06/16/2026
Rugby in the United States has a serious problem: we keep trying to reinvent the wheel instead of studying and following the countries that consistently produce world-class rugby players.
The first mistake starts at the youth level.
In the USA, rugby is often built around high school instead of a proper age-grade rugby system.
That is one of the biggest reasons we continue to fall behind.
We have already failed by believing that players will simply develop through high school and college rugby.
That model has not worked. If it had, the USA would already be producing more elite players and competing at a much higher level internationally.
Countries with far less money, fewer resources, and smaller athletic populations than the United States have developed better rugby players because they have better rugby structures.
They do not wait until high school or college to teach the game properly.
They start young, they build players step by step, and they follow a clear age-grade pathway.
Players develop at different speeds physically, technically, and mentally.
Every age group should have its own team, its own coaching focus, and its own competition structure.
That is how you properly develop players.
You do not skip steps. You do not throw younger players into older age groups and hope they catch up.
We should have a youth rugby age union.
You build a club-based, age-grade system where players can grow year by year.
130 of the 134 Nations that play rugby use age grade rugby, even World Rugby does not have "High School Rugby Laws", It has only "Under 19 rugby laws".
The best rugby countries understand this.
They do not hope athletes magically appear at 19 years old.
They build players from a young age through structured age-grade rugby, proper coaching, strong clubs, and consistent competition.
In the USA Rugby & USA Youth and High School Rugby, we talk about professional rugby, college rugby, national teams, and high-performance pathways, but we keep ignoring the foundation.
You cannot build elite rugby from the top down if the youth structure is broken.
The USA does not lack athletes. It does not lack money. It does not lack facilities. It lacks rugby structure.
Until we stop skipping steps and stop pretending the high school and college model will save American rugby, we will continue asking the same question: why are we not improving?
The answer is simple.
We are trying to build rugby players without following systems that already work.
Our two cents
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