I watch a lot of rugby in California, and also get to see quite a bit of American football at college and NFL level. Generally speaking, rugby is a growth sport in the US and is supported, monetarily, far better than powerhouses like Fiji and Samoa.
Rugby in the States is played all across the country – from NY to Hawaii, and from Florida to Alaska – and the development people are doing a great job at all levels – grade school, junior high, high school, and college – in both the mens’ and womens’ game.
Nigel Melville who, for those who may not know his name, is an ex-captain of England, and an ex-TV commentator for the BBC, is now president of US Rugby Operations based in Boulder, CO. and seems to be doing all the right things.
Where Nigel has made a difference is perhaps in recognizing that this is a sport foreign to Americans, and not easily learned if you’re not brought up in the game, so he’s instigated a big coaching program – that is, coaching for the coaches.
He recently had 100 coaches from all over the US attending classes in Hartford, CT, at which some officials from the SH enlarged not only on the basics and advanced techniques, but on the ELVS variations as well. The coaches then went back to their various jurisdictions and spread the word.
There’s little problem in getting a fine womens’ team together as there’s not much pro competition from other sports unless you know how to wield a tennis racquet or a golf club. That’s one reason why the US women will challenge at the Dubai World Sevens in March, the first sevens world championship for the ladies.
The potential for American mens’ sevens is enormous. Not so long ago, at the three US Olympic Training Centres (Colorado Springs, Lake Placid and Chula Vista), over one thousand male athletes were timed at 10.2 or even better, and 90% of them weighed around 200 pounds (91 kilos).
If just 10% of them could be inveigled into trying rugby, that’d be a hell of a base from which to shape a sevens team once they were taught how to pass and tackle rugby-style, and, of course, the tactics of the game.
But they’d have to be willing to devote oodles of time, be able to travel, and accept livable but minimal money, and that would cut down the base considerably. But, as it is, the US will still field a formidable team in Dubai, a team that will include, last I heard, the rocket from Zimbabwe, Takudzwa Ngwenya. (For those who missed his copybook in-and-out against Brian Habana, you can catch it on youtube.)
But the picture changes for the 15-a-side game in the 2011 RWC. If you can’t make it in the NFL – 32 teams each with a roster of 53 players – you can try the lower-paying, way-less-attended Canadian League, a similar game only with three downs instead of four.
If you can’t make it there, few are attracted to rugby mainly because few Americans make big bucks as pro rugby players. You can join a club and maybe advance to the semi-pro level if you learn the game fast enough, but unless you’re a player capable of successfully crossing over, like Dan Lyle and a handful of others did, or are super-talented like the above mentioned Ngwenya, you’re not going to get an international contract. So the Eagles are a team of mainly semi-pros (supported in part by the IRB and US Rugby) who’ll be playing the majors in the Big Show.
SPIRO – if Mr. Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, is serious about making the quarters of the 2011 RWC, he should, IMHO, maybe think about getting Charles Saatchi to sell one of his throat-gagging Damian Hirst pieces (recently, Hirst preserved an entire white bullock in formaldehyde, coated the horns in 18-carat gold, and sold it at auction for a cool $18 million) and donate the proceeds to Rugby USA.
Then Nigel Melville could attract some huge, fast guys who’ve been cut from their NFL teams. But that would still leave just two and a half seasons to learn how to play rugby at international level, and that wouldn’t be enough time. However, if things keep on track in the US, it’s conceivable the Eagles could make the quarters in RWC 2015.
JAMES MORTIMER – As an Aussie, I’ll freely admit that, with certain exceptions, radio/TV sports commentary has never been an Australian forte. Maybe it’s an inbuilt suspicion of the show boat, the dislike of the unhumble, I don’t know. But it’s left us with a legacy of no-talent microphone bores.
I listen to somebody like Joe Buck over here in the States who not only calls NFL games on Fox, but also handles baseball commentary. He never stumbles, has an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of both sports, and of the players on the field or the diamond, and tells you something of interest all the time. What a difference to “What went on in the scrum then, Kearnsey?” “Awww, I dunno. But sumpthin’ was goin’ on.”
And good for you for writing the IRB. We should get up a campaign to choke their inbox with complaints at their ham-fisted approach.
WHO NEEDS MELON – as for which two sports have the most affinty, I’d say tennis and golf. Laver used to play off 2, Ivan Lendl was good enough to get a pro ticket, Scott Draper can par his home course, and years ago, US and Wimbledon champ Ellsworth Vines played on the pro tour and came within a few strokes of beating Hogan and Snead. The experts say that many tennis players easily make the switch because a tennis backhand is very similar to a golf swing.
JERRY –Not only was James Naismith born in Canada, he lived there for 29 years. When he came up with basketball, in Springfield, MA, as you correctly point out, he was still a Canadian citizen and didn’t become an American citizen till age 64.
Be careful. If you claim basketball as an American invention, Ottawa may send a gunboat.
WESTY – Excellent piece of League history. A pick-up team of ex-NFL players came out to Sydney circa 1950 and played a League team. The Americans were, of course, well beaten, but the Leaguies went home black and blue from the Yanks’ thunderous tackling.
Incidentally, Lombardi may have been great, but he was loathed by just about everybody who ever played for him. I have stories about Lombardi.
THELMA AND TRUE TAR – I saw Lawrence Taylor play a couple of times for the Giants in the late 80’s. A sensational outside linebacker. However for me, and a lot of other fans who go way back, Dick Butkus of the Bears was the ultimate linebacker. He was a monster, a bone breaker who terrified the ball carriers. You probably saw the Ravens’ Ray Lewis in last Sunday’s playoffs. Guns on him like thighs, and he’s fast. But he’s a pale shadow alongside Taylor and Butkus. THELMA, I’m sure we’d all love to read your Ruck Utopia. You have a solution?
DUBLIN DAVE – Swift, Goldsmith, Wilde, Beckett and you? You must have been the odd man out.
COSMOS FOREVER – There is a rugby play in some NFL teams’ playbooks but I haven’t seen it for years.
It’s a series of slightly backwards laterals to eligible receivers as they sweep right or left.
Incidently, rugby borrowed a play from the NFL – the flea flicker. The ABs used to use it with Jonah getting the offload on the reverse.
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