USA Rugby is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugby." USA Rugby is responsible for the promotion and development of the sport in the U.S., and promotion of U.S. international participation.
Rugby union in the United States is played at youth, high school, college, amateur, professional, and international levels and governed by USA Rugby. There were over 125,000 players registered with USA Rugby as of 2016. Over 2,500 rugby union clubs exist around the country, including those who are part of college rugby. Professional club competition has existed as Major League Rugby (MLR) since 2017.
Rice University athletic teams are known as the Rice Owls. The name comes from the owls in Rice's crest. Rice participates in NCAA Division I athletics. A member of the American Athletic Conference, Rice sponsors teams in seven men's and seven women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Rice was a member of the Southwest Conference until its breakup in 1996. Rice then joined the Western Athletic Conference and Conference USA, until joining the American Athletic Conference on July 1, 2023. The women's swimming team moved to The American in 2022 after C-USA dropped women's swimming & diving. Rice is the fifth-smallest school competing in NCAA Division I FBS football measured by undergraduate enrollment, just above the University of Tulsa's 2,756 and the three FBS United States service academies's approximate 4,500. Rice's rivals include the cross-town Houston Cougars.
The Trinidad and Tobago women's national rugby union team is a national sporting side that represents Trinidad and Tobago in Women's rugby union. They played their first test match in 2003 and compete annually in the Rugby Americas North Women's Rugby Championship.
The Jamaica women's national rugby union team are a national sporting side of Jamaica, representing them at rugby union. They played their first sevens international in 2000, and their first test in 2003.
The Brazil women's national rugby union team are the national side of Brazil, representing them at rugby union. After several successful performances at Sevens rugby, they played their first 15-a-side fixture in May 2008 against Netherlands and lost 10–0.
In the United States, sports are televised on various broadcast networks, national and specialty sports cable channels, and regional sports networks. U.S. sports rights are estimated to be worth a total of $22.42 billion in 2019, about 44 percent of the total worldwide sports media market. U.S. networks are willing to pay a significant amount of money for television sports contracts because it attracts large amounts of viewership; live sport broadcasts accounted for 44 of the 50 list of most watched television broadcasts in the United States in 2016.
The first tier of intercollegiate sports in the United States includes sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies. The major sanctioning organization is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Before mid-1981, women's top-tier intercollegiate sports were solely governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). Smaller colleges are governed by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Two-year colleges are governed by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) in most of the country, except for the unaffiliated California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) and Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC).
The RAN Women's Rugby Championship is the regional championship for women's international rugby union in North America and the Caribbean that is sanctioned by RAN.
The Colombia women's rugby team represents Colombia in women's Rugby union internationally.
The Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) is an annual college rugby sevens tournament. The CRC is the highest profile college rugby sevens competition in the United States, with the tournament broadcast live on NBC from 2010–2017, on ESPN News and ESPN3 from 2018–2019, The Rugby Network in 2021 and 2023, and on CBS Sports in 2022. The CRC capitalized on the surge in popularity of rugby following the 2009 announcement of the addition of rugby sevens to the Summer Olympics. Beginning in 2021, the tournament has been organized by National Collegiate Rugby under license for the name and logo.
Alexander Magleby is the CEO of the professional rugby union team, The New England Free Jacks. He is a former professional rugby union coach, and former United States national team player and captain.
The Yale Bulldogs Rugby Team, or simply, Yale Rugby is the rugby union team of the Yale University. Yale has fielded a team that has played using the rugby rules since at least 1876. The school competes in the Ivy Rugby Conference and in Division I-AA of USA Rugby's intercollegiate competition. The YRFC plays a fall and spring schedule, which includes both a 15s and a 7s program. The team has approximately 45 players and is coached by Head Coach, Craig Wilson and Assistant Coaches Brad Dufek, Alycia Washington and Greg McWilliams.
The city and metropolitan area of Rochester, New York has several sports teams. Rochester was named the top minor league sports market in the country by Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal in July 2005, the number 10 "best golf city" in America by Golf Magazine in 2007, and the fifth-best "sports town" in the country by Scarborough Research in September 2008.
The 2023 Rugby World Cup, is the ongoing tenth men's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for rugby union national teams. It is taking place in France from 8 September to 28 October 2023 in nine venues across the country and is the first to take place entirely in France. The opening game and final will take place at the Stade de France, north of Paris. The tournament is being held in the bicentenary year of the "invention" of the sport by William Webb Ellis.
Ben Pinkelman is an American rugby union former player and current coach. As a player, he represented the United States in rugby sevens and the traditional fifteens version of the game. By the age of 25 Pinkelman competed in the highest profile tournaments in rugby sevens and rugby fifteens — the 2016 Olympics in Rio and the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. He debuted for the United States sevens team at the 2016 Wellington 7's. He retired due to back injury in 2021 but returned to play in 2023 for the Pittsburgh Steeltoes in Premier Rugby Sevens. He also made his national team return in the 2023 Olympic RAN Qualifiers.
Abbie Ward is an English rugby union player. She plays at international level for England, having made her debut for the side in 2015. She currently plays for Bristol Bears Women at club level.
The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament currently played every four years. The first tournament was held in 1954, hosted by France who had pushed for such a tournament to be approved. Since the first edition, 14 others have been held at sporadic intervals.
The 2022 RAN Women’s 12s was the first edition of the 12-a-side rugby union tournament. It took place over two days on 15 and 16 July 2022 in Kingston, Jamaica at the University of the West Indies and included six teams. The format for 2022 changed from a rugby tens competition to a 12-a-side. The tournament is used as a development tool for the women’s game, with the aim of a Women’s 15-a-side international competition for the region. USA South Panthers won the tournament after beating, runners-up, Jamaica in the final.
Premier Rugby Sevens (PR7s) is the top annual North American men's and women's rugby sevens competition. The competition follows a touring model and involves 16 teams competing against each other across the country. The league was founded in 2021 and is officially sanctioned by USA Rugby as the highest level of rugby sevens in the Untied States.
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