Dear USA Rugby Members,
As USA Rugby has gone through reform and reorganization over the past year, members of the American rugby community and other stakeholders have asked questions about the role of the organization. Those questions have ranged from “What is USA Rugby? What do they actually do?” to “What does ‘sanctioning’ mean?” and “What is USA Rugby’s position on unsanctioned activity?” As the restructuring of the Union continues, the National Office, in conjunction with the USA Rugby Board of Directors, felt it would be useful to provide a broad overview of the role of the Union and answers to some of those questions in this open letter format.
In June of 1975, representatives from the Midwest Rugby Football Union, the Pacific Coast Rugby Football Union, the Eastern Rugby Union of America and the Western Rugby Football Union, met in Chicago to discuss the future of rugby in the United States. The sport had enjoyed a renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s, and the four unions had overseen its growth and administration up to that time. Looking ahead, the territories came to the conclusion that they could not sustain the sport working individually. In a country the size of the United States, it would take a unified and coordinated effort to grow rugby, provide oversight on how it was safely run, and to ensure the American viewpoint was represented in the global arena. On that day in Chicago, USA Rugby was created to fulfill that mission.
The original charter of the union stated:
The purposes and objects of the Union shall be to foster and promote the growth and development of rugby in the United States, to increase awareness of rugby, its traditions and its dedication to amateurism and to adhere to the Laws of the Game and the Rules as to Professionalism as framed by the International Board (World Rugby) and generally to advance interest, education and participation in rugby, both national and internationally.
That document further instilled the Union with certain responsibilities and directives.
The Union shall be an organization exercising powers to coordinate the following activities of its Members:
- International affairs
- Relationship between Members
- Liaison with governmental and athletic organizations
- Referee and coaching clinics
- Standardization of the Laws as promulgated by the International Board
The Union shall have the powers to initiate and coordinate:
- Articulation of policy
- Fundraising
- Publicity and public relations, dissemination of information and distribution of educational material
- Selection and training of national teams
In the nearly 50 years since, USA Rugby has endeavored to fulfill those goals and to represent American rugby interests on a global stage. In 1987, USA Rugby became an official full member of the International Rugby Board (IRB), now known as World Rugby. Per the terms of the IRB’s constitution, USA Rugby was now obligated to serve as the sole national governing body for the sport of rugby in the United States. In keeping with one of the initial reasons for the Union’s creation, USA Rugby was now bound to ensure adherence and compliance with the globally accepted rules and regulations. In 2010, with rugby’s re-admittance as an Olympic sport, USA Rugby became a full member of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). In 2011, Bob Latham was elected to the World Rugby Executive Committee, the first North American to ever serve in such a position, and one he continues to hold today. Latham’s position within that leadership group solidified USA Rugby’s ability to influence discussions around the future of the game. In 2017, USA Rugby became a part of the United States Center for SafeSport program, by virtue of its standing as a USOPC member. Adherence to SafeSport standards and processes ensures that player welfare and player protection are at the heart of all Union policies.
The game has undergone many changes over the last 25 years. The dawn of the professional era after the 1995 Rugby World Cup removed the overarching charge of protecting amateurism. The very laws of the game have undergone incredible revisions. Substitutions are now a feature of the game rather than a rare occurrence, lifting is allowed in lineouts, trys are now worth five points, and scrums are no longer built after the front row has already started pushing. Throughout all of this, USA Rugby has strived to represent the needs and desires of its American constituency in global rugby discussions.
In the same time frame, rugby in America has experienced periods of massive growth and contraction. No longer a niche sport, USA Rugby is now an organization with more than 110,000 annual members in 2019. Rugby has been recognized by state high school athletic associations, the NCAA and college administrations across the country, and now provides opportunities for American athletes to ply their trade as professional rugby players, both domestically and abroad. All of this has been achieved through the incredible passion, dedication and perseverance of the American rugby community. Although our community has often had differences of opinion, some of which have been passionately debated, we have always endeavored to work together, in union, for the good of our sport.
As USA Rugby has worked to fulfill its original charge of managing relationships between members and articulating policy, it has seen governance models grow and change with the times. The original four Unions grew in number, and some were subdivided as playing numbers grew. Those Unions became the Territories (TU), which were then further subdivided into Local Area Unions (LAU). In the mid-2000s, the USA Rugby Board was reconstructed and ushered in the era of the USA Rugby Congress. Soon after, the youth game was separated out from the TUs and LAUs into State Based Rugby Organizations (SBROs, subsequently shortened to SROs and now SGBs), the college game began organizing by conference and competition, and the TU/LAU system largely gave way to the modern Geographic Unions (GU). 2020 brought even more changes as the USA Rugby Congress was dissolved and replaced by Community Councils for Youth and High School, College, Senior Club and International Athletes. Each of those groups is now afforded direct representation on the reconstituted USA Rugby Board of Directors.
Throughout all of these changes, though, one thing has remained a constant. Players, coaches, referees, teams and organizing bodies have all been members of the national governing body, USA Rugby. USA Rugby is, at its core, a membership organization. That model means that all participants agree to abide by certain criteria. Only through membership can the Union ensure all events and competitions are held to standards consistent with World Rugby regulations, that all participants are being protected under proper medical and safety protocols, and that all participants know those leading them have been properly educated through World Rugby coach and referee training. Similarly, each coach, referee and administrator have been properly vetted through USOPC and US Center for SafeSport education and screening. By participating in sanctioned activities, USA Rugby members know that they are always protected by the policies of USA Rugby, World Rugby and the USOPC.
As part of its duties as the national governing body designated by World Rugby, USA Rugby oversees coach and match official certification, in addition to certification of other roles like educators and disciplinary officers. Those courses are built around World Rugby exclusive curriculums, and successful completion grants USA Rugby members qualifications which are recognized around the globe. These certifications also assure that the individuals overseeing the game are appropriately trained and share World Rugby’s commitment to player welfare. In 2020, USA Rugby rolled out new “Introduction to Coaching” and “Introduction to Refereeing” courses. These are the first step of a new generation of courses, designed to give community members additional offerings and experiences they have long requested. In 2021, the Union will launch a new, online learning management system which will help modernize content delivery and bring educational opportunities directly to the member, no matter where they live.
That is not to say there have not been missteps along the way. USA Rugby has experienced periods of financial instability and has at times found that its policies were out of step with the needs and goals of the rugby community. However, the Union is made from the community, and the community makes up the Union. The members have always and will continue to play a pivotal role in determining the course of USA Rugby. When policies needed changing, the community has worked together to adapt them. When mistakes were made, the community was there to insist that the organization make them right and do better in the future. Through that cooperative effort for the common good, the sport has continued to prosper.
Looking toward the future, USA Rugby is evaluating how it can evolve to support the continued growth of the community game. The Union is investigating alternative models of membership which will give greater flexibility and options to serve the needs of all members and clubs.
For the 2020-21 season, USA Rugby introduced a “Training Membership” category for the first time. This provided a reduced cost membership option for those who could not, or did not wish to, participate in match play while also giving them the full insurance coverage needed to participate safely. USA Rugby continues to expand on recently approved event-based or temporary memberships, which will provide many benefits of membership for those who are interested in trying out or returning to the sport without the commitment of an annual membership. USA Rugby is also revisiting its event sanctioning policies. Membership will remain a core tenant of that process, but a streamlined approach to application and membership verification, combined with new membership options, will enable the Union to offer better service, lower costs and provide more benefits to a wider range of events than ever before.
USA Rugby began offering supplemental accident and liability coverage as part of its annual membership packages in the mid 2000s. General and excess liability policies ensure that all players, coaches, referees, teams, venues, organizing bodies and in the case of sanctioned events, event organizers are protected from any personal liability from playing the game they love.
In the current environment, these protections have never been more important. A condition of the liability coverage is that it must be paired with a secondary accident policy. Since the introduction of the accident insurance program, USA Rugby has worked to refine the program, increase the benefit to the members, while also controlling costs to keep membership affordable. As a result, USA Rugby was able to secure rates broken out by age groups for the first time in 2020. Additionally, incident reporting has been streamlined and moved online, giving members the ability to process claims faster and to track claims as they are processed. The Union will continue to engage community representatives in the insurance placement process to ensure future policies align with the coverages and cost members want.
More information about USA Rugby’s current policies and benefits can be found at: usa.rugby/insurance
For nearly 50 years, USA Rugby has worked on behalf of the community members that created it. While the details of the Union’s mission have changed over time, the commitment to serving the core functions for which it was created have not. The Union continues to represent the American rugby public in national and international discussions; it continues to work with members to ensure that the game is played and administered in a manner that is consistent with standards around the world; and most importantly it continues to make all decisions with an eye to protecting the sport for future generations of American athletes. American rugby is a story of incredible individual efforts which have maintained and grown the sport in the face of incredible difficulty. USA Rugby appreciates your support, and stands ready to move into the future refocused, together and united behind the purpose of making America fall in love with rugby.
