The continuation of Yacare in Super Rugby Americas (SRA) is under threat. In an interview with El Polideportivo on La Tribu Deport 1120 AM, Gustavo Borgognon, the president of the Unión de Rugby del Paraguay (UPR) explained that SRA 2026 may be the last to feature the Paraguayan team.
Borgognon explained that despite offering free tickets that the pubic has not been responding. The team is operating on an unsustainable loss and that the URP does not have 40 Paraguayan players who want to play professional rugby for six months of the year.
  SOUTH AMERICA – FORMER PROFESSIONAL RUGBY TEAMS |
If Yacare do indeed withdraw from SRA then the 2027 season would be the first without a Paraguayan entrant. Paraguay was an inaugural member of the Super Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) which was rebranded to SRA.
Paraguay’s involvement in 2020-2022 was in the form the Olímpia Lions. Rebranding and the end of the association between the URP and the Olímpia soccer club saw Yacare replacing the Olímpia Lions in 2023.
Soccer branding still exists in SRA with Uruguay’s team playing as Peñarol until today. It also formerly existed in São Paulo as the brief SLAR 2020 season had Corinthians as the Brazilian team. The association between Brasil Rugby and Corinthians ended and Cobras Brasil XV replaced Corinthians as Brazil’s professional rugby team for the 2021 season.
Changes to Super Rugby saw Jaguares out and this also saw the team being rebranded as Jaguares XV and this side entering SLAR 2021 in place of Ceibos to be the Argentine entrant. The team competed in 2021 and 2022 before being replaced by Pampas as the Buenos Aires side in 2023 and Córdoba returning but with Dogos rather than Ceibos in 2023.
Changes to SLAR and SRA were also intercontinental. The 2023 and 2024 seasons featured a team based in Denver, Colorado. Having departed Major League Rugby (MLR) the American Raptors competed for two seasons in the South American league.
The exit of the Raptors has not seen SRA reduced as expansion from within Argentina has lifted the country try to now have 50% of the SRA participants. Tarucas joined in 2025 and Capibaras entered for the 2026 season.
| TEAM | COUNTRY | ENTERED | FINAL SEASON |
| Ceibos | Argentina | 2020 | 2020 |
| Corinthians | Brazil | 2020 | 2020 |
| Olímpia Lions | Paraguay | 2020 | 2021 |
| Jaguares XV | Argentina | 2021 | 2022 |
| Cafeteros Pro | Colombia | 2021 | 2022 |
| American Raptors | USA | 2023 | 2024 |
  NORTH AMERICA – FORMER PROFESSIONAL RUGBY TEAMS |
As noted earlier, the American Raptors completed in SRA 2023 and 2024. The Colorado-based side competed was an inaugural competitor of MLR, playing as the Glendale Raptors in MLR 2018. The franchise was rebranded to be known as the Colorado Raptors for the 2020 season.
MLR has undergone a series of format changes since it began in 2018. An area of the changes involved new and former teams. The MLR peaked in 2023 with 13 professional teams. This was an increase from 12 teams in 2020-2022, 9 teams in 2019 and 7 teams in the inaugural season in 2018.
The 2023 and 2024 seasons both featured 12 teams while there were 11 in MLR 2024. With 6 contemporary teams, MLR 2026 season has the lowest number of franchises since MLR began.
Of the six MLR 2026 competitors, the Seattle Seawolves are the one franchise that has competed in every edition of the competition. Fellow inaugural franchises, the Houston SaberCars, NOLA Gold, and Utah Warriors exited in 2025.
Anthem RC joined in 2024 while RFC Los Angeles and the San Diego Legion merged to form the California Legion for MLR 2026. RFC Los Angeles was previously based in Atlanta as Rugby ATL.
The Chicago Hounds debuted in 2023 with both the Austin Gilgronis and LA Giltinis out due to ownership issues. Canada’s prior professional rugby team, the Toronto Arrows, exited MLR following the death of their majority owner and president, Bill Webb.
MLR is the second professional rugby competition based in the USA. The first was PRO Rugby which began in April 2016 and ceased operations in January 2017. PRO Rugby had five teams: the Denver Stampede, Ohio Aviators, San Diego Breakers, San Francisco Rush and the Sacramento Express.
| TEAM | COUNTRY | ENTERED | FINAL SEASON |
| Denver Stampede | USA | 2016 | 2016 |
| Ohio Aviators | USA | 2016 | 2016 |
| Sacramento Express | USA | 2016 | 2016 |
| San Diego Breakers | USA | 2016 | 2016 |
| San Francisco Rush | USA | 2016 | 2016 |
| Glendale Raptors | USA | 2018 | 2020 |
| Houston SaberCats | USA | 2018 | 2025 |
| New Orleans Gold | USA | 2018 | 2025 |
| San Diego Legion | USA | 2018 | 2025 |
| Utah Warriors | USA | 2018 | 2025 |
| Austin Gilgronis | USA | 2018 | 2022 |
| Rugby New York | USA | 2019 | 2023 |
| Toronto Arrows | Canada | 2019 | 2023 |
| Rugby ATL | USA | 2020 | 2023 |
| Los Angeles Giltinis | USA | 2021 | 2022 |
| Dallas Jackals | USA | 2022 | 2024 |
| Miami Sharks | USA | 2024 | 2025 |
| RFC Los Angeles | USA | 2024 | 2025 |
The post Former Professional Rugby Teams in the Americas appeared first on Americas Rugby News.
0 Comments