Since the 1990’s, the United States has been labeled by the rugby community as the “sleeping giant”. With the size of its population, its fascination with sport, and its wealth of world-class athletes, it seemed inevitable that the nation would soon become a world rugby power. To this day the giant is still very much asleep.
Are the numbers playing there? They are. The only country with more rugby players than the United States is England1. Are there trained and experienced coaches? There are, in the likes of Waisale Serevi, Ben Gollings, Billy Millard, and recent signing Mike Friday (there also have been, in the likes of Scott Johnson and Eddie O’Sullivan). Surely with those numbers, and those names, the giant should be wide-awake and marauding around the world? Yes, but that is not what is happening. To fully awaken the giant, there needs to be a simple plan which USA Rugby, the governing body led by Nigel Melville, and more importantly every single club individually must pursue. The plan proposed below would be an easy, cost-effective one that would reap many benefits.
Growing American Rugby
Step 1: Aggressively Pursue Crossover Athletes from Traditional American Sports
The immense amount of good Carlin Isles has done for American rugby in the short time he has had in the sport is the perfect example of how a crossover athlete can help develop the game. He has gotten people in America who do not play rugby talking about rugby. Many people who like sports in general, but do not necessarily know much about rugby, now know who he is from his highlights online. Finding more athletes like Isles is critical to further development.
Now what group would be the optimal target to find these crossover athletes? Really, they could come from anywhere, but American football players who do not quite make it in the NFL, or are not drafted, would be the best group to target. What rugby would give them is a fresh start in a contact sport with limitless opportunities, and the likely potential for greatness. There have been combines recently with Top 14 and Aviva Premiership coaches in attendance, so this step is already beginning to be put into motion. However, it could be more effective, aggressive, and cheaper, if USA Rugby were to incentivize clubs to actively recruit these types of athletes.
Step 2: Get Kids Playing Rugby at an Earlier Age
Youth rugby numbers in the United States are growing. Despite this, a problem remains. Kids are not beginning to play rugby at an early enough age. Many kids, if their area has a youth rugby program, will not start playing until U11 or U13. Ideally, kids should be starting several years earlier. Crossover athletes producing highlights could help in this, but the programs need to be available and at this point they are not. The perfect situation would be for five/six year old weekend rugby to be in the position where soccer currently is. Many kids play soccer at some point, in some way at this age. To see the benefits of such a program, look at how the US Soccer team has improved over the last few years, reaping the benefits of homegrown players.
One way to aid in creating such programs would be to have more clubs that feature U6 rugby all the way through senior men’s rugby. Too often, youth clubs and men’s clubs in America are separate entities. By joining clubs together, to represent all ages, resources would increase to both the men’s and youth sides. Additionally, these clubs would be more visible in the community, making more parents consider choosing rugby for their kids at an early age. Eventually, there could be a point where parents and children could be playing for the same club.
Step 3: Drastically Increase Media Exposure
This step is one that should be equally shouldered by both USA Rugby, and the individual clubs. It is also the most important step, because without it, the first two would be much harder to achieve.
USA Rugby needs to pursue better national television coverage for the national team every match. For the last summer series, the channel that the matches were shown on (Universal Sports) was unavailable to many people either due to it being a paid channel, or cable providers not carrying it. When the USA vs. Maori All Blacks match was on Fox Sports 1 many more people were able to watch. Additionally, having it on a major channel allows people who may have never seen a rugby match before to easily stumble across it. Also, if USA Rugby were to pursue having all match highlights shown on sports channels such as ESPN, exposure would be greatly improved.
Individual clubs can also play a large role in increasing media exposure. Having clubs contact and work with local news stations to increase the visibility of solely their club would help greatly. If every club did this, the major central networks would be much more open to rugby, as there would be a more informed and aware audience.
The “sleeping giant” will eventually awake. It is just a matter of time. It has been an extremely slow process so far, but it can be done. The three steps above would help immensely in growing rugby in the United States. They are certainly not the only steps that could be undertaken, however given the current resources of USA Rugby and many local clubs, they would be the easiest and most effective to pursue. American rugby in general is on the up, and it should be exciting to watch what will happen over the next several years. Maybe 2015 will not be the World Cup in which they break out, but 2019? Who knows?
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1. http://www.irb.com/mm/Document/AboutIRB/IRBOrganisation/02/07/03/26/irb-dev-glob-map.pdf
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