1 vs. San Diego Legion () Cam Poison Seattle Seawolves 0 1 vs. Glendale Raptors () Alec Barton San Diego Legion 0 1 vs. Austin Elite () Ben Mitchell Austin Elite 0 1 vs. San Diego Legion () Alec Barton San Diego Legion 0 1 vs. Seattle Seawolves () Siaosi Mahoni San Diego Legion 0 1 vs. Seattle Seawolves ()

Awards MVP of the Championship Match Player Team Vili Toluta'u Seattle Seawolves

All-MLR First Team Player Position Team Paul Mullen Loosehead Prop Houston SaberCats Zach Fenoglio Hooker Glendale Raptors Tim Metcher Tighthead Prop Seattle Seawolves Ben Mitchell Left Lock Austin Elite Ben Landry Right Lock Glendale Raptors Vili Toluta'u Blindside Flanker Seattle Seawolves Hanco Germishuys Openside Flanker Austin Elite Cam Dolan No8 San Diego Legion Phil Mack Scrum-half Seattle Seawolves Sam Windsor Fly-half Houston SaberCats Tonata Lauti Blindside Wing Utah Warriors Paul Lasike Inside Centre Utah Warriors Ryan Matyas Outside Centre San Diego Legion Harley Davidson Openside Wing Glendale Raptors Mathew Turner Fullback Seattle Seawolves

All-MLR Second Team Player Position Team Olive Kilifi Loosehead Prop Seattle Seawolves Pat Blair Hooker San Diego Legion Alex Tucci Tighthead Prop Utah Warriors Matt Jensen Left Lock Utah Warriors Matt Trouville Right Lock Houston SaberCats Peter Dahl Blindside Flanker Glendale Raptors Matt Hughston Openside Flanker NOLA Gold Sam Figg No8 Glendale Raptors Shaun Davies Scrum-half Glendale Raptors Will Magie Fly-half Glendale Raptors Josua Vici Blindside Wing Houston SaberCats Andrew Suniula Inside Centre Austin Elite Osea Kolinisau Outside Centre Houston SaberCats Brock Staller Openside Wing Seattle Seawolves Zinzan Elan-Puttick Fullback Austin Elite

Notes

References