Best two weeks ever for USA Rugby?

Well, maybe. Hard to argue against it.

Consider:

1. USA Rugby rescues their college 7s plan with a well-organized, entertaining, and all-inclusive championship in Denver, that was covered effectively on two of the three fields, with the final games on ESPN3. No, it wasn’t the CRC at PPL Park - fewer fans, no network TV, a little too much lightning - but there were some aspects of the tournament that compare very favorably with the CRC coming up this weekend, such as nicer rest and warmup areas for the players, a nice neighborhood around the venue, and equal treatment for all brackets.

2. USA Women almost qualify for the Olympics. This turns out to be good news for USA Rugby in the sense that fans my well be more interested in going to the NACRA 7s this summer in Cary, NC now that both USA teams have a stake in winning and, therefore, qualifying. But, still, the Eagles came within a whisker of making the top four - losing the 3rd/4th match 15-14 to England, thus tying England in standings points for 4th, and England winning the spot based on points difference over the course of the season. 

3. USA Men win the London 7s. They win it going away. They power through the second day in as dominant a display of 7s rugby as we’ve seen them play. They win - not the Plate, not a plucky 2nd place - they win the whole thing. 

4. USA Rugby announces a test match with Australia for September 5 at Soldier Field. Australia gets a big payout, a nice game, and a two-week camp in Chicago in preparation for the World Cup. USA gets a game against a top-tier nation in advance of the World Cup … something they seem to need if they are to avoid a little shell-shock once they get to the tournament. (See video.)

And it’s another potential big event for USA Rugby. Can they sell out Soldier Field again? Well, maybe not, but what about 40,000? That wouldn’t be too bad.

5. The big one. Now, that’s why we call this the organization’s best two weeks ever, because any one of those four above would be important news, but here, USA Rugby gets to host the 2018 7s Rugby World Cup. It’s the tournament we all said would be perfect for the USA. Finally, perhaps, we can get this tournament done right.

We checked in with USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville to talk about some of these developments and get a couple of details straightened out.

“We have these big things going on but we also have 50-plus teams in Colorado for the College 7s,” Melville said. “That’s important, too. It’s exciting on all fronts. We’re making progress on a number of fronts, not just the national teams or the events. We have had some big announcements that are the culmination of a lot of work. But the icing on the cake was how USA teams played [at the end of the season]. The men winning in London was wonderful. They worked incredibly hard all year, they learned and listened, and to see it come together on one of the biggest stages [- Twickenham - ] was just fantastic. And it wasn’t a fluky win where the ball bounces off someone’s head. It was a clinical win.”

After the Glasgow 7s Mike Friday was asked on camera whether his bosses would be happy with a 6th-place finish in the World Series. The USA men’s 7s coach said, with a smile, “well my boss is Nigel Melville and he’s never happy.”

Melville’s response? “He is never happy.”

Those two go way back to when Melville coached Friday at Wasps, so it was all in good fun, but also there was a message both understand - winning once is nice, but you want more.

As for the major events, the USA v Australia game will be a key component of the USA preparation for the World Cup (see comments from Melville and Mike Tolkin on that in this video). As an event, Australia will get a guaranteed payout plus a part of the gate once certain thresholds are met. For USA Rugby, they are banking on a big crowd, and strong sponsor support.

Obviously the bar was set pretty high with the sellout crowd for the All Blacks game on November 1, 2014. Is this a hard sell? “It’s a different sell,” said Melville. “It’s still a Tier I team playing the Eagles. And it’s an important game for the preparation of our team.” But they expect to get a big crowd, and will have to work for it. 

It will be good practice for the 2018 Rugby World Cup 7s. The big question for that event is, of course, how will they handle holding the event in two separate venues that are about 45 minutes apart? They separate the days.

Avaya Stadium in San Jose is an 18,000-seat stadium that is perfect for 7s, and has an adjacent field that can accommodate extra games. AT&T Park is a 41,000-seat baseball stadium, and baseball stadiums also are good for 7s because of the extra warmup space (something Avaya also has).

The plan, at present, is to hold the 2018 RWC 7s over three days leading into Major League Baseball All-Star Break. The San Francisco Giants, then, would be on the road for that weekend, and then the stadium would be unused for at least three days after the rugby tournament.

Day One would be pool play for men and women at the Avaya fields. That would take care of a chunk of the pool games. Then action would move on Day Two to AT&T Park for the rest of pool play and perhaps some knockout rounds. Then it would all finish off on Day Three at AT&T. So no shuttling back and forth between venues.

World Rugby, said Melville, has the right to change the scheduling, and it might be that Avaya is used for two days and AT&T for one. The competition format itself might also change, as in the past teams that get eliminated in the RWC 7s stop playing. Now World Rugby and USA Rugby is looking into have all teams play to a final ranking. That would mean 72 games for the men’s competition, which would take about 30 hours of stadium time. For there women, it would be 48 games, or about 20 hours of stadium time. 

What also might change is the business model. In the past World Rugby has held the merchandising and commercial rights to the RWC 7s, and the host gets the gate. Discussions are ongoing about giving the host nation a cut of the commercial side - this makes sense as the host group has strong incentive to get sponsors and sell concessions if there’s a payoff in it. If there’s no upside, why bother?

USA Rugby will be operating the RWC 7s through Rugby International Marketing, the for-profit company majority-owned by USA Rugby. The importance and scope of the RWC 7s is huge, and can’t be done just as an added job for those already on staff.

“There’s been a lot of people involved,” said Melvile, noting that USA Rugby Chairman Bob Latham, board member and part owner of the San Francisco Giants, Will Change, USA Rugby International Events Director Kellie Cavalier, Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee Anne Warner-Cribbs, Sara Hunt at Giants Enterprises, and San Jose Sports Authority Executive Director Patricia Ernstrom. “It’s been a pretty big team effort, with both cities and their mayors and their offices involved. We learned a lot from [the 2013 RWC 7s in] Russia. We’ve seen how on the World Rugby circuit how downtown stadiums like Hong Kong and Wellington work really well. Will it make money for USA Rugby? We hope so. There are no guarantees. We know this will be extremely good for rugby and will help us grow the game. And we expect a lot more than that.”