Seawolves Sweep Coffee Cup, Overcome Mistakes in 36-28 Win against Free Jacks
TUKWILA, Wash. - There was no doubt who would be hoisting the Coffee Cup when 80 minutes expired on Sunday. The visitors may have been the defending MLR champions three times over, but their down year combined with a late Seawolves surge led to Seattle sweeping the trophy.
It was a game that didn’t necessarily look great for either side; in the end, it was a determination of which team would get in their own way less than the other. But the Seawolves emerged victorious in their 36-28 battle against the New England Free Jacks and put themselves in a winner-gets-home-field game against the California Legion.
With the Legion having won their penultimate game against Anthem 55-26, the Seawolves needed a win to keep open the possibility of getting the second seed and a home playoff match. And with the five-point showing they put together on Sunday night, there are a lot of winning scenarios against California that put Seattle into that seed.
Despite being the three-time defending MLR champions, the Free Jacks came into Sunday night’s game in quite a beatable shape. New England had just 16 points with a 5-3-0 record, fifth in the table ahead of only Anthem Rugby Carolina. But the middle of the table remained tight going into the second-to-last week; New England could tie things up with Seattle by getting all five points and keeping the Seawolves to none.
Seattle’s lineup was almost identical to their match in Chicago the previous week, though with Charlie Walsh and Michael Hand in the reserves instead of Dewald Donald and Nolan Tuamoheloa.
Seawolves Bounce Back Against Free Jacks, Become All-Time Winningest MLR Team
Sometimes, as it turns out, the fifth time is the charm. While the Seawolves had gotten a grand total of six points over their first four games, a Coffee Cup match against the Free Jacks in New England. But despite being down 11-5 at half, Seattle roared back for 22 unanswered points in the final 40 minutes to take a 27-11 victory and get back into the playoff hunt. And with the 73rd win in franchise history, they officially passed the San Diego Legion with the most in the history of the MLR.
While the Seawolves went into Quincy, Massachusetts off a brutal defeat to the MLR-leading Chicago Hounds, the need for a bounce back game was shared by a set of opponents who also entered the match in a rough rut of early form. Both teams were 1-3 over their first four games. Though New England had a worse -52 point differential as opposed to Seattle’s -36, the Free Jacks had managed one extra bonus point, though both sides sat in the cellar.
Seattle had to mix and match their lineup going into the game, with flyhalf Davy Coetzer out of commission, loosehead prop Ezekiel Lindenmuth suspended following a red card against the Hounds, and injuries in the forwards meant that plenty of the pack would have to go deep into the game while André Warner took up the flyhalf duties on the field and Divan Rossouw took the conversions.
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.
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 AgustÃn 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.
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?
Capped USA Eagle Back Rower Paddy Ryan Joins Seawolves for 2026
The Seattle Seawolves announced their fourth free agent addition of the offseason on Monday, bringing back rower and USA Eagle Paddy Ryan onto the team for 2026.