San Diego Legion re-signed Ryan Matyas for the 2023 Major League Rugby season, his sixth with the team. The 31-year-old center/wing will be 32 at the end of December and is 6’1″ and 195 lbs.
Ryan played 571 minutes in13 appearances, starting 5, and scored 4 tries in 2022. He mainly played on the right wing but has played outside center in the past, and filled in at scrumhalf twice in 2022. He also has been active with the Legion in coaching in the area.
Ryan has played 2322 minutes, in 36 matches, starting 26, and scored 11 tries and one conversion since 2018.
Breaking down his stats, he played 690 minutes in 14 matches, 6 as a starter, scoring 32 points (6 tries and one conversion).
Ryan played 159 minutes in 3 matches in 2020 beginning in week 3 as a reserve and started the final match at the outside center. In 2019 he played 854 minutes in 11 matches, including the MLR Championship, and scored 1 try. He carried 52 ties for 615 meters, made 6 linebreaks, 3 tackle breaks, and 3 offloads, kicked 5 times for 105 meters, and made 85 tackles. In 2018 he started all 8 matches, playing 619 minutes, and had 4 tries.
Matyas is from Tucson, Arizona, and graduated from Tucson High School. He then attended the University of Arizona and later became a rugby coach for the Junior Varsity and Developmental sides, as well as an assistant coach for the men’s sevens team.
Matyas began playing rugby in 2003 at age 12 with the Tucson U19 Barbarians and continued with Tucson Rugby Club until 2011. He then moved to the United Kingdom and played for a season with Tondu RFC in Bridgend, Wales.
Matyas played college rugby at the University of Arizona in 2013 and was honored as a Collegiate All-American 7s player. He also played with the Junior All-Americans.
He also played club rugby with the Tucson Magpies, and the Tempe Old Devils, and played in New Zealand in 2015 with the East Coast Bays RFC and with North Harbour Sevens. He played with Old Blue of New York and with the Northeast Academy ODA, and also played rugby professionally with the San Diego Breakers in 2016.
Eagles XV & Eagles 7s
Ryan Matyas made his Eagles XV test debut against Chile at Fort Lauderdale, on Feb. 20, 2016. He has been capped fourteen times (twelve starts), and his last test was against New Zealand on October 23, 2021. He has played both wing and center for the national team. He also played for the USA Selects in the Americas Pacific Challenge in 2018.
Matyas is also a capped Eagles 7s player. He earned his first cap in the 2013 season opener in Gold Coast, Australia, and was capped 7 times. In August 2013 he helped the All-Americans win the Serevi Rugbytown Sevens. Rugby Today indicated that “Matyas earned a full-time contract for that season, garnering selection to six tournaments before suffering an injury between the Glasgow and London stops.” He is Eagle XV #486.
In 2022, he announced his retirement from playing international rugby.
Rugby 7s
“Matyas also played with Negro y Azul at the Rugbytown 7s in 2016, and he suited up for the Northeast ODA and at Elite City 7s before getting in a few 15s games with Old Blue and returning to New Zealand for a second 7s season.”
Matyas returned to the Eagles 7s at the Silicon Valley Sevens tournament in Nov. 2017.
DJCoil Rugby Interview
Ryan Matyas discusses how San Diego has fostered his rugby goals, the 2019 MLR season 2, & the challenges of being a rugby spouse. (Post-match interview: Rugby United New New York vs San Diego Legion at MCU Pak on April 14, 2019)
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