Vegas weekend report. MLR set up a dual weekend for rugby matches in Vegas and lined up teams from all over North America to come.
Good news: My son and I flew in Friday so we got to see some of the players and former players including Todd Clever, and hang out with other fans and players, Had drinks with Ben Mitchell’s parents (lock for SD Legion from England and previously an Austin Elite/Herd/Gilgroni). They’d flown in from the UK for the weekend. Shared an Uber with them from the hotel to the match which was great to get their opinion of US rugby (more optimistic about it than me)
Former Eagle, Austin Elite and UT rugby forwards coach Pete Malcolm also plays for Legion now which is head and shoulders better than anyone else in the MLR (albeit their game v Colorado née Glendale was prettly sloppy but an easy win). really fun to see Ma’a Nonu play for the Legion in person again (saw him play against the Eagles at Soldier Field in ‘16 as an All Black). He didn’t have the best game but had a beautiful move to score a try midway through the first half for the Legion, kind of a text book side step/Euro step kind of thing. The 8 for the Legion is also a beast They should win the league this year. If I didn’t live in Austin I’d support their side.
Lastly got a free Gilgronis hat from the new CEO of the team as he told me to “swap out my gear” when he saw me with my Elite hat on
bad stuff
crowd There were probably less than 10 people from Austin that made the trip in support not counting ownership. The few that we met were fantastic fans, including the president of the Gilgronis fan club (shout out if you’re on Shaggy)
At best, there were 1000 people for the each game. Pitch sucked (artificial).
As far as the matches, Austin is not good. Backs are decent, but the forwards are a mess. They’ll be lucky to win a match.
But still go to COTA if you get a chance and support them.
Good clean fun.