For slightly over a year I have been following the progress of an up and coming major league in the USA. No it’s not Lacrosse… It’s our very own rugby union!

The National Rugby Football League as it will be known has sparked my interest with it’s first NFL like rugby combine last year to find gifted athletes including current rugby players as well as ex-college football Players, basketball players, hockey players and even previous NFL players.

Some of which were spotted by the several English Premiership sides that sent scouts to the combine, including Quinton White and Joel Yogerst who were both given a trial at Bristol United following the event. With the upcoming second combine set to populate the first six teams between the 12-15 of January approaching I thought it was time I did my part to bring more attention to it.

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The details

After this combine has been completed and the teams drawn up, training will commence and for those players who haven’t seen a ruck in their life this will not be very easy as they attempt to rewire their football instincts.

As for the make up of the teams I suspect the majority of the forward packs will be made up of current or ex rugby players due to the experience needed to make a good tight five and the majority of the backs will be made up of crossover athletes, mostly football players, due to the relatively similar body types most football players and backs share such as speed and agility.

Following the initial training period the best players from each team will be selected and made up into an American dream team called “The Rough Riders”. The league has already lined up an exhibition match between the Rough Riders and established Premiership club the Leicester Tigers on the first of August 2015 to be played at a major stadium which will be announced in the next few days.

This is a reasonably exciting way to introduce the country to this new major league and hopefully it will provide an interesting spectacle as well as generate some fans for the league’s maiden season in 2016.

Concerns

I know what many of you are thinking. There’s no room for another major league in America, but I’m not talking about a powerhouse league designed to beat the NFL because that’s just not going to happen. I’m talking something on par with Major League Soccer which would be huge for rugby and in the long run not too unrealistic.

Some of you may also think that if this does indeed become a big successful league some of our homegrown stars might get poached. This is likely to happen whether we like it or not.



But the way I see it, club rugby is a hop step and a jump away from becoming like club football with a smattering of different cultures across the globe not unlike what some of the European clubs already look like today. Ultimately players will be able to represent their country no matter what club they play for.

I also believe this will greatly benefit the salaries of professional rugby players as competition between clubs signing players will reach a new high. It seems as though New Zealand has prepared for this already however as the lure of the jersey beats the money 9 times out of 10.

For those of you who think it’s going to fail and be yesterdays news pretty quickly I think you should read up about some of the athletes and coaches that are on board and you may see what I see, which is a gamble worth taking.

Players

The Rough Riders will definitely start as underdogs against Leicester but this is not going to be some rag-tag bunch of rejects who will just be swept aside.

There are some formidable athletes trying to earn a place on this team. Players like Yamon Figurs and Willis Mcgahee are seasoned NFL veterans who are looking to try their hand at a new and interesting sport. There are also many many college football players who were unlucky not to make an NFL team but still have that hunger and drive to play a professional sport and are athletic, talented and skilled athletes.

Finally are the current American rugby players who probably never imagined they would have the chance to play the sport they loved professionally in America.

American rugby will grow

Rugby sevens’ induction into the Olympics has paved the way for American rugby players as it has drastically increased funding for the sport and it appears that this extra funding is soon to be accompanied by a surge of popularity.

Although there may be some slight negative effects I believe they will be far out weighed by the positives. Just look at the development of the USA football team after the MLS was established, America even qualified for a World Cup quarter-final in 2002.



I am not entirely sure how it’s going to be televised but it appears that NBC is in the mix. I’m 100 per cent abehind anything that makes rugby union bigger as the more competitive rugby becomes the more exciting every match is.

I just hope I get to see the exhibition match and the season that follows and maybe even many more after that. Finally I hope this has peaked your interest enough to give it a look too.