Rugby's Rise in the USA

Recently, Notre Dame College joined the growing list of US colleges that have adopted rugby as a varisty sport.  By introducing rugby as a varsity sport, Notre Dame, along with; Lindenwood, Davenport, Wheeling Jesuit and American International College, can now benefit from better facilities, paid coaches, and, more importantly, paid scholarships!   Speaking of their new rugby commitments, Notre Dame's Dean of Student Affairs, Brian Emerson, commented - “This is an institutional commitment where the institution will also make a financial investment to make this successful,” “We’re pretty serious. When we start a program like this we want it to be successful…I think that we can stand out in this area, and we’re going to invest into it where they can be successful, bring in some great players and put together a competitive schedule.” “We’re not just starting it because rugby’s cheap and let’s make a bunch of money off of this deal. We want to do something that provides a valuable experience for our students and contributes to what we’re about as a mission-driven school,” he said. “We’re also really attracted to the value side of things. People are very passionate about rugby, the people who play it and are involved in the sport. They want it to be successful, there’s a lot of energy connected to that, and from the people that we’ve talked to at USA Rugby and from the coaches that we’ve brought in and the guys around town, people want it to be successful and they believe in it.   With Notre Dame enlisting Brian McCue as the team's coach, it is thought that his 30 years of experience can help to build the college a strong rugby team and allow the sport to gain more exposure and a greater fan base in the U.S.  

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