Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
The third season of Major League Rugby is still over a month away, but preseason training has been ongoing for most teams since early December. All are now back to work with the first games just around the corner. In fact, one has landed sooner than expected.
A surprise announcement by the Austin Herd on Friday afternoon confirmed a ‘game’ against the Austin Huns just after noon at Nixon Lane on Saturday. Sources say the session will be joint training followed by a controlled scrimmage. There will be no live stream.
Austin will have a full-on match against the Colorado Raptors on January 25, and will squeeze in one last session against the Austin Blacks at Round Rock on January 31. At the moment it’s the only game booked for the Raptors.
Rugby ATL have two games planned at the moment. The first will see the NOLA Gold arriving in Marietta on January 12. An indoor road game against Old Glory DC is booked for January 26. They were intended to be part of a week-long camp in Las Vegas but a potential match against Colorado on the 18th weekend is still to be confirmed.
The Toronto Arrows will play the Utah Warriors in Vegas that Saturday, followed by an indoor scrimmage against Rugby United New York in Buffalo a week later. For both Utah and RUNY it’s currently the only preseason action revealed publicly.
NOLA’s second game will be against the Houston SaberCats at AVEVA Stadium on January 25. By then the SaberCats will have also hosted the Tasman Mako with the defending Mitre 10 Cup Champions then moving on to face the Seattle Seawolves on January 26.
Seattle will play their first warm-up match against the Vancouver Island Crimson Tide in Tukwila on January 16. That same weekend will see Old Glory hosting the US Navy side at the St. James in Springfield.
Preseason plans are still to be revealed for both the New England Free Jacks and San Diego Legion. The Legion will be part of round-robin scrimmage sessions with local clubs OMBAC, Old Aztecs, and Belmont Shore on January 11 and then OMBAC and Life West on January 18.
A complete exhibition fixtures list can be seen here.
