When we last left Old Glory DC in March 2020, the region’s new professional rugby football franchise was racking up the big hits and nail-biting victories in its debut expansion season in the three-year-old Major League Rugby (MLR). The stadium was selling out 3,000 seats for each home game at Catholic University, national television audiences were tuning in, a growing fan base was learning the names of the players, and the team was an impressive 4-1 against more established franchises.
And then … well, you know what happened.
When the sports world shut down last year, rugby fans across the country held their collective breath. MLR, the nation’s first pro rugby league, began in 2018 with seven teams in the West; it had just added five new squads in the East and Canada. Could a fledgling league with privately financed franchises weather a drought with no end in sight?
“The league is in really good shape,” reports a relieved Paul Sheehy, the scion of the regional auto sales empire that bears his name, and one of the owners of Old Glory DC (see our feature story on Sheehy and rugby). “You know that line, ‘That which does not kill you makes you stronger’? I’ve been sort of living that.”
While “it’s unfortunate the way the season ended,” he says, he’s shocked, amazed, and delighted by the way the rugby community has responded. “If you had told me three years ago when [co-owner] Chris Dunlavey and I met that we would be where we are [in overall success], I would have said no. I would have said that would take at least seven years to get there. But it’s remarkable. We have one of the best setups [in the league] and we raised the bar in professionalism—which is our goal, nonstop. But we still have a lot of work to do.”
MLR begins its fourth season March 20 and continues the regular season for 18 weeks. Old Glory DC kicks off its first home game on March 27 at a new venue, Segra Field at Philip A. Bolen Park in Leesburg. Sheehy says the 1,000 season tickets permitted to be sold, given pandemic limitations, are gone. More tickets will become available as local health guidelines change. (Sign up for updates.)
In lieu of watching in person, Old Glory DC fans can enjoy a whopping six national TV broadcasts on CBS Sports and Fox Sports 1 and 2; all the local matches will be seen on NBCSports–Washington.
As for the players, Old Glory DC has been beefing up the roster with not just professionals from around the world but also locally raised rising rugby stars, including a trade with the Dallas Jackals for fleet-footed Falls Church native Dmontae Noble, 23, who began playing in NoVA youth rugby leagues at age 8.
Many of those players have been living under mandatory league protocols in a “bubble” at the Trove Apartments in South Arlington and have been working out at the indoor facility the all-in-one St. James athletic complex in Springfield. Sheehy says they are ready to go.
“I really didn’t know if we would get to this place,” Sheehy says, “but the league has done some really good work, as has our team, and I’m just grateful to be where we are.”