Major League Rugby: Five takeaways as ‘mesmeric’ Free Jacks match La Lakers feat with Fijian cementing himself in ‘American rugby folklore’

After 19 weeks of non-stop American rugby action the 2025 Major League Rugby (MLR) season is finished.

The New England Free Jacks beat the Houston SaberCats 28-22 at Rhode Island’s Centreville Bank Stadium to lift the MLR Shield for a third year in a row.

It was a mesmeric performance for the east coast side who have written their place into the fabric of the USA sporting landscape with their 10 minute performance on Saturday afternoon.

For the final time in 2025, here are five MLR takeaways.

Free Jacks best in class… again

Yet again New England have ended the MLR season as champions.

An impressive brace for Paula Balekana did much of the damage, while Sam Caird’s try and Dan Hollinshead’s 13 points from the tee helped keep the Shield in Massachusetts.

Winning the competition three years in a row is certainly impressive and this may have been the best one yet.

Ryan Martin’s side have not had everything their own way, with three losses coming in their opening five matches of the season, before the team wrestled back an 11-5 regular season record.

To get to the Championship New England battled past the Miami Sharks and Chicago Hounds.

Rewarded with a Championship Final on the east coast, less than 40 miles from home, it may as well been written in the stars.

When you know how to win, you know how to win.

SaberCats rue missed chances

The Houston SaberCats will have memories to keep them up at night.

Even though the side were losers on the day, there was plenty of opportunity for Pote Human’s team to have ended the 80 minutes as champions.

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Essentially every nightmare imaginable happened.

Numerous periods of possession came to nothing. They failed to make the most of a 10 minute spell with New England’s Piers von Dadelszen in the sin bin. There were numerous unforced injuries. Their set-piece failed to fire.

You then add in being held up over the line late in the contest and it adds up to a particularly bad day at the office.

Just like in Paris there was drama until the end

Much like the Top 14 Final in Paris this one had us guessing from the first minute to the last.

While the Championship Final did not go into extra-time in Rhode Island, it did not mean that Houston were not knocking on the door until the very last second.

When Max Schumacher dotted down for his second try of the game to reduce the deficit to just six points, it would have been no surprise if the side went the distance from the resulting kick-off and took the Shield to Texas for the first time.

That is part of what makes the SaberCats’ inability to make the most of possession and individual errors all the more frustrating.

Even then, the intensity and nervousness created by finals rugby is wholly unique. There’s nothing quite like it.

Balekana the man for New England

As of his Saturday double Balekana has scored 40 tries for New England.

If there was anything to underline the wing’s importance to the Free Jacks, the Fijian has cemented himself in American rugby folklore with 15 tries in 14 MLR appearances this term.

For both scores the former SaberCat showed plenty of knowhow both times that Brock Webster’s final ball sent him over the whitewash.

If it weren’t for his 32 years, you’d like to think Test rugby was just around the corner. Being a cult hero will have to do instead.

America’s first three-peat in 23 years

Over the years we have all been romanced by North American sports stories.

During Saturday’s broadcast, play-by-play caller Ben Holden revealed that there had not been a three-peat winner since the LA Lakers won the NBA for consecutive seasons between 2000 and 2002.

Rugby may well be a new professional sport in the USA, but with the 2031 Rugby World Cup coming the sport is only set to grow and the Free Jacks have secured its first dynasty.

Now the long offseason has started and there will be a few more months before we start asking; can they do it four years in a row?

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