2026 Major League Rugby season

Preseason

• Major League Rugby and the United States Rugby Players Association (USRPA) signed the first-ever collective bargaining agreement in American rugby history.^[3]
• The Seattle Seawolves played the Stormers XXIII at Cape Town Stadium on March 22, the first international friendly match in the club's history.^[4][5] The Seawolves lost 45–14.^[6]

Week 1

• Anthem RC earns the first victory in franchise history, defeating the California Legion 39-26 and ending a 32-game losing streak.^[7]

Week 2

• Chicago flanker Maclean Jones becomes the first player with 50 appearances in franchise history.^[8]
• The California Legion pick up their first win in franchise history, defeating the reigning MLR Champion New England Free Jacks 43-5. The 38-point deficit is also the largest margin of defeat in Free Jacks' history.^[8]
• Jason Robertson (OLD) scores 11 points to move to the fourth highest all-time scorer in MLR history, surpassing Sam Malcom.^[8]
• Davy Coetzer (SEA) scores 18 points to move to the fifth highest all-time scorer in MLR history, surpassing Sam Malcolm and Mack Mason.^[8]

Week 3

• Anthem RC defeats the Seattle Seawolves, 34-25, at American Legion Memorial Stadium, the first home victory in franchise history.^[9]
• Johan Momsen (ARC) becomes the third player in MLR history with 1,000 tackles completed in league play.^[10]
• In the first-ever broadcast of Sunday Night Rugby, the Chicago Hounds defeat the California Legion, 48-24. The Hounds move to 2-0-0 to start the season for the first time in franchise history.^[11]
• Joe Mano (CAL) becomes the fourth player in MLR history with 40 career tries scored.^[10]

Week 4

• Luke White (CHI) becomes the fifth player in MLR history to appear in 100 games.^[12]
• The game between Old Glory DC and Anthem RC featured an MLR-record five 1st Overall MLR Draft Picks: Conner Mooneyham (2020), Sam Golla (2022), Erich Storti (2024), and Will Sherman (2025) for Anthem, and Rick Rose (2023) for DC. The previous record of four was set in 2025 between Anthem RC and the Miami Sharks, and featured Mooneyham, Golla, Storti, and Rose.^[12]
• Davy Goetzer (SEA) scores 19 points, becoming the fourth player in MLR history to surpass 400 points scored.^[12]

Week 5

• The Chicago Hounds defeated the Seattle Seawolves 59-22, the first win over Seattle in franchise history. The Hounds also tied franchise records for points and tries (9) in a game, and set a new franchise record for largest margin of victory (37 points), while Seattle broke a franchise record for most points conceded in a game.^[13]
• Mark O'Keeffe (CHI) becomes the sixth player in MLR history to surpass 5,000 meters gained in a career.^[13]
• Christopher Hilsenbeck (CHI) becomes the highest-scoring player in franchise history with 137 career points for the Hounds.^[13]
• Emmanuel Albert (CHI) becomes the second MLR draftee to surpass 500 career tackles.^[13]
• Bailey Wilson (FRE) becomes the fourth player in MLR history to surpass 800 career tackles.^[13]

In December 2025, Major League Rugby (MLR) announced the schedule for the upcoming 2026 season, which included major changes to the competition's format.^[14] At the time of the scheduled release, five MLR teams had folded (Houston SaberCats, Miami Sharks, New Orleans Gold, and Utah Warriors),^{[15][16][17][18]} while two other clubs (San Diego Legion, RFC Los Angeles) merged to create a new team known as California Legion.^[19] Subsequently six teams were still active in the MLR.

The new season format, as announced by the MLR, is a six-team competition, without any conference divisions:^[20][14]

• Each team plays ten regular-season games, facing every other team twice (home and away).
• The top four teams qualify for the playoffs; #1 vs #4 and #2 vs #3 in the semi-finals.

Ahead of the 2026 season, MLR announced the introduction of the Referee Review System (RRS), replacing the television match official (TMO) with an In Stadium Replay Operator (ISRO) with the goal of enhancing real-time decision-making and ensuring consistency across matches. Under this system, the on-field referee can request assistance or a team may challenge a referee's decision, similar to replay review in other North American sports leagues. Teams will be allowed two challenges per game, and will retain a challenge if the call is successfully overturned.^[21]

In addition, unsuccessful challenges within the final five minutes of either half will result in the forfeiture of all remaining team challenges. A review may only be initiated within two phases of play of the incident, with the exception of violations of Law 9, which may be reviewed at any stage of the game. The game clock will be stopped during each review, and teams are unable to substitute during the review. After each match, the league will complete a post-match review to ensure compliance and track statistics from the RRS.^[22]

The table below shows each team's progression throughout the season. For each round, their cumulative points total is shown with the overall log position in brackets: