The 2019 Major League Rugby final was the championship match of the 2nd season of Major League Rugby (MLR), a rugby union club competition in the United States. It was played on June 16, 2019, at Torero Stadium in San Diego, California, between the San Diego Legion and the Seattle Seawolves.
San Diego and Seattle finished first and second in the regular season, respectively, and advanced to the final after defeating New York and Toronto in the semifinals. The Seattle team was the defending champion, having won the 2018 final. Seattle defeated San Diego 26–23 in the 2019 final to take their second championship title.
Background
The 2019 Major League Rugby season began in January 2019 with nine teams all playing each other home and away. The Seattle Seawolves won the previous season's championship, defeating the Glendale Raptors at Torero Stadium in San Diego.
Seattle and San Diego played each other twice during the regular season, ending in 17–13 and 28–22 victories for the Legion.
Venue
Torero Stadium, home field of Major League Rugby team San Diego Legion, was selected as the venue for the final after the team finished as the top seed in the regular season. The stadium with a seating capacity of 6,000 on the campus of the University of San Diego is also home to the various athletics teams of the university.
Broadcasting
The match was broadcast nationally on CBS. It received a rating of 0.34 (510,000).
Match
Details
Team details LP 1 Fakaʻosi Pifeleti HK 2 Kapeli Pifeleti TP 3 Paddy Ryan LL 4 Louis Stanfill RL 5 Joshua Furno BF 6 Jasa Veremalua OF 7 Psalm Wooching N8 8 Jordan Manihera SH 9 Nate Augspurger (c) FH 10 Joe Pietersen LW 11 Nick Boyer IC 12 JP du Plessis OC 13 Ryan Matyas RW 14 Conor Kearns FB 15 Tai Enosa Replacements:HK 16 Dean Muir PR 17 Nathan Sylvia PR 18 Dino Waldren LK 19 Siaosi Mahoni FL 20 Pat Blair FB 21 Kyle Rogers WG 22 Save Totovosau OB 23 Will Holder Coach: Rob Hoadley LP 1 Djustice Sears-Duru HK 2 Stephan Coetzee TP 3 Tim Metcher LL 4 Api Naikatini RL 5 Brad Tucker BF 6 Samu Manoa OF 7 Nakai Penny N8 8 Riekert Hattingh SH 9 JP Smith FH 10 Ben Cima LW 11 Jeff Hassler IC 12 Shalom Suniula (c) OC 13 George Barton RW 14 Brock Staller FB 15 Mathew Turner Replacements:HK 16 Daniel Trierweiler PR 17 Kellen Gordon PR 18 Jake Ilnicki LK 19 Jérémy Lenaerts LF 20 Eric Duechle SH 21 Phil Mack OB 22 Roland Suniula LF 23 Vili Toluta’u Coach: Richie Walker Most Valuable Player: JP Smith
Assistant Referees: Anthony Woodthorpe (England) Elgan Williams (Wales)
Television Match Official: Davey Ardrey (United States)
Post-match
The defending champion Seattle Seawolves was once again awarded the "America's Championship Shield", which was changed to a metal shield in the shape of the MLR logo. Seawolves scrum-half JP Smith was named the MLR Championship Series "man of the match".
References