The New England Free Jacks are a

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and sk ...

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 it ...

team in

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 ...

(MLR) based in the Greater Boston area. They were announced in September 2018 and began to compete professionally in October 2018. They competed in their first season in MLR in the 2020 season.

History

On September 21, 2018, Major League Rugby announced that

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

would be one of the expansion teams joining the league for the 2020 season. That same day, the Boston club was announced as the New England Free Jacks through social media. Their first match was on October 20, 2018, against the

Ontario Arrows Toronto Arrows R.F.C. is a rugby union club based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that plays in Major League Rugby. The Arrows team is an independent off-shoot of the Ontario Blues provincial programme and is funded by a group of private investo ...

Wanderers Grounds Wanderers Grounds is a sporting complex in Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal p ...

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. Th ...

. NFL players

Nate Ebner Nathan Ebner (born December 14, 1988) is an American football safety and special teamer who is a free agent, and a rugby sevens player for the United States national rugby sevens team. Ebner played rugby union (15-a-side) on the US Under-19 a ...

and

Patrick Chung Patrick Christopher Chung (born August 19, 1987) is a Jamaican-American former football safety who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the New England Patriots. He played college football at Oregon and wa ...

are minority owners of the Free Jacks.

Sponsorship

Roster

The New England Free Jacks squad for the 2022 Major League Rugby season is: * Senior 15s internationally capped players are listed in bold. * * denotes players qualified to play for the on dual nationality or residency grounds. * MLR teams are allowed to field up to ten overseas players per match.

Head coaches

* Josh Smith (2018–2020) * Ryan Martin (2020–2021) * Scott Mathie (2021-present)

Captains

* Josh Larsen (2020–present)

Leadership

Staff for 2022 Major League Rugby Season: Owners

Records

Season standings

Head coaches

2019 season

All games in the 2019 season were exhibition games and did not count in the league standings; the team played to a record of 1–7, losing their first seven games and winning their final match of the season.

2020 season

On March 12, 2020, MLR announced the season would go on hiatus immediately for 30 days due to fears surrounding the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Seven days later, MLR announced that the season was officially cancelled. The Free Jacks finished the short season 9th in the MLR, 6th in the Eastern Conference.

Exhibition

Regular season

The team accrued a 1–4 record before the season was halted.

2021 season

The Free Jacks' first game of the 2021 season was played on March 20, facing LA Giltinis in Los Angeles. Source:

2022 season

Regular season

Source:

Post season

Entertainment

Mascot

On May 7, 2021, the Free Jacks announced a mascot, Woodgy, a furry blue creature with rugby headband tape who wears Free Jacks rugby kit.

Academy

New England Independents

On January 8, 2020, the Free Jacks announced that they would compete in two preseason matches against the New England Independents, a brand new select team of local All-Star talent representing eight clubs throughout New England. Adam Zilcoski, of the

Boston Irish Wolfhounds The Boston Irish Wolfhounds Rugby Football Club (also known as BIWRFC) is a rugby union team based in Boston, Massachusetts, US. The club competes in, and is governed by, the New England Rugby Football Union (their LAU), the Northeast Rugby Union ...

, was selected as the head coach.

Roster

Squad for 2020 Major League Rugby Preseason:

Regional academies

Junior Jacks

The Junior Jacks are the youth academy level for the Free Jacks.

References

{{New England Free Jacks squad Major League Rugby teams Rugby union teams in Massachusetts Rugby clubs established in 2018 2018 establishments in Massachusetts