The 2018 Major League Rugby Final was the championship match of the inaugural season of

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR or USMLR) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for clubs in North America. In the 2022 season it was contested by thirteen teams: twelve from the United States and one from Canada. Of ...

(MLR), a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

club competition in the United States. It was played on July 7, 2018, at

Torero Stadium Torero Stadium is a 6,000-seat multi-purpose stadium on the West Coast of the United States, west coast of the United States, located on the campus of the University of San Diego in San Diego, California. Opened in 1961, it serves as the home of ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, between the Glendale Raptors and the

Seattle Seawolves The Seattle Seawolves are an American professional rugby union team based in Tukwila, Washington. The team was founded in 2017 and competes in Major League Rugby (MLR), the top-level rugby union competition in the United States that began play i ...

. Seattle won the match 23–19 to take their first title. The Glendale and Seattle teams finished first and second in the regular season, respectively, and advanced to the MLR Championship Series, contesting the semifinals against

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

and

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

Background

was established in 2017 and began play in April 2018. Seattle and Glendale played each other twice during the regular season, with Glendale winning both matches.

Venue

, home field of Major League Rugby team

San Diego Legion The San Diego Legion is an American professional rugby union team based in San Diego, California. The team was founded in 2017 and competes in Major League Rugby. Home field The team plays at Snapdragon Stadium, which is located on the campus o ...

, was selected as the venue for the final before the beginning of the Championship Series playoffs. The stadium with a seating capacity of 6,000 on the campus of the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Sc ...

is also home to the various athletics teams of the university.

Broadcasting

The match was broadcast on

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known a ...

. Dan Power served as the

play by play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio wa ...

commentator for CBS and was joined by color analysts Brian Hightower and Peter Steinberg.

Match

Details

Highlights

The champion Seattle Seawolves was awarded the "America's Championship Shield", an oversized metal shield of the MLR logo, which they hoisted. Seawolves

flanker Flanker may refer to: * Flanker (perfume), a newly created perfume sharing attributes of an existing one * Flanker (rugby union), a position in rugby union (not found in rugby league) * ''Su-27 Flanker'' (video game), a 1996 computer game modelin ...

Vili Tolutaʻu Vili Tolutau (born January 26, 1994) is an American rugby union player who plays as a forward for the New England Free Jacks in Major League Rugby (MLR). He also represents America playing for the United States men's national team. Prior to j ...

was named the MLR Championship Series "

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

", equivalent to

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

. For his efforts, he received a ''

Shinola Detroit Shinola is an American lifestyle brand based in Detroit, Michigan. It produces and sells watches, bicycles, leather goods, clocks, home goods, and jewelry. Founded in 2011, Shinola takes its name from a common saying that harkens back to the de ...

'' American Made watch.

References

External links

{{Major League Rugby Major League Rugby Finals Major League Rugby final Rugby union matches