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?
The above table gives each player’s position and international status, though it does leave out some details such as preferred back row positions and players with multiple international eligibilities. For the purposes of the MLR - where only players without any kind of US eligibility are counted as international for the purposes of the seven international gameday slots - the table does give the relevant information.
But how do all of these players fit in? A lot of the international guys are going to have greater priority given the league-wide limitations, while the Seawolves’ capped Eagles will also feature prominently. As to the exact fit of the depth chart, it’s obviously impossible to say, but we can make educated guesses until the season starts and Seattle head coach Allen Clarke’s plan comes into clearer view.
In the following table has international players inside green-colored cells and domestically eligible players in gray-colored cells. Players with international caps have a flag next to their name to denote what country they’ve been capped with.
I will go over some of the decisions I made in this depth chart. For one, I’m not sure what the exact winger situation is going to be other than my general expectation that Futi, McLean, and Douglas will be the three wingers on the 23 most of the time. All three of them typically play on the right, so someone is going to have to play a bit out of position to make room. The rest of the calls were less difficult: Herbst plays at both lock positions while Botchar tends towards four-lock and Moli (when he does play in the second row) tends toward five.
Just because a player is lower on this depth chart than the number one spot doesn’t mean they won’t get starts. Seattle’s 2025 MLR draft picks - Tiai Vavao and Charlie Walsh - will probably get some starts at six and three, respectively. If Matthews were out for a week, for example, Rossouw could start at 15 and then Bennett would start at 13.
The team will also have to manage international slot usage. Assuming all 15 of the players listed as the first option start any given match, that would amount to five of seven international slots used, and the cap would be completed with Warner and Jones at backup scrumhalf and flyhalf, respectively. If the team wanted Bennett on said matchday 23, they could have Boyer backup Smith to free up a slot - or they could have Péculo sit out for Walsh to open up said spot, or have Kotze sit out in favor of Chan-Tung, and so on and so forth.
While the season begins on April 3, the team will spend two weeks in Cape Town, South Africa training with the Stormers of the United Rugby Championship, after which they will host a preseason match against the Hartford Harpooners on March 28.
