Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Fijian international Seru Vularika is joining the New England Free Jacks for the remainder of the 2022 Major League Rugby season. The 32-year-old utility back signed on ahead of Monday’s signing deadline. He had been training with the Fijian Drua but was released in March for disciplinary reasons.
Vularika lifted the MLR Shield with the LA Giltinis last year but then signed for the Drua in September. He previously won 12 caps for Fiji between 2016 and 2020. Primarily signed as an inside center, Vularika can also cover scrumhalf, flyhalf, and fullback.
Another late announcement sees Rugby ATL acquiring an international player spot from the San Diego Legion in exchange for salary cap considerations. Both teams will now be allowed 11 imports in their match day 23 for the remainder of the season. The Legion had not hit their previous limit of 12 in any game played this year.
Major League Rugby Commissioner George Killebrew has been in demand speaking to media this week about his expansion plans now that the World Cup is coming to America. In speaking with John Stensholt of the Wall Street Journal, he indicated that 28 teams were a possibility by 2031. A similar conversation with Hugh Godwin of iNews offers a little more clarity.
“If you look at this nine-year runway to a 2031 World Cup, if we have one or two new teams a year, we will be a 28-team league in all the metropolitan areas in this country.”
The expansion plans compare to that of Major League Soccer but Killebrew acknowledges there are two key differences. MLS benefitted from having the ‘big bang’ of the World Cup at its inception, and soccer had an enormously larger base of fans and participants to draw on than rugby currently has.
Given that teams are already searching far and wide to find US-eligible talent of sufficient quality to fill 13 teams, it seems unlikely if not impossible that 28 teams will be in place for 2031. The real takeaway is that any thoughts of MLR pausing expansion at 16 teams to let the league ‘settle’ look to be out the window.
