Rugby union in the United States is a growing national sport. It is played at the youth, high school, club, semi-professional, and international levels. There are over 450,000 players registered with USA Rugby, including over 67,000 high school students. The 2,588 clubs in the United States are governed by seven Territorial Unions and 37 Local Unions.
The United States is a Tier 2 rugby nation, as defined by the International Rugby Board, which means that it is not currently competitive at the elite level of the sport, but is one of the IRB's key development markets. The United States men's national rugby team, the Eagles, has competed in all but one of the Rugby World Cup tournaments held every four years since 1987. They competed annually in the Churchill Cup from 2003 to 2011, but that tournament was scrapped after 2011, because beginning in 2012, the IRB will include the USA and Canada in its international tour calendar, with top-tier national teams regularly visiting both countries in the mid-year Test window every June.
The men's national team in the sevens variant of the sport is a rising world power; since 2008–09, they have been a "core team" that participates in every tournament of the annual IRB Sevens World Series. The key tournament for the US team on that circuit is the USA Sevens, held every February at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.
The United States women's national rugby team was established in 1987. The team has been a world power; winning the inaugural Women's Rugby World Cup in 1991, finishing second in 1994 and 1998, and fifth in 2002, 2006, and 2010. The women's sevens team has been named as one of the six core teams in the IRB Women's Sevens World Series, which will start in the 2012–13 season and include a tournament in Houston.
The sport of rugby union was first introduced to the United States in the mid nineteenth century and gained popularity throughout the late Nineteenth Century. However, it started to decline from the early 1900s, and collapsed in the country after the 1924 Olympics. Rugby did not re-emerge in the US until its renaissance in the 1960s. The United States of America Rugby Football Union (now known as USA Rugby) was formed in 1975.
The semi-professional domestic Super League was established for the country's top clubs. In 2006, the International Rugby Board (IRB) sponsored North America 4 competition was introduced, with two American teams participating; that competition was replaced in 2009 by the Americas Rugby Championship, with an effective USA "A" national team participating.
Read more about Rugby Union In The United States: Governing Bodies, Growing Popularity, College Rugby, National Team, Regional Bodies, See Also
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