2024 Major League Rugby season explained

The 2024 Major League Rugby season was the seventh season of Major League Rugby, the professional rugby union competition sanctioned by USA Rugby. The regular season began on March 2, 2024, and lasted through June 29, 2024, followed by the Championship Series.^[1]

The Miami Sharks and Anthem Rugby Carolina made their league debut this season, as well as Rugby Football Club Los Angeles following their move from Atlanta.^{[2] [3] [4]} The Toronto Arrows and Rugby New York withdrew from the league following the 2023 season.^{[5] [6]} This leaves a total of 12 teams competing for the 2024 season.

Teams and format

Following the departure of Toronto and New York, the arrival of Miami and Charlotte, and the relocation of Atlanta to Los Angeles, the League had 12 teams for the 2024 season. As a result, Chicago was moved to the Eastern conference, ensuring both conferences had 6 teams each.

Conference	Club	Metro area	Stadium	Capacity	Coach	Captain
Western Conference	Dallas Jackals	Dallas, Texas	Choctaw Stadium	48,114	Agustín Cavalieri	Jerónimo Gómez Vara
	Houston SaberCats	Houston, Texas	SaberCats Stadium	4,000	Pote Human	Johan Momsen
	Rugby Football Club Los Angeles	Carson, California	Dignity Health Sports Park	27,000	Stephen Brett	Niall Saunders
	San Diego Legion	San Diego, California		35,000	Danny Lee	Blair Cowan
	Seattle Seawolves	Seattle, Washington	Starfire Stadium	4,500	Allen Clarke	Riekert Hattingh
	Utah Warriors	Salt Lake City, Utah	Zions Bank Stadium	5,000	Greg Cooper	Bailey Wilson
Eastern Conference	Anthem Rugby Carolina	Charlotte, North Carolina	American Legion Memorial Stadium	10,500	Alama Ieremia	Jake Turnbull
	Chicago Hounds	Chicago, Illinois	SeatGeek Stadium	20,000	Sam Harris	Bill Meakes
	Miami Sharks	Fort Lauderdale, Florida	AutoNation Sports Field	1,500	José Pellicena	Tomás Cubelli
	New England Free Jacks	Boston, Massachusetts	Veterans Memorial Stadium	5,000	Scott Mathie	Josh Larsen
	New Orleans Gold	New Orleans, Louisiana	Gold Mine	10,000	Cory Brown	Moni Tongaʻuiha
	Old Glory DC	Washington, D.C.	Maryland SoccerPlex	5,000	Simon Cross	Jamason Faʻanana-Schultz

Regular season

The regular season consisted of 18 weeks, with each team playing 16 matches, beginning on March 2, 2024, and ending on June 29.

Matches

The following are the match results for the 2024 Major League Rugby regular season:

	CAR	CHI	DAL	HOU	LA	MIA	NE	NO	DC	SD	SEA	UTA
Anthem Rugby Carolina		29–38	28–68	15–38	29–33	14–30	13–46	5–40	32–46
Chicago Hounds	59–26				54–31	38–26	17-22	13–25	21–22	22–16	26–34
Dallas Jackals		22–20		27–30	26–29			22-35	34–36	23–30	14–7	22–20
Houston SaberCats		23–22	29–28		29–12	30–19	35–47			33–0	28–25	22–15
Rugby Football Club Los Angeles			29–32	12–27		45–15	12–34	21–38		19–27	5–36	36-32
Miami Sharks	50-21	19–23	17–38				15–13	13–20	17–12	21–22		20–19
New England Free Jacks	40–7	20–26	26–24			25–3		27–21	34–35		21–29	36–27
New Orleans Gold	34–19	21–38		7–21		27–42	27–17		18–6		32–31	21–14
Old Glory DC	47–29	22–22		17–38	22–22	13–10	30–31	27–24		11-27
San Diego Legion	34–24		30–24	37–24	19–18		23–24	33–20			45–33	32–33
Seattle Seawolves	29–13		34–32	40-42	29–12	29–18			26–24	25–19		68–29
Utah Warriors	44–19	29–15	50–46	24–29	24–31				31–24	20–27	13–23

Updated to match(es) played on May 2, 2024
Colors: Blue: home team win; Yellow: draw; Red: away team win.

Scheduled matches

Championship Series

Bracket

The play-off draw is seeded based on final positions in the regular season conference tables.

The higher-ranked teams in the Conference Semi-finals and Conference Finals have home field advantage.

Championship final (August 4)

See main article: 2024 Major League Rugby final.

Player statistics

Top scorers

The top five try and point scorers during the 2024 Major League Rugby season are:

Last updated: September 13, 2024

Most tries
No	Player	Team	Tries<	-- Pos	Player	Team	Tries-->
1	Michael Manson	Utah Warriors	14
Dylan Fawsitt	Chicago Hounds
3	Taniela Filimone	New Orleans Gold	11
Dewald Kotze	Dallas Jackals
5	Semi Kunatani	RFCLA	10

Most points
No	Player	Team	Pts<	-- Pos	Player	Team	Points-->
1	Jayson Potroz	New England Free Jacks	181
2	Mack Mason	Seattle Seawolves	172
3	Jason Robertson	Old Glory DC	138
4	Joel Hodgson	Utah Warriors	111
5	AJ Alatimu	Houston Sabercats	85

MLR awards the try scorer 7 points when there is an Automatic Conversion (The ball is touched down between the post in the in-goal area).
References:^[7]

End of Season Awards

Award	Player	Team	Position	Ref.
Coach of the Year			Head Coach	[8]
Player of the Year			Center	[9]
Rookie of the Year			Center	[10]
Back of the Year			Fly-half	[11]
Forward of the Year			Flanker	[12]
S. Marcus Calloway Community Impact			Center	[13]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Major League Rugby Unveils 2024 Slate Of Matchups . Major League Rugbby . December 23, 2023.
2. Web site: Major League Rugby Comes to Charlotte in a Groundbreaking Partnership . August 9, 2024.
3. Web site: Expansion Teams Headline Off-Season of Growth for Major League Rugby . August 9, 2024.
4. Web site: Major League Rugby's Atlanta Team to Relocate to Los Angeles . August 9, 2024.
5. Web site: Toronto Arrows to not compete in 2024 MLR Season . Major League Rugbby . December 23, 2023.
6. Web site: Former champions New York out of 2024 MLR season . Americas Rugby News . December 23, 2023.
7. Web site: LEAGUE LEADERS . Major League Rugby . 14 September 2024.
8. Web site: 2024 Major League Rugby Coach of the Year . Major League Rugby . 14 September 2024.
9. Web site: 2024 Major League Rugby Player of the Year – Wayne Van Der Bank . Major League Rugby . 14 September 2024.
10. Web site: 2024 Major League Rugby Rookie of the Year . Major League Rugby . 14 September 2024.
11. Web site: Major League Rugby Back of the Year – Reece Macdonald . Major League Rugby . 14 September 2024.
12. Web site: 2024 Major League Rugby Forward of the Year – Jero Gomez Vara . Major League Rugby . 14 September 2024.
13. Web site: Congratulations to the 2024 S. Marcus Calloway Community Impact Award Recipient, Ben LeSage . Twitter . 14 September 2024.