Goff Rugby Report Editor Alex Goff sat down with USA Rugby Men’s High Performance Pathways Manager Brendan Keane and USA Rugby General Manager of Performance Pathways JD Stephenson to discuss the new NDP pathway plan.

USA Rugby Opens Arms To Academies To Be Part Of HP Pathway 

See the full interview here >>

Or below.

Here are some of the highlights of the plan to bring Academies into a National Development Program pathway plan:

• This is for Men, Women, Boys, and Girls.
• This plan has elements from previous USA Rugby plans and concepts, but seems to have more enthusiasm behind it with Keane and Stephenson leading the charge.
• Bi-Weekly means every other week. Essentially, some academies were concerned that the expected workload was too high and would spill over into a player's other commitments. But that was when they were looking at a possible twice-a-week, 12-months-a-year program, when twice a month, six months a year is much more doable.
• USA Rugby, specifically Keane and Stephenson, will not just fail a program that doesn't score high enough in the NDP Checklist; they will discuss where the program can improve and come back with a stronger application.
• Many academy and select programs are probably doing enough to be an NDP now.
• It will cost $500 for the honor of being an NDP.

Keane can be reached at bkeane@usa.rugby and Stephenson can be reached at jstephenson@usa.rugby and they are happy to field questions and concerns.

All of this is predicated on follow-through.