Rugby union in the United States
Encyclopedia
Rugby union
in the United States is a growing national sport. It is played at the youth, high school, club, semi-professional, and international
levels. The United States is a Tier 2 rugby nation, as defined by the International Rugby Board
, which means that it is not currently competitive at the elite level of the sport, but is one of the IRB's key development markets. The game was first introduced to the United States in the mid nineteenth century. The sport gained popularity throughout the late Nineteenth Century, however it started to decline from the early 1900s. Its growth collapsed in the country after the 1924 Olympics, and did not re-emerge until its renaissance in the 1960s. The United States of America Rugby Football Union (now known as USA Rugby) was formed in 1975.
The United States men's national rugby team
, the Eagles, competed in the first Rugby World Cup
in 1987. They competed annually in the Churchill Cup
from 2003 to 2011. The semi-professional domestic Super League was established for the country's top clubs. In 2006, the International Rugby Board
(IRB) sponsored North America 4 competition was introduced, with two American teams participating; that competition was replaced in 2009 by the Americas Rugby Championship
, with an effective USA "A" national team participating. Beginning in 2012, the IRB will include the USA and Canada
in its international tour calendar, with top-tier national teams regularly visiting both countries in the mid-year Test window. As a result, the Churchill Cup was scrapped after its 2011 edition.
The United States women's national team
was established in 1987, and is a world power; winning the Women's World Cup
in 1991, and finished runners up in 1994 and 1998. The men's national team
in the sevens variant
of the sport is a rising world power; since 2008–09, they have been one of the 12 "core teams" that participate in every tournament of the annual IRB Sevens World Series
.
There are over 80,000 players registered with USA Rugby; including over 30,000 high school students. The 570 clubs in the United States are governed by seven Territorial Unions and 37 Local Unions.
in 1987.
Rugby union played anywhere is governed by the IRB, which is based in Dublin, Ireland. It is the governing and law-making body for rugby globally. 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.
students played a game called "ballown" as early as 1820. A Harvard
tradition known as "Bloody Monday" began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes. Dartmouth
played its own version called "Old division football
", the rules of which were first published in 1871, though the game dates to at least the 1830s. All of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities. They remained largely "mob" style games, with huge numbers of players attempting to advance the ball into a goal area, often by any means necessary. Rules were simple and violence and injury were common. The violence of these mob-style games led to widespread protests and a decision to abandon them. Yale, under pressure from the city of New Haven
, banned the play of all forms of football in 1860, while Harvard followed suit in 1861.
Primitive forms of rugby
, then all covered by the name "football", were being played in the USA as far back as the 1840s, at Harvard
, Yale and Princeton
, stemming partly from Americans who had been educated in English schools. However, in 1862, Yale dealt it a major blow by banning it for being too violent and dangerous, about seven years later, in 1869, the first game of College football
was played between Princeton and Rutgers
. However, rugby was taking a firm grip of the Ivy League
and other East Coast Universities, where it would have an influence on the nascent gridiron
, which would later become its major competitor. Unfortunately American football's growth came at exactly the point at which rugby was beginning to establish itself in the States.
Rugby spread through America's colleges, away from the Ivy League and the East Coast, into Texas, California and other west coast states. However, because of America's huge size, this resulted in a bipolar game, played mainly in east and west, but not really in the middle – other than Illinois and the Great Lakes, and Texas in the south. There would also come to be a small rugby playing centre in Salt Lake City, as Polynesian
Mormons came to study and live there, and to a lesser extent by returning missionaries.
In 1872, rugby clubs were established in the San Francisco Bay Area which mainly comprised 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 aforementioned British rugby players of San Francisco introduced rugby to the University of California, Berkeley
.
American rugby has not been without serious international competition. Apart from the high standard of rugby in various parts of Canada
, it was not uncommon for Australian and New Zealand sides to play games in the USA – especially California and New York – when returning from Europe, or when European teams made the trip the other way. Dave Gallaher
's 1905 All Blacks known as the "Originals" played no less than eleven games in California.
The unfamiliar and complex game play 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 comprising mostly 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. In 1913, the All Blacks won their first full test on American soil 53–3.
The vastness of the USA has resulted in the rise of regional "Conferences", where the East and West played as different blocs. Hawaii and Alaska
led completely separate rugby existences, focusing their energy on their South Seas, and British Columbia
n neighbors instead. Until recently this vastness also caused problems in the preparation of a national team, as the players would rarely get to meet one another.
After a promising start on the international stage, the Americans were thrashed a year later by the All Blacks 51–3. This test was organized 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
. 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 was invited 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. The United States defeated France for the gold in 1924. This was, however, the last time until 2016 that rugby would feature at the Olympics, and the last ever for the full 15-man version of the game (the return of rugby in 2016 will be in the sevens version). As a result, the 1924 United States team is the last to win gold in the full version of rugby union. Rare vintage footage of the 1924 Gold Medal match was included in the rugby documentary, A Giant Awakens: the Rise of American Rugby.
In the 1960s, the game started to see some form of growth. In 1975, the United States of America Rugby Football Union was formed.
In 1987, the first Rugby World Cup
was held, and the United States was invited to participate. The following world cup, the 1991 tournament
, saw invitations abolished in favor of a 32-team qualifying tournament that saw the United States successfully gain entry. They were in a pool with New Zealand, England and Italy – all strong rugby powers.
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 inaugural season of the competition. There were 14 teams competing 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 by beating Uruguay home and away to clinch the Americas 2 spot. The USA will play in the 2011 Rugby World Cup
after qualifying for Pool C, along with Australia, Ireland
. Italy
, and first-time finalist Russia
, by defeating Uruguay
in a home-and-home series.
Although coming away from the 2007 World Cup in France without a win, they acquitted themselves honorably with commendable performances against both England and South Africa (tier 1 nations who eventually advanced to the final
, with South Africa winning the game and the Webb Ellis Cup). One of the high points for the team was the unearthing of a gem in the (originally Zimbabwe
an) winger Takudzwa Ngwenya
, who scored a try against the South Africans by completely outpacing Springbok speedster Bryan Habana
on the outside and dotting down for a try under the posts that brought the crowd to their feet. Other notable performances came from captain Mike Hercus
and Todd Clever
respectively, both of whom were involved in the setup of Ngwenya's try. The try earned "Try of the Year" honors in world rugby at the IRB Awards
, which were handed out the night after the World Cup final. The campaign can be considered a success due to the commitment and effort shown by the players and coaching staff, with a great team spirit shown in their four performances.
and basketball, and also the myth of Abner Doubleday
founding baseball, which attempted to divorce it from its English origins.
Not unlike football, rugby has established itself through the USA via its colleges and universities.
By the end of the 19th century, rugby's American offspring had outgrown its parent within America, and many young Americans who would have made good rugby players were steered into football instead.
Nonetheless, some of rugby's legacy can be seen in football to this day, including its prolate spheroid
football, rucking, and formerly "H" shaped goals. Major differences include higher tackles than rugby, protective equipment, and forward passing. The fair catch kick
is a relic of the now obsolete goal from mark
.
There are over 2,200 pre-teens
currently playing organized rugby union (1,988 male and 228 female). There are over 34,000 high school
athletes playing rugby union for their schools or U19 clubs (26,212 male and 8,706 female).
Two recent American presidents have played the sport:
The popularity of the game was given a minor boost when it was featured in the fourth season of Friends
in the episode The One with all the rugby, broadcast February 26, 1998.
competition that was created in 1996 by the major TAU's within USA Rugby with the intention of creating a competitive national competition. The competition currently involves 14 teams in two conferences. 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.
, Ohio.
. The survivors would await a "USA Select XV", effectively the United States "A" (second-level) side, and the Argentina Jaguars, an Argentine developmental side that has now taken over the role of the country's "A" side.
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 five of the six Rugby World Cups, most recently at the 2011 Rugby World Cup
held in New Zealand. 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.
coach, Al Caravelli, explained this potential in a 2008 interview for the International Rugby Board:
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
in the United States is a growing national sport. It is played at the youth, high school, club, semi-professional, and international
United States national rugby union team
USA Rugby's men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Eagles, represents the United States in the sport of rugby union. The Eagles are currently ranked 17th by the IRB World Rankings. Their highest ranking was from November 2, 2006 – September 10, 2007 at the 14th position...
levels. The United States is a Tier 2 rugby nation, as defined by the International Rugby Board
International Rugby Board
The International Rugby Board is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890. The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the...
, which means that it is not currently competitive at the elite level of the sport, but is one of the IRB's key development markets. The game was first introduced to the United States in the mid nineteenth century. The sport gained popularity throughout the late Nineteenth Century, however it started to decline from the early 1900s. Its growth collapsed in the country after the 1924 Olympics, and did not re-emerge until its renaissance in the 1960s. The United States of America Rugby Football Union (now known as USA Rugby) was formed in 1975.
The United States men's national rugby team
United States national rugby union team
USA Rugby's men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Eagles, represents the United States in the sport of rugby union. The Eagles are currently ranked 17th by the IRB World Rankings. Their highest ranking was from November 2, 2006 – September 10, 2007 at the 14th position...
, the Eagles, competed in the first Rugby World Cup
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....
in 1987. They competed annually in the Churchill Cup
Churchill Cup
The Churchill Cup was an annual rugby union tournament, held in June, contested by representative men's teams from Canada, England, the United States, and other invited teams from a wide array of countries....
from 2003 to 2011. The semi-professional domestic Super League was established for the country's top clubs. In 2006, the International Rugby Board
International Rugby Board
The International Rugby Board is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890. The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the...
(IRB) sponsored North America 4 competition was introduced, with two American teams participating; that competition was replaced in 2009 by the Americas Rugby Championship
Americas Rugby Championship
The Americas Rugby Championship is a rugby union competition contested by national and regional teams from North and South America. The league has replaced the IRB's previous North American competition, the North America 4....
, with an effective USA "A" national team participating. Beginning in 2012, the IRB will include the USA and Canada
Canada national rugby union team
The Canada national rugby union team represents Canada in international rugby union. They are governed by Rugby Canada, and play in red and black. Canada is classified by the International Rugby Board as a tier two rugby nation. There are ten tier one nations, and seven tier two nations, the...
in its international tour calendar, with top-tier national teams regularly visiting both countries in the mid-year Test window. As a result, the Churchill Cup was scrapped after its 2011 edition.
The United States women's national team
United States women's national rugby union team
The United States women's national rugby union team represents the United States in women's rugby union. Officially formed in 1987, the Women's National Team has been an international powerhouse since its inception. The Eagles won the first official Women's Rugby World Cup in 1991, and finished...
was established in 1987, and is a world power; winning the Women's World Cup
Women's Rugby World Cup
The Women's Rugby World Cup is the premier international competition in rugby union for women. The tournament is organised by the sport's governing body the International Rugby Board...
in 1991, and finished runners up in 1994 and 1998. The men's national team
United States national rugby union team (sevens)
The United States National Rugby Union Sevens team competes in the IRB Sevens World Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, World Games, and Pan American Games. The Team will also represent the United States in the Summer Olympics beginning in 2016. Under current head coach Al Caravelli the Eagles have...
in the sevens variant
Rugby sevens
Rugby sevens, also known as seven-a-side or VIIs, is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players, instead of the usual 15, with shorter matches. Rugby sevens is administered by the International Rugby Board , the body responsible for rugby union worldwide...
of the sport is a rising world power; since 2008–09, they have been one of the 12 "core teams" that participate in every tournament of the annual IRB Sevens World Series
IRB Sevens World Series
The IRB Sevens World Series, known officially as the HSBC Sevens World Series as of the 2010-11 season, through sponsorship from banking group HSBC, and also sometimes called the World Sevens Series, is a series of international rugby union sevens tournaments organised for the first time in the...
.
There are over 80,000 players registered with USA Rugby; including over 30,000 high school students. The 570 clubs in the United States are governed by seven Territorial Unions and 37 Local Unions.
Governing Bodies
The US Union dates from 1975, and joined the IRBInternational Rugby Board
The International Rugby Board is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890. The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the...
in 1987.
Rugby union played anywhere is governed by the IRB, which is based in Dublin, Ireland. It is the governing and law-making body for rugby globally. There are over 100 member unions of the IRB, with USA Rugby
USA Rugby
USA Rugby is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. It is divided into seven territorial Unions: Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Northeast, Pacific Coast, Southern California, South, and West...
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.
Early history
PrincetonPrinceton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
students played a game called "ballown" as early as 1820. A Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
tradition known as "Bloody Monday" began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes. Dartmouth
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
played its own version called "Old division football
Old division football
Old division football was a soccer-like game played from the 1820s to around 1890 by students at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The game was first played before the rules for soccer and rugby were standardized in England, and it continued to rely on its own local rules for some time...
", the rules of which were first published in 1871, though the game dates to at least the 1830s. All of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities. They remained largely "mob" style games, with huge numbers of players attempting to advance the ball into a goal area, often by any means necessary. Rules were simple and violence and injury were common. The violence of these mob-style games led to widespread protests and a decision to abandon them. Yale, under pressure from the city of New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, banned the play of all forms of football in 1860, while Harvard followed suit in 1861.
Primitive forms of rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
, then all covered by the name "football", were being played in the USA as far back as the 1840s, at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Yale and Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, stemming partly from Americans who had been educated in English schools. However, in 1862, Yale dealt it a major blow by banning it for being too violent and dangerous, about seven years later, in 1869, the first game of College football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
was played between Princeton and Rutgers
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
. However, rugby was taking a firm grip of the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
and other East Coast Universities, where it would have an influence on the nascent gridiron
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, which would later become its major competitor. Unfortunately American football's growth came at exactly the point at which rugby was beginning to establish itself in the States.
Rugby spread through America's colleges, away from the Ivy League and the East Coast, into Texas, California and other west coast states. However, because of America's huge size, this resulted in a bipolar game, played mainly in east and west, but not really in the middle – other than Illinois and the Great Lakes, and Texas in the south. There would also come to be a small rugby playing centre in Salt Lake City, as Polynesian
Pacific Islander American
Pacific Islander Americans, also known as Oceanian Americans, are residents of the United States with original ancestry from Oceania. They represent the smallest racial group counted in the United States census of 2000. They numbered 874,000 people or 0.3 percent of the United States population...
Mormons came to study and live there, and to a lesser extent by returning missionaries.
In 1872, rugby clubs were established in the San Francisco Bay Area which mainly comprised British expatriates.
The first recorded rugby match in the United States occurred on May 14, 1874 between Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
.
In 1876, Yale, Harvard, Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, and Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, a competition based on the traditional rules of rugby union. Around the same time, the aforementioned British rugby players of San Francisco introduced rugby to the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
1900–1960
American rugby has not been without serious international competition. Apart from the high standard of rugby in various parts of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, it was not uncommon for Australian and New Zealand sides to play games in the USA – especially California and New York – when returning from Europe, or when European teams made the trip the other way. Dave Gallaher
Dave Gallaher
David "Dave" Gallaher was a New Zealand rugby union footballer, best known as the captain of "The Originals", the first New Zealand national rugby union team to be known as the All Blacks....
's 1905 All Blacks known as the "Originals" played no less than eleven games in California.
The unfamiliar and complex game play hampered initial growth on the East Coast. Controversy arose in 1905 when photographs of a match between Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
and the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
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
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
.
In 1908 and 1909, the Australian national team
Australia national rugby union team
The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...
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 comprising mostly players from Cal, Stanford, and the University of Nevada
University of Nevada, Reno
The University of Nevada, Reno , is a teaching and research university established in 1874 and located in Reno, Nevada, USA...
went on a tour of Australia and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. The underdog American side upset both Rotorua RFC and Auckland RU
Auckland Rugby Football Union
The Auckland Rugby Football Union is the governing body of rugby union in the Auckland Region, in the North Island of New Zealand. Its colours are navy blue and white in a hoop design. Auckland's top representative team have won New Zealand's top provincial rugby competition 16 times, more than...
, 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
United States national rugby union team
USA Rugby's men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Eagles, represents the United States in the sport of rugby union. The Eagles are currently ranked 17th by the IRB World Rankings. Their highest ranking was from November 2, 2006 – September 10, 2007 at the 14th position...
play their first international test, which they lost 12–8. In 1913, the All Blacks won their first full test on American soil 53–3.
The vastness of the USA has resulted in the rise of regional "Conferences", where the East and West played as different blocs. Hawaii and Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
led completely separate rugby existences, focusing their energy on their South Seas, and British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
n neighbors instead. Until recently this vastness also caused problems in the preparation of a national team, as the players would rarely get to meet one another.
After a promising start on the international stage, the Americans were thrashed a year later by the All Blacks 51–3. This test was organized by former Cal president Benjamin Ide Wheeler
Benjamin Ide Wheeler
Benjamin Ide Wheeler was a Greek and comparative philology professor at Cornell University as well as President of the University of California from 1899 to 1919.-Biography:...
in an attempt to popularize rugby among his students.
The national team won their first test in 1919, defeating Romania
Romania national rugby union team
The Romania national rugby union team , nicknamed The Oaks , is the representative side of Romania in rugby union. Long considered one of the stronger European teams outside the Six Nations, they have participated in all six Rugby World Cups, and currently compete in the first division of the...
. In 1920, rugby union was a fixture at the 1920 Summer Olympics
1920 Summer Olympics
The 1920 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium....
, 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
1924 Summer Olympics
The 1924 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the VIII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1924 in Paris, France...
in Paris. An American side was invited 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
Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir
The Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir - stadium in Colombes, near Paris, France . Named in memory of French rugby player Yves du Manoir in 1928. Was the main stadium for the 1924 Summer Olympics and had a capacity of 45,000 at the time...
to watch. The United States defeated France for the gold in 1924. This was, however, the last time until 2016 that rugby would feature at the Olympics, and the last ever for the full 15-man version of the game (the return of rugby in 2016 will be in the sevens version). As a result, the 1924 United States team is the last to win gold in the full version of rugby union. Rare vintage footage of the 1924 Gold Medal match was included in the rugby documentary, A Giant Awakens: the Rise of American Rugby.
1960s-present
In 1987, the first Rugby World Cup
1987 Rugby World Cup
The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. New Zealand and Australia agreed to co-host the first ever tournament with New Zealand hosting seventeen pool stage matches, two quarter-finals and the final with Australia being the junior partner hosting seven pool matches, two...
was held, and the United States was invited to participate. The following world cup, the 1991 tournament
1991 Rugby World Cup
The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France; at that time, the five European countries that participated in the Five Nations Championship making it the first Rugby World Cup to be staged in the...
, saw invitations abolished in favor of a 32-team qualifying tournament that saw the United States successfully gain entry. They were in a pool with New Zealand, England and Italy – all strong rugby powers.
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 inaugural season of the competition. There were 14 teams competing 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
1999 Rugby World Cup
The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, and the first to be held in rugby union's professional era. The principal host nation was Wales, although the majority of matches were played outside the country, shared between England, France, Scotland and Ireland...
in Wales. They subsequently qualified for the 2003 Rugby World Cup
2003 Rugby World Cup
The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and Rugby World...
, finishing fourth in their pool winning one game against Japan. The US recently qualified for the 2007 Rugby World Cup
2007 Rugby World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 20 October. France won the hosting rights in 2003,...
in France by beating Uruguay home and away to clinch the Americas 2 spot. The USA will play in the 2011 Rugby World Cup
2011 Rugby World Cup
The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Africa at a meeting in Dublin on 17 November 2005...
after qualifying for Pool C, along with Australia, Ireland
Ireland national rugby union team
The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions The Ireland national rugby union...
. Italy
Italy national rugby union team
The Italy national rugby union team represent the nation of Italy in the sport of rugby union. The team is also known as the Azzurri . Italy have been playing international rugby since the late 1920s, and since 2000 compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland,...
, and first-time finalist Russia
Russia national rugby union team
The Russian National Rugby Union Team, is the national team representing Russia at the sport of rugby union.Rugby union in Russia is administered by the Rugby Union of Russia . The RUR is the official successor union of the Soviet Union and the combined CIS team which played in the early 1990s...
, by defeating Uruguay
Uruguay national rugby union team
The Uruguay national rugby union team is the representative side of Uruguay, governed by the Unión de Rugby del Uruguay. They have been playing international rugby since 1948. Their jersey is blue and black and they are known as Los Teros. They qualified twice for the Rugby World Cup, in 1999 and...
in a home-and-home series.
Although coming away from the 2007 World Cup in France without a win, they acquitted themselves honorably with commendable performances against both England and South Africa (tier 1 nations who eventually advanced to the final
2007 Rugby World Cup Final
The 2007 Rugby World Cup Final was a rugby union match, played on Saturday, 20 October 2007 at the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, Paris. The match determined the winner of the 2007 Rugby World Cup and the de facto world champions for the next four years...
, with South Africa winning the game and the Webb Ellis Cup). One of the high points for the team was the unearthing of a gem in the (originally Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
an) winger Takudzwa Ngwenya
Takudzwa Ngwenya
Takudzwa Ngwenya is a rugby union player who plays on the wing for the United States national rugby union team and French power Biarritz...
, who scored a try against the South Africans by completely outpacing Springbok speedster Bryan Habana
Bryan Habana
Bryan Gary Habana is a South African rugby union player who plays as a wing for the Western Province in the Currie Cup, the Stormers in Super 14, and the 2007 Rugby World Cup champions Springboks...
on the outside and dotting down for a try under the posts that brought the crowd to their feet. Other notable performances came from captain Mike Hercus
Mike Hercus
Mike Hercus is a retired American rugby union footballer who played at fly-half for the USA Eagles and several top level professional clubs around the globe....
and Todd Clever
Todd Clever
Todd Stanger Clever is an American rugby union player. He is currently the Captain of the USA rugby union team. His current club is Suntory in Japan. In rugby Clever plays as a flanker, but while playing for the USA Sevens side he plays as a prop.-Club career:Todd joined Suntory of Japan in June...
respectively, both of whom were involved in the setup of Ngwenya's try. The try earned "Try of the Year" honors in world rugby at the IRB Awards
IRB Awards
The IRB Awards are given out annually by the International Rugby Board, the worldwide governing body for rugby union, for major achievement in the sport. They were first awarded in 2001...
, which were handed out the night after the World Cup final. The campaign can be considered a success due to the commitment and effort shown by the players and coaching staff, with a great team spirit shown in their four performances.
Rugby and American football
Rugby has had a long and complicated relationship with American football. William Gunmere of Rutgers devised the game, and based it upon American forms of rugby and association football. Another important point is that during the 19th century, the USA was trying to develop a new national culture, independent of its English colonial roots, as it had become politically independent the previous century. This extended into the sporting arena, with the adoption and invention of American footballAmerican football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and basketball, and also the myth of Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg was his finest hour, but his...
founding baseball, which attempted to divorce it from its English origins.
Not unlike football, rugby has established itself through the USA via its colleges and universities.
By the end of the 19th century, rugby's American offspring had outgrown its parent within America, and many young Americans who would have made good rugby players were steered into football instead.
Nonetheless, some of rugby's legacy can be seen in football to this day, including its prolate spheroid
Prolate spheroid
A prolate spheroid is a spheroid in which the polar axis is greater than the equatorial diameter. Prolate spheroids stand in contrast to oblate spheroids...
football, rucking, and formerly "H" shaped goals. Major differences include higher tackles than rugby, protective equipment, and forward passing. The fair catch kick
Fair catch kick
The fair catch kick is a rarely used rule in some forms of American football that allows a team, after making a fair catch of an opponent's kick, to attempt a field goal freely from the spot of the catch. It is one of the three types of free kicks; the other two are the kickoff and the safety kick...
is a relic of the now obsolete goal from mark
Goal from mark
A goal from mark is a former scoring move in rugby football. It occurred when a player "marked" the ball by making a fair catch and shouting "mark". From this position the player could not be tackled. The player then had the option of a free kick, which can be taken as a place, drop, or tap kick...
.
Popularity
More than 92,000 citizens are registered with USA Rugby, whose certification is necessary to participate in most matches and tournaments, and 18 teams are entered in the premier domestic competition, the Rugby Super League, for 2007. There are 1,582 referees within USA Rugby.There are over 2,200 pre-teens
Preteen
Preadolescence is a stage of human development following early childhood and prior to adolescence. It may be defined as ending with the beginning of puberty or with the beginning of the teenage stage, the time frames in which adolescence is considered to begin. In terms of age in years,...
currently playing organized rugby union (1,988 male and 228 female). There are over 34,000 high school
Secondary education in the United States
In most jurisdictions, secondary education in the United States refers to the last six or seven years of statutory formal education. Secondary education is generally split between junior high school or middle school, usually beginning with sixth or seventh grade , and high school, beginning with...
athletes playing rugby union for their schools or U19 clubs (26,212 male and 8,706 female).
Two recent American presidents have played the sport:
- Bill ClintonBill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. Clinton developed an interest in rugby in England, playing at Oxford. It has been claimed that he played at Little RockLittle Rock, ArkansasLittle Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
RFC in Arkansas, but they deny this. However, his interest was mainly casual, and he was on the third or fourth team. Clinton's position was lock (also known as "second row"). - George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. Bush was a keen player, during high school and University, and was on Yale's 1st XV, and in 1968, he was part of their dramatic win over HarvardHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Bush's position was fullback.
The popularity of the game was given a minor boost when it was featured in the fourth season of Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
in the episode The One with all the rugby, broadcast February 26, 1998.
Club and semi-professional
There are 32,754 males and 11,790 females playing senior-level rugby union.Rugby Super League
The Rugby Super League is a semi-professionalSemi-professional
A semi-professional athlete is one who is paid to play and thus is not an amateur, but for whom sport is not a full-time occupation, generally because the level of pay is too low to make a reasonable living based solely upon that source, thus making the athlete not a full professional...
competition that was created in 1996 by the major TAU's within USA Rugby with the intention of creating a competitive national competition. The competition currently involves 14 teams in two conferences. 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.
North America 4
The North America 4 was an elite-level IRB-financed tournament introduced in 2006. The competition was contested between four teams, two from both the United States and Canada. The 2006 event took place over two stages; the first in British Columbia and the second in ColumbusColumbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, Ohio.
Americas Rugby Championship
In 2009, the IRB replaced the North America 4 with a new competition, the Americas Rugby Championship, that expanded the concept to South America. The inaugural competition involved two stages. In the first stage, four Canadian teams played in a league format to determine the two that would advance to the final round, held at Infinity Park in the Denver suburb of Glendale, ColoradoGlendale, Colorado
The city of Glendale is a Home Rule Municipality located in an exclave of Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The population was 4,547 at the 2000 census. The entire city is surrounded on all sides by the City and County of Denver. Therefore, as a municipal entity, it is also an enclave...
. The survivors would await a "USA Select XV", effectively the United States "A" (second-level) side, and the Argentina Jaguars, an Argentine developmental side that has now taken over the role of the country's "A" side.
National team
Churchill Cup
The Churchill Cup was an annual rugby union tournament, held in June, contested by representative men's teams from Canada, England, the United States, and other invited teams from a wide array of countries....
and the Pan American Championship, as well as specially scheduled matches against rugby powers such as France and Ireland, the Eagles have qualified for five of the six Rugby World Cups, most recently at the 2011 Rugby World Cup
2011 Rugby World Cup
The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Africa at a meeting in Dublin on 17 November 2005...
held in New Zealand. 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.
Potential for development
Although rugby union still occupies a small, albeit growing, place in the American sporting landscape, the potential for development is immense. The US has enormous numbers of athletes who have the combination of size and speed needed to succeed in the sport. The country's sevens national teamUnited States national rugby union team (sevens)
The United States National Rugby Union Sevens team competes in the IRB Sevens World Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, World Games, and Pan American Games. The Team will also represent the United States in the Summer Olympics beginning in 2016. Under current head coach Al Caravelli the Eagles have...
coach, Al Caravelli, explained this potential in a 2008 interview for the International Rugby Board:
Regional bodies
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:| Territorial area unions | Local area unions | |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-Atlantic | Eastern Pennsylvania Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union The Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union is the Local Area Union for rugby union teams in Eastern and Central Pennsylvania, as well as Delaware and parts of New Jersey... |
|
| Potomac | ||
| Virginia | ||
| Midwest Midwest Rugby Football Union The Midwest Rugby Football Union is the Territorial Union for rugby union teams playing in the Midwestern United States. It is one of seven TUs that govern specific regions of USA Rugby... |
Allegheny | |
| Chicago Area | ||
| Indiana | ||
| Illinois | ||
| Iowa | ||
| Michigan Michigan Rugby Football Union The Michigan Rugby Football Union is the Local Area Union for Rugby Union teams in the state of Michigan. The MRFU is part of the Midwest Rugby Football Union , one of the seven Territorial Area Unions that comprise USA Rugby.... |
||
| Minnesota | ||
| Ohio | ||
| Wisconsin Wisconsin Rugby Football Union The Wisconsin Rugby Football Union is the Local Area Union for Rugby Union teams in the state of Wisconsin. The WRFU is part of the Midwest Rugby Football Union , one of the seven Territorial Area Unions that comprise USA Rugby.... |
||
| Northeast Northeast Rugby Union The Northeast Rugby Union is the Territorial Area Union for rugby union teams playing in the Northeastern United States . It is one of seven TAU's that govern specific regions of USA Rugby.-LAU's:... |
Metropolitan New York Metropolitan New York Rugby Union The Metropolitan New York Rugby Football Union governs more than 80 men's and women's clubs, college, high-school, and youth rugby union teams in the Greater New York metropolitan area, which covers parts of the states of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. It is a member union of USA Rugby and... |
|
| New England New England Rugby Football Union The New England Rugby Football Union is a stand-alone union for rugby union teams in New England.NERFU had been a local area union , and part of the Northeast Rugby Union , which is the governing body for three LAU's The New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) is a stand-alone union for rugby... |
||
| New York State | ||
| Pacific Coast | Arizona Arizona Rugby Union The Arizona Rugby Union is the Local Area Union for rugby union teams in Arizona. ARU is part of the Southern California Rugby Football Union , which is one of the seven Territorial Area Unions that comprise USA Rugby.- Men's Clubs :Division 1 :*Old Pueblo Lions*Phoenix RFC*Red Mountain... |
|
| Northern California Northern California Rugby Football Union The Northern California Rugby Football Union is the Local Area Union for rugby union teams in Northern California, as well as northern Nevada. The NCRFU is part of the Pacific Coast Rugby Football Union , which is one of the seven Territorial Area Unions that comprise USA Rugby.The NCRFU is... |
||
| Pacific Northwest | ||
| Utah RFU | ||
| Northern Nevada | ||
| Southern California | Southern California SCRFU – North | |
| Southern California SCRFU – South | ||
| South USA Rugby South The USA Rugby South is the Territorial Union for rugby union teams playing in the Southern United States. It is one of seven TU's that govern specific regions of USA Rugby.-LAU's:... |
Deep South | |
| Florida Florida Rugby Football Union The Florida Rugby Union is the Local Area Union for rugby union teams in the U.S. state of Florida. The FRU is part of the USA Rugby South, one of the seven Territorial Area Unions that comprise USA Rugby... |
||
| Georgia The Georgia Rugby Union The Georgia Rugby Union is the Local Area Union for rugby union teams in the U.S. state of Georgia and other parts of the Southeastern United States. The GRU is part of USA Rugby South, one of the seven Territorial Area Unions that comprise USA Rugby. It is a non-profit organization and is the... |
||
| MidSouth — covers the Tennessee Valley | ||
| North Carolina | ||
| Palmetto — covers South Carolina | ||
| Western Western Rugby Football Union The Western Rugby Football Union is the Territorial Area Union for rugby union teams playing in the Western United States. It is one of seven TAU's that govern specific regions of USA Rugby. It was established in 1975 and is a Founding Member of USA Rugby.-Local Area Unions :The WRFU is... |
Eastern Rockies | |
| Great Plains | ||
| Heart of America | ||
| Missouri Missouri Rugby Football Union The Missouri Rugby Union is the Local Area Union for rugby union teams in Missouri and parts of Illinois. MRFU is part of the Western Rugby Football Union , which is one of the seven Territorial Area Unions that comprise USA Rugby.- History :Early History.The honor of creating the Missouri... |
||
| Rio Grande | ||
| Texas | ||
| Independent | Alaska | |
| Idaho | ||
| Montana | ||
| Hawaii | ||
External links
- Anchorage Thunderbirds official site
- Official site
- US rugby union news from Planet Rugby
- Coverage of all American rugby union at GoffonRugby
- We love rugby Details on USA team
- RugbyDirt.com Rugby Union News
- USA Rugby Network Rugby Matches, Photos and Tournaments
- A Giant Awakens: the Rise of American Rugby Rugby Documentary on DVD, Rugby Films
- Montgomery|Bucks Amateur Rugby Assoc.