MLR 2026 Stat Leaders: Week 2 Season-to-Date Standouts

Last Updated on April 12, 2026 1:29 pm by ZUWP Automation

Wayne van der Bank leads the league in tries, clean breaks, and turnovers as Seattle and Old Glory DC dominate the counting stats.

Two weeks into the Major League Rugby 2026 season, a handful of names are already pulling away from the pack across every major statistical category. New England Free Jacks standout Wayne van der Bank has positioned himself as the league’s most complete ball-carrier, topping three separate leaderboards. Meanwhile, Seattle Seawolves and Old Glory DC players account for the majority of spots in the metres, carries, and clean breaks tables, signaling that those two clubs are generating the most consistent attacking output through the opening fortnight.

Tries Leaders

Van der Bank sits clear at the top of the try-scoring chart with 10 tries through two weeks, a total that already separates him from every other player in the competition. The Free Jacks have found a finisher who converts opportunity into points at a remarkable rate, and his presence alone reshapes how opponents must defend New England’s attacking shape.

Seattle’s Divan Rossouw follows with 8 tries, while Old Glory DC’s Perry Humphreys and Seattle’s Duncan Matthews are tied at 6 tries each. DC’s Cory Daniel rounds out the top five with 5 tries, a figure made even more notable given his simultaneous presence atop the tackles-made chart.

Metres Leaders

Seattle’s Duncan Matthews leads all players in metres gained with 1,152 metres through two rounds, edging Old Glory DC’s Damien Hoyland, who has produced 1,072 metres. The Seawolves’ backline in particular is generating enormous yardage, with Matthews and Rossouw combining for over 2,100 metres between them.

Rossouw contributes 994 metres to rank third, while Van der Bank adds 795 metres to complement his try-scoring exploits. DC’s Humphreys closes the top five at 594 metres, reflecting Old Glory’s balanced attacking load across multiple carriers despite sitting at 0W-1L on the season.

Carries Leaders

Rossouw leads the league in carries with 182, underlining his role as Seattle’s primary ball-runner through the first two rounds. Matthews is right behind at 157 carries, confirming that the Seawolves run their offence through a high-volume, two-pronged carrying structure that defenses are being forced to account for on nearly every phase.

Hoyland records 155 carries for Old Glory DC, while Van der Bank contributes 151 carries for New England. Chicago Hounds’ Luke White breaks into the top five with 121 carries, providing the only non-Seawolves or non-DC entry in this category and highlighting Chicago’s 1W-0L start.

Clean Breaks Leaders

Van der Bank’s 24 clean breaks represent the league’s highest total and offer the clearest statistical explanation for his 10-try return. He is not just crossing the line through team plays; he is consistently breaking the first line of defense at a rate that no other player in the competition has matched through two weeks.

Matthews trails with 21 clean breaks and Rossouw posts 19, reinforcing Seattle’s status as the league’s most penetrative backline unit. Humphreys and Hoyland share fifth place for Old Glory DC, each recording 17 clean breaks, a combined 34 line-breaks from two players on a team yet to secure a win.

Tackles Made Leaders

Old Glory DC’s Cory Daniel leads all players in tackles made with a dominant 246, a figure that speaks to DC’s defensive workload through the early season. Combined with his 5 tries and 7 turnovers won, Daniel is operating on both sides of the ball at an intensity that stands out across the entire league.

Chicago’s Maclean Jones is second with 183 tackles, and Anthem RC‘s Makeen Alikhan contributes 172. Van der Bank adds 153 tackles from the New England side, with Seattle’s Rhyno Herbst completing the top five at 148. The breadth of teams represented in this category suggests defensive workload is more evenly distributed across the league than the attacking statistics.

Turnovers Won Leaders

Van der Bank extends his cross-category dominance by topping the turnovers chart as well, with 16 turnovers won in two rounds. That combination of 10 tries, 24 clean breaks, and 16 turnovers from a single player is the defining individual story of the 2026 MLR season so far.

Alikhan is the closest challenger at 15 turnovers won, a total that makes the Anthem RC player one of the most disruptive defenders in the competition despite his team sitting at 1W-1L. Daniel, Humphreys, and Chicago’s Matthew Oworu each register 7 turnovers to share third place, adding further versatility to their respective statistical profiles.

Kick Metres Leaders

Seattle’s JP Smith leads the competition in kick metres by a substantial margin, posting 2,951 kick metres through two rounds. That output places Seattle among the league’s most territorially active kicking sides, complementing the team’s high carries-and-metres attacking game with a strong aerial dimension.

Rossouw’s 2,044 kick metres in second place are particularly notable, given that he also leads the competition in carries. Old Glory DC’s Connor Buckley contributes 1,716 kick metres, New England’s Harrison Boyle posts 1,532, and Anthem RC’s Karl Keane rounds out the top five at 1,389 kick metres.

Emerging Trends

The most striking pattern across Week 2’s statistical leaders is how frequently Van der Bank’s name appears at or near the top of every category. His 10 tries, 24 clean breaks, 16 turnovers, 795 metres, and 153 tackles represent a volume of cross-disciplinary output that has no comparable entry in any other statistical row through the first two rounds. New England’s overall standing will hinge in large part on whether that workload is sustainable as the schedule deepens.

Seattle presents a different but equally compelling pattern: the Seawolves place multiple players in the upper tiers of every attacking category. Rossouw and Matthews combine for 339 carries, 2,146 metres, and 40 clean breaks, while Smith generates nearly 3,000 kick metres. That breadth of contribution across multiple players suggests a more structurally distributed attack than the one Van der Bank is carrying almost single-handedly for New England, and it helps explain Seattle’s +17 point differential through two games.

Old Glory DC presents the sharpest contradiction in the data: the team sits at 0W-1L with a point differential of -17, yet their players populate the metres, carries, clean breaks, tries, and tackles leaderboards in numbers that rival the unbeaten sides. Hoyland, Humphreys, and Daniel are each producing at elite individual levels, but those statistics have not yet converted into wins, a divergence that will be worth monitoring closely as DC seeks its first victory of the season.

Standings

The standings through two rounds reflect a league still finding its early-season shape. California Legion leads on points at 69 despite a 0-1 record, while Chicago Hounds and Seattle Seawolves are level at 33 points each with matching 1W-0L records and positive differentials of +14 and +17 respectively. With Van der Bank, Rossouw, and Daniel all posting historic individual stat lines through two games, the competition for both individual honors and league supremacy is set to intensify as Week 3 approaches.