Rugby in America spreads its wings
Roar Guru By Working Class Rugger, 6 May 2011 Working Class Rugger is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Atlantic Coast Rugby League, Glendale Raptors, RSL, rugby, Rugby Union, Rugby World Cup, San Francisco Golden Gate, USA
It is finals time at all levels of the rugby tree in the United States, be it club, college or high school. It’s been a landmark 12 months, with unprecedented participation across all levels and movement aplenty at all levels.
In the rugby Super League, they have just witnessed one of their highest quality seasons in many years, with the expansion team, the Utah Warriors, proving to be a worthy entrant, just missing the finals series.
San Francisco Golden Gate of the West Conference, appears to be on a collision course with Life University in the East. Both have had dominant seasons, with both progressing through their respective regular season, undefeated.
The RSL board has hinted at future expansion, aiming to restore the championship to past subscription levels.
This appears to be a three to four-year plan.
It is likely, they will first look to even the numbers by bringing in a sixth Western team, more than likely in the form of the Glendale Raptors.
In college rugby, the first season of the college Premier Division is approaching its crescendo.
The season started off rather lopsided, with the usual suspects in BYU and Cal blowing away their opposition; however, as the season has progressed, it has become evident that the teams are putting in the time and effort with the overall standard rising steadily throughout.
Both, BYU and Cal look likely once again, but for the first time in a long time, there are competitors emerging that may not challenge this season but in the preceding.
Add to this, the establishment of the Atlantic Coast Rugby League (University of Maryland being the inaugural champions) for 2011 and new conferences such as the South-East and South-West, the re-structure is changing the landscape at a rapid rate.
The standards are increasing and the right structures are now being set in stone.
High school rugby is the boom area.
With an ever-increasing profile, the game is beginning to draw in athletes from football and track and field into its ranks.
Not only is this a campus-based phenomenon, but in the local media as well.
Rugby Washington has done a fantastic job, getting local coverage of their High School Championship via a weekly High Schools sports program called ‘Varsity News’.
The competitions are too numerous to recap and many are still wrapping up but rugby is in a very good place, moving into an exciting future.
Finally, as the spring season draws to a close, a congratulations to the much maligned USARFU.
Through their hard-graft, rugby is in a far healthier position than this time last season and will hopefully continue to move forward next season.
They have recently launched another initiative to complement its rookie-rugby program.
Branded ‘Rugby in a Box’ this provides inexpensive kits ($300 per unit) to PE departments.
This user-friendly unit has the potential to reach more kids than ever before and is being directly marketed to schools en masse.
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May 6th 2011 @ 3:58am
Tim Exton said | May 6th 2011 @ 3:58am | Report comment
And for anyone who wants to watch Washington state high school rugby from the AAA WAshington Varsity News please go to http://www.thevarsitynews.com …
May 6th 2011 @ 8:43am
Working Class Rugger said | May 6th 2011 @ 8:43am | Report comment
Tim Exton
I watch it weekly. You can also access through Rugby Washington website: http://www.rugbywa.org
May 6th 2011 @ 5:52am
Demers said | May 6th 2011 @ 5:52am | Report comment
WCR – good post. And speaking of spreading wings The Running Eagles, Life U’s rugby team, just took over the lead in the Rugby Super League East. Life U, for those who may not know, is a small school, located in Marietta, GA, that majors in chiropractic studies. Their very successful rugby program shows what can be done if you’re a small college that leaves American football to the big colleges.
It also show the weakness of rugby in some colleges that do have a major American football program. For example, Life recent beat Oklahoma by 80 points, Notre Dame and Tennessee by over 50, Ohio State by over 70. These kind of lopsided games would be impossible if some of the football powerhouses did a better job of promoting rugby on campus and grabbing some of the talent that makes the squad, suits up but never gets into a game of football.
Still, if the high school programs continue to expand, many kids will arrive at a two or four year college ready and eager to play rugby.
And Tim, thanks for the link.
May 6th 2011 @ 8:56am
Working Class Rugger said | May 6th 2011 @ 8:56am | Report comment
l
Demers
Life are an excellent example of no matter the size with the right approach and attitude you can establish a strong Rugby program. This isn’t true of American Football, which carries a lot status but also a very large athletics bill. Life have managed to successfully launch its undergrad program this season only falling to Arkansas State if I remember correctly. Shows exactly how strong its program is and proves to everyone regardless of whether or not you’re a Ohio State or a Longwood you can run successful Rugby programs.
Ohio State is in a trough at the moment but are doing a lot of very good development work in state. Last month they held Columbus Rugby Week reaching over 7,200 children and garnering support from school prinicipals and PE departments. They have been given the go ahead by the city to actively promote Rookie Rugby throughout the city, they are establishing a Middle School Sevens League next year with a 15s League to follow close behind. At the moment they are down but in the future if they pull this off they will be a very different proposition.
Not sure why Notre Dame aren’t more competitive as you’d imgine they’d have a pretty strong draw for the Catholic Schools player’s who dominate a great deal of High School Rugby. I know Oklahoma have just finished running their first Rugby ‘combine’ (for us Aussie its an athletic trial) where they had a very ,very good turnout, so they appear to be serious about next year’s championship.
May 6th 2011 @ 8:05am
tc said | May 6th 2011 @ 8:05am | Report comment
WCR
Good post mate and good replies guys ,OK SANZAR your up next .
May 6th 2011 @ 8:15am
The Bush said | May 6th 2011 @ 8:15am | Report comment
WCR,
Does USA Rugby have plans to implement a professional competition at any stage in the not to distant future?
I had hoped that the Americas Rugby Championship would provide a stepping stone to doing this. There are already four (4) ready made Canadian teams competition in it (The Rock, Praries, Bears and Blues), surely it would be easy to enter four American teams and attempt a pro league?
Or, with this expansion of the Super League on the horizon, is the plan to eventually turn this competition pro?
Whilst all this growth at the High School and College level is fantastic, and will surely lead to an improvement not just in the sports profile, but in the National Team, can only take you so far? Without professional structures isn’t the sport going to be constantly losing athletes at the end of the their College playing days?
May 6th 2011 @ 9:06am
kingplaymaker said | May 6th 2011 @ 9:06am | Report comment
For a long time there was always talk that rugby in America was on the way up, it never really seemed to get anywhere special.
The big reason any such growth may lead somewhere of course, is the Olympics, as that will lead to a level of funding and higher level development across the board to transform any grass roots growth into a stronger national team.
May 6th 2011 @ 9:15am
kovana said | May 6th 2011 @ 9:15am | Report comment
Great Article WCR.
As someone already stated.. It would be good if in the future the USA Super league became Pro… And perhaps the Top 3 or 4 teams from said USA SL would play against the Top 2 teams from the Canadian Rugby Championship.
Who knows, it could even expand further and include Some Teams from the Argentine Provincial Comp?
May 6th 2011 @ 9:27am
Demers said | May 6th 2011 @ 9:27am | Report comment
The Canadian season for the (NF) Rock, (Calgary) Wolves, (Vancouver) Bears and (Toronto) Blues is a short summertime one – July 30 to Sept 3 this year. Just 5 games a team with no great crowd support. 8,000 is around tops only when Team Canada plays the US or a touring side in Toronto. Victoria BC once had some good teams but they’re pretty ordinary these days. Vigorous stuff but no ideas in the backs and few players have learned how to punt a rugby ball.
Lots of boys and girls play the game at school but the standard is woeful. Hockey swamps everything in Canada. Canadian rugby fans are still waiting for some quality. Team Canada had their best RWC result in ’91 reaching the quarters. They’re currently ranked between Georgia and the States. It’ll be tough sledding for them in the pool games this year – NZ, France, Tonga, Japan. And the Eagles have an even tougher pool – Ireland, Russia, Australia, Italy.
North American rugby isn’t quite there yet. It’s coming in the States, lagging north of the border, and yet Canada has a more entrenched rugby culture. But Canada also has a tiny high school and college population compared to the US.
May 6th 2011 @ 12:40pm
The Bush said | May 6th 2011 @ 12:40pm | Report comment
“Victoria BC once had some good teams but they’re pretty ordinary these days. Vigorous stuff but no ideas in the backs and few players have learned how to punt a rugby ball.
Yeah I remember touring Victoria and Vancouver in Grade 11 and playing against other high schools. They were of course a year older than us Queenslanders, and so were much bigger, but as you say, weren’t that great. The most unfortunate thing was that some of them didn’t even understand the rules fully (the finer intracies)(.
However I’ve met a lot of Canadians in my travels and they all seemed to be pretty knowledgable about the sport (at least the ones from BC and Ontario).
Unfortunately professionalism seemed to be someone of a death knell for the Canadian National Team. Their performances have never reached the heights of ’91 at the World Cup, and although they get a few matches every November against some decent opposition, their numbers seem to be continually dropping back home (participation wise).
“The Canadian season for the (NF) Rock, (Calgary) Wolves, (Vancouver) Bears and (Toronto) Blues is a short summertime one – July 30 to Sept 3 this year. Just 5 games a team with no great crowd support.
That’s a shame because the concept is pretty sound, introduce four (4) teams from the States (i.e. Boston, New York, San Fran and San Diego) and you’ve have the beginnings of a decent competition.
May 6th 2011 @ 12:49pm
Working Class Rugger said | May 6th 2011 @ 12:49pm | Report comment
The CRC final drew around 1-2,000 spectators and reasonable ratings on TV. Their are a lot of issues currently in Canadian Rugby but hopefully they’ll sort them out. They are pushing the Canada vs USA test match at BMO Field in Toronto (capacity 25,000). They are hoping for at least 15,000.
May 6th 2011 @ 9:31am
Gary Russell-Sharam said | May 6th 2011 @ 9:31am | Report comment
Great Post “awaken the sleeping giant” I have been waiting to hear how the yanks are doing and this post is good to hear, I hope that this trend continues and America become a force within Rugby. Imagine some of those afro-american athletes coming into rugby 6’6″ 120+ kgs and run a 100 metres in even time, and they are just the backs!!!!!!
May 6th 2011 @ 9:42am
Working Class Rugger said | May 6th 2011 @ 9:42am | Report comment
Gary
While watching the recent episode of ‘The Varsity News’ in their ‘below the radar’ segment they featured a High School Footballer/Rugby player. At 18 he’s 6’3 and 250 pounts (about 110-115kg) and can run. He’s off to East Washington to play Football but wants to remain active in Rugby. He’s old man played for the Seattle Seahawks so his has the the right stuff genetically. These are the sorts of boys beginning to start to play Rugby and they will begin to feature heavily in the years to come.
May 6th 2011 @ 9:36am
Working Class Rugger said | May 6th 2011 @ 9:36am | Report comment
The Bush
The Americas Rugby Championship appears to be going down the internationals side of things, which I actually would like to see it occur. With the Churchill Cup being disbanded this season it could provide the perfect replacement by providing the necessary regional competition that is needed. It should evolve to include the USA, Canada, Uruguay, Chile and the Argentine Jaguars in the short term with a place for Brazil as they become ready.
A truly pro-League is a very difficult thing to determine. You need the finances to do so. The best model would be along the Utah Warriors, where select sides without bias are selceted representative of enter territiories rather than club allegiances. Its difficult but not impossible to achieve. The RSL is at best a semi-pro club league tied down by belief that clubs Rugby is the future of the game in the USA. The day will come when Utah will be joined by NorCal, SoCal, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, NewYork, Illinois and the like in a regional league. Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they are joined by at the very leasy 4 Canadian Rugby Championship teams (more than likely 5 as Quebec is scheduled to enter its own team on the CRC in the coming years).
May 6th 2011 @ 12:48pm
The Bush said | May 6th 2011 @ 12:48pm | Report comment
WCR,
The Americas Rugby Championship as a continent wide (or cross-continent) tournament would be a great initiative. I remember one world cup (might have been ’03), when USA, Canada, Chile and Uruguay (I think, might have been Argentina instead of Chile), all played each other home and away to qualify. That sought of tournament should become annual.
Simultaneously North and South America could have regional Championships, with the two winners playing off to enter the “top flight” the next year (i.e. relegation and promotion).
As for professionalism, I agree that eventually it will have to be regional based. That is why I bought up the current format of the Americas Rugby Championship, as the Canadians have already done this with their four (4) sides. The best approach would be to make this the “Canadaian Conference” and America could set up, for example, New York, New England (based in Boston), Illinois/Chicago, Northern California (San Fran) and/or Southern California (San Deigo/LA) in an “American Conference”. Could hold the whole thing in a few months, say at the end of the NFL season (Feb) through to June, building nicely to inboud tours.
I personally think that with the Churchill Cup gone, it should be replaced by inbound tours from other nations (probably European). Argentina, Australia, South African and New Zealand will each be visited by one of the Euro powerhouses each June, so what will the other two (2) be doing? They could tour the Islands or North America.
An American-wide Tournament could then take place after this in July-August. This would recreate the sought of season the Southern Hemisphere countries had prior to Super Rugby’s expansion this year…
May 6th 2011 @ 9:47am
Demers said | May 6th 2011 @ 9:47am | Report comment
WCT – firstly, ND is not the Catholic stronghold it once was no more than Fordham or Boston C is. Take a look at the Fighting Irish football team and just about all the starting players are African American, many from the South and solidly protestant.
The development you speak of sounds great. I think Nigel has had quite some influence.
Status remains the biggest block. American kids want to be big men on campus and they can do that fastest by suiting up Friday nights. I’ve sat in American schools as a parent and heard principals and teachers say that maybe they weren’t great academics but they could pass that football, and the audience cheered. I had a pal who pulled the birds and he was only a waterboy. It’s okay if you want a date at Vassar or Williams, you can play rugby. But try getting popular at Bloomington by being a prop or a center. It doesn’t work too well.