Thought for the day - of the four teams that made the top men's college finals (Varsity Cup and DIA), there are eight starters in the halfback combo - four scrumhalves and four flyhalves; of those, only two were born in the USA.

Life's #9 and #10 were both born in Northern Ireland.

Cal's halfbacks are from Hong Kong.

BYU's scrumhalf is from South Africa and their flyhalf is from New Zealand.

Only St. Mary's will start a US-born player in those positions, with Holden Yungert from Petaluma, Calif., and Kingsley McGowan from Lafayette, Calif.

Now, I'm not going to criticize these teams for putting who they want to in specific positions, but I am going to point out that it's a shame it happens. Not because I want to deny a good American college education to someone from overseas, but because I want to recognize that US colleges are still one of the major training grounds for top-level players in the United States. And if the top programs aren't putting American-born players in #9 and #10 jerseys, then how are we going to develop players at that position?

If we don't ask them to perform at the top level, how do we know they can?

It's no coincidence that the USA Men's National Team has been engaged in a search for a flyhalf for several years now. The candidates have included a New Zealander, an Australian, a player from American Samoa who learned his rugby in New Zealand, and now, ultimately, an Irishman. Scrumhalf has been somewhat different, and New Yorker Mike Petri has held down that position, for the most part, for several years. But the players pushing to unseat him, or at least back him up, learned to play rugby overseas.

Look at the all-time USA points-scorers. Of the eight players who have scored 100 points or more, only one (Chris O'Brien) was born in the USA and developed in the USA. Some of those eight can lay claim to being born stateside (Mike Hercus, Chris Wyles), or developed as a young player (Kevin Dalzell), but not both.

Can we change those stats if we're not putting US college kids in those positions?