NEWS

Meet The 2024 MLR Draft’s Third Overall Pick: Calvin Ihrig

Written by Joe Harvey

With the third overall pick of the 2024 Major League Rugby Collegiate Draft, the Miami Sharks selected Calvin Ihrig from Lindenwood University.

The back-row forward was selected after impressing in MLR Rising and with his collegiate team over the past five years.

“I was shocked,” Ihrig said. “Personally, I felt that this year’s Draft class was loaded with talent. I wasn’t expecting it.

“I had been speaking to teams, and Miami called me the day before teams started drafting.

“I spoke to Coach Jose (Pellicena), and he was asking a few questions and said they wanted to pick me up.

“I didn’t know if they were doing the rounds, but when I saw my face as the third pick, I was very shocked. Really happy. I couldn’t believe it.”

Ihrig’s rugby journey has been shorter than most.

Born to an American mother and German father in Chicago, Illinois, his father’s work took the family across the globe.

Canada, Germany, and Vietnam were all called home briefly before moving to Thailand in 2009.

Spending a decade in Bangkok, Ihrig attended the International School Thailand and took up rugby in his sophomore year.

After initially unsure of the game, he took up rugby sevens and began to thrive on the field. In his senior year, he began exploring options for college.

After being connected with the coaching staff at Lindenwood-Belleville, before later transferring to the St. Charles campus in 2020, Ihrig moved to Missouri.

But there was one thing: he had never played 15-a-side rugby.

“I am a back-row now, but when I first came over, I wanted to play fly-half and wing,” he laughed.

“They stuck me on the wing, and I didn’t understand the game at all, really.

“I tried to play fly-half, but when you don’t understand the game, you are not going to be a very good fly-half.

“Then I wasn’t getting many minutes. The coaches suggested if I wanted more, to move into the back-row because they could use my speed there.

“I tried that and then ended up enjoying that way more. They gave me a few things to focus on, and things then started to come a little bit more naturally.”

It was in Josh Macy’s College of Knowledge that Ihrig really started to thrive.

Surrounded by a vast squad of players that have come together from across the globe, that deep knowledge of the sport washed over the learning forward and provided endless learning opportunities.

Also attending a well-established and successful program, the Lindenwood Lions have seen numerous alumni go on to play in MLR and beyond.

Ihrig follows in the footsteps of Houston SaberCats back-row forward Emmanuel Albert, who is a top-three selection.

Picked second overall in the 2021 MLR Collegiate Draft, Albert has played 45 matches for the Texas club and helped the team reach Playoffs rugby in each of his seasons.

Ihrig will be the latest of those going into professional rugby with the Sharks.

Learning bucketloads in his four years in St. Charles, the 23-year-old has applied himself relentlessly to becoming the best rugby player possible and will continue to do the same in 2025.

“What I am hoping to offer Miami is hard work,” Ihrig said. “I want to go down there, not have any expectations for selection or anything like that. Because you can shoot yourself in the foot expecting things like that.

“Coach Jose was telling me that I will have to go down there and earn my position. Which is something I agree with and something I have had to do my entire career with Lindenwood.

“I am a rapid learner, and I think that if I am able to pick up the game as quickly as I have in the past five years, just by learning from other people, I am excited to see where I can take my game at the pro level.

“Some of these guys have been in the professional world for a long time, and the coaches have great resumes.

“Being able to learn what they have for me. I am excited about that. I just want to absorb all that knowledge and put it into training as well.”