Preview: Seawolves Host Undefeated Chicago Hounds, Need Old Mate Upset to Avoid Early-Season Hole
Seattle Seawolves flyhalf Davy Coetzer kicks for post during the Seawolves’ home match against Old Glory DC on April 3, 2026. Image credit: Melissa Levin/Seattle Seawolves.
If there is any team that is an early favorite to win the 2026 MLR title, it is the Chicago Hounds. Over their first three matches, they have scored 131 points and given up 69 on their way to three convincing victories, and they’re the only team to get all five possible points out of each of their initial matches. The California Legion, who broke through an injury-knocked Seawolves side in the final minutes of the match last Sunday, found themselves out of their depth in their own road match against the Hounds. Seattle has the advantage of being the hosts, but it is still a tall task to take down what has clearly been the best team in the league during the first third and change of the 10-match MLR season.
Also on the line for the two teams is the Old Mate, officially known as the MLR Supporters Challenge Cup. The Old Mate comes from the very first MLR game ever played between the Houston SaberCats and NOLA Gold on April 21, 2018, and was taken by the Gold in their victory that game but then lost to the Austin Elite in the Gold’s following match. From then on, in an unbroken line of victors to the present, the Old Mate has gone from team to team in the manner of a boxing world title. While originally an unofficial title like the Raeburn Shield, the MLR formalized it before the 2026 season as the Supporters Challenge Cup.
According to the North American Rugby Database (NARDb), the Seawolves have held the Old Mate 20 times, with seven successful challenges against a Mate holder and 13 successful defenses of the Mate. The Seawolves last won the Mate with their Week 15 victory over the SaberCats last year, but were unable to defend the Mate against the Free Jacks in their following game.
Unlike the Legion, whose style of play is defined by aggression in offense and aggressively forcing turnovers on defense, the Hounds are a team defined by being solid in all facets of the game and avoiding mistakes where possible. They rarely get jackaled, they rarely muff a scrum, and although they are suffering a few more penalties and muffing a few more lineouts than they did last year, they have made up for it with new additions such as fullback Brock Webster, hooker Theo Fourie, loose forward Tomas Casares, and center Tavite Lopeti. Fourie has been the team leader in tries so far in 2026 with three, while Lopeti has already notched two.
The Hounds’ returners are also pulling quite a bit of weight. Openside flanker Lucas Rumball has already gained 149 meters and made 48 tackles, 23rd most and seventh most in the whole MLR respectively per NARDb, while Mason Flesch on the blindside has been a meters after contact force whenever he gets the ball. Both flankers have two tries each to their name, as do returning tighthead prop Charlie Abel and returning outside back Mark O’Keeffe.
Abel won’t be playing on Friday night (despite being available during practice), so Wilton Rebolo will be getting his first cap of the season and his first MLR start since 2024. While the Hounds do not list player weights on their website, the weights of their starting pack as listed on the MLR website give a combined weight of 2,028 pounds (920 kilograms). The Seawolves’ starting pack for the match weighs 2,001 pounds (908 kilograms), with the changes in forward personnel being Kalisi Moli starting as the blindside flanker and Marno Redelinghuys moving up to lock in place of Harison Mataele, who is out for the season with injury.
The backfield has also been hit with season-ending injury news, as Scottish center Mark Bennett will be unavailable for the rest of the year after an ACL injury sustained against Anthem. On the other hand, Dan Kriel, who had been unavailable since preseason, is back in the starting lineup as the inside center, with Divan Rossouw at outside center.
Seattle’s starting XV is notable for the inclusion of recently-signed winger Drake Davis, with Rufus McLean out with a long-term injury and Ina Futi still unavailable despite light participation in practice this week. While about an average tackler for an outside back in 2025, Davis’ 28% clean break rate (fifth best in MLR) and league-leading 17.8 meters per carry marked him as one of the best attacking wings in the league.
Set against Davis on Chicago’s left will be Peyton Wall, getting his first cap of the 2026 season. The rookie Wall’s 11.4 meters per carry was second best in MLR last year, and although his tackling success rate was less than Davis’, Wall got himself in position to attempt more tackles than Davis. Regardless, both are attack-first wingers, and that touchline may see some lightning action in Starfire on Friday night.
Clean breaks weren’t the Seawolves’ friend against the Legion - with California logging 16 to Seattle’s three - but interestingly, the other touchline may not be the big source of those breakaways this time around. O’Keeffe, more of a fit at outside center than wing, is a much more defensive-minded option at winger, and he will be up against JP Smith on Seattle’s wing. Despite Nolan Tuamoheloa (who had the thirdbest meters per carry in 2025 at 10.9, though that figure has shrunk to 4.5 in 2026) still being available and Michael Hand fully back, Seawolves head coach Allen Clarke has tapped Smith as a winger, with Hand on the matchday 23 as a substitute and Nick Boyer also available as a backup for any number of positions in the backfield.
Over the course of three games each, the Seawolves have a 6.6% clean break rate to the Hounds’ 5.2% and Seattle has kicked for 1,877 meters in play to Chicago’s 1,659 on the same amount of kicks in play (64), so despite the difference in record and scoring, there is a path to a Seattle victory through the backfield. But if the Seawolves are to go on this path, they will have to withstand the Hounds’ forwards and their ability to churn ahead on even defensive zone possession, something Seattle struggled to prevent the Legion from doing in California.
It goes without saying that managing penalties - of which Seattle conceded 10 against the Legion and 17 against Anthem - will also be key.