Is this the biggest rugby weekend of 2026 so far?

🏉 URC semifinals
🏉 Super Rugby playoffs
🏉 Major League Rugby's final regular-season weekend
🏉 Premiership postseason picture
🏉 Japan Rugby League One Final
🏉 Top 14 implications

The panel dives into all of it in under 30 minutes:

🎙️ John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL)
🎙️ Mike Friday
🎙️ George Hook
🎙️ King Gift Egbelu
🎙️ Matt McCarthy

Topics include:

• Are Irish teams overrated?
• Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu injury concerns
• Spain 7s
• Sale Sharks struggles
• Old Glory's near-upset of Chicago
• Player of the Week nominations
• "Grown A$$ Man" nominations
• George Hook on artificial turf and injuries

Plus predictions for:
✅ URC Semifinals
✅ Premiership Rugby
✅ MLR
✅ Super Rugby Qualifiers
✅ Japan Rugby League One Final
✅ Top 14

Who wins the URC, Super Rugby, MLR, and JRLO titles? Drop your predictions below. 👇

#Rugby #URC #MLR #SuperRugby #PremiershipRugby #JapanRugby #Top14 #RugbyPodcast #TheRugbyOdds #RugbyWrapUp

Major League Rugby delivered another wild week of results, but the biggest shockwave came from the college game — as Harry Bennett and UCLA announced the program is leaving the College Rugby Association of America for National Collegiate Rugby. 👀

On this episode of MLR Weekly, Bennett joins Matt McCarthy to break down the stunning move, the new Scholar’s Cup, what it means for the future of college rugby, and what dominoes could fall next.

ALSO FEATURED:

💪 Power Pundit Prognosticators
☕ John Fitzpatrick of Rugby Morning
🎙️ Ben Holden joins McCarthy

🧭 WHAT’S INSIDE + TIMESTAMPS

🎥 01:18 — Rugby’s Best Recap

🎥 04:11 — Power Pundit Prognostications
• Last Week’s Last Licks
• Prognosticators’ Prognostications

🎥 17:13 — MLR Picks from The Rugby Odds

🎥 18:08 — Featured Guest: Harry Bennett
• UCLA leaving CRAA for NCR
• The Scholar’s Cup
• Unifying the college rugby landscape
• Next shoes to drop

🔥 Don’t miss The Rugby Odds!

📍 NEW YORK, NY — Lots of stellar rugby and dramatic subplots packed into an extraordinarily eclectic 25 minutes.

🎙️ THE PANEL
💥 John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) — WWE Hall of Famer & rugby advocate
🇬🇧 Mike Friday — 3× Olympic 7s coach & Harlequins fan 🤔
☘️ George Hook — Ireland’s most unfiltered voice
🔥 Gift Egbelu — Inventor of Words
🎤 Matt McCarthy — The host

⏱️ WHAT'S INSIDE & WHEN

01:05 📈 Records

• Somebody’s smokin’ hot!

02:26 👀 What Caught Your Eye?

• Super Rugby disparity makes no sense
• King Egbelu vacating his throw/leaving the show
• Saracens still punching
• Play them or rest them?! Union Bordeaux Bègles & others face dilemma
• Hideous yellow uniforms mean losses

07:32 🏆 Player of the Week Nominees

• Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
• Marlie Packer
• Jamie Benson

09:29 💪 Grown A$$ Man Nominees

• Josh Iosefa-Scott
• Jac Morgan
• Leicester Fainga'anuku

12:20 ☘️ Headlines With Hook

• Connacht Rugby in
• Munster Rugby out

🔮 Predictions
18:21 — Women’s Six Nations
19:26 — United Rugby Championship & Major League Rugby

24:38 🌎 — Premiership, Super Rugby & Top 14

26:37 💥 — Picks of the Week

SEATTLE, WA — There is only one player in Major League Rugby who has stayed with the same club since the league began. Through every hit, bruise, and battle, he’s also reached 100 caps as Captain.

That player? Seattle Seawolves legend Riekert Haddingh.

This week on MLR Weekly, host Matt McCarthy sits down with the Seawolves’ backrow enforcer to talk about:

• Reaching the century mark
• Surviving life in the trenches
• His drive to win another MLR Shield
• And the one thing in MLR that has still escaped him...

ALSO FEATURED

💪 Power Pundit Prognosticators

• Will Hooley
• Ben Holden

☕ Rugby Morning's Coffee Break

• John Fitzpatrick

WHAT’S INSIDE + TIMESTAMPS

🎥 01:08 — Rugby’s Best Recap

🎥 02:36 — Coffee Break

• Cal vs Navy CRAA Championship recap
• WER back in action with Meghan Trainor

🎥 05:59 — Power Pundit Prognostications

• Holden, Hooley & McCarthy
• Last Week’s Last Licks
• Weekly picks & predictions

🎥 20:18 — MLR Picks from The Rugby Odds

🎥 21:04 — Featured Guest: Seattle’s Iron Man, Riekert Haddingh

• From backrow to backline?
• Playing the Stormers in Cape Town
• Life after rugby
• The pursuit of another MLR Shield

🏉 The Rugby Odds — Stellar Rugby, Chaos & Classic Banter

📍 NEW YORK, NY — Massive matches, wild subplots, referee drama, French TV madness, and the most eclectic rugby panel anywhere — all jammed into 25 fast-moving minutes.

🎙️ THE PANEL
💥 John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL)
🇬🇧 Mike Friday – 3× Olympic 7s coach & proud Harlequins supporter
☘️ George Hook – Ireland’s most unfiltered rugby voice
🔥 King Gift Egbelu – Inventor of Words
🎤 Matt McCarthy – Host & traffic cop of the madness

⏱️ WHAT’S INSIDE & WHEN

00:58 📈 Records

• Somebody absolutely shined…

01:44 👀 What Caught Your Eye?

• More Bath vs referee fallout
• Bordeaux brilliance
• HOLY MOLY, that French TV crew
• MLR Ref Review controversy
• Rugby’s calendar catastrophe continues

06:12 🏆 Player of the Week

Nominees

• Maxime Lucu
• Matthieu Jalibert
• Caelan Doris

09:05 💪 Grown A$$ Man

Nominees

• Juarno Augustus
• Mikheil Shioshvili
• Fraser McReight

12:46 ☘️ Headlines With Hook

• Leinster & Leo Cullen’s loose lips
• Ulster in a final?!

Predictions

16:53 — URC, Premiership & MLR
23:33 — Super Rugby, Top 14 & JRLO
26:27 — 💥 Picks of the Week