Arrows to Face Seattle in MLR Championship Series Semi-Final

With files from MLR Communications

Toronto Arrows Editorial Note: Canadian broadcast details for Sunday’s semi-final will be confirmed shortly.

Salt Lake City, UT; June 3, 2019: it took until the very last day of the season, but the table for Major League Rugby’s Championship Series is set. The Seattle Seawolves, the Toronto Arrows, and Rugby United New York all punched their ticket to the playoffs on Sunday to join the San Diego Legion in the semi-final round set to kick off on Sunday, June 9.

The Seawolves, the winners of the Championship Shield in 2018, defeated Austin Elite Rugby 38-26 at home to earn the opportunity to defend their title. After starting the season with a 2-2 record, the Seawolves didn’t drop more than one game in a month for the rest of the season. Sunday’s win over the Elite improved the Seawolves’ record to 11-4-1. They finished the season with 58 points in the table to secure the second seed heading into the MLR Championship Series.

While the top half of the table consists of two teams that competed in the inaugural MLR Championship Series, the bottom half of the table consists of two teams in their inaugural season. Both the Toronto Arrows and Rugby United New York finished their first season in the MLR with 11-5 records to head into the semi-final round as the third and fourth seed, respectfully. The difference in seeding was decided by a 22-20 Arrows victory over RUNY on Sunday afternoon. The Arrows finished the season with 57 points while RUNY finished right behind them with 54 points in the table.

Major League Rugby’s Championship series will consist of two semi-final games and the MLR Championship game over the course of two weekends. Both semi-final matches will be played on Sunday, June 9 with the San Diego Legion hosting Rugby United New York at Torero Stadium at 5 PM ET and the Seattle Seawolves hosting the Toronto Arrows at Starfire Stadium at 9 PM ET. Both semi-final matches will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network. The highest remaining seed will host the lower remaining seed in the MLR Championship game at 4 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 16. The MLR Championship will be broadcast on CBS.

Header Photo Credit: José Romelo Lagman