Where to for Rugby Union in USA

[James]

even if rugby union in the US does make it to the next step of been professional and gaining popularity, its still going to face the problems of player retention. It will be like the NRL poaching rugby union players back in the 80's, any player who shows the the slightest amount of talent will be picked up by the NFL.

Perhaps. I would've thought most of the players who would end up making up the teams would be NFL rejects so unless they're reconsidered I think the door would be closed on that one.

[jazza93]

One day soon USA will probably be able to compete at the top but i dont think they will be invicible. The top level of rugby is to good and i cant imagine a team that could consistantly thrash the top teams in the world. The USA will certainly have a massive talent pool soon but you can only use 15 of them at a time.

[beige]

After considerable faffing about due to a very slow internet connection I have now managed to slice this pile of posts away from Ben Castles debut thread, if he had come on to have a look as it was he would be scratching his head a little...

A possible path for the US would be to form a six team comp with Canada and Argentina (if Argentina doesn't come into the Super xx).

Have two teams each:


USA West (Colorado & California?)
USA North East (the Universities?)

Canada West
Canada East

Agrentina Buenos Aires
Argentina Interior (ie all but the Capital)

USA Rugby was blabbing about doing this last year but it never happened.

[welshrugbyfan]

I'm just glad Burgs mentioned he sliced this from the Ben Castle thread cause I was pretty sure I hadn't started a thread about US rugby, well not intentionally anyway.

I wish the game takes off like a wild fire over there though. There was a show on MTV the other night about a girl in high school who wanted to be MADE (That's the name of the show as well) into a rugby player. She was some sort of prima donna I suppose and wanted to show she could man up so to speak. The point is they even have girls rugby teams in high schools over there. They are streets ahead of us in that regard. Oh and she ended up doing pretty good in her first game.

Good work Burgs on the new thread.

[Burgs]

I don't think they were looking to include the Argentine component were they?
Missed much of last years overseas developments, is the four US four Canadian team comp still going? That was a starting point at least.

[beige]

I don't think they were looking to include the Argentine component were they?
Missed much of last years overseas developments, is the four US four Canadian team comp still going? That was a starting point at least.

Yeah, that was the idea - to add a couple of Argentinean teams to the existing comp. I remember a USA Rugby official talking about it in the media but it obviously it never happened.

[Burgs]

You might find this site handy if you aren't already hooked up Thunderchook, found it having a poke around the place earlier.
Looks like some interesting US content there.

http://www.erugbynews.com/index2.php

[AndyS]

I'd've said 2 from Canada, 3 from the US and 2 from Argentina, but I'd also include one each from Chile and Uruguay...they are not that far removed in the rankings.

[Burgs]

Only trouble is that Canada is currently about six positions higher than the US so it becomes talent v expansion.
And, to make it float I think you would have to have those two with equal numbers anyway, a different form of the SA mentality with Canadian's

[AndyS]

I think the number of teams would be more driven by regionality - I could see a East, Central and West in the US, but Canada looks to be predominantly based in BC and Ontario.

[Burgs]

I believe Alberta to be fairly strong too and the East Coast would have enough interest going on previous media I have seen.
I doubt any of them would budget for much more than a couple of thousand per match anyway so it would be far more about developing junior player interest and maximum senior player competition than the market issues for the Top Tier comps.

[AndyS]

I don't know about Canada, but I would hope the competition would be looking for more than a couple of thousand - they average 16,000 for domestic soccer in the States. With rugby played in colleges and high schools, and the elite and international elements to the game, you'd think they could do fairly well. That for mine is the real objective - developing interest is great but what they need to do is generate income and access even a small part of the sporting dollar in the States.

[.X.]

A couple of points I would like to raise. Having been a fan of American Football since the late 80's.

Athletsism - I recall the San Francisco 49ers (bless em) had 4 Wide Receivers that attempted to qualify for the 4x100m Relay and only just missed out.

Growing the Sport in the USA - the best thing for the game in America would be the support of the NCAA - after that everything would be so much easier.

[thunderchicken9]

Well said, X. Once high school programs are well established, more universities will offer rugby as a NCAA varsity sport, such as it is a Cal- it's certainly paid off there, yielding 26 NCAA titles. Yet even Cal has yet to offer scholarships for rugby. Granting a free, or even partially paid for education is essential for drawing top athletes. Schools offering women's rugby are much more likely to get the blessing of the NCAA. Realistically I don't see professional rugby dislodging the Big 4 North American sports, but it could fit in nicely; similar to Major League Soccer. 10-20,000 fans per home match, (not too shabby...) in the U.S. and Canada wouldn't be out of the question, playing a late-winter-to spring schedule..By the way, Fresno State Uni is allowing us to hold another rugby "open house" on their campus tomorrow, our goal being recognition of rugby as a varsity sport by 2010. Men's side is coming along, but none of the women we began with have stayed out, so we really need more interest from the women..

[James]

A bit of interesting trivia for anyone interested.... Bill Clinton used to play rugby when he was at University. He mostly played as a lock.

Maybe they could use him as a figurehead to launch the game over in the USA.

Ex- Speed isn't really the be all and end all in rugby. We had Brett Stapleton in the Force squad and despite his blistering speed he never really showed enough of the other skills required to make it in big time rugby.