🇺🇸 Pacific Nations Cup (quarterfinal): USA Men’s Eagles vs Samoa
Sunday, Sept 14, 2:30 PM

Texas A&M vs Notre Dame
⌚️ When: Friday September 12th, 7PM ET
📺 Watch here

🏉West Coast Sevens: September 27th

💰The big bucks are coming

World Rugby just committed $250 million to the U.S. game over the next five years. Huge. Where will it go? Nobody knows, and plenty are skeptical. But it’s at least a good sign for the U.S. hosting the World Cup—World Rugby doesn’t drop this kind of cash if they’re second-guessing 2031.

Transparency around these funds would go a long way towards building trust between USAR and the rest of us fans. Fingers crossed that they don’t screw this up.

If I were betting man, I’d say we’re going to see a lot of promotion and advertising, but not much meaningful grassroots support. Color me cynical.

🚽 The MLR is circling the drain.

Just yesterday, the Houston Sabercats announced they’re calling it quits. Total bummer.

There are seven teams left.

Will the league survive? We certainly hope so, but things are looking bleak.

Professional teams are expensive hobbies, and according to recent reporting by The National Maul, team owners are feeling “capital fatigue.” translation: they’re tired of lighting money on fire.

2026 might be a strange year for the MLR.

We take a look back at the Raptors incredible season—the challenges, the victories, the players, and the path that led them to their first national title.

On April 12, the Raptors walked off the field after a heartbreaking 31–30 loss to Belmont Shore. The defeat stung twice as hard since it was a nationals play-in game—it seemed like their nationals hopes were gone.

“We knew it came down to that game,” head coach Sam McMillan said. “Losing by one was brutal.”

What the boys didn’t know was that McMillan had a message sitting in his pocket. That morning, he’d been told a Tier II spot had opened up. The losing side of the Belmont–SOC match would still get the invite.

He waited until after the game to tell them.

“They were devastated after the game. Then I said, ‘hey guys, I have a surprise—we’re still going to nationals.’”

After the emotional whiplash, the boys refocused. A national title was still on the table.

The Raptors’ year played out like two different books.

In SoCal league play, they were physical and tough, but struggled to manage territory. Their results swung from emphatic wins (59–18 over Empire, 73–3 over OMBAC) to difficult losses (48–13 to the eventual Tier I champion Mustangs, two losses to Belmont Shore). But to anyone who watched the Raptors play, it was clear that they had the makings of a top team.

“Our challenge early was game management, specifically territory,” McMillan said. “When we fixed that, the results were there for us.”

By May, with the trip to Indiana looming, they had fixed it. Their defense tightened, their kicking game improved, and suddenly the Raptors were humming.

Every team has its leaders, and for SOC they came in different forms.

Junior fullback Jesse Torres blossomed into an all-around force—defense, attack, positioning, even his kicking game leveled up. Stoic workhorse Caden Hartley let his play do the talking, highlighted by a monster hit in the semifinal. Prop Cade Gilbert, on his fourth nationals trip, grew into a steady voice and physical presence. And Tyrone Cullors, their fearless 8-man, played like he was twice his size.

When asked if there was a moment he knew this group could make a title run, McMillan didn’t point to 2025 at all. He went back years earlier, to their U16 season, when this same core beat Belmont Shore to win the SoCal title.

“That’s when we looked at each other and said, ‘this is a special group,’” he said. “Not just talent, but depth. It was on us as coaches to make them successful.”

As the SoCal season came to an end, all attention turned to nationals—just a couple weeks away.

Nationals is a beast. How do you prepare a bunch of young players to pour it all out on the pitch three days in a row? That’s the task every coach faces.

The Raptors had been here before: 2021 (lost to Charlotte Tigers), 2022 (gut wrenching loss to Granite Bay), 2023 (lost to Vienna), 2024 (lost semifinal to Wolverines).

McMillan took a unique approach to preparation this time around.

“We brought in alumni to speak to the boys. We’ve had our share of experience at nationals, so we asked some of the players who’d been there before to talk about the honor and privilege of playing together—especially at nationals.”

Each night before matches, former captains and standouts joined over Zoom, sharing what it meant to wear the Raptor jersey in Elkhart.

The alumni message: this team wasn’t alone. “You may be the 2025 team, but all the Raptors who have gone before you are cheering you on, and looking to you to bring home the trophy.”

Then May 22 arrived—it was time to put their resolve into action.

Nationals opened against St. Edward (OH), and the nerves were obvious. The Raptors came out jittery, struggling to find their rhythm in the first half. But once they settled, the pieces clicked. Their defense firmed up, their attack sliced up the field, and they pulled away for a 28–12 win.

The semifinal was the Battle of the Birds—SOC Raptors vs Tennessee Raptors. Early on, it was back-and-forth, each side trading shots. But SOC’s line speed started getting to Tennessee, snuffing out their attack.

Then came the moment that defined the game for SOC. Caden Hartley stepped up and delivered a massive tackle right in front of the bench, firing up his teammates—and SOC surged to a 24–5 victory.

That set up a final against a physical and talented New Trier side out of Illinois. The match was intense, with yellow cards reducing each side to 13 men at times. But SOC stayed composed. They controlled territory, suffocated on defense, and took advantage of New Trier’s mistakes.

When the whistle blew, the scoreboard read 31–14, and after years of falling short, the Raptors finally had their national title.

We heard a cool story recently.

In 2023, St. Martin’s (KS) was preparing for a rivalry matchup with Gregory the Great (PA).

Both are small, all-boys boarding schools, but Gregory the Great was viewed as the “big brother” and had never lost a match to the Kingfishers.

Ten weeks before the December showdown, head coach John Prezzia put a pull-up bar and a scale in each dorm room, and gave the St. Martin’s boys a challenge—add an “extra man” to their lineup.

The boys got fired up about it.

They had weekly pull-up competitions and downed protein shakes.

And after ten weeks, they had done it.

They got their “extra player”.

And St. Martin’s STEAMROLLED Gregory the Great. Boom.

Excellent hype work from coach Prezzia 👌

Big muscles for the win 💪

Oddball musings, induced by borderline hypothermia.

🏉 I’ve never done cryotherapy before. But it starts with the word “cry”… I’m out. Sounds rough.

🏉Rugby Riot is 1 year old 🎂🥳
Thank you for riding with us as we grow! Big things to come.

🏉 This post by Dan Porter (about what new sports leagues get wrong) really hit home for me. The MLR made the mistake of trying to build the NFL of rugby. It’s the wrong playbook. And it’s too expensive (obviously).