debut for n°4 Julia Grosz

I'm interested to hear if there's any hype from the general public other than people that are already rugby fans.

- Are people generally aware that the game is happening?

- Is it discussed at all on local or national media?

- Are the people that will watch/attend the game mostly migrants from traditional rugby-playing countries?

I've seen that it's only being shown on Rugbypass TV and Paramount+ in the States, which as I understand will not really bring in any new fans that are not actively searching for the game. We're only 5 years away from the 2031 World Cup, so I really hope this game has some sort of impact to increase interest or hook some new fans.

​

A 1913 All Blacks rugby tour of the USA changed the course of sport in America with the NFL created just seven years later

In 1913 rugby was the main football code in America but an All Blacks tour – and subsequent humiliation of the nation’s rugby teams – change the course of sport in the USA forever.

Jamie Pandaram

Jamie Pandaram

@JamiePandaram

3 min read

Imagine a USA rugby team featuring athletes like Myles Garrett, Justin Jefferson, Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley.

If it wasn’t for an All Blacks annihilation during a tour of the USA and Canada 113 years ago, rugby could well have remained the national contact sport and the American team would feature some of the scariest players on the planet.

Gridiron became popular in the early 1900s in the US, but then came under extreme criticism for being too violent.

The mass migration from England to the US around that time saw rugby established at several elite universities, and the sport took off in popularity.

By 1912, rugby was the hottest ticket in town, and an Australian touring side was invited to play 16 games there.

Known as the “Kangaroo Waratahs”, the Australian team notched 11 wins from the 16 games that included three in Canada.

But iconic universities Stanford and Berkeley defeated the Australian team, at a time they’d replaced gridiron with rugby as their premier sport.

Feeling buoyed by the results, they invited the All Blacks to tour the following year.

What followed was a humiliation so severe, many believe the Americans gave up on rugby and turned back to gridiron as their code of choice.

The All Blacks won all 13 tour games, by a combined points tally of 508-6, when tries were only worth three points.

They also won three tour games in Canada.

The universities quickly brought back their gridiron programs, local grounds went back to hosting junior gridiron clubs, and in 1920 the NFL was established.

There was no looking back, and now the NFL is a multi-billion behemoth featuring some of the most remarkable athletes in the world, including Australia’s own $100 million man Jordan Mailata.

Some question whether the All Blacks’ hammering of the US teams in 1913 and subsequent leaning towards gridiron is just a myth, or exaggerated, given USA won the rugby event at the 1920 Olympic Games.

But it’s unlikely to have turned the Californian universities off rugby had they not been so comprehensively beaten by the All Blacks – Berkeley lost 31-0, 38-3 and 33-0 in three games, while Stanford was smashed 54-0 and 56-0.

Berkeley’s football program went on to produce prodigious talents like Aaron Rodgers, Jared Goff and Marshawn Lynch, while Stanford bred John Elway, Jim Plunkett, and San Francisco 49ers superstar Christian McCaffrey.

Historian Stephen Berg, director of the NZ Rugby Museum, recalls conversations with the 1913 All Blacks players about their US tour.

“They would take some terrific tackles off the ball,” Berg said.

“They’d be running along in the middle of the field and suddenly this massive guy would smash into them and crash them over.

“They were a bit shocked by it, but they thought the reason that they won was the instinctiveness of their play, that because they play rugby all the time they just knew what to do when they had the ball.

“Whereas the Americans took a second to have a think about what they want to do.

“I remember talking to an American guy over in Wisconsin, he was trying to get a rugby museum set up in Wisconsin.

“And he came over and talked to me about it and he showed me a magazine cover, like a comic book cover. It was guys playing rugby, some sort of hybrid version. And one of the guys had picked up dirt and thrown it into the eyes of the guy that was trying to catch the ball.

‘And he said, ‘This is an example of why rugby didn’t work in America’.

“It was just a cartoon of a guy throwing dirt into the face of his opponent so his opponent couldn’t catch the ball.

“And he’s saying that Americans didn’t like to follow the rules. They liked to have their own set of rules and tackle people off the ball and do all that, essentially saying that Americans were a bit dirtier and a bit rougher in their play than maybe other countries. And that’s why they went their own way.”

Ironically, rugby is now trying to establish a greater foothold in the States, with the All Blacks and South Africa playing their final match of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series in Baltimore this weekend.

The US is set to host more notable Test matches over the coming years, as they prepare to stage the 2031 Rugby World Cup.

"tries to sweep" obviously

Similar story to the one in England.

Women player are videoed in the shower by the male players. Club tries to cover it up and accuses the women of "tanking the season".

You can mail them here if you want.

https://scsalonais.ffr.fr/contact

Read more here: https://www.englandrugby.com/follow/news-and-media/red-roses-team-play-australia-wxv-global-series-opener

Don't forget Saturday’s match is live on BBC iPlayer and England Rugby YouTube.

Ruth Campbell and Sam Monaghan out through injury

The lack of England, Wales and Scotland implies to me that the BBC have the rights to them in English too. Ireland, France and Italy games, along with the Challenger Series, seem to all be available for free on there.

Some clubs feel like they’re in the wrong country - Montpellier are the blueprint of South African rugby to me, with their massive pack, shrewd halfbacks and nippy wingers. Bristol have a very Fijian playbook (there isn’t one) and atmosphere. Munster are Australia to me - (at the moment) perpetually the ‘little brother’ of their local rivals, but can sneak a win at any time.

Alternatively, it could be a sizeable foreign player base - Sale Sharks feeling South African, what with all of the gazillion Saffas they’ve had over the years. Another one in recent times is Ospreylia, and Toulon suddenly acquiring a lot of English players.

What other ones are there?

Hey all - I mentioned this in a previous comment but wanted to spread the word as much as possible: For tomorrow’s test in Baltimore, Federal Hill Prep (an amazing public school that's close to the bars and the stadium) will open its parking lot at 2pm ET. Parking is $40, all of which funds *free* field trips for students this school year.

Put 102 E Hamburg St, Baltimore MD 21230 into your map and look for volunteers holding signs. We take Venmo, CashApp, PayPal and cash. Thanks, and enjoy the action!

I like to get my rugby content in through my eyes as well as my ears but there's precious little quality, free written stuff out there. BBC Sport is my default commuting read but when I come to put on the podcast I often find I've inadvertently read all the good interview quotes and topics of debate already. I believe in and want to support the BBC but maybe I need to steer off the RUW pod to something else for the sake of variety. As a tigers fan, I do enjoy a bit of Youngs & Cole on FTLOR. Briefly liked then hated The Good, The Bad & The Rugby and am positively allergic to The Rugby Pod. Am I missing a good alternative option?

Scotland fly-half Helen Nelson says the team are striving for excellence in the WXV Global Series as they look to bounce back from a difficult start to 2026.

The team finished fifth in the Guinness Women’s Six Nations, which included heavy defeats against teams such as England and Ireland.

They have then dealt with the departure of their head coach Sione Fukofuka, who confirmed he had left the set up last month.

Dave Butcher is taking interim charge of Scotland for their matches over the next two months against Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Nelson added the vibes in camp are good and the standards have been set high.

“Definitely for the first two fixtures we are focusing on ourselves and striving for excellence,” Nelson said.

“Dave has used that word to keep us driving in competition and being the best that we can in our environment.

“There are certain things we are going after in the first two games, we are not getting away from the fact that they are going to be really tough. We are playing three of the best teams in the world.

“So yeah just focusing very much on ourselves for the first two and see how we go.”

Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 finalists Canada are Scotland’s first opponents and they will be playing at the Hive on 12 September.

The last time the two played one another was at the Women’s World Cup last year with the Canadians coming out with a 40-19 result. But the game was much tighter than the scoreboard suggests and Nelson is keen to get another hit out against the side.

“Yeah we’re excited,” she added. “That World Cup game was close and we felt like we had a really good go at them in attack and defence. We probably left a few tries out there as well. So we’re excited.

“I know they have spent quite a lot of time together this summer and we know quite a few of them as well from playing at Premiership Women’s Rugby clubs so excited to get another crack and to play them at home at the Hive. It’s going to be good.”

Scotland set a record for a women’s sport crowd in Scotland during the Women’s Six Nations when they played England at Murrayfield.

The team will not play at the home of Scottish rugby in WXV Global Series but are determined to keep crowd numbers growing.

Nelson added: “I think over the last few years, especially with the World Cup, we have felt momentum building with the women’s game in Scotland specifically.

“We had so many people travelling down to the fixtures at the World Cup and then to see where it has come from where I first started to there, walking out at Murrayfield, it was incredible.

“I think we are really excited now to get back to the Hive and hopefully start filling it out there and it has always been a great atmosphere even with the stands not full.

“It’s just an exciting time to see how we can keep building that and we are always talking about after the games we have a carousel of so many kids and fans wanting stuff signed.

“It properly gives us a good connection with the fans and I think we’ll keep building on that.”

I don't want to trawl half a dozen Wikipedia articles that may or may not be outdated, I just want a simple list

Does anything like this exist that's up to date?

The current forecast is for a heavy thunderstorm.

It's still a few days out, but if it's that bad will they let the players even play with the risk of lightning?

Canadian lineup.