2019 Major League Rugby final

The 2019 Major League Rugby final was the championship match of the 2nd season of Major League Rugby (MLR), a rugby union club competition in the United States. It was played on June 16, 2019, at Torero Stadium in San Diego, California, between the San Diego Legion and the Seattle Seawolves.

2019 Major League Rugby final

Event	2019 Major League Rugby season
San Diego Legion Seattle Seawolves 23 26
Date	June 16, 2019
Venue	Torero Stadium, San Diego, California
Man of the Match	JP Smith
Referee	Scott Green (United States)
Attendance	6,000
← 2018 2021 →

San Diego and Seattle finished first and second in the regular season, respectively, and advanced to the final after defeating New York and Toronto in the semifinals. The Seattle team was the defending champion, having won the 2018 final. Seattle defeated San Diego 26–23 in the 2019 final to take their second championship title.

Background

The 2019 Major League Rugby season began in January 2019 with nine teams all playing each other home and away. The Seattle Seawolves won the previous season's championship, defeating the Glendale Raptors at Torero Stadium in San Diego.^[1]

Seattle and San Diego played each other twice during the regular season, ending in 17–13 and 28–22 victories for the Legion.^[2]

Venue

Torero Stadium, home field of Major League Rugby team San Diego Legion, was selected as the venue for the final after the team finished as the top seed in the regular season.^[3] The stadium with a seating capacity of 6,000 on the campus of the University of San Diego is also home to the various athletics teams of the university.^[4]

Broadcasting

The match was broadcast nationally on CBS.^[5] It received a rating of 0.34 (510,000).^[6]

Match

Details

	June 16	San Diego Legion	23–26	Seattle Seawolves	Torero Stadium, San Diego, California
	1:00 pm EDT (UTC−04)	Try: Boyer 52’ c Manihera 65’ c Con: Pietersen 2/2 (53’, 66’) Pen: Pietersen 2/2 (6’, 21’) Drop: Pietersen 1/2 (78’)	ARN Report	Try: Coetzee 22’ c Smith 32‘ c Hattingh 71’ m Tucker 80’ c Con: Staller 3/4 (23’, 33’, 82’)	Attendance: 6,000 Referee: Scott Green (United States) Man of the Match: JP Smith

San Diego Legion

Seattle Seawolves

Team details

LP 1 Fakaʻosi Pifeleti  40' HK 2 Kapeli Pifeleti  57' TP 3 Paddy Ryan  61' LL 4 Louis Stanfill  61' RL 5 Joshua Furno BF 6 Jasa Veremalua  61' OF 7 Psalm Wooching N8 8 Jordan Manihera SH 9 Nate Augspurger (c) FH 10 Joe Pietersen LW 11 Nick Boyer IC 12 JP du Plessis OC 13 Ryan Matyas RW 14 Conor Kearns FB 15 Tai Enosa  42' Replacements: HK 16 Dean Muir  57' PR 17 Nathan Sylvia  40' PR 18 Dino Waldren  61' LK 19 Siaosi Mahoni  61' FL 20 Pat Blair  61' FB 21 Kyle Rogers WG 22 Save Totovosau OB 23 Will Holder  42' Coach: Rob Hoadley LP 1 Djustice Sears-Duru   50' HK 2 Stephan Coetzee  75' TP 3 Tim Metcher  50' LL 4 Api Naikatini  62' RL 5 Brad Tucker BF 6 Samu Manoa  53' OF 7 Nakai Penny  62' N8 8 Riekert Hattingh SH 9 JP Smith FH 10 Ben Cima  57' LW 11 Jeff Hassler IC 12 Shalom Suniula (c) OC 13 George Barton  57' RW 14 Brock Staller FB 15 Mathew Turner Replacements: HK 16 Daniel Trierweiler  75' PR 17 Kellen Gordon  50' PR 18 Jake Ilnicki  50' LK 19 Jérémy Lenaerts  62' LF 20 Eric Duechle  62' SH 21 Phil Mack  57' OB 22 Roland Suniula  57' LF 23 Vili Toluta’u  53' Coach: Richie Walker Most Valuable Player: JP Smith Assistant Referees: Anthony Woodthorpe (England) Elgan Williams (Wales) Television Match Official: Davey Ardrey (United States)

Post-match

The defending champion Seattle Seawolves was once again awarded the "America's Championship Shield", which was changed to a 20-pound (9.1 kg) metal shield in the shape of the MLR logo. Seawolves scrum-half JP Smith was named the MLR Championship Series "man of the match".^{[citation needed]}