In rugby union, a team goes “coast to coast” when it runs from its own line to score a try at the far end of the field. In American rugby, the phrase – and the evocation of risky ambition – applies before kick-off to Saturday’s championship game, in which the New England Free Jacks will face the San Diego Legion.
At SeatGeek Stadium, outside Chicago, Major League Rugby final will set the beasts of the east against the best of the west, the winners first-time champions. MLR says it expects 10,000 fans.
New England finished the regular season 14&2, San Diego 15&1. Does that make San Diego favourites?
“I can’t see how we wouldn’t be,” said Darren Gardner, the Legion’s executive chairman. “We lost one game [31-26 to the Houston SaberCats, in March], where we ended with 13 men because we had two yellow cards.
“It’s hard to do better than win 15 out of 16 and then beat Seattle” – Seawolves, champions in 2018 and 2019, runners-up to New York last year – “in the playoffs for the first time. So I’m comfortable with the favourites tag.
“I don’t think that means we’re necessarily going to win, because New England is a really well put together, well-coached and very impressive organization and team and it’s going to be a tough game, which from an MLR point of view is fantastic.”
That is indeed what the league and its TV partners would like. Alex Magleby too, though the Free Jacks chief executive, a former US Eagles flanker, is of course confident in his team.
“After Saturday, the chapter of the 2023 Free Jacks, win or lose, it’s over,” he said. “So we do the same preparation, go through the same behaviours, but also we’re really trying to enjoy it as much as possible.”
Twelve teams played in MLR this year, Colorado, Los Angeles and Austin having played previous seasons, LA as champions in 2021, before dropping out. Next season, the Miami Sharks will join. This year’s expansion team, the Chicago Hounds, went 3&13 but now provide an impressive stage for two teams conspicuous for pulling in fans.
The Free Jacks play at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Quincy, Massachusetts, a historic venue that can hold close to 4,000, fans enjoying rugby with add-ons: bands, real ales, youth competition, chances to meet the players at full-time.
“We just keep growing,” Magleby said. “That’s important. We’re up another 30-plus percent on attendance. Revenues are up another 50-plus percent, which is really healthy and positive.”
A US-hosted men’s World Cup is eight years away, the women following in 2033. The next decade will be vital. The last half-decade showed how tough things can be. MLR debuted in 2018, expanded, survived Covid, then rode the disqualification and disappearance of Austin and LA.
Magleby said: “As we grow this thing, it’s not going to be linear. We know it’s a 10-year runway, we’ve always said that. Most importantly, when we started the fans were all former rugby players and those connected to the game. And now there’s a lot of people who’ve had the experiences of a Free Jacks festival who had nothing to do with rugby and now enjoy the experience. That’s awesome. New fans from all walks of life.”
The Free Jacks think rugby is salable to the great American public by looking back as well as forward: traditions of the game feature heavily, not least in a commitment to traditional hooped shirts, if not (alas, Magleby agreed) made from heavy cotton.
The 2031 World Cup, Magleby said, will need to attract “3.1 million fans. And you can’t just turn on the faucet two years before and hope people show up. At least 50% of those fans have to be domestic. It’s gonna take 10 years of building fandom for the sport. And that’s really pointed on the women’s side as well. ’33 is just around the corner too.”
The Legion play at Snapdragon Stadium, a new facility also home to San Diego State Aztecs college football and the San Diego Wave of the National Women’s Soccer League, due to host a Major League Soccer franchise from 2025. It holds 35,000. The rugby team have attracted healthy crowds, more than 11,000 watching their season-opening win over the Utah Warriors.
Gardner said: “The community aspect is always important. The players have contributed a lot in schools, coaching local teams. Players and front-office staff go to rugby events and are very involved in what is happening at the youth level and the community level.
“At the same time there’s a degree of visibility in San Diego. We focus very hard on brand recognition and we’ve got a lot of traction because not surprisingly winning nine straight at Snapdragon has been exceptionally helpful. I don’t think there’s a lot of places where you can tailgate the same way, all of our sponsors have been really helpful, the engagement with the community has really helped ramp it up.
“The game day experience is fantastic – and we’ve played good rugby. From the spectacle and spectator perspective, that is really important.”
SeatGeek, once home to the Chicago Fire of MLS, offers a similar stage. Shaquille O’Neal will DJ before the game, Dropkick Murphys (from Quincy, like the Free Jacks) will play after it. MLR knows the value of putting on a show.
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So does Ma’a Nonu, the double-World Cup-winning New Zealand center who played for three Super Rugby franchises and for Toulon in France. Now 41, the great All Black is still a dynamic presence in the San Diego midfield.
“Ma’a’s one of the greats of the game,” Gardner said, “and he’s selfless in what he’s done, both from an organization point of view and from a team perspective. He’s had an exceptionally successful career at every level but his ability to still physically perform is nothing short of remarkable. I don’t think there’s anyone in the world that that has done or could do what Ma’a has done. His presence, his performance and the professionalism he’s brought to the table has been really noticeable.”
Other big names have played in MLR. The England flanker and captain Chris Robshaw had an injury plagued spell in San Diego; the Australia centre Matt Giteau shone in LA; the England full-back Ben Foden was influential in New York. But discussion of Nonu’s contribution does point to a perennial question about a competition home to talent from New Zealand, South Africa and other rugby powers, in a continent (Toronto Arrows included) whose men’s teams failed to qualify for the World Cup in France this year.
Are enough Americans and Canadians getting a game?
Magleby said: “Right now, in every position, there are professional Americans that didn’t have that opportunity only a handful of years ago.
“Once the league gets to full expansion, you’re going to talk about 300 to 400 professional athletes in North America. To see us get there, hopefully in the next seven to 10 years, will be very cool.”
Right now, though, MLR “has to be commercially viable, which means creating a product that’s going to attract eyeballs. I think having a balance is good. There’s no obligation to do that [but there are] incentives to develop. The next generation is the most important piece. Some of the teams have done a really good job over the last few years in this great story of players going from high-school rugby with half a coach to college, to playing in the academies, and then getting a part-time contract, a full-time contract, getting to the national team. And that is an awesome and compelling story.
“So the most important piece to me is what are we doing to make sure our 15-year-olds are going to be ready to compete come ’31, and in the not too distant future. We’re already seeing that progress and the numbers in time will become more clear.”
Gardner also expects homegrown players to thrive.
“I think there’s a lot of talent there now. There’s a lot of talented athletes in other countries. But if you said they had to play American football, it would take them a while to get up to speed and it’d be very tough to compete. The way you would do it is to put experienced players and coaches in, to teach them some of the aspects you only get through experience.
“We see it in other places. If you play the game from the time you’re six years old, you’re a different player than if you start when you’re 16 or 20. We’re in 100 schools and we run clinics every weekend, we have a foundation and those efforts will be what produces success.
“I think the MLR is a great platform. If I were elsewhere in the rugby world, I would be very worried about 20 years’ time. I think the US will be unbeatable.”
The MLR Championship Final will be broadcast on Fox in the US and globally on therugbynetwork.com, kick-off 3pm ET.
