The Rugby World Cup is something that college football teams should pay attention to as it could lead to new recruiting pipelines.
Big news in early May from the rugby world hit home for many Americans, as the United States was announced as the host of the 2031 men’s Rugby World Cup and the 2033 women’s Rugby World Cup.
Rugby organizers in the United States have branded the announcement as the moment to welcome “a golden decade of rugby” in the country.
There’s a chance that the sport could develop and grow from the youth level on up as the Rugby World Cup increases exposure to the sport for many Americans who may be unfamiliar with a scrum, a fly-half, or scoring a try.
Now that the United States is set to host the 2031 men’s Rugby World Cup, could we see more international rugby players come to college football?
The opposite, of course, could work as world-class rugby players travel to the United States and see shoulder pads and helmets taking to the gridiron. It will become immediately apparent to college football coaches from around the United States that inviting a rugby player to try a similar sport like American football could pay big dividends.
More immediately, of course, is the 2023 Rugby World Cup, which is set to take place in France next year.
Rugby clearly mirrors American football in a way that few other sports do: there’s the pace of action running down the field, the form tackling, the grit, and the tossing of a oddly shaped ball — and in this case, that ball can only be a sideways or backwards lateral.
Though more opportunities are arising for international athletes to make an NFL roster through the International Pathway Program, U.S. college football coaches could access this talent pool by seeing these players at a younger age. The travel distance, time, and funding are certainly significant issues, but teams like Michigan still found time to have their trip to Italy, right?
There are many hotbeds of rugby around the world. Which of these rugby-obsessed locations could develop into a new college football recruiting pipeline within the next decade? Here are three countries college teams should look for talent.
3. France
This year’s Six Nations champion France could be a fertile recruiting ground for outstanding American football athletes. France recently defeated England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Italy to capture the 2022 Six Nations championship, one of the biggest honors a rugby national team can win.
Some of Europe’s top club rugby teams are French, including Stade Toulousain — a five-time European Champions Cup champion.
The French national rugby team has reached the Quarterfinals of the past two Rugby World Cups (2015 and 2019) and will hope to win the world title as the host of next year’s Rugby World Cup. This will be the third time that France has hosted rugby’s premier event, and nine different venues around the country will host World Cup matches next year.
The most recent French-born player to reach the NFL never played a snap of NCAA football. Anthony Dablé-Wolf had two short NFL stints in 2016 and 2017 with the Giants and the Falcons. The wide receiver, now 33, played for French and German-based professional clubs before and after his time in the NFL.
Richard Tardits, a former rugby union player who was born in Bayonne, France, held the career sacks record at the University of Georgia until David Pollack broke his mark in 2004. The linebacker played three seasons with the New England Patriots from 1990 to 1992 and later represented the U.S. rugby team at the international level.
In all, France ranks among the world’s 20 most populous nations with 67 million people. Soccer, rugby, and cycling are the most popular sports, but there’s no reason that an enterprising U.S. college football coach couldn’t find his way onto a French rugby pitch to find a promising linebacker or running back.
2. Tonga
Tonga is a fragmented archipelago nation in the South Pacific Ocean, a nation of barely 100,000 citizens that resides in 36 inhabitable islands (in addition to more than a hundred additional islands).
The Tonga national rugby team has qualified for seven consecutive Rugby World Cup appearances but has never advanced to the knockout round. Nicknamed the Sea Eagles, the Tongans are members of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance along with Samoa and Fiji.
Vai Sikahema became the first Tongan-born player to reach the NFL when he was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1986. As a standout at the college level with BYU, Sikahema left school as the NCAA record holder in career punt returns (153). The Nuku’alofa, Tonga native was a junior on the 1984 Cougars squad that finished 13-0 and claimed the national championship.
A few other Tongans have starred as NCAA college football players, such as Deuce Lutui, a 6-foot-4, 370-pound offensive guard who was named an All-American in 2005.
Two Tongans are actively in the NFL after successful careers in NCAA football: Fresno State’s Netane Muti, an offensive guard who now plays with the Denver Broncos, and defensive lineman Star Lotulelei, a 2012 All-American with Utah who played last season with the Buffalo Bills.
BYU launched a project several years to convert former rugby player Motekiai Langi to American football, but the 6-foot-7, the 400-pound defensive lineman was a part of the team for only two seasons — 2017 and 2018.
1. South Africa
South Africa is a nation of more than 60 million residents located at the southern tip of the African continent. One of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse nations in the world, it counts 11 official languages and a vast number of influences on its history, culture, and landscapes.
The “Springboks” (the team’s nickname from a gazelle native to southern Africa) are one of the world’s most successful rugby-playing countries, having won the Rugby World Cup three times since 1995. This was the country’s first appearance in the World Cup, as it was barred in 1987 and 1991 due to Apartheid.
The post-Apartheid team that hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup with Francois Pienaar as captain (and with support from newly elected president Nelson Mandela) inspired the highly acclaimed Clint Eastwood-directed film Invictus in 2009, which won several major awards.
If there are so many talented rugby players from South Africa, couldn’t a few more find their way onto the American football gridiron at the college level?
Two South Africans currently play in the NFL: Minnesota Vikings kicker Greg Joseph, a Florida Atlantic product, and Chicago Bears offensive lineman Dieter Eiselen, a first-team All-Ivy League performer from Yale. Eiselen was a former rugby player who ended up at a Connecticut boarding school for high school before joining the Bulldogs at the FCS level.
The only other non-kicker from South Africa to play in the NFL was Jerome Pathon, a wide receiver who played for four different teams between 1998 and 2005. Pathon was born in Johannesburg but grew up in Canada before going in the second round of the 1998 NFL Draft. At the college level at the University of Washington, he had 73 receptions in 1997 — the fifth-most by any Huskies wideout in a single season.
Sure, the distance is great from the United States and the sporting culture is dominated by rugby union and soccer, but the potential is certainly there for more South African rugby players to make an impact in college football.