| 2020 Major League Rugby season | |
| Countries: | United States (11 teams) Canada (1 team) |
| Date: | February 8 – March 8 (canceled) |
| Champions: | Not awarded |
| Matches: | 30 |
| Tries: | 188 |
| Website: | majorleague.rugby |
| Prevseason: | 2019 |
| Nextseason: | 2021 |
The 2020 Major League Rugby season was the third season of Major League Rugby, the professional rugby union competition sanctioned by USA Rugby. The regular season schedule was released on September 23, 2019, and the regular season itself began on February 8, 2020.
Three teams made their debut in 2020: the New England Free Jacks, Old Glory DC, and Rugby ATL. The Seattle Seawolves were the defending champions, having won their second consecutive title in the previous year.
On March 12, 2020, MLR announced the season would go on hiatus immediately for 30 days due to increasing local social distancing restrictions amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.[1] One week later, MLR announced that the season was officially cancelled.[2]
With the addition of three teams for the 2020 season, Major League Rugby moved to a two-conference format. For the regular season, each team was to play against the other teams in their conference twice each and against every team in the opposite conference once each for a total of 16 games.
The playoffs expanded from four teams in 2019 to six teams in 2020, with the top three teams from each conference qualifying. The second- and third-placed team from each conference were to play each other in the conference semifinals, with the winner moving on to play the first-placed team in the conference finals. The winners of the conference finals would have the played against each other in the final for the championship.
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| Western Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| Team | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | San Diego Legion | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 161 | 108 | +53 | 21 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 23 | ||||||
| 2 | Utah Warriors | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 125 | 134 | -9 | 15 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 12 | ||||||
| 3 | Colorado Raptors | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 98 | 130 | -32 | 11 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 9 | ||||||
| 4 | Seattle Seawolves | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 138 | 162 | -24 | 15 | 22 | 2 | 2 | 8 | ||||||
| 5 | Austin Gilgronis | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 104 | 155 | -51 | 13 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 7 | ||||||
| 6 | Houston SaberCats | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 99 | 116 | -17 | 11 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 6 | ||||||
| Eastern Conference | |||||||||||||||||||
| Team | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Toronto Arrows | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 151 | 89 | +62 | 16 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 19 | ||||||
| 2 | Old Glory DC | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 122 | 129 | -7 | 13 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 17 | ||||||
| 3 | New Orleans Gold | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 135 | 102 | +33 | 19 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 16 | ||||||
| 4 | Rugby United New York | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 136 | 131 | +5 | 18 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 15 | ||||||
| 5 | Rugby ATL | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 116 | 119 | +6 | 14 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 12 | ||||||
| 6 | New England Free Jacks | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 139 | 158 | -19 | 22 | 20 | 4 | 1 | 9 | ||||||
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order
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| Green background indicates teams in position for the Conference Finals Blue background indicates teams in position for the Conference Semi-Finals (CH) Champions. (RU) Runners-up. (SF) Losing semi-finalists. Last Updated: March 7, 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||
The following are the matches for the 2020 Major League Rugby regular season:
| AUS | COL | HOU | NEFJ | NOLA | OGDC | RATL | RUNY | SAN | SEA | TOR | UTA | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin Gilgronis | 19–28 | 10–38 | 20–20 | ||||||||||
| Colorado Raptors | 20–27 | 22–19 | 22–14 | ||||||||||
| Houston SaberCats | 20–24 | 21–12 | 13–22 | 23–31 | |||||||||
| New England Free Jacks | 34–14 | ||||||||||||
| New Orleans Gold | 31–22 | 46–13 | 10–22 | 21–25 | |||||||||
| Old Glory DC | 31–29 | 28–22 | |||||||||||
| Rugby ATL | 19–22 | 18–28 | 28–19 | ||||||||||
| Rugby United NY | 49–31 | ||||||||||||
| San Diego Legion | 49–22 | 30–21 | 24–20 | 33–24 | |||||||||
| Seattle Seawolves | 44–29 | 17–39 | 31–33 | ||||||||||
| Toronto Arrows | 27–22 | ||||||||||||
| Utah Warriors | 39–33 |
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The top three teams from each conference would have qualified for the playoffs had the season not been cancelled. The top team in each conference earns a bye week while the second and third place team play in a conference semifinal.
The top ten try and point scorers during the 2020 Major League Rugby season were:[3]
Last updated: March 9, 2020
| Most tries | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Player | Team | Tries< | -- Pos | Player | Team | Tries--> |
| 1 |  Riekert Hattingh | 5 | |||||
| 2 | 4 | ||||||
| NOLA Gold | |||||||
| Tiaan Erasmus | |||||||
| 6 | 3 | ||||||
| Moni Tonga'uiha | |||||||
| 11 | 2 | ||||||
| Troy Lockyear | |||||||
 Jason Robertson | |||||||
| Houston SaberCats --> |
| Most points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Player | Team | Pts< | -- Pos | Player | Team | Points--> |
| 1 | 60 | ||||||
| 2 | 57 | ||||||
| 3 | Jason Robertson | 51 | |||||
| 4 | 48 | ||||||
| 5 | 43 | ||||||
| 6 | 37 | ||||||
| 37 | |||||||
| 8 | 30 | ||||||
| 9 | 29 | ||||||
| 10 | 27 | ||||||
| 27 |
| Player | Team | Red | Yellow |
|---|---|---|---|
 Mike Shephard | 1 | 0 | |
| Poasa Waqanibau | 0 | 2 | |
 Diego Magno | 0 | 2 | |
| Brendan Daly | 0 | 1 | |
| Malcolm May | 0 | 1 | |
| Lindsay Stevens | 0 | 1 | |
 Nikola Bursic | 0 | 1 | |
| Gordon Fullerton | 0 | 1 | |
 Saia Uhila | 0 | 1 | |
| Josh Larsen | 0 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 | ||
| Peter Malcolm | 0 | 1 | |
| Vili Toluta'u | 0 | 1 | |
| Lino Saunitoga | 0 | 1 | |
| Potu Leavasa Jr. | 0 | 1 | |
| Brad Hemopo | 0 | 1 | |
| Anthony Parry | 0 | 1 | |
 Sione Fangaiuiha | 0 | 1 | |
| Maikeli Mudu | 0 | 1 | |
 Tomás de la Vega | 0 | 1 | |
| Tiaan Loots | 0 | 1 | |
| Nakai Penny | 0 | 1 | |
| Tim Maupin | 0 | 1 | |
| JP du Plessis | 0 | 1 | |
| Kelepi Fifita | 0 | 1 | |
| Holden Yungert | 0 | 1 | |
| Jamie Mackintosh | 0 | 1 | |
| Renata Roberts-Tenana | 0 | 1 | |
| Manuel Diana | 0 | 1 | |
| Paddy Ryan | 0 | 1 | |
| Carl Meyer | 0 | 1 | |
 Joshua Furno | 0 | 1 | |
| Will Vakalahi | 0 | 1 | |
| Neethling Gericke | 0 | 1 | |
| Andrew Ferguson | 0 | 1 | |
| Rene Ranger | 0 | 1 | |
| Marco Fepulea'i | 0 | 1 | |
| Andrew Quattrin | 0 | 1 | |
| Rodrick Waters | 0 | 1 | |
| Stephan Coetzee | 0 | 1 | |
Following the cancellation of the 2020 season, the MLR announced they would host a tournament, with each team, playing Rugby 20.[4] The teams would enter a pool to select which nation they would play as. The MLR also announced that all of the MLR teams would be raising money and awareness for Feeding America's COVID-19 Response Fund, and that all matches would be streamed on the league's Twitch account.
| MLR Team (National Team) | Wins | Draws | Loses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin Gilgronis | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Colorado Raptors | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Houston Sabercats | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New England Free Jacks | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| New Orleans Gold | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Old Glory DC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rugby ATL | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Rugby United New York | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| San Diego Legion | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Seattle Seawolves | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Toronto Arrows | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Utah Warriors | 0 | 0 | 0 |
See main article: article and MLR Draft.
See also: 2020 MLR Draft. The 1st ever Major League Rugby collegiate draft was held in 2020. Players were eligible for the draft after 3 years of college or if they had reached 21 years of age. Free agents were permitted try out to join teams at 18 years old.
