Snapdragon Stadium was designed with the intent of holding major sporting events.
Major League Rugby paid attention.
On Sunday afternoon, the Seattle Seawolves (11-5-0) and New England Free Jacks (11-5-0) will play for the MLR championship at Snagdragon with a national television audience watching on Fox.
The home of the San Diego Legion, who fell in last weekend’s MLR semifinal to Seattle, is the perfect home for the sport’s biggest game.
“We can’t think of a greater stage to host our premier event than San Diego and Snapdragon Stadium,” said the MLR’s Harry Hardy. “San Diego has set the standard with the Legion and a state-of-the-art stadium. It’s a fantastic place to have our most visible game of the season.”
New England are the defending champions having beaten the San Diego Legion in last season’s title game in Chicago.
Seattle eliminated the Legion last week and are seeking their third MLR championship and first since 2019.
“At the start of the year, we talked about it a little bit,” said Free Jacks Fullback Reese MacDonald. “But we also said that this is a new year, a new bunch of boys, and we wanted to leave our own legacy. We just take it one game at a time. Every win we take, and we have gotten this far. We are very, very happy. We have put in a lot of work in over the last seven months. It was a big year. You will always have a target on your back after winning it the year before. We took it one game at a time and stoked to be back in the Final.”
Only two players remain from Seattle’s last championship five seasons ago: JP Smith and Riekert Hattingh.
“When I signed here, I wanted to come because I knew the history and wanted to win a championship,” Fly Half Reece McDonald said. “A Good result would mean a great deal to us players. There are a few boys chasing milestones and a third championship. That is big. For me, possibly getting a first championship in my career in MLR, that is massive. It would mean a great deal to the club and players.”
The teams played once during the regular season back in April with Seattle winning 29-21 in New England.
Center Wayne Van Der Bank and prop Kaleb Greiger were each good for five points that day and Jayson Potroz was responsible for four.
New England has walked the gauntlet, trying to defend a title this season dealing with serious injuries to several key players.
“Yeah, it’s been a challenging season,” said coach Scott Mathie who grew up in South Africa and has coached the Free Jacks since 2021. “It’s a whole new ballgame when you’ve won a championship, and as you said, every game is basically everyone else’s final.. You get the very best of every team in the regular season. We’ve found that it’s sharpened us really well. You know, we learned a lot of lessons on the way. We’ve had to deal with a bit of adversity this year, losing some key players. But I”ve found depth that has really shown through and we’ve been able to find solutions to problems. What we’ve also found is some really good form come the back end of the season, so we’ve come through this playoff run with a lot of confidence and a lot of excitement.”
