The New England Free Jacks have won the 2024 Major League Rugby Championship, defeating the Seattle Seawolves 20-11 at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, California.
The Free Jacks have now won back-to-back MLR Championships, after having lifted the Shield last season following a 25-24 win over the San Diego Legion.
The game was a defensive battle, with only two successful tries the entire match.
Following a New England penalty kick eight minutes in, center Le Roux Malan broke through with a successful try to put the Free Jacks up 8-0 at the 14 minute mark.
Seattle’s Mack Mason and New England’s Jayson Potroz exchanged penalty kicks to make the score 11-3, which was followed by the only other successful try of the match, this one for Seawolves hooker Joe Taufete’e.
Closing out the first half, there were plenty of “HEAVE” chants that broke through the crowd during scrums, as fans urged their team to keep battling. New England was able to get a penalty kick to go up 14-8 going into the halftime performance by musical artist Marshmello.
The second half was even more defensive than the first, with two penalty kicks from the Free Jacks and only one from the Seawolves.
Player of the match went to Free Jack back row Jed Melvin, as his defensive performance along with his team helped hold the Seawolves down.
“I feel like my job is to bring the physicality, both on offense and defense,” Melvin said in a post-game press conference. “I wanted to show that today, and make sure Seattle felt that.”
The Seawolves certainly felt the physicality.
Seattle led the league with the most tries coming into the MLR Championship, and they left with only 11 points and another MLR Championship game loss, after losing in 2022 to Rugby New York.
The recorded attendance was 12,085, breaking the record for the most attended MLR Championship and most attended San Diego Legion rugby match (SD Legion hosted the game).