Imagine, for a moment, that instead of fronting up to Ireland tomorrow morning (AEST), the All Blacks are taking on the USA Eagles on Chicago’s hallowed Soldier Field.
Not too difficult, the All Blacks played the Eagles at that venue two years ago and gave them a good old thumping.
But now imagine, that instead of a middling Tier 2 Test nation that should trouble neither the scoreboard operator nor the World Champs, the Eagles are a global powerhouse off the game.
A team chock filled with NFL or NBA-level talent. Seriously big, fast, strong and tough athletes who have played rugby most of their lives and are earning millions from the sport.
Riches courtesy of giant deals stitched up to broadcast the ‘big show’ – the wildly successful Pan-American National Rugby Football League (NRFL) and Eagles’ regular Tests against fellow Tier One nations.
Imagine the equivalents of all-time great wide receiver Jerry Rice on the wing, Tom Brady at five-eighth and the ‘Minister of Defence’ Reggie White at prop. Hulking seven-foot specimens that, if they didn’t choose rugby over basketball could otherwise be the NBA’s new Larry Bird or Shaquille O’Neal, packing down at lock in an impossibly massive and dynamic pack.
A nation threatening an usurp the All Blacks as the game’s dominant team.
If you can imagine that you might just be taking a glimpse into the future of US rugby. Because the kids are going nuts for it there. Today 2.1 million youngsters play rugby in the US, making it the nation’s fastest growing sport.
And the growth has been explosive.
According to data from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, the number of rugby players in the United States doubled between 2008 and 2013, to 1.2 million. And it’s taken just three years to nearly double again. All this in a period where the numbers of kids playing American football and baseball have been in steady decline.
By 2010, the number of registered senior players in the US had outstripped the numbers playing in Wales and Scotland.
Indeed, rugby participation in the US grew 350 per cent between 2004 and 2011.
All those new players are being well catered for by mushrooming tournaments and structures.
In Sevens the Collegiate Rugby Championship has partnered with NBC Sports every year since 2010, The HSBC World Sevens Series has played in Las Vegas since 2004-05. Attendance for the latter has ballooned, from 15,800 in 2004 to the more than 80,000 that packed in to catch the action at this year’s tournament, won by eventual Rio Golden boys Fiji.
The fact there’s now Olympic bullion up for grabs has proven a major impetus for the Americans to become competitive in the abbreviated version of the game.
The Eagles’ maiden Sevens World Series tournament triumph in London two years ago and landmark win over the Kiwis in the Dubai tourney less than a year ago, just a couple of examples of their rising prominence.
In the full blooded version of the game, 2017 marks a watershed year for US rugby with the launch of the fully professional NRFL.
And like most things in American sport, the big take up has been no accident.
USA Rugby CEO, former England halfback Nigel Melville, explained to US Journo Professor Roxane Coche in this post, that initiatives targeting the youth market were introduced in eight years ago.
In order to make parents understand the game, which is widely perceived in the US as a violent sport played by lunatics with no pads, USA Rugby had six to 12-year-olds play a version of touch called Rookie Rugby.
Melville told Coche that since 2008, “more than two million kids have been through the program across 43 state rugby organisations…. (creating) great momentum for the sport” as those first children have now grown up to play in high school and college. .”
Hell-bent on commercialising the sport, USA Rugby has created a new commercial entity, Rugby International Marketing (RIM) – with England’s RFU on board as a minority shareholder. Melville explained that this “‘for-profit’ company will grow commercial activities to fund the game, and improve the visibility of the sport on TV and on a new digital channel, Over the Top.”
Women’s rugby is also going gangbusters stateside, the more than 20,000 registered female players means the US has more women rugby players than any other country.
High-end fashion mag Vogue didn’t do any harm to the profile of the women’s game with a spread on the USA Rugby Women’s Sevens team in the lead in to their Olympic debut earlier this year captioned: “Will Women’s Rugby Be the Next Women’s Soccer in the U.S.?”
Meanwhile, New England Patriots defensive back Nate Ebner made history when he became the first active NFL player to compete at a Summer Olympics when he laced up for the US Men’s Sevens team in Rio.
And it was hardly a rush of blood into the unknown for Ebner who, ten years prior, became the youngest-ever US Sevens player at age 17 before going to Ohio State, where he straddled rugby and American football until swept up by the NFL.
And where there’s eyeballs the media will follow, and vice versa.
The US’s Olympic Network, NBC, is the official channel of rugby in US, broadcasting several tournaments including the World Sevens in 2011 in which 5,4 million viewers tuned in to watch team USA and that year’s World Cup from which NBC broadcast several matches live for the first time.
Cable channels are also broadcasting an increasing amount of the code.
Still, even if rugby was to go anywhere near being a dominant player on the US sporting landscape, it would not be for a generation or two.
It will be interesting to see if many Windy City locals will ease wild celebrations of their long-awaited Cubs World Series Baseball triumph long enough to notice there’s a couple of rugby games on in their backyard this weekend.
But would’t it be an awesome thing to watch the US fulfil its rugby potential over the coming decades?
Especially given the news that China is going big on rugby, with a lazy $100m investment from e-commerce giant Alibaba to develop the game and set up professional leagues for men and women in both 15s and sevens by the start of 2020.
It’s incredible to think that China can just turn on the tap like that and decide to get good at a sport from scratch. But, of course, they can.
Rugby’s global menagerie will be all the richer for the inclusion of a Bear and a fully grown Eagle.
toputz
Guest
I saw an empty stadium when Kang and Kiwis played a boring game this morning.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Not helped by one of the worst Eagles perfor,amces I've seen.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Yeah, I was talking about Foxtel. The game was broadcast live via The Rugby Channel in the US butyou will be able to catch it on delay on NBCSN. Not sure what time, sorry.
Simoc
Guest
NZ Maoris 54, USA 7 a few hours back suggests nothing much has changed at the top end.
Highlander
Guest
A little scrappy in Chicago today but good to see some depth in the forwards, Hames scrummed like we know he can ( watch the long bind to set up his drive, lessons for Mr Sio here), both Dixons and Franklin (how he missed the full AB squad is still beyond me). TKB looked like the AB he is. Good stuff ball in hand from the Ioane boys, Reiko defence good front on, Akira still plays way too upright for me and will be a problem for him against better defences. Remain disappointed in McKenzie and West, neither are showing the composure required to take the next step. Looking forward to the Munster and Quins games which will be better tests.
ThugbyFan
Roar Guru
Hi Working Class Rugger Bugger, I am in USA (Calipornia) and my brother tells me that no channel here is showing any rugby from the EOYT. We clicked on Ch 515 but that is a movie channel on his Satellite dish TV. Do you mean ch: 515 on Foxtel in Australia or some cable network in USA? If I have to miss all the WB and NZ games on the EOYT just because I am in USA then I will spew.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Which leagues are youtalking about?
Phill L
Guest
Its close to 450 000 registered players. There is a programme called rookie rugby for kids kind of like beginners guide to rugby, now last year 2014-2015 they had million participants. Anyhoo RL and AFL are a dot on the American scene and get confused with Rugby. Rugby has been growing significantly,which hurts RL and AFL supporters feelings on the roar, They can't get enough of coaches and training staff for high school and colleges.
An Outside view
Guest
Ahem, the US has already tried a few 'pro rugby leagues' all failed. 7's rugby is not 15's, and who knows what the IOC will do with it in the future?
Wardad
Guest
Scary scenario for ABs fans ,good thin only 15 men on the paddock eh ?
Working Class Rugger
Guest
For a country where a disproportionate number of particularly young Australians travel internationally we sure can look at something like Rugby with blinked vision. Just because Rugby has been struggling a bit here doesn't mean it has been internationally. Quite the opposite in fact.
Damo
Guest
Thanked the world doesn't revolve around what Australia does then hey? Just because it ain't growing here doesn' mean its not growing internationally...Australia is not the world. Leave your Lounge room and you can discover that...
Working Class Rugger
Guest
First of all, this article is clearly about Rugby growing in the US. Second, all 5 Wallabies Tests will be broadcast on Bein sports on Ch 515. The RFU and FFR selling the international broadcast rights to BEin Sports is the issue with FTA broadcast not the lack of viewership. Get informed.
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
Another delirious rant about USA rugby. Every couple of months and years we read one of these hallucinatory out of body experiences about USA rugby. Sleeping giant? Yes, still in REM sleep.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
The National Rugby Football League is a Rugby Union league concept. It's been around for 4 or 5 years now trying to get something off the ground. They made a lot of noise in late 2014/early 2015. Even ran a well publicized 'combine' in LA. Planned two showcase events as a means of launching the league but in the end failed to cross their t's and dot their i's as well as really get any investors to buy in. What the article seems to complete overlook is the existence of PRO Rugby. The actual first professional Rugby competition in the US launched this year. A USA Rugby samctioned privately owned league. Its owner evidently was one of the people the NRFL were originally xourting but didn't like what he saw.
Kasey
Guest
Rugby growing??? Rugby is struggling here in AUS. The Wallabies are playing a Spring Tour of the Northern Hemisphere and Peter FitzSimons reports the national Rugby team is not on TV. "the two most popular Tests – against England and France – will be on ... neither Free to Air TV or Pay TV." That's because not enough people are watching them so the broadcasters don't see the point in televising it.
Birdy
Guest
If we're talking about union where does NrFL come from?
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Thing is, no one within Rugby in the US has ever suggested the game could or would supplant any of the more established sports. Hell, most of the focus has been showing that Rugby is complementary more than anything. Everyone I know who is working at the coalface honestly aren't even thinking about any of that nonsense. They are just passionste Rugby people giving up their own time, energy and often money to provide kids the option and opportunity to play Rugby. For the most part they are seeing strong returns for their effort.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
The 2.1 million participants includes kids who particpate in structured development programs not the actual number of players that compete in structured league play. That being said, technically speaking the 2.1m figure does reflect overall particpation when it comes to Rugby activities. The actual number of players is a touch under 600,000. With the great majority being in the youth sector which is the real success of the programs that provide the 2.1m figure above. While I seriously doubt kids and parents are waiting with bated breathe to play the game as suggested above (but seriously if their is demand for it in your area, look at getting a team up and running. You never know. I know a guy from Nth Carolina who with others launched a club. They started with 30 odd kids and within 5 years were running teams from U6-18. They are now looking to do the same the next county over) but youth Rugby is exploding. Rugby has enjoyed a decade of double digit growth but nothing like what is being seen in the youth sector. One day in the future there very well could be 2.1m players in the US but that's still 10 or so years away. Well, depending on how successful the new USA Rugby program set to be launched in January is.
west
Guest
Wow cool... That this century or the next this is all going to happen? Imagine what this would mean for the Wallabies? Americans love American sport, Ive lived there for years all over the country and I struggle to find any publicity on rugby domestic or otherwise. Football, Baseball and Basketball dominate America if you think rugby will replace one of these sports your dreaming