All-Time American List: Stephen Tomasin
Plucked out of almost obscurity into the US national 7s team, Stephen Tomasin may have been a little lucky, but he turned that sliver of good fortune into an impressive career with the Eagles.
Tomasin might not have been elevated quite so quickly if his coach at San Diego State, Matt Hawkins, hadn't also been the coach with the USA team. Tomasin wasn't big or super fast, but what Hawkins saw in him quickly became apparent. He is an excellent athlete, a smart player who continued to learn, and he was, and is, very versatile.
All-Time American List: Lou Stanfill
A direct and honest rugby player and person, Lou Stanfill was a bruising lock, flanker, and No. 8 who played over 50 times for the USA.
Stanfill was one of the many players who followed the pathway from Jesuit of Sacramento to Cal to the USA. Jesuit was a perennial national title contender while Stanfill was there, and Cal won national championships every year he was at Berkeley. NYAC won a Super League title his one year with them and Seattle was a top club when he moved west.
All-American List: Colleen Fahey
A quick, mobile, and very fit prop for the perennial champs Florida State, Colleen Fahey was a bit of a different breed of front row forward.
Capped only the three times, but still part of the Rugby World Cup-winning side in 1991, Fahey was quick, mobile, and not especially big. In a time when the USA props were about the scrum and maul and then worried about the open field, Fahey was more like a second hooker out on the field.
She remained a key performer for Florida State and throughout her career and continues to be a champion athlete well past her rugby retirement.
All-Time American List: Nate Ebner
Like some of the early 20th Century players on our All-American list, Nate Ebner hasn't played a lot for the USA, but there's a reason, and that reason doesn't reduce his ability or influence as a player.
Ebner was a USA U19 standout, playing mostly at fullback, and at that age he was good enough to make the senior Midwest All-Star team. (Yes kids, back in the dark ages there used to be an annual all-star championship where the best players in each region faced off with a look to getting a shot with the national team.)
One of the best players on the 2007 USA U19 and 2008 U20 teams, Ebner was also a standout at Ohio State. He was fast, strong, and able to hold his own with much older and more experienced players. Having grown up with the game and played the game in preference to football, he was knowledgeable and unafraid.
All-Time American List: Laura Cabrera
One of the most dangerous attacking wings in women's rugby, Laura Cabrera was more than just that.
An ornery, unflinching rugby player she played with the attitude of a blindside flanker, just with startling pace and a finishing flair. Cabrera was a standout for the USA, but also made her mark domestically. She was a massive part of the Berkeley All-Blues' dominance in the 1990s-
From 1994 through 2008, nicely mirroring Cabrera's tenure as a player, the All-Blues made the national club final every single year—15 times in a row—and won an astonishing 12 times. Cabrera was central also to the Pacific Coast's multiple territorial championships during that time, as well.
Her cross-field chase on a breakaway to tackle and save a try during one of those all-star matches remains the stuff of legend.
All-Time American List: Dave Hodges
Dave Hodges was unstoppable.
An All American in football and rugby at Occidental, Hodges, like many of the top players from the late 1990s, came to the game late, but embraced it quickly. A cinder block of a man who could play lock, flanker, or No. 8, he was a leader by example, taking on the toughest jobs and the nastiest roles with no complaint, and perhaps even relish.
Dave Hodges had his nose broken twice, in the same game, and came back to keep playing. Dave Hodges was not only the Players’ Player of the Year and the Fans’ Player of the Year for Llanelli Scarlets, but he also served as the team’s Strength & Conditioning coach and was the team’s representative when Welsh rugby entered negotiations to change its league structure.
That’s right, modern Welsh Rugby owes its success, in part, to an American.
USA Women To Open RWC 2021
Auckland, NZL—The Rugby World Cup 2021 schedule has been announced with the USA Women set to play the opening match against Europe I on Friday, Sept 17.
Kickoff for that game will be at 7:45pm Eastern Time and will be held at the Northland Events Center in Whangarei New Zealand.
Europe 1?
Who Europe 1 will be is still up in the air. The spot will be decided after a four-team playoff among the three Six Nations teams not already qualified, plus the winner of the Rugby Europe Championship. For that's Ireland, Scotland, and Italy, plus one more. The Rugby Europe championship has been on hold after the opening game, which was Russia over Netherlands. The key game will be Russia vs Spain. Assuming Spain beats the Netherlands, then that game will decide who moves on.
All-Time American List: Brian Vizard
Most of us now know Brian Vizard as the head of the US Rugby Football Foundation, and as a TV announcer and analyst, but before all of that, Viz was the captain of the USA team.
Little-known fact—Brian Vizard was this rugby reporter's first interview, which happened in Chicago in 1991. He was an impressive athlete and knowledgeable rugby man then, and remains one. Vizard was a superb No. 8, playing a strong defense, able to cover the ground well, and with good hands.
He started with the Grand Rapids Gazelles but moved on to play for OMBAC, where he teams up with scrumhalf Mike Saunders to form one of the best 8-9 combinations American rugby has ever seen. The OMBAC team they anchored won national DI club championships in 1988, 1989, 1991, 1993, and 1994.
All-Time American List: Jeff Lombard
In a time when the best of thw West Coast often came from California exclusively, Jeff Lombard was an outlier.
A big, powerful flanker from Western Washington University, the lifetime Northwesterner cut his teeth in the always imposing British Columbia league, and forced his way onto the USA national team at a time when playing in Washington and BC was a quick road to obscurity.
Playing for his beloved Chuckanut Bay rugby club, he quickly earned select-side recognition by the Washington state all-star team (the Ravens), the Pacific Northwest Loggers, and most notable for many, the Pacific Coast Grizzlies when he was the only non-California on the roster. He also made the Fraser Valley Rugby Union rep side—a league for which he was MVP—which played the Vancouver Rugby Union.
Former Eagle Head Coach Peter Thorburn Has Died
Former USA Men's 15s Head Coach Peter Thorburn has died.
The New Zealander, who coached North Harbour for many years, was an All Black Selector, coached the New Zealand 7s team, the New Zealand age-grades, and Bristol in England, was 81. He died after a short illness.
Thorburn came in to coach the USA national team in 2006 after internal strife saw Tom Billups step down. He was thrust into what was a very difficult situation and worked hard to get the USA team ready for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He is credited with getting Takudzwa Ngwenya, then a very green winger, into the Eagles and then making the switch from left wing to right wing, a switch that saw him become a superstar.
He also awarded the first caps to Chris Wyles and Mike Petri, two players who went on to have long and respected careers in the USA team.
All-Time American List: Kirk Khasigian
Kirk Khasigian had the unenviable task of replacing one of the USA's all-time greats, as he pulled on into the Eagle #2 jersey after the retirement of Tom Billups.
Roundly considered one of the smartest men ever to step onto a rugby field for the USA, Khasigian was also the first son of an Eagle to make the national team—his father, Fred, started at hooker for the USA in the first modern-era test match against Australia.
An All American as a flanker and then as a hooker at Cal, Khasigian is one of a long list of Cal Eagle hookers, many of whom were converted from other positions. Mobile, fit, hardworking, and skilled, Khasigian played in two Rugby World Cups, and was capped 37 times.
All-Time American List: Ines Rodriguez
A smooth and intelligent flyhalf out of Penn, Ines Rodriguez was one of those players who just glued everything together.
A superb playmaker in 15s for Penn and later for top-level clubs in Pennsylvania, Rodriguez was capped eight times by the USA.
However, she was equally effective as a 7s player, helping the USA to a 3rd-place finish in the 2009 Rugby World Cup 7s. Strong in defense, elusive in attack, and skilled at putting her teammates into a better situation than she was in.
All-Time American List: Jay Hanson
Jay Hanson’s story is a classic one of the early days of the modern era of American rugby.
He found rugby where he could, and continued to perform at a high level whenever he did so. He played in high school in Maryland when that wasn’t really a thing. He attended TCU and found a club in Fort Worth to play for.
Back on the East Coast he started at flanker for the Eastern Rugby Union against Five Nations champions France, setting up the try that gave the ERU an astounding 6-0 at halftime (France went on to win 12-6, but still). Hanson converted to hooker and was capped sevens times by the USA at that position, touring three times with the Eagles.
In 1976 he moved to California to play with the San Francisco Rugby Club, and did so for the next 14 years, playing also for the Northern California Pelicans and the Pacific Coast Grizzlies.
All-Time American List: Paul Emerick
Paul Emerick is one of the greatest American outside backs.
Generally playing at outside center, the former University of Northern Iowa All American and later Chicago Lions was a favorite with fans because he never, ever backed down, was brutally honest about his performance good or bad, and was just plain fun to watch.
He was often blunt with his coaches, too, and usually managed to play his way out of any doghouse he might have been thrown into by his play. Having essentially been benched against Portugal in 2010, Emerick came off the bench and resurrected a poor USA performance by steamrolling a defender and rambling in to score the game-sealing try. His interception, try, and salute in a losing cause against Ireland on September 11, 2011 was an iconic moment.
All-Time American List: Bob Causey
The looming, hulking lock from Louisiana, Bob Causey gave his entire adult life to the game he loved.
Of course, he's not in this list because he coached and coaxed along the LSU program for over ten years and for almost 200 wins. No, here's here because he could play rugby. Captain and best player of LSU in the early 1970s, Causey was an old-school lock who pummeled first asked questions later. He did it all with a smile and a somewhat laconic bayou tilt of his head.
