Former President of the USA Rugby Football Union (what today would be the Chairman of USA Rugby), Bob Watkins wrote this op-ed for Goff Rugby Report to respond to criticisms of USA Rugby and its leadership with some perspective and criticisms of his own.

“Having been involved in US Rugby from its founding, I'm appreciative of the recent banter regarding USA Rugby and the success and shortcomings. Given from where we have come - long ago co-founder Dick Moneymaker said we were “smaller than Tiddlywinks and will never be better - we are on a path to be more relevant in the world game now and in the future.

It is easy to criticize from the sidelines, however we have many successes including: our Men's and Womens teams qualifying for the Olympics; qualified for the World Cups and have participated in previous World Cups.  We have seen the sport on television more regularly, and great improvement in the attendance at our venues. There is more participation at the base, and the collegiate game is red-hot. This is not accomplished by one person or one CEO, but through a team of folks rowing together under competent leadership.

Saying that, there is plenty of room to improve, including more transparency at the top, and a little more focus on the infrastructure of the game that provides pathways for our athletes.  The current regime have done a good job developing the commercial side of the game, now it's time to focus on the the playing side.

While there have been gains, our playing side has not dramatically improved, while the rest of the world have made significant gains.  Our challenge is to look at 2019 World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, and how do we accelerate our development for those and at the same time continue to develop the game building pathways for our athletes.

Pathways for athletes exist in our major sports from the grassroots to high school to college and professionally. But in Rugby we have demolished any semblance of a true competitive structure and have not been able to finance any professional leagues.  Now the powers to be have a professional league on their agenda, however they are trying to do it themselves and don't have the capacity to pull it off currently.

One of the great attributes of Americans is our resolve to innovate and create. Creative minds and capital exist outside USA Rugby, but they are ignored, put down, or just blocked from assisting in our advancement.  It is a classic syndrome the exists in Sporting National Governing Organizations - the need to control everything by an organization that doesn't have the capacity to do what is needed, but blocks others from trying. This is a major flaw in the advancement of our sport.

It's time for USA Rugby to embrace our entrepreneurial outsiders, take advantage of their ideas, include them in the process.  When people like Jon Prusmack of the Las Vegas 7s and CRC 7s put in $20 million to build that activity, and Mike Dunafon of Glendale, Colo. builds a national rugby stadium and high performance center, we should embrace what they have done, figure out who else is doing great things, and bring them into the fold. USA Rugby could use Dunafon's facility as it's headquarters which is much more accessible than Boulder.

I'm reminded that it has taken US Soccer almost 100 years to get where it is, and the NFL almost the same, it took Canada 40 years to have it's first international win.  A little more patience, a little more transparency, and more inclusion of best practices will  certainly speed our winning ambition.

A final thought: we are totally undercapitalized, and USA Rugby is like trying to feed the masses with 3 loaves of bread and 5 fish, that was accomplished once according to history. But USA Rugby can't pull off that miracle again. They need help, there is a lot of help on the sidelines, being inclusive needs to be high on the agenda.  We have time and can find resources!

- Bob Watkins