North America Caribbean Rugby Association

"NACRA" redirects here. For North American Catamaran Racing Association, see North American Catamaran Racing Association.
North American and Caribbean Rugby Association
Formation March 2001
Type Sports federation
Headquarters Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Membership
 15 members
4 affiliates
President
 United States Bob Latham
Website http://www.nacrugby.com

The North America Caribbean Rugby Association, or NACRA, is the governing body for rugby union in North America and the Caribbean. NACRA's predecessor organisation up until 2001 was the North America and West Indies Rugby Association (NAWIRA).

NACRA operates under the authority of World Rugby, and is one of six regional unions represented within it. World Rugby's 28 member executive council includes one seat for a NACRA representative and one seat for Canada. By contrast to NACRA's 2 votes on the World Rugby executive council, European countries have 12-13 votes.

The main objective of NACRA is the promotion and development of rugby in North America and the Caribbean. The association unveiled a four-year plan during the 2011 Annual General Meeting to grow rugby within its membership unions through promotion, media output and competition.[1]

Competitions

NACRA oversees regional competitions, such as regional qualifiers for Pan Am Games and Rugby World Cups. It also hosts the annual NACRA 7s competition, which periodically serves as the regional qualifying competition for the Rugby 7s World Cup. Generally, the Tier Two nations (Canada & The United States) do not participate, or only send representative sides, with the exception being during World Cup Qualification (e.g., 2012).

NACRA Sevens
Year Location Winner
Men's Women's
2009 Mexico City, Mexico  Guyana  Guyana
2010 Georgetown, Guyana  Guyana  Guyana
2011 Garrison Savannah Racetrack, Barbados  Guyana  Maple Leafs
2012 Twin Elm Rugby Park, Canada  Canada  Canada
2013 Truman Bodden Sports Complex, Cayman Islands  Canada  Canada
2014 Mexico City, Mexico  Guyana  Mexico

Governance

NACRA is governed by a board of five executives. The USA, Canada and Mexico are fixed representatives, while the Caribbean countries elect two nations for delegation.[1]

Membership

As of 2010 the NACRA countries account for 128,828 rugby players,[2] with the largest number of players from:

  1. United States (88,151)
  2. Canada (23,853)
  3. Trinidad and Tobago (5,060)
  4. Mexico (3,454)

NACRA has 15 member unions and four affiliate unions,[3] not all which are members of World Rugby (WR).[4] NACRA's members are listed below with the year each union joined World Rugby shown in brackets where applicable. World Rugby associates are shown in italics.

Member unions

There are 11 World Rugby members, and 2 World Rugby associates:

  • The Bahamas Bahamas (1994)
  • Barbados Barbados (1995)
  • Bermuda Bermuda (1992)
  • British Virgin Islands British Virgin Islands (2001*)
  • Canada Canada (1987)
  • Cayman Islands Cayman Islands (1997)
  • Guyana Guyana (1995)
  • Jamaica Jamaica (1996)
  • Mexico Mexico (2006)
  • Saint Lucia St. Lucia (1996*)
  • Saint Vincent and the Grenadines St. Vincent & the Grenadines (2001)
  • Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (1992)
  • United States United States (1987)

There are 2 members of NACRA which have no affiliation with World Rugby:

Affiliate unions

There are also 4 unions as of 2013,[3] that are NACRA affiliates:

Notes:

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The governing body for both Guadeloupe and Martinique is the French Rugby Federation. It is affiliated with World Rugby and has territorial committees for France's overseas departments and territories.[5]

 * Denotes World Rugby associate membership date.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Learning More About NACRA. Rugby Canada,18 July 2012.
  2. ↑ "Year in Review" (PDF). IRB. 2010. p. 10.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Affiliated Unions". NACRA. 2011. Archived from the original on 4 July 2013.
  4. ↑ "Handbook" (PDF). World Rugby. 2014. pp. 16–10. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  5. ↑ "The Committee". Guadeloupe Rugby. Retrieved 31 January 2015.

External links