Raptors Look to Rebound in 2020

The 2019 Major League Rugby season didn’t go as planned for the Colorado Raptors.

After narrowly falling to the Seattle Seawolves 23-19 in the inaugural Major League Rugby Championship in 2018, the Raptors never really gained their footing in 2019 and finished with a 7-7-2 record and sixth place in the table as a result. They were two spots and 11 points out of the playoffs.

That’s not how things work in Colorado. The Raptors are used to competing for championships instead of watching the playoffs from the couch. The slip that was the 2019 season is just one of the reasons that the Raptors are primed for a big 2020.

Starting the 2020 season on the right foot will be extremely important for the Raptors if they are to get back to their winning ways. It took Colorado a few weeks to get things rolling in 2019. They dropped their season opener, which served as a rematch of the inaugural final, 20-18 to the Seawolves and followed that up with another loss in Week 2, this time falling to the NOLA Gold 40-31.

The first two matches of the Raptors season in 2020 will not be much easier than their first two in 2019. They’ll open the season up on the road on February 8 against a Houston SaberCats team that finished the 2019 season on a four-match win streak. Then, the Raptors will head to Las Vegas for a match against a San Diego Legion team that finished atop the table at the conclusion of the regular season and were one defensive stand away from dethroning the Seawolves in the 2019 MLR Championship.

Those first two matches will also serve as the first of two meetings between teams two teams that make up the newly-established Western Conference. With the addition of three new expansion teams in 2020 – Old Glory D.C., the New England Free Jacks, and Rugby ATL – comes the division of the league into an Eastern and Western Conference. Each conference will be made up of six teams. The Raptors, SaberCats, Legion, Seawolves, Austin Herd and Utah Warriors will represent the West while the Gold, Old Glory D.C., the Free Jacks, Rugby ATL, Toronto Arrows and Rugby United New York will represent the East.

While there are many league-wide changes heading into the 2020 season, there have been several internal changes with the Raptors as well. Colorado will take the pitch with a new man heading the ship as Pete Borlase takes over in his first year as the head coach. They’ve also revamped their roster, adding some big names in former All Black Rene Ranger and Wallaby Digby Ioane and several other experienced rugby players in former Legion back Nick Boyer and Seawolves Aladdin Schirmer to name a few.

The Raptors also retained several key members of their team from last season. Heading that list is utility forward and co-captain Luke White. White had arguably his biggest season in 2019, carrying the ball 180 times for 1,159.2 meters in 16 matches. Colorado also returns one of the MLR’s leading try-scorer in wing John Ryberg in 2020. Ryberg finished 2019 with 13 tries, a league-leading 1,566.7 meters in just 14 matches. His 13 tries tied him with RUNY’s Dylan Fawsitt for the most in the MLR in 2019.

Colorado’s schedule won’t lighten up much following their first two matches but they will return to Infinity Park for their home opener, which will kick off a three-match homestand, in Week 3 when they welcome the Gold to town. From there, the Raptors will take on a new-look Utah Warriors squad and a Toronto Arrows team that secured a playoff spot in their first year of competition.

After wrapping up their three-match homestand, the Raptors will shoot to the nation’s capital to take on an Old Glory D.C. team led by 2019 World Cup winner Tendai Mtawarira before returning home to take on a hungry Austin Herd team that finished the 2019 season without a win.

A quick trip home is followed by a trip up to the Pacific Northwest to take on the back-to-back defending champion Seawolves. That match will be the sixth meeting between the two teams in what really has evolved into the first great rivalry in the MLR. The Raptors knocked off the Seawolves twice in the inaugural season before falling to them in the 2018 MLR Championship and the Seawolves knocked the Raptors off both times they met in 2019. From there, the Raptors will fly to the east coast to take on the brand new New England Free Jacks before returning home for their second battle with the SaberCats.

The Raptors will wrap up the third quarter of the season with a trip up to New York to take on a RUNY team that was a few minutes away from playing in the 2019 MLR Championship in their first season. Colorado will return home to take on their old friend Harley Davidson and Rugby ATL.

The fourth quarter of the season will consist of two road matches against the Warriors and Herd before the Raptors return to Infinity Park to close out the season against the Seawolves and Legion – the two teams that competed for the championship shield in 2019.

The Raptors will see a little bit of everything in 2020. There will be some hungry teams gunning for a few wins, they will see all three of the new expansion teams and they’ll get a shot at some of the top talent from 2019.

They’ll get to test the waters this weekend as they head to Las Vegas for a joint practice session with the Toronto Arrows and a scrimmage with Rugby ATL.