Did you think there was no worse than the Top 14 in terms of hellish pace? Think again, a crazy schedule has just emerged from the United States of America for the 2025 Major League Rugby season. Indeed, the rhythm of meetings in the calendar will not be regular and according to the players' unions, “some teams could be forced to play 3 games in 9 days”.
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The MLR in full doubt
More precisely, these are the “Major League Rugby Players Association“and the”United States Rugby Players Association” who carry their voice through a joint press release. An indignation which has recently found echo as far as Europe. Indeed, the president of the main rugby players' union in England, the former of Stade Français and Northampton Christian Day, publicly announced its support for both organizations.
Faced with such a timetable, American unions indicate that they “strongly condemn” this organization, via a joint press release. More specifically, they assert that “the players were not consulted when making these decisions”. According to them, the latter will “radically against the well-being of players by dangerously reducing recovery time between matches and reducing the number of weeks of rest, which are nevertheless essential.”
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They further argue that “players must be given at least four 'clear days' to recover from the impact of a professional rugby match”, according to World Rugby regulations. For its part, the MLR announced that 11 teams, divided into two conferences, will compete in 95 matches (16 team matches + play-offs) between February 15 and June 8, i.e. over 16 calendar weeks.
Problem is, the fact that the Western Conference is made up of an odd number of teams, after the Dallas Jackals withdrew in September, creates a real scheduling headache. So, to prevent a team from going a fortnight without playing matches, midweek matches were added.
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The complicated development of rugby in the USA
More in depth, this controversy reflects the difficulties encountered by rugby in the USA since the announcement of the 2031 men's and 2033 women's World Cup on its soil. In an attempt to develop the other oval ball on its soil, Major League Rugby was launched in 2017. However, the results are already heavy, only seven years after its debut. Because if the dawn of the project proved promising, the lack of sporting interest and the Covid 19 crisis did not spare the championship.
Between 2020 and 2024, seven teams had to withdraw from MLR for the following seasonmeaning more than one team disappears each offseason. Respectively champions in 2021 and 2022, LA Giltinis and Rugby New York even had to lay down their arms, even though these franchises had welcomed players like Mathieu Bastareaud, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Matt Giteau and even Chris Robshaw. In short, rugby in the USA still seems a long way from the El Dorado promised by some a few years ago.
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