Rugby union in the United States

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Rugby union in the United States is a growing national sport. It is played at the youth, high school, club, semi-professional, and national levels. The United States is a second-tier rugby nation.

Contents 1 History 1.1 1870-1960 1.2 1960s-present 2 Governing Bodies 2.1 Mid-Atlantic 2.2 Midwest 2.3 Northeast 2.4 Pacific Coast 2.5 Southern California 2.6 USA Rugby South 2.7 West 2.8 Independent 3 Popularity 3.1 College 3.2 Club and semi-professional 4 Competitions 4.1 Rugby Super League 4.2 North America 4 5 National Teams 5.1 Collegiate All-Americans 5.2 USA Eagles 6 See also 7 Sources 8 External links

[edit] History

See also: History of rugby union

[edit] 1870-1960

Rugby was first introduced in the United States by English soldiers and colonists in the mid-1800s. To wit, in 1872 rugby clubs were established in the San Francisco Bay Area, which were mainly comprised of British expatriates.

The first recorded rugby match in the United States occurred on May 14, 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University.

In 1876, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, a competition based on the traditional rules of rugby union. Around the same time, the aforemnetioned British rugby players of San Francisco introduced rugby to the University of California, Berkeley.

The unfamiliar and complex gameplay hampered initial growth on the East Coast. Controversy arose in 1905 when photographs of a match between Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania were published. The pictures were used to depict rugby as a "harsh game." Rugby union grew on the West Coast, however, and as many as 26,000 spectators regularly attended matches between the University of California and Stanford University.

In 1908 and 1909, the Australian national team visited the U.S. as part of an international tour. The US-Australia matches marked the United States' first international tests.

In 1910, a combined Universities rugby team comprised mostly of players from Cal, Stanford, and the University of Nevada went on a tour of Australia and New Zealand. The underdog American side upset both Rotorua RFC and Auckland RU, which came as a great surprise to the international rugby community

In 1912, the Wallabies returned to America; this tour was the first and only America-specific tour by Australia to date. The 1912 tour of the United States saw the United States national team play their first international test, which they lost 12-8.

After a pomising start on international stage, the Americans were thrashed a year later by the All Blacks, 51-3. This test was organised by former Cal president Benjamin Ide Wheeler in an attempt to popularize rugby among his students.

The national team won their first test in 1919, defeating Romania. Although rugby had been dropped now on the west coast, there were still many rugby fans, some who campaigned for inclusion in the upcoming Olympics. A response from the IOC stated that "due to the fact that California is the only state playing Rugby in the US, the Committee will give sanction but no financial aid". In 1920, rugby union was a fixture at the 1920 Summer Olympics, and a United States team ended up winning gold after money was raised in San Francisco to send them there. In 1924, rugby union was again included in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. An American side were invitied to participate, and the team surprised spectators by landing a place in the final with the hosts - the French. An estimated 50,000 turned up to Colombes Stadium to watch France defeat the American team. In what is considered one of the biggest upsets in the sport, the United States defeated France for the Gold. 1924, was however the last time rugby was a fixture at the Olympics, making the 1924 United States team, the last to win the medal. It is thought that after the IOC removed the game as an Olmypic sport, the game suffered on a massive scale in the United States.

In 1939, a delegate from the Californian rugby league was sent to the rugby football league with the intention of adopting professional rugby rules. An English delegation was to be sent to California in 1940, but WWII prevented this from happenning and the efforts for professional rugby came to nought.

[edit] 1960s-present

In the 1960s, the game started to see some form of growth, with many seeing rugby union as an alternative to American football. In 1975, the United States of America Rugby Football Union was formed.

In 1987, the first Rugby Union World Cup was held, and the United States was invited to participate. The following world cup, the 1991 tournament, saw invitations abolished in favour of a 32-team qualifying tournament, that saw the United States successfully gain entry. They finished at the bottom of their pool (admittedly, they were in a pool with New Zealand, England and Italy -- all relatively strong rugby powers). However, they did not qualify for the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

In 1996, the Rugby Super League was created by the 14 major governing bodies of the sport in the United States, with the intention of creating a competitive and national competition. 1997 saw the inugural season of the competition. There were 14 teams competiting, which were divided into two seven-team divisions; the Western-Pacific Conference and the Midwestern-East Conference. Aspen won the first championship.

After missing out on the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, the national side qualified for the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Wales. They subsequently qualified for the 2003 Rugby World Cup, finishing fourth in their pool, winning one game against Japan. The US recently qualified for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, beating Uruguay home and away to clinch the Americas 2 spot.

[edit] Governing Bodies

Rugby union played anywhere is governed by the International Rugby Board (IRB), which is based out of Dublin, Ireland. It is the governing and law-making body for the entire world of rugby union. There are over 100 member unions of the IRB, with USA Rugby being the member union of the United States. USA Rugby is responsible for overseeing rugby union domestically and training the various national teams that they put on the pitch. Within USA Rugby, there are seven territorial area unions (TAU's) that are charged with governing a specific region of the country. Within these TAU's, there are also Local Area Unions (LAU's), which are responsible for governing a specific region within their respective TAU's.

A complete list of TAU's and their respective LAU's are as follows.

[edit] Mid-Atlantic

• Eastern Penn - see Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union
• Potomac
• Virginia

[edit] Midwest

• Allegheny
• Chicago Area
• Indiana
• Illinois
• Iowa
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Ohio — also includes the Kentucky areas of Louisville, the Bluegrass, and Northern Kentucky, plus the Huntington, West Virginia area
• Wisconsin

[edit] Northeast

• Metropolitan New York
• New England - see New England Rugby Football Union
• New York State

[edit] Pacific Coast

• Arizona
• Northern California
• Pacific Northwest
• Utah

[edit] Southern California

• Southern California - North
• Southern California - South

[edit] USA Rugby South

• Deep South
• Florida
• Georgia
• MidSouth — covers the Tennessee Valley
• North Carolina
• Palmetto

[edit] West

• Eastern Rockies
• Great Plains
• Heart of America
• Missouri
• Ozarks
• Rio Grande
• Texas
• Sharpley

[edit] Independent

• Alaska
• Lopez
• Idaho
• Montana

[edit] Popularity

At present, 80,000 US citizens are registered with USA Rugby (One needs to be certified by USA Rugby to participate in most matches and tournaments), and 18 teams are entered in the premier domestic competition, the Rugby Super League, for 2007. [1] There are 745 referees within USA Rugby.

There are over 1,200 pre-teens currently playing organized rugby union (1,097 male, 197 female). [2] There are over 20,000 high school athletes playing rugby union for their schools or U19 clubs (14,875 male, 6468 female). [3]

[edit] College

Main article: College rugby

[edit] Club and semi-professional

There are 27,488 males and 9,852 females playing senior-level rugby union. [4]

[edit] Competitions

[edit] Rugby Super League

Main article: Rugby Super League (US)

The Rugby Super League is a semi-professional competition that was created in 1996 by the major TAU's within USA Rugby with the intention of creating a competitive national competition. There are currently seventeen teams in the competition. The inclusion of some sub-par clubs and the exclusion of top-performing clubs has been a controversial issue since the inception of the Super League, calling into question whether it is really USA's "premier" competition. USA Rugby Premier Division is another US competition.

[edit] North America 4

Main article: North America 4

North America 4 is an elite-level IRB-financed tournament , which was introduced in 2006. The competition is contested between four teams, two from both the United States and Canada. The 2006 event will take place over two stages; the first in British Columbia and the second in Columbus, Ohio.

[edit] National Teams

[edit] Collegiate All-Americans

The following is the current (as of 7 May 2006) list of Collegiate All-Americans.

	Player	Position	Club
	Jarvis Albury	Flanker	Arkansas State
	Chris Biller	Lock	California
	Peter Black	Wing	Utah
	Andrew Blair	Fullback	California
	Blake Burdette	Prop	Utah
	Adam Casias	Outside Centre	Air Force
	Joseph Connolly	Flyhalf	UCLA
	Joel DiGiorgio	Scrumhalf	California
	Ryan Donnelly	Inside Centre	California
	Cyrus Dorosti	Prop	California
	Sean Foley	Flyhalf	Truman State
	Douglas Graves	Lock	Arkansas State
	Ed Haigh	Flyhalf	Washington
	Andrew Hanks	Wing	California
	Mike Hobson	Inside Centre	Air Force
	Owen "Dutch" Jones	Scrumhalf	Clemson
	Joe Killefer	Flanker	Dartmouth
	Jake LeGros	Flanker	Ohio State
	Brian Lemay	Hooker	Air Force
	Andrew Lindsey	Number 8	California
	Dominic Mara	Flyhalf	Penn State
	Brian McClenahan	Prop	California
	Tim Naylor	Outside Centre	Harvard
	Scott Nielsen	Flanker	Utah
	Mike Palefau	Wing	Southern Utah
	Mike Petri	Scrumhalf	Penn State
	Tony Petruzzella	Number 8	Cal Poly SLO
	Ed Pitts	Inside Centre	Cal Poly SLO
	Rickus Pretorius	Hooker	California
	Jason Pye	Wing	Utah
	Salesi Sika	Fullback	BYU
	Louis Stanfill	Lock	California
	Tony Vontz	Hooker	California

[edit] USA Eagles

Main article: United States national rugby union team

USA Rugby's national team is nicknamed the Eagles. The National Men’s Team first took the field in 1976. Competing in international tournaments like the Churchill Cup and the Pan American Championship, as well as specially scheduled matches against rugby powers such as France and Ireland, the Eagles have qualified for four of the five Rugby World Cups, most recently at the 2003 Rugby World Cup held in Australia. The United States are currently a tier-2 rugby nation, through professionalism the Eagles have been making improvements in coaching, management and player development, and as a result have improved on the field.

[edit] See also

• Comparison of American football and rugby union

[edit] Sources

• Rugby reborn in the USA (from the BBC)

[edit] External links

• Official site
• US rugby union news from Planet Rugby
• Coverage of all American rugby union at GoffonRugby