Major League Rugby recently completed its eighth season, as the New England Free Jacks secured a hat-trick of championships, defeating the Houston Sabercats in front of nearly 6,000 fans in Rhode Island.
After well-documented ups and downs in its early years — which included clubs folding and a lack of funds — MLR has become a consistent breeding ground for new talent and a stabilizing force in the U.S. Rugby ecosystem.
MLR’s depth will be on display on July 19th as the USA Eagles test their mettle against England, currently ranked number five in the world. Eagles head coach Scott Lawrence has named a 23-man team, 22 of whom play in the MLR, including first-team All-MLR stars Pono Davis (prop, Houston), Chris Hilsenbeck (flyhalf, Chicago), and 2024 number one overall draft pick Erich Storti (fullback, Carolina).
“The league is growing. I think this year we saw more professional minutes for our players,” Lawrence told the media on the eve of the match. “We’d like to see more [minutes], but we’re better with Major League Rugby as a playing nation. It’s a benefit to us. We do see that there are some areas, in terms of playing minutes for the Americans going up, so we have a bigger base to pick from.”
Year-on-year, the league continues to attract more viewership as the standard of play increases, clubs invest in new facilities, and the competition becomes an ever-present entity in the U.S. Sporting calendar.