Hosts of the 2031 Men’s and 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cups, USA Rugby is at the beginning of perhaps the most exciting adventure in its 48-year history. 

Never before has global sports biggest market, the USA played host to Rugby’s greatest showpiece. Now just eight years away, the sport’s governing body are all too aware of the potential the rugby has to finally succeed in winning over the American public. 

Whilst many may feel the idea of Rugby cracking America is nothing more than a pipe dream. It is worth noting the potential of a World Cup taking place in the far east, away from a traditional rugby stronghold, appeared unlikely until Japan were awarded the right to host the 2019 tournament by the IRB (now World Rugby) in 2009. 

Ten years later and Japan would host what many regarded as the greatest edition in the competition’s history. 

The impact the tournament had on the game has been remarkable as the Brave Blossoms (Japan’s national team) made the knockout rounds for the first time in their history. This success, of course, built on their remarkable defeat of South Africa at the 2015 tournament. 

Yet, it was the potential the country has shown as a whole with both their exceptionally strong domestic league and international team that has catapulted them to the top table of World Rugby. 

Now firmly entrenched as a Tier One rugby nation, many feel Japan’s addition to one of the top competitions (likely the rugby championship) is just one step away. 

FloRugby’s Philip Bendon spoke to the man tasked with leading USA Rugby into this exciting new world in CEO Ross Young. 

Having delivered four Rugby World Cups as part of the tournament organising committee, few people are better placed than Young to lead a country to the game’s great showpiece. 

The MLR And Rugby World Cups 2031 And 2033

So how does Young plan to tackle this project and lead the USA from untapped rugby potential to a powerhouse nation in just eight years? 

“It's a multi-layered approach,” Young said before discussing the ever-developing Major League Rugby (MLR) competition which has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2018. 

“I think not dissimilar to the Japanese league is, as you said, there is that I think when it started, it was dominated by foreigners.” 

“What's been great is as we've engaged more in the World Cup project, we've certainly engaged and worked a lot closer with the MLR (Major League Rugby) on outcomes and benefits because undoubtedly as a commercial entity, as a league, a successful World Cup will help them build and grow way beyond the World Cup. So, I think engagement with them, interest in the World Cup, understanding what we have to do and building the league and building it as a product, if you like, building customer and supporter base.” 

Given the sheer size of the USA, the challenge of gaining a foothold in key geographics that can support the growth of the sport is a priority for Young. Thus, the benefit of the MLR having teams positioned throughout the country and in Canada is not lost on USA Rugby. 

“Having bases in a country this size and scale has always been difficult. So having boots on the ground in key geographies, raising awareness of the game, and engagement has been an integral part of building out this plan.” Young said. 

When asked whether he felt the club rugby scene in America was comparable to Rugby in the UK during his involvement with the London club Harlequins. Young pointed out the significant commercial differences between the two. 

“I think that the difference is the MLR exists within probably the biggest, most complex sports market in the world. 

“You have to spend a lot more money to gain traction in an environment than we did back in the UK in the late nineties because it just didn't have those complexities. 

“There just wasn't as much money floating around in the sports environment, so to make an impact, you didn't have to spend that much.” 

Shifting focus back towards the international game, Young was clear to pinpoint USA Rugby’s major focus over the coming months and years. 

“One of the of the biggest issues that we've had, along with Japan and Fiji and those other countries trying to break into the top ten, is we don't have a Rugby Championship; we don't have a Six Nations, we don't have a full calendar with a meaningful competition. 

“If you look at one of the benefits Japan had last time is that they had a lot of corporate support, and they put on a number of additional games. And in that four-year cycle between 2015 and 2019, they  played seven or eight Tier one unions whilst we played one.” 

“We’ve been working hard, so before we start integrating domestic plans trying to sort out the international calendar. I’ve been working with what we now call the performance union, the unions between world ranking eleven and twenty; we’ve set up working groups through World Rugby to explore other competitions we can set up. 

“We are reasonably well advanced in those and have meetings in London to get those finalised for the USA, Canada, Uruguay, Chile, and the likes of Japan and the Pacific Islands, in particular, is to try and create competition in and around that release window which is the current Rugby Championship window release window. 

“Then it's about playing the right crossover games with the likes of Georgia, Portugal, Romania, etc in the July and November windows in a more structured way. So we know a year in advance what we are playing, instead of historically countries like us in Japan, you’ve got a July window, and you don’t really know who you are playing until two to three months before. It just doesn’t make sense to plan and build out a calendar. 

“I'm a great advocate for would I rather play more tier one games and not know a bunch of the other stuff now or we end up knowing that from a U.S. perspective, we're going to have games against Uruguay, Chile, Japan, whatever and then five or six games against the likes of Portugal, Georgia, Spain. Romania, those types of teams that are at our stage of development or thereabouts. 

“It would certainly be my feeling that I'd rather have certainty in knowing I'm playing those teams and those are locked in. Then if we can add another Tier one game onto that, then fine instead of, I want to hold off and not know who I'm going to play.” 

Having regular fixtures is a key ingredient to future success, as is having players capable of sustaining a long season at the top level. Building depth in the player pool available to the national side is, therefore of the utmost importance. Looking towards successful player pathways, Young 

“That's the million-dollar question because it's not that straightforward. For a long time, the vast majority of USA Eagles came from the US collegiate system. So, you had the strongholds of the Cal of this world for the men and the Penn State for women that used to dominate the recruitment of the players. 

“For us, it's. It's going to have to be a combination of things. Collegiate sport is going to remain massively important. And I think there's been a great initiative with a group called NYRA on the women's side that are looking to get competition status within the NCAA. 

“We are up to 27 teams currently; you need 40 (teams) to meet the threshold before that releases (getting NCAA accreditation). That releases you into the NCAA full competition structure, which has a huge amount of financial support that's attached to that, which will allow the women’s game to grow.” 

When questioned about the possibility of a national academy system and development away from the US Collegiate setup. Young pointed towards the various pathways players have come through, including foreign universities and the MLR: “When you look at a number of those players, and you mentioned a couple of them that have gone to Cardiff met and other Universities in the UK and New South Wales (Australia) and others have come from the MLR academies and the younger age-grade groups. 

“San Diego in particular, instead of their academy just being players that are ready to play in their senior team, have an academy that went down to the under 18 age group as well. 

“So, developing those players is going to be important. To me, it will be a cross-section of both academies, high-performance areas, stuff that we're doing independently with age grade teams as well the collegiate space.” 

Eagles Head Coaching Vacancy 

From a coaching and managerial standpoint, USA Rugby is yet to make its next move, having seen head coach Gary Gold depart. Despite Gold’s overall stellar record in charge, failing to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France meant a change was necessary. 

Whilst not qualifying for the tournament was a blow to USA Rugby, Young pointed out that the blame could not be laid at Gold’s door. 

“You look at Gary's overall record, and he is still the winningest coach that we've had. Young said.

 “Obviously, it ended the way nobody wanted it to end with Gary, not least him. He was very passionate about success.” 

“You know, I think when you look back at some of the issues there. The issues weren’t just the coaching. 

“It was all the things we talked about on this call about having a decent time together with players as a group, having regular competition and knowing where you're playing.” 

Interestingly Young pointed towards a more holistic approach to building a coaching team to take the Eagles forward. Instead of just appointing a head coach who would pick their team, USA Rugby are looking to install a general manager similar to that of a Director of Rugby or a GM in the NFL. 

“We've got these two recruitments for the role of general manager of High-performance and also the women's High-performance manager, which is the ideal scenario as we're trying in place. 

“So there's a situation whereby the GM is in charge of the long-term selection process of coaches because, ultimately, they'll be managing them. 

“Hopefully, we will also have clarity in the next short-term period about future competitions. Therefore, we will know the commitment and the fact that you're hiring for a coach that's got ten to twelve games a year on both the men's and women's side.” 

The role of USA head coach is now being held in the interim by former USA Eagle Scott Lawrence for the men's and Rich Ashfield with the women’s team. The question of whether Eddie Jones’s reported interest in the role prior to his signing with Rugby Australia had any validity was put to Young. 

Eddie Jones Links To The Eagles Head Coach Role

“No, no, no. Is that the categoric answer, I think? Yeah. But I've known Eddie for a number of years. 

“Eddie loves the US environment, and you saw that pre-COVID, he was linked with doing some stuff with San Diego.

“Eddie did reiterate that he saw there are huge opportunities in the U.S. and at some point in his career, he said he'd love to be involved. 

“He’s an interesting character, Eddie Jones, as we all know, and he's got a huge amount of knowledge, and he's very dynamic in how he operates.

“But there was never any direct discussions about him that him taking on the USA Eagles head coach role at this stage.” 

Reiterating his earlier points about the infrastructure around a head coach being crucial, Young said: “We could have anyone at this stage of the moment, and I think the ceiling would be relatively limited in the impact any coach would have until we get the proper infrastructure in place and give them the tools to be successful.” 

Rugby World Cup 2031 Potential Format 

Clearly, Ross Young is a man with a plan and the experience to execute at the highest level. With eight years to develop USA Rugby before a ball is kicked at the 2031 Rugby World Cup, one can bet that the USA Eagles will be a vastly different side than the one who missed the 2019 tournament. 

Just how the tournament format will look is still confirmed, but Young did offer some exciting templates for what a potential competition layout could look like, given the resources available. 

“One of the key benefits and there are not as many venues as we have because when we did the bidding, the was a huge interest that 50-odd cities reached out to the expressions of interest. 

“Football venues are just too narrow to fit, and so for a World Cup, you know, you can have the flexibility for the odd one-off game in an exemption from world rugby. 

“But with a World Cup pitch, dimensions are very important; when I worked there, we set criteria whereby we'd only have two variations per tournament. 

“The AT&T Stadium in Dallas, which is obviously an incredible venue, had the same issues around the soccer World Cup and have already made amendments. 

“That means we can now have set rugby pitches in there. So, the huge benefit is we have access to state of the art facilities, training facilities, accommodation and obviously flights in the US are fantastic. 

“We have looked at a couple of options, and we have to be strategic about the placement of games. What we can't do is risk player welfare, whether it's the All Blacks zigzagging across the country having four flights every week to play their games, as that just doesn't make sense; it’s not right on a team having to handle that load. 

“So we've built a couple of options in theory whether it is four or six pools because there's talk of increasing the 24 teams and getting to six pools of four.

“We could then create all match venues where all those teams (in a pool) stay in that region for those games. 

“So you spread the pools around, and then you pull together for the quarter-finals and semi-finals, which is a really interesting one we have looked at. 

“Again, there are different variations of it; we could start the tournament on the West Coast and literally just move it across, you know, to finish up on the East Coast. And that works as well.”