Sleeping giant could be waking from a slumber
Roar Guru
By Working Class Rugger, 16 Aug 2009 Working Class Rugger is a Roar Guru
For as long as I can remember the USA has been referred to as the next great Rugby giant. The only problem being waking it up from its 80 year plus slumber.
Well it looks as if US Rugby is determined to give it the jolt needed for the necessary impetus for a further explosion.
This won’t be a long article. I suggest everyone who reads this posts visit this link.
This outlines US Rugby’s ambitions for the future of Rugby in the States. Some of them are as follows:
1. To crack the magical 100,000 player mark by December, 2009. Currently, according to their projections, they have a touch over 91,000.
2. Give the best indication yet of the plans underway for an elite College competition planned for 2010.
3. Early details of a six team city based Pro Competition planned for the autumn (fall) of 2010 prior to the America’s Rugby Championship. Supposedly talks are well underway with several investors and ESPN.
4. Finally, to facilitate further growth of media exposure of Rugby in the USA. In 2006 it totalled less than 10 hours. This year it will total more than 100 plus hours.
These are just a few points. It is rather interesting reading. With the possible inclusion of Rugby at the Olympics, the giant may be beginning to stir.
By the way, there has been another Rugby movie or more accurately a documentary made called A Giant Awakens.
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LeftArmSpinner said | August 16th 2009 @ 8:42am | Report comment
Lets hope so. it will add a lot to international rugby. big fast players. I like it. Hmm, sounds much like the Boks at the moment. I’m interested in how they choose to play the game, hopefully entertaining the crowds.
Hansie said | August 16th 2009 @ 10:22am | Report comment
Watch out if the USA ever gets serious about rugby. Imagine all those NFL rejects playing rugby. What an outlet for great athletes.
Robbo said | August 16th 2009 @ 10:30am | Report comment
Well if it ever happens I can’t wait to see what the African Americans might do.
sylvain said | August 16th 2009 @ 12:40pm | Report comment
Thanks for the link and talking about US rugby ! There’s currently no way to make a living out of rugby in the US. There’s a quote from one of the Eagles in the documentary “All around the world players are paid to play rugby. in the US, it’s generally the other way around!”. True, even in D1, players are paying due and for their plane trips ! Creating a pro sevens and XV league will help attract cross athletes from football or track, and inspire high school and college players, to make a career out of rugby in their own country, hopefully soon !
Dave said | August 16th 2009 @ 3:00pm | Report comment
There is a way to make a living playing league in the US though
http://www.nrlus.com/nrlnews/23-rugbyleagueworldarticle.html
therealalekid said | August 16th 2009 @ 9:40pm | Report comment
The NRL-US website hasn’t been updated for four months now and the details have always been at best obtuse. There has been article recently, but that provided more questionmarks than answers.
They stated that they wanted to base their League on the pro Lacrosse League, as we see below though Major League Lacrosse is a small geographically tight league comprising of six teams to keep costs down
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Major_League_Lacrosse_team_locations.PNG
. How can NRL US fund an 8 team League including teams from California to Chicago and Texas. All within a budget of $25 million.
Is attendances of 5 to 10000 even a realistic prediction of potential gates.
Lastly this whole scheme is based on getting Rugby Union players to switch, especially graduates. This begs the question how much they can afford to pay them in England the everage wage is 60k for jouneyman player. i’ve read that potential average wages could be as low as 18k a year for college kids, will they go professional for that.
As a comparison 10 years ago Germany had an excellent RU youth team and their great rivals were the Georgians. After one major tournament team from France both offered a number of players from each team pro contracts. The Georgians to the man signed professionally as earning 20k playing Rugby France. the Germans though rejected and they all returned and want to get further education or jobs it was financially not worthwhile to go pro. This is partiallly why the Germans have had to fund their own national RU academies.
Many people believe the NRL-US was defunct to begin with, I’m not to sure. i think they’ve realised that RU is growing to fast catch up via grass roots. So, the only option is to try and launch a pro League first and hope that the players, colleges and high schools will all jump ship.
As for a Rugby Union pro comp, I’ve seen other formats before and its important not to get hopes to up. The elite college league is the most important piece of news and it is good to get some commitment on writing.
I also find this a staggering achievement:
//1. To crack the magical 100,000 player mark by December, 2009. Currently, according to their projections, they have a touch over 91,000.\\\
I was under the impression that current projections were at 82,000 that is way above that.
USA rugby is on the move, although if I was a betting man I would say that Russia is the sleeping giant that will make the next breakthrough.
Working Class Rugger said | August 16th 2009 @ 2:51pm | Report comment
The most siginificant development has to be the planned establishment of the College League. They will be very important towards manning the planned Pro Comp both now and into the future. Could be the start of something big. First 6 add in the Canadians could soon be 10 and from there who knows.
Working Class Rugger said | August 16th 2009 @ 3:13pm | Report comment
USARugby are looking to use it as a selection platform for USA Select team in the Americas Rugby Championship. With this plan it does seem the Rugby in the USA is beginning to connect the dots. The College League is the most exciting. A Pro Rugby Comp. will be fanastic especially in lifting the standard of the Eagles. Chasing some more info down it appears that USARugby are discussing TV coverage via either ESPN or ABC or even a mixture of both. Basically it will be an expansion of their current relationships. The College League is planned to be broadcast too.
Dave
Mate, I heard that it was reported in Big League magazine that plans for the nrlus nad been put off for 2010. And that the supposed TV that was touted to be announced come March 09 never eventuated. It no secret I’m not the biggest League fan, but I’d still rather see it at some level in the US than their native football code. But how can this League possibly be viable. There doesn’t appear to be any real infrastructure below the current RL comp.
Pippinu said | August 16th 2009 @ 3:20pm | Report comment
Anyone who can get their hands on those College students who just miss out on professional contracts is on to a good thing.
There have been some involved in aussie rules who have dreamed about this since the mid 70s (but no one has ever really given it any serious consideration).
Dave said | August 17th 2009 @ 12:38pm | Report comment
The Swans got their hands on a Rugby player from canada.
However, not many blokes that tall can run that fast and play on the wing in Union
Working Class Rugger said | August 16th 2009 @ 4:49pm | Report comment
Pip
Their is a section in the report that outlines a program that they have launched to do that very thing both in College and in High School. In High Schools alone there is a wealth of talented athletes running around in Basketball,Wrestling, Athletics and Gridiron that Rugby could realistically provide a avenue through to College alternatively to the original sport.
Only a tiny percentage of all High School athleyes go onto College in their field. Many often miss out by the smallest of margins. Their still fanastic athletes but the guy ahead of them was that one one-hundredth faster and he/she got the spot.
The American Secondary and Tertiary School (Jnr High, Hign School and College) are probably the most competitive elite talent identification model in the world.
Pippinu said | August 17th 2009 @ 12:44pm | Report comment
Dave
no doubt the Swans wouldn’t have had a look at him unless he had the athletic goods (which he clearly does).
WCR
I’m not an expert in this field, but I gather there’s a gold mine of athletic talent wating to be mined if anyone can get in at that exact point (still young enough, have shown stacks to just miss out on a scholarship, etc)
True Tah said | August 16th 2009 @ 6:53pm | Report comment
Would love to see what Barry Sanders could have done with a rugby ball, that bloke could make space in a telephone box with an elephant.
The Americans are going about this the right way, in that focusing on getting the game into schools around the country, and from what Ive heard, plenty of young African-American men are getting introduced to the game.
Working Class Rugger said | August 16th 2009 @ 7:25pm | Report comment
USARugby and Play Rugby USA are working on getting Rugby into disadvantaged communitiesnationally in the States. Not to mention their work in other demographics. Already there is a trickle of Polynesian Americans arriving in the Eagles squad expect that to strengthen along with the greater involvment of African-American players in the future. For all the critism that USARugby cops from within its community they fif identify this issue early on and are trying to develop it.