DALLAS – Major League Rugby, the premier professional rugby league in North America, announced the results of the 2024 MLR College Draft on The Rugby Network on Wednesday.
The draft consisted of three rounds of 12 picks each, totaling 36 selections by MLR franchises.
The 2024 MLR College Draft was the fifth in league history, featuring the deepest talent pool to date. St. Mary’s College of California saw six players drafted, the most in this year’s draft, while a total of 22 schools were represented with selections.
Anthem RC selected Erich Storti with the first pick. Storti joins Rick Rose (Miami, 2023), Sam Golla (Dallas, 2022), Eric Naposki (Dallas, 2021), and Conner Mooneyham (Dallas, 2020) as the first overall players to be taken in the draft.
MLR uses a “Draft and Follow” approach where rights to drafted players will be assigned following the MLR College Draft. Teams may activate those rights at any point until the mid-point of the next competitive MLR season after the player is eligible to play in the MLR. Drafting teams may sign those players or trade player rights with other MLR teams.
The league hosted its first MLR College draft in 2020, which saw 24 players selected across two rounds, but commensurate with the growth of the league, the draft has grown into its current form today.
A complete breakdown of the each pick by round is available [in the link]