Rugby union in the United States

Rugby union in the United States
Air Force and Navy playing a match hosted by the Alamo City RFC (2006)
Country	United States
Governing body	USA Rugby
National team	United States
Nickname(s)	Eagles
First played	1875, Boston–McGill v. Harvard
Registered players	115,000 (total)
Clubs	2,588
National competitions
Rugby World Cup Collegiate Rugby Championship USA Sevens World Rugby Sevens Series Women's Rugby World Cup World Rugby Women's Sevens Series
Audience records
Single match	61,500 (1 November 2014) USA vs New Zealand (Soldier Field, Chicago)

Rugby union in the United States is a growing national sport. Rugby union is played at the youth, high school, club, and international levels. All rugby union played in the United States is governed by USA Rugby. There are over 115,000 players registered with USA Rugby. The 2,588 clubs in the United States are governed by USA Rugby through Geographical Unions and Local Unions.

PRO Rugby was founded in 2015 as the first professional rugby competition in the United States. College rugby is popular, with rugby being the largest club sport on college campuses.

Rugby union was first introduced to the United States in the mid nineteenth century and gained popularity throughout the late nineteenth century. However, it started to decline from the early 1900s. The U.S. won the gold medal in rugby at the 1920 Olympics and again at the 1924 Olympics, but rugby collapsed in the country after the 1924 Olympics. Rugby did not re-emerge in the US until its renaissance in the 1960s and 1970s. The United States of America Rugby Football Union (now known as USA Rugby) was formed in 1975.

There are several high-profile rugby competitions in the U.S. The USA Sevens is held every February at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, and draws over 60,000 fans and is broadcast on NBC. The U.S national team hosts international matches every June, with attendances around 20,000. The Collegiate Rugby Championship is held every June at Talen Energy Stadium in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pennsylvania, and draws around 20,000 fans and is broadcast on NBC.

The United States men's national rugby team, the Eagles, has competed in all but one of the Rugby World Cup tournaments held every four years since 1987. The U.S. national team plays home matches every June, both in the Pacific Nations Cup and international test matches. The United States is a Tier 2 rugby nation, which means that it is not currently competitive at the elite level of the sport, but is one of World Rugby's key development markets. The U.S. also fields a team in the Americas Rugby Championship; a USA "A" national team participated in the original version of the competition, and the full national team is competing in a revamped version that is launching in 2016.