Video (7.11.17) TR on “Winning” in American Rugby. On & Off the Field 5

0:00  “Win”

0:30  To the Congress:  Is the status quo going to get us the point where we are winners, on and off the field?

  • Top 5 NGB’s in World Rugby?
  • Top 5 NGB’s in US Olympic Committee
  • Since the era of professionalism, we have 4x players from 1995, yet we have dropped in international rankings.  We are not getting better.

1:25  A personal vignette:  One day, Harrison Ridnell (age 8) will say ‘Daddy I want to play Rugby’

2:28 We must get more full time jobs in the sport of rugby.  No more ‘I have a day job mentality’.

2:45  When will the USA be able to compete?

3:50  An address to the Board and Congress: 

  • RIM competes against the same entities we want as strategic partners.
    • This costs massive sponsorship loss
    • Partnering with ‘England’ alienates other nations.

4:25 A Declaration:  I want to be the Chairman of USA Rugby – who is going to step up to make a titanic difference?

4:50  The Rugby Channel must try and merge into NBC as it’s Rugby Channel.  Try and recover some of the over $2,000,000 that has been invested in The Rugby Channel

5:42 When will we ‘expect to win’?

Other Videos/Articles I have published on this matter:

 

 

5 comments

  1. Tony,
    First of all I want to say that I am 1000% behind your efforts to reform USA Rugby – I think you are the perfect person to lead us out of the doldrums we have been in for 30+ years now. That being said, I am somewhat surprised to hear that your 8 year old son is not yet involved in competitive rugby. By way of example, there are literally tens of thousands of kids playing competitive (flag) rugby tomorrow morning in New Zealand in the U5, U6, U7, U8 age grades. They train once or twice a week and play real games every Saturday morning from May thru to August. When they graduate to U9’s they get straight into full tackle 15’s rugby.

    If the 8 year old son of a proud USA Eagle is not yet playing rugby then there is little to no chance that the son of John Smith down the street will ever have his kid have a go at rugby.

    This is the single most important metric that USA Rugby faces today – WHAT AGE DID YOU START PLAYING REAL COMPETITIVE RUGBY? I would guess this number would average out to be close to 16 for the current USA Men’s Eagles team. For the All Blacks this age is 6, without a doubt. After that it’s just a numbers game – you select the top 1-2% from this player pool and that is your mens national team. The AB’s are #1 in the world by a country mile – USA is #17 and has been treading water for a decade.

    Oh yeah, NZ’s population is a measly 4.5 million and the US has 325 million.

    Amazing when you think about the disparity.

    Reply

  2. Pingback: Grow the game? Let’s also Retain the Game. Rugby for Life! « Tony Ridnell

  3. Pingback: The Virtuous Cycle of Rugby « Tony Ridnell

  4. Pingback: USA Rugby Congress Votes w/ Strong Majority to Maintain Status Quo « Tony Ridnell

  5. Pingback: My experience at the USA Rugby 7’s National Club Championships.  No Expectations, Still Underwhelmed  « Tony Ridnell

Leave a comment