When Major League Rugby was reduced from 11 teams to six in the offseason, a lot of players were made available.
Talent was an asset, but that’s not all the Chicago Hounds were looking for. They needed a good mix of new players to join the returnees.
“What we needed was a group of players willing to fight for each other, willing to go to war for each other when times got tough,” Hounds coach Chris Latham said. “We certainly got the right people in.”
And now the Hounds are in the MLR championship game.
Chicago kept its record perfect on the season with a 59-22 rout of Old Glory on June 15 at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview. It was the fifth time in 11 games the Hounds scored 50 or more points.
The Hounds take on the California Legion in the championship game at 7 p.m. June 21, also at SeatGeek Stadium.
California (5-5 during the regular season) beat Seattle 43-34 in the other semifinal battle on June 14 at Starfire Stadium in Washington.
The Hounds beat the Legion 48-24 on a rainy home-opening night on April 12 and later won 36-26 on the road on May 17.
Noah Brown had two tries against Old Glory while Theo Fourie, Noah Brown, Jake Kinneeveauk, Peyton Wall, Mason Flesch, Lucas Rumball and Michael Baksa each had one.
Some were expecting the Hounds/Old Glory game to be tight after Chicago won 33-32 on May 30 in Washington.
But after Old Glory took a quick 3-0 lead, the Hounds scored the next 38.
“We didn’t like it that (the second game) was so close,’” said Brown, the first player drafted by the Hounds in 2023. “We honestly felt like that was the worst game that we played.
“We definitely owed them one.”
Heading into their first MLR championship game, the Hounds will be heavily favored to become the first team in league history to run the table.
Pressure?
“It’s not so much about pressure, to be fair,” Latham said. “It’s something that we’ve addressed all year. It’s not about the pressure of winning or the pressure of being undefeated in a season, it’s all about upholding the standards of where we hold ourselves and where we want to be and what we want to achieve.
“I see good things in that sense. It’s not so much about the pressure. It’s more that you don’t want to let your teammates down and you don’t want to let the organization down.”
Rumball added that anyone who gets this deep into the playoffs will face pressure.
“Look, I think pressure in an undefeated season or winning a championship — you are always going to have the pressure,” he said. “But the way we looked at it from a team perspective is that every week we want to improve. Every week is a new week.
“Yes, we’ve had an undefeated season and that’s awesome. But in the playoffs, none of that really matters. It’s all about the next game in front of you and that’s how we’ve taken the year. That’s why we’ve been so successful.”