Thanks for the great comments.

I didn’t consider the limitations on foreign born players within the Aussie sides. Perhaps they should consider a change?

If look at how the home nations have struggled with developing talent in recent years, so I understand the necessity for keeping rugby talent in Oz. The European practice of importing talent into the club competitions keeps the teams interesting, but youth doesn’t get a chance to develop.

I enjoy the intensity and variety of the Heineken Cup. The teams at the top might always be the same, but there personel changes from year to year. It keeps things fresh for the viewer.

Where Super Rugby can get stale is seeing the same players squaring off year after year. SANZAR would be smart to shake up the Super comp by allowing players to be drafted from all countries involved, along with a few outside players.

I think of things interims of college football/basketball here in the States. Allow teams to pull from all over to create a different vibe within a team. Of course a core of players might need to come from the team’s nation of origin.

I guess it begs the question of what is more important: a strong test development OR a exciting professional competition.

Marlin Roberts-

There is an element for truth in what you are saying, but poaching athletic talent from the other sports is not going to make us better in rugby 15’s over the long haul. Every position on the field is a specialist in some way or another. Just because you are a super athlete from football, basketball, wrestling, etc., doesn’t mean you will automatically excel at rugby. It helps, but it isn’t the end all and be all.

I feel like your sensibilities are coming at a frustration towards the Eagles side. We all share the same feelings, but growing rugby with the youth and high school is the only way to create a structure for success in the future.

I know men’s club rugby gets lumped into the concept of ‘grassroots,’ and that aspect of the game is frustrating. Men’s club rugby in the USA will never lead to international success.

Leonard Peters has returned to the game of rugby. That is a key point: he was exposed to the game in high school, chose one path to pay for college and returned after his professional ambitions fell through. The seed was planted and therefore, grassroots rugby served its purpose, i.e. a success.

College rugby is the future, followed by an eventual professional league filled with former college stars. That is where pro-soccer came from, pro-lacrosse, and even pro-football.

I coach high school rugby, so have seen growth in my own state. i haven’t witnessed the growth in other states first had, but I hear it is tremendous. I am not a huge fan for USAR, but I understand they are doing what the feel is their ‘best.’

I get excited about seeing the sport I love exploding in my own country.

Soon my friends, the USA and Argentina will join the Tri-Nations. Just you wait and see!

I have always referred to the two as rugby league and rugby union. I just dropped the ‘rugby’ because I sometimes needed to use the term to refer to both codes. I apologize if I offended any one with my American ignorance.

The number of athletes playing rugby in the US is growing every year. Football is a Fall sport here in the States, so rugby has placed itself as a Spring sport. This certainly creates a chance to get some athletes to make that transition during their Senior year of college.

Here in the States, it doesn’t help us to work against football. We need to work with it and around it, so that we can create our own identity. The Olympic Sevens creates huge possibilities for USA rugby, but it isn’t the only way we can succeed.

I like watching the AFL as a spectacle. It is an amazing game to watch, I just don’t know about the sport catching on with people playing it.

The IOC would and should choose 7’s for exactly that reason, because it is half-way to 15’s. This means the inclusion of more nations, especially nations that draw a lot of attention.

A competitive 15’s setup is just more difficult to produce. We would have the same old nations competing for gold. That is not what the Olympics wants. They needs a setup where the USA, China, and Russia can be competitive and only Sevens can provide that.

The one thing that interests me is that Wales, Scotland and England would be a single side in the Olympics. In rugby, they compete alone, but only Great Britain is recognized as an Olympic country. The idea of a Olympic “Lions” side should excite rugby fans.

I suppose we could count our football as a rugby code… interesting thought.

As a coach, I use touch to teach rugby basics. I feel it is an invaluable tool in the rugby coach’s arsenal. The touch team here in Portland, OR is one of the best in the country and sometimes tours the world.

Essentially touch (flag rugby in this case) is the tool being used by USA Rugby to get grade school kids involved in the sport. Some school districts are adopting it as physical education curriculum.

Dennis Justice –

With the exception of baseball, most American professional competitions came after the established college sport had gained popularity. When big name college football players started to fill the professional rosters, the pro-game took off. To say that professionalism is the best way for League to succeed is not true.

I have to agree to the connection with UFC however. There, you make a good point. I have long said that USA Rugby needs to cultivate a relationship with a single cable channel that is dedicated to making the sport successful. What the UFC has with Spike is brilliant and was a huge part of them kicking down the door and into the American home.

Granted they had two things going for them: 1) They used a reality show at the height of reality show popularity to showcase the sport. 2) They followed right behind WWE Raw which as a huge pull with the 18-35 demographic.

I do have to stress that I like a little League from time to time. It is just not my first choice. It is very true that America does not carry the baggage of the war between the two codes and I don’t want to see that start, but by having professional League and amateur Union we are doing just that.

I feel that the codes should unify. I know it is nigh on impossible to conceive, but if one country could do it, it would be the United States.

The only flaw with Sevens is the length of the games. Games are too short to really create a replacement for XV’s. The games have to be short because of the physical toll they take on the players to cover that much space.

If the game of rugby were to lower the number of players, they would have to visit the idea on also changing the substitution policy as well. To keep the pace and intensity up for 80 minutes, you would have to use an interchange system like League. This is something I feel should be done regardless, but that is my opinion.

Obviously American football is a different game and I feel unlimited substitutions like that would hurt rugby, however it is something to consider a possible choice, especially if you went with as few as 10 or 11 players.

Sevens won’t be at the London games. This vote is to include it in the 2016 games.

I don’t agree that golf is a done deal here. Maybe I am seeing what I want to see, but golf doesn’t embody the Olympic ideals at all. It is a rich White man’s sport. Why would people want to watch a bunch of stiffs slap balls around a park in search on a gold medal?

On top of that, it is an individual sport. I know people will bring up the Rider Cup as an example of “team play,” but lets be serious here. Only a handful of nations would have enough golfers to compete on a team basis, so you are back to watching the same PGA guys playing for themselves. Don’t kid yourself that an Olympic golfer wouldn’t be thinking solely about a possible revenue boost after “bring home the gold.”

No, Sevens is a great team sport that could possible make stars out of a few individuals. People like stories and I could only imagine how powerful they could be coming from the poorer rugby nations.

I feel that Sevens is the right choice for the Olympics because of its inclusive nature. Men and women, rich and poor, youth and experience all make Sevens the better choice.

Kooga makes good shorts, at least they will have that going for them. Too bad it wasn’t Nike… Great rivalry between Adidas and Nike, would have been fitting.

An article I wrote on the subject:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/218939-all-blacks-whats-in-a-jersey

This is very off topic. With Canterbury closing its European side, many UK club will be without a kit. As a whole, the company is up for sale. What does this mean for the USA Eagles kit deal? To be honest, hope they have to kind a new kit provider because I don’t like what they have going on for the Eagles right now.

On another note, I heard the Wallabies will also be moving away from Canterbury in 2009 sometime. However, I have heard conflicting rumors and was hoping someone could clarify. Who is going to be: Nike or Kooga?

I have said for a long time that the current structure is silly, but that goes for all levels of USA Rugby. From D3 up to Super League. Yes some clubs are better than others, but 4 levels of play running at the same time just is not warranted.

My thinking is that the States themselves need to turn inwards and get a way from territorial unions and move to state based organizations. Many states already have these for youth rugby and they work so much better than a Commonwealth-style system.

“National Championships” are a joke anyway, so why not put the focus on state/regional championships? Teams play locally in club-type competitions from September to January. Take the best players from those teams and develop a semi professional competition that runs from February to August (NFL off season.) Of course you would work in an International season, too.

I say run things parallel with the Southern Hemisphere comps for 2 reasons: 1) Can’t compete with the NFL, so don’t bother. 2) Opens up the possibility for better international competition.

Just as an FYI. USA Sevens LLC, the company the owns the rights to the USA Sevens Tourny in the IRB Sevens Comp, is moving from San Diego to Las Vegas.

I just want the games to be on television! You show people the sport and the interest will arise. My problem is the lack of transparency with the USAR (you thought ARU kept secrets!) I had to read this article on an Aussie site to find out info about USA college rugby!

People feel like you nee a supply and demand when it comes to television. Horse-ish. I know for a fact that networks will create a market for a new TV program through publicity and promotion. Sports are no different.

I have mixed emotions on having a major international played here on our soil. USA Rugby is more or less a failure when it comes to promoting matches over here. Over all, I’m not happy with USA Rugby as a whole.

I digress, if a Bledisloe was held here, Denver is the worst choice during that time of year. Playing rugby in the cold-ass mountains with the possibility of snow is going to very little for showcasing the sport in a positive way. Let alone trying to fill up a 70,000 seat Mile High stadium is a pipe dream.

We need cooperate money and the best public relations people to make that happen…

Bay-
We do things big up here, that is for sure! I had a guy I played with from Sydney and the man was amazed at the size of everything. “Gatorade comes in gallons?”

To be honest, this is part of the reason why rugby has struggled: the USA is too big. Literally and figuratively. I know down in Aus, rugby is in a constant struggle with League, AFL and Soccer. We too are a sports crazy nation and it can be very hard for fringe sports to get purchase in the American market. I feel like rugby needs to market the sport like Mixed Martial Arts. The UFC is a global brand name after a decade or so.

The country is big geographically as well. This as created a lot of problems for the USA Eagles to train together. Pulling from all over the country AND not paying for players hurts rugby here.

This is exactly what we American rugby fans ask themselves: we have great athletes, what would it be like to see them play rugby? I have asked myself that question many, many times.

America is the Great Tossed Salad (the melting pot is a poor analogy.) This is the only place where you could have African, European, Asian, and Polynesian people sharing the field. I help coach a team here in Portland, Oregon. My team is mainly Tongan and the head coach is Samoan. The West Coast of the USA has a good size concentration of Polynesian people, strong rugby roots. The East Coast has more ex-pats from Europe.

We sit in a timezone between Europe and Aus/NZ. Games played here could be viewed by both regions if a professional competition where to find a home here. That could mean the European, American and Aussie/NZ markets could be touched by one competition. Financially, it makes sense for American companies to push money at a sport that could span several continents, possibly the whole globe. If only they could see that!

It seems that most everyone want to see nations like the USA become a tangible force in world rugby. I feel this speaks to the nature of the game. How it is better to share the sport with others, even if one day, they beat you. It is a beautiful thing.

To be honest, there are a lot of amazing athletes that don’t get a sniff from college football, let alone the NFL.

Football is a different game and different mentality. Players need to be, well, huge! This is where athletes get overlooked, and the college rugby could be right there to swoop up talented kids. Here in the States, if a kid is 6′, 220lbs and another that is 6’4″, 220lbs; all things equal, the taller kid will always get the look first from the major university. Problem is, there is always a smaller college that could off the shorter kid a scholarship.

This is where I get excited about a major college rugby system. If a kid could still go to Penn State or Cal and be an athlete, I feel they would jump at the chance. I had that same choice: go to the big school for the education or go to a tiny school and chase gridiron glory. I chose the big school and discovered rugby…go figure?

High rugby is important for planting the seed, but if rugby takes off at the college level, then the world will need to look out…