The Houston SaberCats are an American professional rugby union team based in Houston, Texas. The team was founded in 2017 and competes in Major League Rugby, the top-level rugby union competition in the United States and Canada that played its first season in 2018. The SaberCats organization was born from one of the founding amateur rugby clubs that pooled resources to emerge professionally, and were the first in MLR membership to build a rugby-specific stadium intended for MLR competition.
Home field
Houston plays their games in SaberCats Stadium, which was opened on April 13, 2019. In February 2018, the City of Houston agreed to fund $3.2 million of the $15.25 million needed to build a permanent rugby stadium for use by the Houston SaberCats at Houston Sports Park. On July 17, the SaberCats announced that a three-year naming rights were awarded to British multinational software and technology company Aveva, and that it would be initially known as "Aveva Stadium". Following this deal, the venue became known as "SaberCats Stadium".
Houston Sports Park is also the permanent training ground for Major League Soccer soccer team Houston Dynamo as well as the Houston Dash women's soccer team.
During the 2018 regular season, the SaberCats played their home matches at Dyer Stadium and trained at Athlete Training and Health in Houston. The team also played at Constellation Field, home of the Sugar Land Skeeters, for part of the 2019 season, and for their exhibition matches in 2017 and 2018. Also, in April 2019, while the new pitch at SaberCats Stadium healed, the team returned to Dyer Stadium to play one match against San Diego before returning to SaberCats Stadium.
Broadcasts
2019 home games were shown on KUBE-TV an independent station in Houston.
Sponsorship
Players and personnel
Current squad
The Houston SaberCats squad for the 2024 Major League Rugby season is:
Senior 15s and senior 7s internationally capped players are listed in bold. * denotes players qualified to play for the on dual nationality or residency grounds. MLR teams are allowed to field up to ten overseas players per match.
Current Coaching staff
Pote Human (Head Coach) Ryan Nell (Assistant Coach – backs) Jon Hood (Strength & Conditioning Coach)
Head coaches
Justin Fitzpatrick (2017–2019) Paul Emerick (2019) Paul Healy (2020–2021) Pote Human (2022–Present)
Former Assistant Coaches
Sam Windsor (Backs – 2017–2019) Paul Emerick (Backs – 2017–2020) Matt Trouville (Lineouts – 2017–2019) Neil Kelly (Defense – 2019) Darren Morris (Forwards – 2019)
Captains
Kyle Sumsion (2018) Matt Trouville (2019) De Wet Roos (2020) Luke Beauchamp (2021) (co-captain) De Wet Roos (2021) (co-captain) Dean Muir (2022–)
Records
Season standings
Notes
2018 season
Exhibition
Regular season
2019 season
Exhibition
Regular season
2020 season
On March 12, 2020, MLR announced the season would go on hiatus immediately for 30 days due to fears surrounding the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic. It was cancelled the following week