USA the Sleeping Giant of World Rugby

History was made last Saturday when New Zealand ended their first visit to America since 1980 by trashing US Eagles 74 – 6 in front of a capacity crowd of 61,000 at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

The All Blacks ran in 12 tries with Sonny Bill Williams scoring twice along with Julian Savea (two), Nathan Harris, Cory Jane, Partick Tuipoulota, Charles Piutau, Joe Moody, Aaron Cruden, Israel Dagg and Sam Cane with Cruden kicking four conversions and Dan Carter with three.

Adam Siddall scored all of the United States points with two successful penalty kicks.

However, it wasn’t the scoreline which was the big story the bigger story is America the sleeping giants of world rugby?? And the answer is yes and here’s why.

In the UK we’ve embraced the NFL and with Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonvile Jaguars playing at Wembley this Sunday, momentum is growing about a London franchise and even the Super Bowl to be played in the UK. The same could easily happen with rugby in America.

The Aviva Premiership have a handful of US players in England with Cameron Dolan and Samu Manoa playing for champions Northampton Saints, Hayden Smith and Chris Wyles (Saracens), Eric Fry (Newcastle Falcons) and Blaine Scully at Leicester Tigers. Plus the USA sevens rugby team have Carlin Isles who’s the worlds fastest rugby player.

So looking for future players should be easy for US Eagles because they have something which will give them players in all positions and that’s College Football.

College Football is huge in America and it’s the best place to see the future superstar Quarterback or Linebacker, but accordingly to NACC only 1.6 percent, which is less than 2 in 100 will move up from College to the NFL*. This is so many athletes who, even though they wouldn’t get a million dollar contract, can transfer those skills from football to rugby union.

Imagine Russell Wilson playing scrum half or Stephen Gostkowski playing fly half and kicking penalties and conversions from 40 plus metres. Then have DeSean Jackson and Marshawn Lynch breaking tackles and flying down the wing. So if the USA had these types of players plus letting them mold into a team they could compete with some of the top nations and start getting into Quarter – finals and Semi – finals of World Cups.

I’m not knocking the colleges that do showcase rugby like Yale, Univeristy of Michigan and many more, but I’m sure there could be a way to have injured football players train with the rugby team while they get back to full fitness and even if you're kicker/punter for your college team it could be boring just doing one job but if they tried rugby and played fly – half or fullback they would be able to do a lot more.

The other side of the question is, does America want to play rugby?

Will Chang, a board member with USA Rugby, said “Rugby in the U.S. is where soccer was 15 years ago” which is understandable considering it took David Beckham to join LA Galaxy for soccer and the MLS to get notice. Then again the recent US vs New Zealand game was sold out so appetite could be there.

Fans would easily understand the rules because they are less confusing then Football (sorry I love football, but the rules are hard to understand sometimes) plus rugby is a lot like football. The game is shorter even though football is 60 minutes compared to rugby’s 80 minutes there are no ad breaks or stoppages of any kind only for injuries so you could get home earlier.

With IRB chief executive Brett Gosper saying would be “terrific” the prospect of a Six Nations match being staged in the United States.

Gosper told The Daily Telegraph “I know PRL (Premiership Rugby) are talking about bringing some big club games to the States and why not Internationals like the Six Nations.”

It’s a good idea, but the fans of Wales, England, Scotland, France, Ireland and Italy may not be up for traveling across to the States of one game plus the history and traditon of the Six Nations would be lost just because to make some money and personally I think Americans who are new to the sport would learn a lot more about the game if we kept the traditon. 

However, I think it is a good idea to exhibit Premiership rugby games like Northampton vs Saracens also having something like a British and Irish Lions tour would be a great idea.

Instead of going to South Africa why not have both the Lions and South Africa tour the States.

I couldn’t be more behind this idea because I truly believe America could become a great rugby nation and maybe forming some sort of league called Major League Rugby or something would be awesome.

*Statistics from National Collegiate Athletic Association