Major League Rugby: Five things we learnt as New Zealander stars for champions while DJ Marshmello helps draw in record crowd
New England Free Jacks celebrate after Major League Rugby title win. (Brendan Buckley and New England Free Jacks)
Last Sunday the 2024 Major League Rugby (MLR) season came to a close as the New England Free Jacks wrapped up consecutive North American titles against Seattle Seawolves.
Here are five things we learnt as the seventh season of MLR concluded.
New England rule the roost
For a second year in a row the New England Free Jacks lifted the MLR Shield.
Beating the Seattle Seawolves 20-11 at San Diego Legion’s Snapdragon Stadium, Scott Mathie’s team were comprehensive in victory and wrote their name in the honours list for a second year running.
Jayson Potroz’s kicking and a try for Le Roux Malan helped restock the trophy cabinet in Massachusetts for another year.
In short the Free Jacks were clinical in how they went about their business.
Continuing the traits that had helped the team to the winner-takes-all clash to begin with, any opportunity that the side had to take points, they took it.
This could be seen in Jayson Potroz’s 15 points tally, with the fly-half showing again why he is one of the league’s most astute operators.
There is also a special mention for Malan, who scored his first try since registering the winner in the Free Jacks’ 2023 Championship Final win against San Diego.
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Consistently battling against the tide of being best in show all season, Sunday’s fixture was the epitome of everything that the team have done well all year.
Hard-nosed when they needed to be and able to unshackle themselves at free will, there is little doubt that New England Free Jacks were the best team this season.
Seawolves ill-discipline pays toll
If you had to quantify the difference between New England and the Seawolves on Sunday, discipline would be at the top of that list.
Giving up more penalties and spending over 20 minutes a player down, Seattle made life difficult for themselves.
Whether it was individual errors, handing penalties to New England in kickable positions or foul play, inviting that sort of pressure was never sustainable.
With that in mind you can safely say that Seattle certainly did not deserve to win.
Even so Allen Clarke’s team can take immense confidence from a season that saw them finish with an 11-5 record and continue their yearly improvement.
Jed Melvin shows class
Jed Melvin was a mid-season arrival at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
In an eight-game spell in North America the 23-year-old New Zealander made a significant impact in two months.
His outing on Sunday was perhaps the finest of his time wearing blue, red and white.
A dominant tackler, astute jackler and lively in attack, simply put Melvin is the complete package.
Making nine carries and just shy of 100 metres against Seattle, the Kiwi was awarded Player of the Match as he helped his team to their second domestic title.
Already Melvin has turned his attentions to the National Provincial Championship, where he will return to the field for North Harbour this weekend against Hawke’s Bay.
Twice as nice @NEFreeJacks run it back 🛡️🛡️#MLRChampionship pic.twitter.com/mpoqfnWomh
— Major League Rugby (@usmlr) August 7, 2024
Record attendance at Snapdragon Stadium
Continuing the trend of the 2024 season the MLR Championship Final was the best attended edition of the tournament yet.
In total 12,085 people made their way to SoCal to watch the best that the USA has to offer slug it out.
All season clubs have been exceeding their previous record crowds and it is a number that continues to prove that consistent growth is possible.
Capitalising on these attendances is the next most important thing, with the powers that be now hard at work to see how they can engage crowds long term and continue their growth.
Marshmello shows star appeal
While rugby was the main draw of the day in Southern California, there was another attraction to Snapdragon Stadium.
Superstar DJ Marshmello played the half-time show at the venue and proved the power of celebrity is well and truly alive.
A watch of the livestream and you can see the number of people that made their way to the venue just to see the DJ play his set.
This could no more be seen than when the livestream panned to the crowd and some of the individuals singing along were moved to tears by seeing their idol up close and personal.
In the same way that Ilona Maher’s increased visibility thanks to her 2.8m Instagram followers can influence rugby, if anyone attending the Championship Final because of Marshmello decides that they want to watch more of sport, there are endless possibilities.