The Utah Warriors re-signed Mika Kruse for the 2023 Major League Rugby season. The 24-year-old center/wing (25 in June) is 6’1″ and 220 lbs.
After playing Major League Rugby since 2018, he has 55 MLR caps and was the tenth person to reach 50 caps. He is tied for ninth place on the all-time MLR tries scored list with seventeen, nine of which were scored in 26 matches with the Warriors.
Mika played in 13 matches in 2022 and played 954 minutes in 14 matches, starting 12, and scored 6 tries for the Utah Warriors in 2021.
Mika played 400 minutes, starting all five matches on the right wing, and scoring two tries for the Colorado Raptors in 2020. During the 2019 season, Mika played 870 minutes in 14 matches, starting 11, and scored 3 tries. He also carried the ball 76 times for 722 meters and made 60 tackles. He also had 6 linebreaks, 5 tackle breaks, and 5 offloads.
The Glendale Raptors initially signed Mika Kruse to their Glendale Merlins Academy team in 2017. He moved up rapidly and was added to the Raptors side in 2018 playing center and wing. He played 610 minutes for the team in 10 matches, starting 8, and scored 3 tries.
Mika also played against the USA Rugby Collegiate All-Americans. His talent was recognized and he was included in the USA Rugby Selects squad for the Americas Pacific Challenge. That led to his inclusion on the Eagles training squad for the November 2018 tests. He was selected to the 23 man squad against the Maori All Blacks and entered the match as a reserve.
He made his USA National Team XVs debut starting against England at Twickenham on July 4, 2021. This was followed by Ireland in Dublin on July 10. He then played in the 2023 Rugby World Cup qualifiers against Canada and twice against Uruguay, with the last of his 5 starts in internationals in Montevideo, Uruguay on October 9, 2021. He also has scored two tries.
Kruse is from Fresno, California, and attended Bullard High School, where he played rugby for five years beginning in 2010. The Fresno Bee noted, “The all-around athlete grew up playing football, basketball, and track, but by age 12 discovered that rugby was his passion.”
In 2014 Kruse was named to the Northern California All-Star team. He also was a USA High School All-American at flyhalf and participated in the Under-17s tour to Europe.
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