Next month, the mighty New Zealand All Blacks will take on 2015 Six Nations winners Ireland at Soldier Field in Chicago, while the USA Eagles will also take on the Maori All Blacks that same weekend as part of The Rugby Weekend – perhaps the most high-profile weekend of rugby in the history of the sport in the States. But rugby has been played in America for over 100 years, and in that time there have been many significant matches held on US soil – here are the top 10…
10) Stanford v California, 10 November 1906, California Field, Berkeley
Due to huge public outcry at the level of violence common in the American code of football at the time, between 1906 and 1915, one of the biggest rivalries in all of college sport, the Big Game between Cal and Stanford, was officially switched to rugby football. Stanford prevailed in that first rugby Big Game, 6-3, but with crowds of 20,000-plus regularly registered, the fixture soon became one of the biggest attended games in world rugby at the time.
9) USA v Argentina XV, 6 February 2016, BBVA Compass Stadium, Houston
With the growth of the game in the Americas seen as key to the future of rugby union, 2016 saw the inaugural Americas Rugby Championship – an annual western hemisphere international tournament contested by Argentina’s second team, plus USA, Canada, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile. The Eagles drew against the eventual champions, but the historical significance of this game and this tournament to rugby in the USA could be massive.
8) USA v Canada, 28 May 1978, Baltimore
Canada won the inaugural rugby match between the two great North American rugby rivals in 1976, but their first meeting on US soil came 2 years later in Maryland. It was the Eagles’ first win over their neighbors from the north, prevailing 12-7 on the day. The USA did not defeat the Canucks again until 1984…
7) The Gentlemen of Aspen RFC v Old Blue RFC, 10 May 1997, Balboa Stadium, San Diego
While the USA national team was steadily improving, the country’s top domestic teams were struggling to find decent competition week in, week out – the answer was the inaugural USA Rugby Super League. Featuring teams from as far afield as San Francisco, Denver, Chicago and Dallas, it was the USA’s first truly national domestic rugby competition. Fittingly, the first ever Grand Final saw teams from Colorado and New York City do battle in San Diego, with the brilliantly named Gentlemen of Aspen emerging victorious – the RSL ran from 1997 until 2012.
6) USA v Japan, 4 May 1991, Rockne Stadium, Chicago
Consistency and wins were always at a premium for the first few decades of the reborn Eagles, so this victory over the Brave Blossoms was a hugely significant moment. The USA prevailed 27-15 on the day, but this was also the first time in their history that the Eagles had won three matches on the bounce, having also beaten Japan in Blaine in April of that year, and in Tokyo the previous September.
5) Sacramento Express v San Francisco Rush, 17 April 2016, Bonney Field, Sacramento
That’s a wrap folks! Game one ✅ #SANvSAC pic.twitter.com/Q63xVDrEQm
— San Diego Breakers (@sdbreakers) April 23, 2016
After over a century of play, 2016 finally saw a fully professional national rugby tournament come to North America in the shape of PRO Rugby, with Sacramento and San Francisco contesting the first ever match – the home side winning 37-25. With more than half the players involved in the inaugural five-team league having played test rugby, it was a true watershed moment for the sport in America, and gives the domestic game a strong foundation to build on.
4) USA v Australia, 31 January 1976, Glover Field, Anaheim
Previous test matches involving the ‘USA’ had been contested by All American teams mainly comprised of student athletes from Californian universities, but in 1975, the United States of America Rugby Football Union became the first proper national governing body for rugby in the USA, and a year later they welcomed the Wallabies in the first ever test match for a United States team that truly represented the whole country. The Eagles fought valiantly, and kept things close, until two late Australian tries saw them downed 24-12, but rugby in the USA was back in the big time.
3) USA v Australia, 16 November 1912, California Field, Berkeley
After a Californian student team toured Australia and New Zealand in 1910, two years later the Wallabies returned the favor with a 16-match tour of California and Canada. While mainly taking on college and local teams, they also played the first ever test match on US soil. While the USA team dominated large portions of the game, and the Wallabies were none too happy with some of the off-the-ball tactics, the visitors eventually prevailed by the narrow margin of 12-8. It seemed that USA rugby was poised to become a major player in the global game…
2) USA v New Zealand, 15 November 1913, California Field, Berkeley
Just a day short of a year later, the USA faced their ultimate test – the All Blacks. In the 12 matches before the test match, New Zealand had scored a frankly ridiculous 457 points while conceding just a single penalty goal, and with the swing back to American football starting to take hold elsewhere in American colleges, the USA team needed to make a statement on behalf of rugby in front of a crowd of 10,000. The All Blacks were in no mood to accommodate, running out 51-3 winners, scoring 13 tries. Many cite this humbling tour as the reason that rugby finally lost its battle with American football in its Californian heartland, and it would be over a century before the All Blacks would return to the States.
1) USA v New Zealand, 1 November 2014, Soldier Field, Chicago
If not the most significant result in the history of the USA Eagles, this game was important for reasons that reached far beyond what went on during that 80 minutes. Welcoming the All Blacks back to the USA for the first time since that infamous tour in 1913, the Eagles might have lost the game 74-6, but it was in front of a sell-out crowd of 62,000, and broadcast live on NBC, bringing a profile that the game has rarely enjoyed since its early 20th century heyday. It’s an event that has also permanently seen the USA become a stop on the fall tours, with Australia being welcomed to Soldier Field a year later, and laid the bedrock for The Rugby Weekend to grow the game even bigger.