The USA's newest professional men's rugby league kicks off this weekend with three games and six of the seven teams in action.

The Utah Warriors are idle against league competition but will actually play a warmup against Alberta.

Fans are hoping hard that this league will be more successful than PRO Rugby, which ran in 2016. Already the MLR teams are working harder to sell tickets, and early returns look promising for the likes of the Seattle Seawolves and Houston Sabercats.

The starting lineups are below (or will be when they're updated)—Sunday's game between San Diego and Seattle is late with the lineups.

The teams are featuring several USA internationals and capped players from overseas. New Orleans includes Canadian international Hubert Buydens at prop, while capped Eagle Ben Tarr is also propping the scrum. JP Eloff and Tim Maupin form a midfield of capped Eagles, while recent college standouts Holden Yungert (Saint Mary's), Michael Baska (Lindenwood), and Seb Kalm (Lindenwood) help round out the squad.

Houston's well-seasoned outfit includes capped back rowers Kyle Sumsion and Matt Trouville, and Zach Pangelinan at fullback. Of course, much of the talk has been about the superb Osea Kolinisau at outside center.

There's been more talk about a guy on the subs bench for the Austin Elite: Todd Clever, who returns to help fill some injury gaps. But the Elite has some other star power, including Hanco Germishuys in the back row, and the experienced Suniula brothers in the midfield. The Elite will take on a stacked Glendale Raptors team that has capped USA players at every part of the team—Zach Fenoglio at hooker, Ben Landry at lock, John Quill and Peter Dahl in the back row, the halfback combo of Shaun Davies and Will Magie, and backs Bryce Campbell and Seth Halliman (capped in 7s).

Glendale is the league's most established club, but it's all a mystery until they start playing.

RESULTS:

SATURDAY

New Orleans Gold 35, Houston SaberCats 26

Glendale Raptors 41, Austin Elite 26

SUNDAY

Seattle Seawolves 39, San Diego Legion 23

LINEUPS:

Houston SaberCats	vs.	New Orleans Gold
Saturday, 2 PM CDT | Dyer Stadium, Houston
Jake Turnbull	LHP	Hubert Buydens
Lindsey Stevens	H	Eric Howard
Adam Macklin	THP	Ben Tarr
Charlie Hewitt	L1	Nikola Bursic
Robert Meeson	L2	Matt Wirken
Kyle Sumsion	BSF	John Sullivan
Cecil Garber	OSF	Matt Hughston
Matt Trouville	N8	Sebastian Kalm
Connor Murpher	SH	Holden Yungert
Sam Windsor	FH	Taylor Howden (c)
Alex Elkins	W1	Joeli Tikoisuva
Conor Mills	IC	JP Eloff
Osea Kolinisau	OC	Tim Maupin
Josua Vici	W2	Bobby Johns
Zach Pangelinan	FB	Michael Baska
Diego Maquieria	R1	Amro Guda
Estevan Flores	R2	Cameron Falcon
Kenneth Hepburn	R3	Derrek Van Klein
Justin Allen	R4	Myle McQuone
Chris Parker	R5	Ratu Rinakama
Chris Coyle	R6	Zack Stryffler
Malacchi Esdale	R7	Tesimoni Tongauiha
Daniel Paul	R8	Melvin Desouza

Glendale Raptors	vs.	Austin Elite Rugby
Saturday, 3 PM MDT | Infinity Park, Glendale, CO
Luke White	LHP	Chris Schade
Zach Fenoglio	H	Mike Brown
Kelepi Fifita	THP	Mason Pedersen
Casey Rock	L1	Ben Mitchell
Ben Landry	L2	Victor Comptat
Connor Cook	BSF	Kyle Breytenbach
John Quill	OSF	Hanco Germishuys
Peter Dahl	N8	Pedrie Wannenberg
Shaun Davies	SH	Michael Reid
Will Magie	FH	Timothee Guillimin
Seth Halliman	W1	Sani Taylor
Bryce Campbell	IC	Andrew Suniula
Mike Kruse	OC	Rolan Suniula
Harley Davidson	W2	Reece Czarnecki
Maximo de Achaval	FB	Zac Mizell
Blake Rogers	R1	David Lemasters
Nick Kwasniewski	R2	Siaosi Finau
Dylan Fawsitt	R3	Robert Drummons
Samuel Figg	R4	Todd Clever
Brian Wanless	R5	Alex Faison-Donahoe
Jake Christmann	R6	Knute O'Donnell
Chad London	R7	Sione Fangaiuiha
Ata Malifa	R8	Ross Deacon

Seattle Seawolves	vs.	San Diego Legion
Sunday, 5 PM PDT | Starfire Stadium, Seattle
Kellen Gordon	LHP	Sione Tu'ihalamaka
Ray Barkwill	H	Gil Covey
Tim Metcher	THP	Aaron Mitchell
Jeremy Lenaerts	L1	Lance Lamprecht
Taylor Krumrei	L2	Albert Harmon
Cam Polson	BSF	Chris Turori
Aladdin Schirmer	OSF	Devin Short
Reikert Hattingh	N8	Cam Dolan
Phil Mack	SH	Nick Boyer
Will Holder	FH	Ben Cima
Jerem Misailegalu	W1	Nick Evans
Shalom Suniula	IC	JP DuPlessis
Will Rasileka	OC	Anthony Salaber
Brock Staller	W2	Takudzwa Ngwenya
Mat Turner	FB	Mike Te'o
Mike Shepherd	R1	Pat Blair
Vili Toluta'u	R2	Tony Purpura
John Hayden	R3	Tasi Toilolo
Olive Kilifi	R4	Derrick Broussard
Eric Duechle	R5	Drew Gaffney
Peter Tiberio	R6	Sione Letoi
Mike Garrity	R7	Naima Fuala'au
Dion Crowder	R8	Austin Switzer