“There’s a Feeling of Emptiness”: Late Legion Push Drops Seawolves in Semifinal
TUKWILA, Wash. - A week prior, it had been the California Legion who regularly tried one offload too many, who had suffered a few too many penalties, and who had generally gotten in their own way.
The shoe was on the other foot on Sunday night, however, and the Seawolves’ season ended with a loss to the California Legion in the playoff semifinal. The MLR Shield, though it will be ultimately decided in Chicago on June 21, will not be coming to Seattle at the end of the year.
“It’s exit interviews and mop-ups from here on in,” Seawolves head coach Allen Clarke told Emerald City Spectrum. “There’s a feeling of emptiness because we weren’t quite ready for the season to end yet.”
Seattle fought valiantly to the end, taking a brief lead in the second half and getting plenty of chances to pull the score closer or return to that lead as the match continued, but in the end, the Legion triumphed by the palindromic score of 43-34.
“I think the fight was there up until 79 minutes, 40 seconds in, you know,” said blindside flanker Marno Redelinghuys. “Doesn’t matter what the time says on the clock, we always wanted to fight and just get a last try in. It doesn’t matter if the scoreboard says we’re not going to be able to win.”
Seawolves Secure Home Playoff Spot, Resoundingly Best Legion 33-19
TUKWILA, Wash. - In the end, the 10-game MLR season was just long enough for the Seawolves to get into second place in the league and secure a home playoff spot. It will be déjà vu for both teams who played on Sunday night, as they will face off in the same venue and see who will go up against either the Chicago Hounds or Old Glory DC (but probably the Hounds).
Going into the match, the Seawolves trailed the Legion by three points in the standings, needing to either tie the team in the standings (and win the tiebreaker through having more wins) or move ahead of their West Coast rival.
No tiebreakers were needed. Despite a few vigorous bursts of energy from the visiting Legion, Seattle took advantage of plenty of mistakes from their opponent and showed some of the best defending they had all season, and when time ran out for the visitors, the Seawolves’ 33-19 victory was more than enough to leapfrog the Legion and secure hosting rights for next week’s semifinal.
Hounds Domesticate Seawolves in Chicago with 57-17 Beatdown
With the Seawolves taking on the undefeated Chicago Hounds on Sunday, there were only two ways the game was going to go. Either the Seawolves would hand the best team in the MLR a complete stunner on their own turf, or the Hounds would take care of business in front of their own fans and go to 8-0 on the 10-game season.
The clearly more likely outcome was the one that wound up happening. Although the Seawolves put in admirable effort and relatively limited their mistakes (especially in the first half), the same energy deficit that sunk them quickly at home against the Hounds sunk them on the road against that same team, only a little slower, steadier, and without a red card on Seattle.
When Seattle had the ball, things looked a little bit more even. Progress was slow but clear, but they pushed forward slowly and grinded out the occasional holes. The backfield especially had moments of electricity, while Ezekiel Lindenmuth’s return from red card suspension went well in the front row.
Coetzer Shines as Seawolves Wallop Anthem 57-21, Move into Second Place
TUKWILA, Wash. - Despite all the injuries and the early season losses, the Seawolves currently sit in a home playoff spot with three games remaining in the 2026 MLR season. Perhaps it goes to show that, even in a 10-match season, an early slump isn’t the be-all, end-all; perhaps it also shows that the five teams not named the Chicago Hounds have quite the dogfight to see who gets the second place home playoff game, who gets the other two playoff spots, and which two teams are left out in the cold.
Seattle’s 57-21 victory against Anthem Rugby Carolina was their most emphatic yet, building on a season-saving win against the Free Jacks and a second half comeback against Old Glory, both badly needed road wins before their triumphant (yet incomplete) homecoming.
Sunday afternoon marked the return of Davy Coetzer and Marno Redelinghuys to the starting XV, with André Warner playing at scrumhalf and JP Smith originally slated to play on the wing before being scratched late. Dorian Jones also returned from injury, ending up coming off the bench in the final quarter of the game.
Seawolves Pounded by Hounds at Home, Face Uphill Climb in Remaining Six Matches
TUKWILA, Wash. - The Chicago Hounds came to Starfire on Friday night and did to the Seawolves what they have done to every team they have faced so far in 2026: chew them up like an old toy, this time racking up a 59-22 score. It hasn’t mattered whether the MLR favorites have been at home, on the road, or at a neutral site in Nashville, they have won their games against Anthem, the Legion, the Free Jacks, and now the Seawolves by wide tallies.
The game got away from the Seawolves quickly. Unlike the team’s two previous losses, there weren’t specific inflection points late in the second half where the game went the wrong way or a particular mistake the Seawolves made that was the dividing line between a win and a loss. Instead, it was a grueling barrage of overpowering Chicago force, with the biggest inflection point being starting Seattle loosehead Ezekiel Lindenmuth’s red card - though it may have only marked the line between a respectable loss and a blowout.
While many of the Hounds’ 59 points came courtesy of their backfield, it was in truth the forward pack that did the bulk of the job. When Chicago had the ball - especially when they had the ball in Seattle territory - their advances were something close to the platonic ideal of death by a thousand cuts. Some of the names stood out, such as Brock Webster with his hat trick and Mason Flesch with his brace, but like all massive margins in professional rugby, it was due to the efforts of all 23 rostered players that the Hounds racked up as big of a win as they did.
And the Seawolves, for their part, did not make things easy on themselves, getting dinged for 14 penalties that gave the Hounds plenty of possession and lots more meters. Some of the teams in this league wouldn’t have had the wherewithal to take those 14 penalties and turn them into a nailed and buried coffin, but the Hounds are the league’s best for a reason.
Result Goes Gonzo in Cali, Bertranou’s Legion Power Through Seawolves in Final Minutes
Exhaustion and depth mean a whole lot in a rugby match. For almost 70 minutes on Sunday, the Seawolves went toe-to-toe with the California Legion on the road, withstanding the efforts of Gonzalo Bertranou, Billy Meakes, and Cassh Maluia and weathering their own propensity to penalties.
But in those last 600 seconds, the Seawolves - who had been forced by injuries to keep many of their forwards in for nearly the whole game - cracked under the relentless pressure. What was a one-point lead for Seattle became a 38-29 defeat, with the lone consolation being the four-try bonus point in the table.
Two Central Washington alumni notched inaugural tries during the first half as Seattle went out to an early lead.
One mistake in this game can go a long way for the other team. Through the first 13 minutes, the Legion threatened to score quite a bit, bringing the ball deep into Seattle territory twice as they pushed for quite a few meters after contact, as is their style. Early in the game with a ton of energy, however, the Seawall held firm even as they were pushed back to the brink.
Fateful Forward Pack Errors Accumulate for Seawolves in 34-25 Road Loss to Anthem
Things didn’t go according to Seattle’s plan in Charlotte. While the Seawolves’ ability to create threats on offense was clear, an uncharacteristically bad day for the forward pack and some mistakes by Rhyno Herbst set them back points, meters, and eventually led to the visitors dropping the whole game without a single extra point in the table.
The final score of 34-25 was just too great a gap for the Seawolves to earn that bonus point for being within seven, but not great enough for all the mistakes they made to not have been the difference. In truth, both sides looked like they had quite a bit to work on despite their evident talent.
Anthem Rugby Carolina entered the match having gone 1-33 in their entire history, having given up 1305 points while scoring just 663 points in those games per the North American Rugby Database (NARDb).
And yet they were not to be underestimated. With Agustín Cavalieri at the helm, the team brought on some MLR heavy-hitters and notched its first win in team history, 39-26 over the California Legion to begin the 2026 MLR season.
Davy Coetzer, Seawolves Overcome Late Front Row Red in 33-16 Win over Old Glory
TUKWILA, Wash. - Before the 2026 season began, it wasn’t clear at all how the Seawolves stacked up against their five opponents. All the teams in the MLR consolidated talent from the folded teams, but as to the strength of each team as compared to each other, there wasn’t a whole lot to go off of besides conjecture. It was clear Anthem were majorly improved while the defending champion Free Jacks lost a grand total of 13 Canadian-eligible players and had a heap of general turnover. But with all the chaos, last year’s point totals, win totals, and point differentials weren’t the biggest thing weighing in the preseason projections.
In the first week, however, the team with a positive-38 point differential last year beat the team with a minus-40. Both sides had to work past some early season jitters, but with a new elite flyhalf in tow and the home turf grit to battle past a late red, the Seawolves logged the opening win under the Friday night Starfire lights.
Davy Coetzer had an excellent first match with the Seawolves, scoring 18 of Seattle’s 33 points.
A couple of Old Glory penalties in the early minutes led to offseason-acquired flyhalf Davy Coetzer’s first penalty kick of the season in the fourth minute. It was a relatively easy shot in windless conditions, but Coetzer shanked it a bit to the left and it bounced off the post into the visitors’ hands. That, along with a couple half-fumbles, was the only real mistake Coetzer made all match.
Previewing Seawolves Season, First Match versus Old Glory
With six teams remaining in Major League Rugby and 10 games upcoming for the Seattle Seawolves, what will this season look like for the league’s first champions?
For starters, the league’s big contraction over the offseason has concentrated remaining talent among the six teams, and further restrictions on international players have led to these teams having much more domestic rosters.
The shake-ups were no more apparent than when Anthem Rugby Carolina, who had gone winless in their first two seasons, notched a clean 39-26 victory on the road against the combined California Legion in the league’s first match on Saturday, March 28.
Seawolves Break Century Mark Hosting Hartford Harpooners in Preseason
TUKWILA, Wash. - Before Major League Rugby, post-collegiate American rugby was a patchwork game. It still is, at least beyond the six teams that now make up the top echelon of the sport.
The Seattle Seawolves played host to a part of that patchwork on Saturday afternoon. The Hartford Harpooners, an amateur team from the other side of the country, flew over to Seattle for a preseason match as the Seawolves gear up for the 10-game regular season. This wasn't the Seawolves' first rodeo either of the preseason - they played the Stormers' second team in Cape Town on Sunday - or with the Harpooners, who they previously hosted in 2022.
Back then, with a more diffuse talent pool in the MLR, the Seawolves came out ahead 50-0 over their amateur opponents. Perhaps in a display of MLR’s talent jump since, Seattle won 111-3. Or maybe, as I’ll explain, it might have been 113-3.
Seawolves Announce Full 2026 Roster; How Does Depth Chart Look Going Into Season?
The Seattle Seawolves announced their full roster on Monday, March 2, with a total of 31 players set to compete in 10 matches across the 2026 Major League Rugby season. Of these 31 players, 12 are returners from the 2025 roster while 19 are newcomers from elsewhere in the rugby-playing world, both from other MLR teams and clubs around the world.
Some of these players figured out a deal with Seattle soon after the offseason started, while others were reportedly more last-minute. But with the number of sides and games reduced from 2025, so too is the number of players reduced, down from 38 to begin the 2025 season and 39 once the mid-season signing of Nick Boyer is taken into account. This new sizing is consistent with other rosters around the MLR this year, and these players have the benefit of greater protections thanks to the MLR’s first collective bargaining agreement being signed earlier this offseason between the MLR Player’s Association and the MLR.
With all that in mind, who are all the players that will don green and blue in Starfire Sports this season, and how might the Seawolves be looking at utilizing them?
Seawolves Pick up Welshman Dorian Jones as Secondary Flyhalf for 2026
The Seattle Seawolves have picked up their second flyhalf of the offseason, tapping former NOLA Gold number 10 Dorian Jones. How might Seattle use Jones during the 2026 season?
Seawolves Offseason Tracker: Keep Up to Date with Arrivals and Departures for 2026 MLR Season
Despite an offseason to be forgotten around Major League Rugby, with the league shrinking from 11 teams to six, there is still a 10-game season ahead of the Seattle Seawolves and the five other remaining sides for 2026. Domestic talent has consolidated around MLR from the contractions as well as a new seven-player gameday limit for international players, though the decision - controversial, to put it mildly - to exclude Canadian players from domestic status has decreased that pool of players.
Seattle has a total of 30 confirmed signings for the 2026 season, 11 international and 19 domestic. 11 are returning players from last year’s Seawolves team while 19 are new additions, mostly from now-defunct MLR clubs.
Seawolves Sign Former SaberCat Davy Coetzer to Fill 2026 Flyhalf Role
The Seattle Seawolves have announced their second new addition for 2026, bringing on flyhalf Davy Coetzer from the defunct SaberCats and plugging an accuracy gap that dogged the team in 2025.
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