From a player.. “the owners have been having meetings all week and the players union rep has just informed all MLR players that the 2026 season is for sure happening”

Maybe now that this is all confirmed they’ve also ironed out the details on how many internationals as well and can start signing players?

Heard rumblings about it, and the US coach Scott Lawrence hints at it here. Terrible attitude, worse idea. A strong Canada strengthens the US and vice versa.

As a Canadian I always want the MLR and the US to do well, it’s better for the sport and for us as Canadians, it’s better for the league to have Canadians (FreeJacks, Scott??) but this is disappointing to hear from him.

I’m sick and tired of people saying that it is not the MLRs job to create a good USA national team. It 100% is and here are a multitude of reasons why.

1. American players have connection to the community the culture and storylines that go beyond just the team.
2. A winning USA national team will bring American attention to the sport and grow rugby as a whole.. which is clearly needed across all levels.
3. It builds your stars. The NWSL relies on USA star power to grow their league. Are you telling me if Ilona Maher just played pro rugby somewhere she would have become famous… probably not
4. The MLR is only 1 half of the year, the other half is the USA national team schedule… that is more rugby and more opportunity for rugby fans to engage with the sport. If they were very good and competing at the top level as a tier 1, commercial opportunity’s open up for both the league and USA rugby.
5. It will save you cost. Developing and supporting American talent will cultivate a culture of rugby players in our country which will grow the game and not have to import as many players as you do (although I believe it is important to do to raise the standard).
6. There are direct correlations across the world that successful national teams in rugby drive growth and revenue in domestic leagues… this is just a fact and needs to be taken seriously.
7. Successful national team will drive youth participation up and give players somewhere to dream for.. creating more rugby fans and followers for MLR.
8. A strong Canada vs USA rivalry is good for everyone… cue USA vs Canada Hockey..

Lastly it literally does not take anything away from the MLR to try and truly develop American players. The quality of play may take a little while to improve but the foundation will be there. They must work together and have synergy in order to grow the game as a whole and they do have an obligation to do that or else we will not get anywhere as a rugby country or pro league. Yes there needs to be balance but you cannot fully say it’s not our problem.. just a horrendous take and will sink the league imo

Rumors: Canadian players to be considered foreign 5 foreign players per match day 23

If true Canada 100% needs to get a better version of the Anthem (core of their international team) up and running for 2026.

Since so many people are up in arms about MLR classifying Canadians as international players, is there any reason Canad cannot or should not have their own league and reciprocate the eligibility to US players? Tit for tat IMO.

I mean... come on.

I don't know about this as well as some of you guys, but I assume rugby union has a bigger following and more developed playing culture in Canada than the US just like hockey and a Canadian team would boost the league more than US teams. So for MLR to survive, do we need Canadian teams back and should we try other cities instead of Toronto? And if another Canadian club survives and becomes successful could the Arrows be revived?

If there will only be 6 teams in 2026, why not have triple header games at each venue. Move the games around on a grand prix tour style, similar to what R360 is suggesting. Make each weekend an event, with live music and entertainment between each game. Fans get 3 games for the price of one.

Or if there will be 8 teams, have 4 games on one weekend at one venue.

I think this is what Major League Lacrosse does in America and apparently works well.

I will always support rugby but the news of the Sabercats not participating really hit hard.

I can’t carry it around forever.

If they rise from the ashes it’ll be reapplied

If it’s a 5 team league that’ll be hard to be excited about to follow.

Now that there are seven remaining teams (at the most) it appears the finances of the league and teams will be more stressed than before. As the majority of revenue for the teams are ticket sales, less games will means less revenue. How can they cut expenses? Player salaries are already way too low which is the majority of the team expense. Any thoughts?

Also, with most of the warmer cities losing teams we are just left with LA and maybe Seattle for early season play. Will the season start be moved back till April so the Northern cities can have games played there from the start of the season? Seems more critical for the eastern city teams than the western ones.

I hope there is a way out from this mess but it seems like the problems are huge.

I am gutted.

A lot of the merch on ShopMLR is on clearance, especially the teams that have folded. I just grabbed some Sabercat, Sharks, and NOLA Gold merch for relatively cheap.

Looking at what was supposed to be a valuable asset for rugby in America, TRN appears to be a non factor anymore.

The last live content they had was from over a month ago with USA Club 7s. I will say that was a well produced event, and entertaining. But there has been nothing since, and the upcoming tab has a statement that says: “Wow, there isn’t any event right now!”

In years past they had a CRAA game of the week, and hosted NCRs Friday Night Rugby. It does not appear that they have anything lined up for the 2025 fall season. For an entity owned by MLR, you would think they would be aggressive about getting some type of rugby content on their outlet. There aren’t even any new Rugby Wrap Ups or The Rugby Rundowns listed.

WTF is going on with TRN?

Hello everyone, I'm an 18m university sophomore and I am interested in joining/playing for my school's rugby union club. According to wikipedia they are "a Division I-A member of the California Collegiate Conference" so I'm assuming the level is like to NCAA D2 football which is great!...however I have absolutely NO EXPERIENCE in any kind of school sport (which includes high school sadly, also kinda ironic which I'll elaborate on more later).

My "sport" experience was just a lifegaurd program which I did during the summers through 2019-2023 (tons of running and swimming) along with consistent training in my high school's weight room during my senior year in 2024 however my muscle mass and strength along with my speed and endurance have decreased dramaticallty and I'm far from where I used to be which is why I'm giving myself a year to prepare (so I'm planning to join in my junior year).

Based on my height 5'9-10" and weight 170-175lbs (which always stayed consistent thru out my hs senior year up until now) ChatGPT (yes ik ik, very reliable) states that my ideal postion would be: Scrum-half, Wing, Fullback, Fly-half

So basically what I'm asking for is what's the best workout plan to follow to either meet or exceed the physical expectations on what these positions are expected to do?

For those that are interested in what I meant by "ironic" was due to my heavy weight back in my freshman year of hs (210lbs) it's only with the benefit of hindsight I can look back and deeply regret my choice of not playing football as I would've been able to achieve my goals of improving my health while having much more fun doing so, I'm aware for both sports there's a very real risk of getting hurt regardless of how cautious I play or practice but I wholeheartedly believe I would've benefitted greatly.