Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
This is it. The final weekend of preseason action before next week’s opening of the 2022 Major League Rugby regular season. Nine teams will be competing across five games, with one invitational side involved as well. It does not appear that any of the games will be broadcast live.
SAN DIEGO LEGION vs LA GILTINIS
Friday, January 28, 14:00 local (17:00 Eastern)
This will be LA’s only warm-up fixture and is again taking place at the Elite Athlete Training Center in Chula Vista. It’s a closed session with no spectators or live stream though there will be updates on social media. At the time of writing only the Giltinis have named a match day roster.
LA GILTINIS
1 Djustice Sears-Duru, 2 Sean McNulty, 3 Charlie Abel, 4 Dave Dennis (capt.), 5 Nathan Den Hoedt, 6 Corey Thomas, 7 Christian Poidevin, 8 Hanco Germishuys, 9 Harrison Goddard, 10 Luke Burton, 11 Ryan James, 12 Bill Meakes, 13 Ben LeSage, 14 John Ryberg, 15 Jordan Trainor
Replacements: Andrew Tuala, Marco Fepulea’i, Luke White, Adam Ashe, Cyrille Cama, Cristian Rodriguez, Tas Smith, D’Montae Noble
OLD GLORY DC vs NEW ENGLAND FREE JACKS
Friday, January 28, 19:00 local (16:00 Pacific)
It’s another indoor match at The St. James in Springfield, and again there will be no live stream with updates on social media. Old Glory will field a significantly stronger lineup this week than their match against Toronto, and notably feature newcomer Michah Griffin on the wing. At the time of writing New England have not named a match day roster.
OLD GLORY DC
1 Jack Iscaro, 2 Mo Katz, 3 Jake Ilnicki, 4 Apisai Naikatini, 5 Stan South, 6 Luke Campbell, 7 Dom Bailey, 8 Jamason Fa’anana-Schultz, 9 Danny Tusitala (capt.), 10 Mike Dabulas, 11 Michah Griffin, 12 Junior Sa’u, 13 Doug Fraser, 14 Renata Roberts-Te Nana, 15 Owen Sheehy
Replacements: 16 Rob Irimescu, 17 Will Vakalahi, 18 Kyle Stewart, 19 Dante Lopresti, 20 Tevita Naqali, 21 David Beach, 22 Dacoda Worth, 23 Fintan Coleman, 24 Danny Thomas, 25 Labi Koi-Larbi, 26 Simi Moala, 27 John LeFevre
SEATTLE SEAWOLVES vs HARTFORD HARPOONERS
Friday, January 28, 19:00 local (22:00 Eastern)
Once again Seattle hosts the only non-MLR team involved this week. The Harpooners should feature some familiar faces such as former Austin lock Maikali Naromaitoga and potentially a couple former Seawolves. EDIT: Seattle have now confirmed their starting lineup for the game including new front row signings Dewald Donald, Mike Brown, and Taniela Tupou.
SEATTLE SEAWOLVES
1 Dewald Donald, 2 Mike Brown, 3 Taniela Tupou, 4 Brad Tucker, 5 Rhyno Herbst, 6 Travis Larsen, 7 Nakai Penny, 8 Riekert Hattingh (capt.), 9 JP Smith, 10 AJ Alatimu, 11 Lauina Futi, 12 Tavite Lopeti, 13 Dan Kriel, 14 Martin Iosefo, 15 Duncan Matthews
AUSTIN GILGRONIS vs RUGBY NEW YORK
Saturday, January 29, 17:00 local (15:00 Pacific, 18:00 Eastern)
The AG’s enjoyed their run-out in San Diego last weekend and will return to their home turf at Bold Stadium. This will be the only warm-up opportunity for New York. The format will be three periods of 40 minutes with all healthy roster players expected to take part.
NOLA GOLD vs RUGBY ATL
Saturday, January 29, 19:00 local (17:00 Pacific, 20:00 Eastern)
For both NOLA and ATL this is the only warm-up match, and for both sides it will be the first game with their new Head Coaches in place – Kane Thompson and Stephen Brett respectively. The Gold Mine will be the venue for this contest. EDIT: NOLA have now named a starting lineup for the match, with Carl Meyer notably wearing the No10 shirt.
NOLA GOLD
1 Matt Harmon, 2 Eric Howard, 3 Brian Nault, 4 William Waguespack, 5 Cam Dolan, 6 Malcolm May, 7 Devin Short, 8 Maciu Koroi, 9 Damian Stevens, 10 Carl Meyer, 11 Jack Webster, 12 JP du Plessis, 13 Juan Cappiello, 14 Harley Wheeler, 15 Kyle Rogers
