I would like to thank Hedley Legrand for having me on his "State of Play" podcast last week.
The link: http://www.arugbylife.com/p/podcasts.html
I have begun to hear some feedback from the broadcast, and so I'll take a moment to add to and clarify some comments.
Rugby in North America has few supporters as passionate as myself.
My comments in regards to the current state of the USA Rugby men's fifteens team express the great need for a first class domestic high-performance competition; one that will help elite club and college players to get the experience they need to step up to the international and professional arena.
Some of this may eventually come from projects like the NRFL; however, Canada has been building its own high performance league, the Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) for the last 10 years.
The project that gave birth to the CRC was called the North America 4. The USA were actually partners in that effort, back in 2006.
At present, it is too much to ask players from the USA's domestic club and college system to make the professional jump, without such an intermediate step - its just too big a gap.
If the USA wants to raise their "state of play", they will re-consider constructing something similar on American soil.
Follow me on Twitter: @RugbyScribe
The link: http://www.arugbylife.com/p/podcasts.html
I have begun to hear some feedback from the broadcast, and so I'll take a moment to add to and clarify some comments.
Rugby in North America has few supporters as passionate as myself.
My comments in regards to the current state of the USA Rugby men's fifteens team express the great need for a first class domestic high-performance competition; one that will help elite club and college players to get the experience they need to step up to the international and professional arena.
Some of this may eventually come from projects like the NRFL; however, Canada has been building its own high performance league, the Canadian Rugby Championship (CRC) for the last 10 years.
The project that gave birth to the CRC was called the North America 4. The USA were actually partners in that effort, back in 2006.
At present, it is too much to ask players from the USA's domestic club and college system to make the professional jump, without such an intermediate step - its just too big a gap.
If the USA wants to raise their "state of play", they will re-consider constructing something similar on American soil.
Follow me on Twitter: @RugbyScribe
