The Austin Gilgronis were a professional

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 ...

team based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, United States. The team was founded in 2017 as the Austin Elite, and competed in

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 ...

History

On September 19, 2019, after extensive polling at the end of the 2019 campaign, the team opted to rename itself the Herd. The logo remained the same although the orange color action was removed indicating a shift away from using orange for the upcoming season. Prior to the 2020 season, Adam Gilchrist and Loyals LLC purchased the team and renamed it the Gilgronis, a reference to a yet-to-be-produced cocktail based on the

Negroni The negroni is a cocktail, made of equal parts gin, vermouth rosso (red, semi-sweet), and Campari, generally served on the rocks, and commonly garnished with an orange slice or orange peel. It is considered an apéritif. The drink has been doc ...

, although the eponymous cocktail appears to just be a negroni with a different name. The name was met with significant backlash from fans. Under Gilchrist's ownership, the team's record improved and the team clinched a playoff berth in its 2022 season before being disqualified from the postseason by MLR for "violating league rules". In October 2022, MLR announced that the Gilgronis and the

LA Giltinis The LA Giltinis were a Major League Rugby team based in Los Angeles, California, United States. The team was announced in 2020 and entered the league in the 2021 season as an expansion franchise. Owned by Adam Gilchrist and Loyals Rugby, the t ...

(both owned by Adam Gilchrist) had been expelled from the league for unspecified reasons. It appears Gilchrist could no longer financially sustain ownership and that the teams have since folded.

Home field

The team most recently played at the

Circuit of the Americas Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is a Grade 1 Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA-specification motor racing track and facilities located in Austin, Texas, United States. The facility is home to the Formula One United States Grand Pr ...

in Bold Stadium, having previously played at

Dell Diamond Dell Diamond is the home stadium of the Round Rock Express, the Triple-A Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Texas Rangers major league baseball team. On April 16, 2000, the then- Double-A affiliate Express played their first home game at th ...

and the Round Rock Multipurpose Complex in

Round Rock, Texas Round Rock is a city in Williamson and Travis County, Texas, United States, part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. Its population is 119,468 according to the 2020 census. The city straddles the Balcones Escarpment, Texas State Histor ...

Broadcasts

2021 home games were shown on

KBVO KBVO (channel 14) is a television station licensed to Llano, Texas, United States, serving the Austin, Texas, Austin area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside NBC affiliate KXAN-TV (channel 36); Nexstar ...

. Lincoln Rose and Kit McConnico were the on-air talent.

Sponsorship

Colors and logo

Austin Elite wordmark, 2017–19 The Austin Gilgronis jersey was black, orange, and white. The mascot was a gray fox character named Austin Gray. Gray foxes inhabit central Texas, and Austin Gray's initials were AG; matching that of the team. The Austin Herd jersey was sky blue, black and white. The initial team logo features the stylized head of a

Texas Longhorn The Texas Longhorn is an American breed of beef cattle, characterized by its long horns, which can span more than from tip to tip. It derives from cattle brought from the Iberian Peninsula to the Americas by Spanish conquistadors from the ti ...

bull with a Lone Star on its forehead. The mascot was a bull-like character named Dozer. The team's final name, Gilgronis, was supposedly the name of a

cocktail A cocktail is a mixed drink, usually alcoholic beverage, alcoholic. Most commonly, a cocktail is a combination of one or more liquor, spirits mixed with other ingredients, such as juices, flavored syrups, tonic water, Shrub (drink), shrubs, and ...

created by the owners, but that cocktail doesn't seem to exist and the name was more likely an amalgamation of the owners name (Gilchrist) and the popular pre-existing cocktail called the negroni. The home kit was orange, and the away kit was white. The last logo was just the club's initials.

Players and personnel

Final squad

The Austin Gilgronis squad for the

2022 Major League Rugby season The 2022 Major League Rugby season was the fifth season of Major League Rugby, the professional rugby union competition sanctioned by USA Rugby. The regular season began on February 5, 2022. The Dallas Jackals made their debut this season, ha ...

was: * Senior 15s internationally capped players are listed in bold. * * denotes players qualified to play for the on dual nationality or residency grounds. * MLR teams are allowed to field up to ten overseas players per match.

Head coaches

* Alain Hyardet (2018–2019) * Brent Semmons (2020) *

Sam Harris Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, determinism, neuroscience, meditation ...

(2021–2022)

Assistant coaches

Mark Gerrard Mark Gerrard (born 4 September 1982) is a former Australian professional rugby union footballer. He currently is the assistant coach for the Austin Gilgronis in Major League Rugby (MLR) competition in the United States. In 2011, he was one of 1 ...

(2021–2022)

Captains

* Andrew Suniula (2018) * Ben Mitchell (2019) *Zinzan Elan-Puttick (2020) * Bryce Campbell (2021–2022)

Records

Season standings

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size: 95%" , - ! rowspan="2", Season ! rowspan="2", Conference ! colspan="10", Regular season ! colspan="8", Postseason , -{, class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" , - border=1 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 ! style="width:20px;", Pos ! style="width:20px;", Pld ! style="width:20px;", W ! style="width:20px;", D ! style="width:20px;", L ! style="width:20px;", F ! style="width:20px;", A ! style="width:25px;", +/− ! style="width:20px;", BP ! style="width:20px;", Pts ! style="width:20px;", Pld ! style="width:20px;", W ! style="width:20px;", L ! style="width:20px;", F ! style="width:20px;", A ! style="width:25px;", +/− ! style="width:20em; text-align:centre;", Result , - ,

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, - , 5th, , 8 , , 3 , , 0 , , 5 , , 224 , , 238 , , −14 , , 6 , , 18, , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , Did not qualify , - ,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, - , 9th, , 16 , , 0 , , 0 , , 16 , , 263 , , 482 , , −219 , , 5 , , 5, , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , Did not qualify , - ,

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 ...

, Western , 5th , 5 , , 1 , , 1 , , 3 , , 104 , , 155 , , -51 , , 1 , , 7 , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , Cancelled , - ,

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 ...

, Western , 3rd , 16 , , 9 , , 0 , , 7 , , 389 , , 317 , , +72 , , 11 , , 47 , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , Did not qualify , - ,

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 ...

, Western , 1st , 16 , , 12 , , 0 , , 4 , , 475 , , 229 , , +246 , , 9 , , 58 , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , – , , Disqualified , - align="center" ! colspan="3", Totals !! 57 !! 25 !! 1 !! 35 !! 1,455 !! 1,421 !! +34 !! 32 !! 135 !! 0 !! 0 !! 0 !! 0 !! 0 !! 0 !! 0 postseason appearances

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Austin Austin Gilgronis Major League Rugby teams Sports in Austin, Texas 2017 establishments in Texas Rugby clubs established in 2017 Rugby union in Texas Rugby union teams in Texas Defunct rugby union teams Rugby clubs disestablished in 2022