Old Glory DC

Old Glory DC RFC is a professional rugby union team that is a member of Major League Rugby (MLR), founded in 2018. The organization is led by two local business leaders, former USA Eagles' Paul Sheehy and local club rugby player Chris Dunlavey.^[1] The Scottish Rugby Union has a part ownership of the team. The team is coached by Nate Osborne in an interim capacity after former head coach Andrew Douglas departed the club halfway through the 2022 season. Old Glory played an abbreviated schedule of exhibition games in 2019 and began regular-season MLR play in 2020. In October 2022, Josh Syms was announced as the new head coach.

Old Glory DC RFC

Founded	2018
Location	Washington, D.C.
Ground(s)	Cardinal Stadium (2020) Segra Field (2021–present) (Capacity: 5,000)
Chairman	Paul Sheehy Chris Dunlavey Scottish Rugby Union
Coach(es)	Josh Syms
Captain(s)	Danny Tusitala
League(s)	Major League Rugby
2022	6th (Eastern Conference)
Official website
oldglorydc.com

History

Major League Rugby (MLR) announced on May 15, 2018, that an MLR expansion team would begin play in Washington, D.C., by no later than the 2020 season^[2] and confirmed the team in November 2018.^[3] On February 6, 2019, the team name was announced as Old Glory DC.

On March 28, 2019, the Scottish Rugby Union announced that it had purchased a minority interest in the team.^[4]

Old Glory DC moved to Segra Field in Loudoun County, Virginia for the 2021 season.^[5] The team will return to Segra Field for the 2022 season.

After losing seven matches in a row to start the 2022 season, Old Glory DC announced the immediate departure of head coach Andrew Douglas on March 29, 2022. At the time of his departure, he was the longest-tenured head coach in MLR, having joined for the 2019 exhibition season before the first MLR season in 2020. He left with a 10-17-1 overall MLR record and a 37.5% winning percentage.^[6][7] Three days later, on April 1, Old Glory DC announced that former NOLA Gold head coach Nate Osborne would serve as an interim head coach for the remainder of the season while the team conducts a search for a permanent replacement.^[8] On October 31, 2022, Josh Syms was announced as the new head coach.^[9]

Sponsorship

Season	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor	Other Shirt sponsor(s)
2019	Adidas	Cuisine Solutions	None
2020–present	Paladin Sports		Leidos Iron Vine Security

Roster

For player movements before and during the 2022 season, see List of 2021–22 Major League Rugby transfers § Old Glory DC.

The Old Glory DC squad for the 2022 Major League Rugby season is:^[10]

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union Thomas Capriotti Hooker   United States Facundo Gattas Hooker   Uruguay Nick Hryekewicz Hooker   United States Rob Irimescu Hooker   United States Mo Katz Hooker   United States Jack Carroll Prop   United States Jake Ilnicki Prop   Canada Jack Iscaro Prop   United States Dante Lopresti Prop   United States Kyle Stewart Prop   New Zealand Hannibal Vaivao Prop   United States Will Vakalahi Prop   United States Felix Kalapu Lock   New Zealand Apisai Naikatini Lock   Fiji Tevita Naqali Lock   Fiji Stan South Lock   England Dom Bailey Back row   United States Josh Brown Back row   United States Luke Campbell Back row   Canada Finton Coleman* Back row   Ireland Brady Daniel Back row   United States Cory Daniel Back row   United States Jamason Faʻanana-Schultz Back row   United States Matthew Gordon Back row   United States Dacoda Worth Back row   United States

Player Position Union John LeFevre Scrum-half   United States Danny Thomas* Scrum-half   England Danny Tusitala (c) Scrum-half   Samoa Rohan Saifoloi Fly-half   Australia Owen Sheehy Fly-half   United States Doug Fraser Centre   Canada LJ Koi-Larbi Centre   United States Simi Moala* Centre   Tonga Thretton Palamo Centre   United States Palema Roberts Centre   United States William Talataina Centre   Samoa Peni Lasaqa Wing   New Zealand Renata Roberts-Tenana Wing   New Zealand Jack Russell Wing   United States Junior Sa'u Wing   New Zealand Mike Dabulas Fullback   United States John Rizzo Fullback   United States

• Senior 15s internationally capped players are listed in bold.
• * denotes players qualified to play for the United States on dual nationality or residency grounds.
• MLR teams are allowed to field up to ten overseas players per match.

Head coaches

•   Andrew Douglas (2019–March 2022)
•   Nate Osborne (April 2022-October 2022) interim
•   Josh Syms (October 2022-present)

Captains

• Josh Brown (2019) (Captain)
• Mungo Mason (2020–2021) (Co-captain)
• Thretton Palamo (2020–2021) (Co-captain)
• Danny Tusitala (2022–present) (Captain)

Records

Season standings

Year	Pos	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	+/−	BP	Pts	Playoff results
2020	3rd	5	4	0	1	122	129	-7	1	17	Season cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021	8th	16	6	1	9	409	490	-81	13	39	–
2022	6th	16	3	0	13	423	591	-168	8	23	–

2019 season

All games in the 2019 season were exhibition games and did not count in the MLR standings.

Date	Opponent	Home/Away	Location	Result
May 19	Shannon RFC	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Lost, 22-26
May 27	Scotland U-20	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Lost, 7-70
June 1	USA Rugby South Panthers	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Won, 28-7
June 9	Ontario Blues	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Won, 29-15

2020 season

On March 12, 2020, MLR announced the season would go on hiatus immediately for 30 days due to fears surrounding the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic.^[11] It was cancelled the following week.^[12]

Regular season

Date	Opponent	Home/Away	Location	Result
February 8	New Orleans Gold	Away	Gold Mine	Lost, 13-46
February 16	Seattle Seawolves	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Won, 28-22
February 22	Houston SaberCats	Away	Aveva Stadium	Won, 22-13
February 29	Austin Gilgronis	Away	Toyota Stadium	Won, 28-19
March 8	Rugby ATL	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Won, 31-29
March 15	Colorado Raptors	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Cancelled
March 22	San Diego Legion	Away	Torero Stadium	Cancelled
March 29	Rugby United New York	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Cancelled
April 11	New Orleans Gold	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Cancelled
April 18	New England Free Jacks	Away	Union Point Sports Complex	Cancelled
April 26	Toronto Arrows	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Cancelled
May 3	Utah Warriors	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Cancelled
May 9	Rugby United New York	Away	MCU Park	Cancelled
May 17	Rugby ATL	Away	Life University Running Eagles Stadium	Cancelled
May 24	New England Free Jacks	Home	Cardinal Stadium	Cancelled
May 31	Toronto Arrows	Away	Lamport Stadium	Cancelled

2021 season

Date	Opponent	Home/Away	Location	Result
March 21	NOLA Gold	Away	Gold Mine	Draw, 26-26
March 27	Rugby ATL	Home	Segra Field	Won, 30-23
April 3	Toronto Arrows	Home	Segra Field	Lost, 19-40
April 18	RUNY	Away	MCU Park	Lost, 34-38
April 25	New England Free Jacks	Home	Segra Field	Won, 35-22
May 1	LA Giltinis	Away	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum	Lost, 17-47
May 8	Utah Warriors	Away	Zions Bank Stadium	Lost, 33-34
May 16	Seattle Seawolves	Home	Segra Field	Won, 22-18
May 22	Houston SaberCats	Away	Aveva Stadium	Won, 21-13
May 30	RUNY	Home	Segra Field	Lost, 10-46
June 6	New England Free Jacks	Away	Union Point Sports Complex	Lost, 34-38
June 12	NOLA Gold	Home	Segra Field	Lost, 21-25
June 26	Rugby ATL	Away	Lupo Family Field	Lost, 12-32
July 4	Toronto Arrows	Away	Lupo Family Field^[a]	Lost, 28-34
July 10	San Diego Legion	Home	Segra Field	Won, 38-29
July 17	Austin Gilgronis	Home	Segra Field	Won, 29-25

2022 season

Exhibition

Old Glory played two preseason matches in January 2022. Both matches were held at the St. James Sports Complex, a series of indoor fields in Springfield, Virginia.^[13]

Date	Opponent	Home/Away	Location	Result
January 21	Toronto Arrows	Home	St. James Sports Complex	Lost, 47-17
January 28	New England Free Jacks	Home	St. James Sports Complex	Won, 27-22

Regular season

Old Glory will play eighteen matches in the regular season with two bye weeks. Their home matches will be played at Segra Field in Leesburg, Virginia.^[14] Because the MLR's Eastern Conference has one team fewer than the Western Conference, Old Glory will play the Toronto Arrows three times in the regular season, once at home and twice in Toronto.

Date	Opponent	Home/Away	Location	Result
February 5	Rugby ATL	Away	Atlanta Silverbacks Park	Lost, 22-55
February 12	Austin Gilgronis	Away	Bold Stadium	Lost, 12-57
February 18	New England Free Jacks	Home	Segra Field	Lost, 25-41
February 26	Toronto Arrows	Home	Segra Field	Lost, 5-29
March 6	San Diego Legion	Away	SDSU Sports Deck	Lost, 12-24
March 20	Rugby ATL	Home	Segra Field	Lost, 13-27
March 26	New Orleans Gold	Home	Segra Field	Lost, 22-31
April 3	Rugby New York	Away	JFK Stadium	Lost, 31-35
April 9	Toronto Arrows	Away	York Lions Stadium	Lost, 27-32
April 15	Utah Warriors	Home	Segra Field	Won, 22-21
April 23	Dallas Jackals	Home	Segra Field	Won, 50-10
May 7	New England Free Jacks	Away	Veterans Memorial Stadium	Lost, 26-20
May 14	New Orleans Gold	Away	Gold Mine on Airline	Lost, 50-21
May 21	Houston Sabercats	Home	Segra Field	Lost, 42-59
May 29	Rugby New York	Home	Segra Field	Lost, 49-59
June 5	Toronto Arrows	Away	York Lions Stadium	Won, 50-35

2023 season

Old Glory will play 16 games in the 2023 season. All 8 home games will be played at Segra Field.

Date	Opponent	Home/Away	Location	Result
February 18	Chicago Hounds	Home	Segra Field
March 5	Rugby New York Ironworkers	Away	Memorial Field
March 11	New England Free Jacks	Away	Veterans Memorial Stadium
March 18	Toronto Arrows	Home	Segra Field
March 25	NOLA Gold	Home	Segra Field
April 2	San Diego Legion	Away	Snapdragon Stadium
April 8	Rugby ATL	Away	Atlanta Silverbacks Park
April 16	Rugby New York Ironworkers	Home	Segra Field
April 22	Utah Warriors	Home	Segra Field
May 6	Dallas Jackals	Away	Choctaw Stadium
May 14	New England Free Jacks	Home	Segra Field
May 18	Toronto Arrows	Away	York Lions Stadium
May 27	Seattle Seawolves	Home	Segra Field
June 3	NOLA Gold	Away	Gold Mine
June 9	Houston SaberCats	Away	Aveva Stadium
June 17	Rugby ATL	Home	Segra Field

Notes

1. The Arrows temporarily relocated for the 2021 season due to COVID-19 border crossing concerns.

References

1. Neibauer, Michael (May 17, 2018). "Two local business leaders may field professional D.C. rugby team". Washington Business Journal.
2. Pengelly, Martin (May 15, 2018). "Washington DC team to enter Major League Rugby 'no later' than 2020". The Guardian.
3. Rowe, James (November 3, 2018). "Toronto Officially Joins Major League Rugby For 2019; Washington, DC In 2020". The Runner Sports.
4. "Scottish Rugby take minority stake in new U.S. team". ESPN. Reuters. March 28, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
5. Augenstein, Neal (October 22, 2020). "Pro rugby team Old Glory DC moving to Loudoun County". WTOP-FM. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
6. McCay, Chris. "Head Coach Andrew Douglas to Depart Old Glory DC". Old Glory DC. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
7. "Old Glory parts ways with Head Coach Andrew Douglas". Americas Rugby News. 29 March 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
8. Allen, Hope. "Old Glory DC Names Nate Osborne Interim Head Coach". Old Glory DC. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
9. "Old Glory DC Announces Joshua "Josh" Syms as Head Coach". Old Glory DC. Retrieved 2022-10-31.
10. "Old Glory DC". Americas Rugby News. Retrieved 25 December 2021.
11. "MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY SUSPENDS 2020 SEASON FOR 30 DAYS". Major League Rugby. March 12, 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
12. "Major League Rugby cancels remainder of 2020 campaign". Yahoo! Sports. Agence France-Presse. March 19, 2020. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
13. "2022 Old Glory Preseason Schedule". Retrieved 4 January 2022.
14. "2022 Match Schedule". Retrieved 4 January 2022.