USA Rugby Needs to Get It Together Before the World Cup

 

@AP Photo/Christophe Ena

 

Over Halloween weekend, Chicago was the home of one of the world’s biggest sporting events. Yet barely any American news outlets reported on it. I am talking about the sold-out Ireland-New Zealand rugby friendly that took place at Soldier Field on November 1^st.

 

Every year around this time rugby teams from around the world stage friendly matches in a series known as the Autumn Internationals, or the Spring Tour if you live in the Southern Hemisphere. The New Zealand outfit, known as the All Blacks, won the match 26-13, however the final score was not what received the most attention during this match.[i] A combination of the poor conditions at Soldier Field and apparent lack of planning left a sour taste in fans’ mouths after they paid around $750 for a ticket. To start, the stadium concessions ran out of Guinness before the match even started. Then the woman hired to sing the national anthem butchered the New Zealand national anthem after stumbling over Maori words, only after waiting for an awkward amount of time for the music to start. Then the stadium DJ began playing music while the All Blacks were lining up for their pre-game haka, a traditional Maori dance that has become a pre-game ritual among New Zealand’s national teams.[ii] The music apparently only cut off after they were in formation.[iii] Refereeing issues and the in-game experience, which included absurdly long lines to the bathroom, combined for a lackluster experience that cast doubt on the U.S.’s ability to host the 2031 Rugby World Cup.

 

U.S. Rugby has six years to figure out a way to grow interest in the game, which is apparently a monumental task as the U.S. men’s team was embarrassed by Scotland 85-0 in their most recent friendly,[iv] and Major League Rugby, which once boasted 13 teams, is now down to seven as owners grow impatient with financial losses.[v] There is room for growth in North America however, as data from this match showed that tickets were purchased from all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. International teams are interested in growing their brand in the American market as well, with New Zealand and Ireland signing sponsorship deals with Chicago-based companies while in town. World Rugby, rugby’s international governing body, is reportedly investing between $250 and $270 million over the next five years to bolster the U.S.’s rugby ecosystem.[vi] As the Rugby World Cup is the third largest sporting event in the world, after the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics, USA Rugby needs to start working out the kinks now.

 

On the women’s side, Ilona Maher has been a breakout star since the lead up to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Her social media presence, which boasts 8.8 million followers on TikTok, in combination with the team’s bronze-medal winning performance, has made her the face of the sport.[vii] Her home matches with the Bristol Bears had to be relocated to a bigger stadium due to the demand to watch her play. The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup broke all sorts of records, in no small part due to Maher’s promotion of the game. Almost 450,000 tickets were sold, and the final match between England and Canada had a record attendance of 81,885 spectators, which compared to the 13,000 spectators at the final 15 years earlier show just how far the women’s game has come.[viii] Even more impressive is that 50% of attendees had never been to a rugby match before, and 95% intend to return and watch rugby again. As for TV viewers, the BBC reported that the World Cup final had a peak of 5.8 million viewers, making it the most watched women’s rugby union game ever on UK television and the most watched rugby game of the year. It is worth noting that the U.S. has also won the rights to host the 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup.[ix] Given the men’s World Cup occurs first, promoters would be wise to target fans of the women’s game to capture the hype that Ilona Maher has created.

[i][i] https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/wrong-lyrics-long-queues-and-not-enough-guinness-rugbys-american-dream-needs-to-learn-from-soldier-field-farce/a1220568447.html

[ii] https://www.allblacks.com/the-haka

[iii] https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/wrong-lyrics-long-queues-and-not-enough-guinness-rugbys-american-dream-needs-to-learn-from-soldier-field-farce/a1220568447.html

[iv] https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/articles/cvgddkj1wxro

[v] https://www-sportsbusinessjournal-com.gate.lib.buffalo.edu/Articles/2025/10/31/ireland-new-zealand-chicago-rugby-match-to-help-boost-sports-us-profile/

[vi] https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/09/08/world-rugby-to-invest-250-million-or-more-in-us-ahead-of-upcoming-world-cups/

[vii] https://www.espn.com/rugby/story/_/id/46028268/ilona-maher-rugby-biggest-star-transform-women-rugby-world-cup

[viii] https://www.rugbyworldcup.com/2025/en/news/1017715/rwc-2025-didnt-just-raise-the-bar-its-gone-stratospheric

[ix] https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/09/08/world-rugby-to-invest-250-million-or-more-in-us-ahead-of-upcoming-world-cups/