Houston SaberCats & Jamie Dever

The Houston SaberCats have signed Jamie Dever for the 2019 Major League Rugby season. Dever can play both loosehead and tighthead prop positions.

Dever is from Westport, County Mayo, Ireland and is 25 years old. He is 6’1″ and weighs 254 pounds. He joined the SaberCats in 2017 from Cambridge Rugby Club as an injury replacement for Codi Jones, although he was on the radar for some time. On December 16, he started for the team at loosehead prop in a pre-season 21-5 win against Dallas Rugby. He has since played in the January 2018 pre-season matches. Dever then had visa issues that limited his playing time until the end of the regular season.

Dever lived in Westport until age 5 until his family moved to England. There he played basketball, cricket, swimming or football. He then moved to Australia for a year before moving back to Westport. It was there that he first started playing rugby.

Dever went to Rice College Westport and played rugby while there. He played for Westport RFC, which is part of the Connacht junior A-League and which participates in the Heineken Junior Cup. Dever also played for Ireland Under 16s, 18s, 19s, and 20s, as well as the Connacht sides.

In 2012, he started for the Connacht U20s against the USA Collegiate All-Americans at tighthead prop. The 2012/13 season was his first with the Connacht Academy. He helped lead the Connacht U20s to an interprovincial clean sweep and also represented Ireland’s U19 team. A foot injury caused him to miss the following season before returning to the Connacht Academy for the 2014/15 season.

On October 31, 2014, he debuted in the Guinness PRO 12 competition as a replacement for Connacht against the Ospreys. Since then, he has played in 5 matches for Connacht.

During his third year for the Connacht Academy in 2015/16, he also played with the Corinthians in the All-Ireland League. In 2017 he played for Buccaneers as they won the Division 1B title and gained promotion to the Ulster Bank League Division 1A for the following season. In Fall 2017 he signed with Cambridge RFC and played in the National One competition against Rosslyn Park on October 14, 2017

Dever also played in the British & Irish Cup on April 27 for Connacht against Newport, October 12, 2014, against Bristol, and January 21, 2017, against the Cornish Pirates, after a 26-month absence for Connacht, due to injury.