The 2023 Major League Rugby Championship Final was the fifth

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR) is a professional rugby union competition in the United States. The league comprises 11 teams. While operating outside of the governance and oversight of the national governing body, the league is officially sanctioned ...

(MLR) championship match, held at the conclusion of the 6th season of the

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

club competition in North America. The match was played on July 8, 2023, at

SeatGeek Stadium SeatGeek Stadium is a football-specific stadium, soccer-specific stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois, about 12 miles southwest of downtown Chicago. It is the home stadium of Chicago Stars FC of the National Women's Soccer League, Chicago Fire FC II ...

Bridgeview, Illinois Bridgeview is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located approximately southwest of the Chicago Loop. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the village population was 17,027. History The earliest European sett ...

. It was the first MLR Final to be held in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, and the first since the 2019 final to be held at a pre-determined venue. The match was won by the

New England Free Jacks The New England Free Jacks are an American professional rugby union team based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). They were announced in September 2018 and began to compete professionally in October 2018. They co ...

over the

San Diego Legion The San Diego Legion are an American professional rugby union team based in San Diego, California, that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). The team plays its home games at Torero Stadium. The Legion began play in the league's inaugural 2018 ...

by a score of 25-24, claiming their first MLR Championship.

Background

On March 16, 2023, MLR announced that the Championship Final would be held at

, the home ground of the Chicago Hounds. The format for qualifying for the Championship Series remained the same from

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, with the top-ranked team of each conference receiving a bye to the Conference Final, as well as home advantage. Likewise, the second-ranked team would host the third-ranked team of their respective conference, in the Eliminators. In the Western Conference,

qualified for the Championship Series following a victory over the defending Champions, Rugby New York. They were then able to secure the top ranking with a victory over the Toronto Arrows. The second-ranked team, the

Seattle Seawolves The Seattle Seawolves are an American professional rugby union team based in the Seattle metropolitan area that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). The team was founded in 2017. The Seawolves won two MLR championships in 2018 and 2019, and los ...

, qualified following a victory over the

Utah Warriors The Utah Warriors are an American professional rugby union team based in Herriman, Utah, that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). The team was founded in 2010 as the Utah Warriors of the Rugby Super League and re-founded in 2017 by Rugby Ut ...

. The third-ranked team,

Houston Sabercats The Houston SaberCats are an American professional rugby union team based in Houston, Texas, that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). The team was founded in 2017. The SaberCats organization was born from one of the founding amateur rugby clubs ...

, qualified following a victory over Old Glory DC. In the Eastern Conference,

qualified both for the Championship Series, and the top ranking, with a victory over the Toronto Arrows. The second-ranked team, Old Glory DC, qualified for the Championship series following their victory over

New Orleans Gold The New Orleans Gold (stylized as NOLA Gold) are an American professional rugby union team based in the New Orleans metropolitan area that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). The team was founded in 2017. Since January 2020, French rugby power A ...

. Finally, defending Champions, Rugby New York, qualified after their victory over Rugby ATL.

Championship Series

Western Conference

In the Western Eliminator, the

defeated

37-26, at Starfire Sports Stadium. This marked Seattle's fourth and Houston's second Championship Series appearances, respectfully. The teams had previously faced each other in the Championship Series in

. In the Conference Final, Seattle were hosted by

, at

Snapdragon Stadium Snapdragon Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in San Diego, California, located on the campus of San Diego State University (SDSU). It is the home of the San Diego State Aztecs football team of the Mountain West Conference (MW), San Diego FC o ...

, where the Legion won 32-10. This marked the third time San Diego has reached the Championship Series, and the first time they played in the Conference Final. Seattle reached their second Conference Final in succession. This also marked San Diego and Seattle's fourth encounter in the post-season, having previously met in the 2018 semi-final, 2019 final, and 2022 eliminator.

Eastern Conference

The Eastern Eliminator featured Rugby New York hosting Old Glory DC, with Washington upset New York 37-33. This was New York's third consecutive appearance in the Championship Series, having reached the Conference Final in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, and winning the Championship Final in

. This also marked DC's first appearance in the post-season, since their inception in

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

. In the Conference Final,

hosted Old Glory DC, at Veterans Memorial Stadium, winning the match 25-7. This was New England's second Eastern Conference final, having finished top of the Eastern ranking in both

and

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, and DC's first. The match also marked New England's and DC's first encounter in the Championship Series.

Venue

On March 16, 2023, MLR announced that the Championship Final would be held at

, the home ground of the Chicago Hounds. Part of the festivities includes a pre-match DJ set by

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...

(as DJ Diesel,) and a post-match concert by

Dropkick Murphys Dropkick Murphys are an American Celtic punk band formed in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1996. The current lineup consists of co-lead vocalist and bassist Ken Casey, drummer Matt Kelly, co-lead vocalist Al Barr (on hiatus from the band since 202 ...

Broadcasting

The match was broadcast in the United States on

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

, averaging 269,000 viewers. It was available internationally on The Rugby Network.

Championship final

Details

The San Diego Legion were declared the "home" side, after accumulating more table points in the

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

References

{{Major League Rugby Major League Rugby finals 2023 in American rugby union Major League Rugby final 2023 in sports in Illinois