The 2018 Major League Rugby season was the inaugural season of

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR or USMLR) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for clubs in North America. In the 2022 season it was contested by thirteen teams: twelve from the United States and one from Canada. Off ...

, an annual

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

competition sanctioned by

USA Rugby USA Rugby (officially the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugb ...

. The seven inaugural teams were based in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The competition began the weekend of April 21–22 with three matches, with New Orleans defeating Houston 35–26 to open the season. Glendale and Seattle were the best two teams at the end of the regular season and won their respective semi-final matches to advance to the championship game at

Torero Stadium Torero Stadium is a 6,000-seat multi-purpose stadium on the west coast of the United States, located on the campus of the University of San Diego in San Diego, California. Opened in 1961, it serves as the home of the school's football and soccer ...

in San Diego. Seattle became Major League Rugby's first champion team with a surprise come-from-behind 23–19 win in the final over Glendale, who had only lost once previously during the season.

Teams

Regular season

All seven participating teams played eight matches and received two rounds of byes during the regular season held over ten weeks from April through to June. The schedule was short of a full home and away draw by four match rounds, so each side played two of the other teams twice and four of them only once. The top four teams at the end of the regular season advanced to the MLR playoffs.

Standings

The final standings for the 2018 Major League Rugby regular season were:

Matches

The following matches were played for the 2018 Major League Rugby regular season: Updated to match(es) played on June 23, 2018.
Colors: Blue: home team win; Yellow: draw; Red: away team win.

Week 1

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Week 2

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Week 3

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Week 4

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Week 5

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Week 6

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Week 7

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Week 8

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Week 9

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Week 10

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Playoffs

The top four teams from the regular season qualified for the playoffs. The format was two semifinal matches – first versus fourth, and second versus third – followed by a Championship game between the semifinal winners to determine the MLR champion team. The semifinals were played as a double header at Infinity Park in Glendale on June 30, followed a week later by the final at Torero Stadium in San Diego on July 7.

Semifinals

Final

Team statistics

Points by week

Tries by week

Player statistics

The leading scorers in 2018 over the regular season and playoffs combined were:

Leading try scorers

Sources:Americas Rugby News
an
MLR
(archived).

Leading point scorers

Sources:Americas Rugby News
an
MLR
(archived).

Sanctions

Awards

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

of the Championship Match All-MLR First Team All-MLR Second Team

Notes

References

{{Major League Rugby Major League Rugby seasons