Recent changes at USA Rugby with the International Rugby Board installing 3 top people will hopefully pay dividends for every level of the game.

Steve Griffiths is the interim CEO, Alan Solomons the High performance Director, and Peter Thorburn the interim men' coach.

It's a not necessarily a difficult assignment coming to terms with the subtleties of American sporting organization, but it'll be more difficult for "outsiders" to get to grips with some issues and effect change.

Rumor has it that former USA Rugby CEO, Doug Arnot, a graduate of Middlebury College and friend of the current Princeton University Athletic Director, was unable to get his friend to consider making Princeton Women's Rugby a varsity program! This is a team that has traditionally competed for the national title and won it twice. If an insider like Arnot can't effect that kind of change then what chance does Griffiths have for success?

Maybe, that Varsity Rugby/Title IX initiative will need more than just recommendation. Maybe IRB money will have to go directly in to university programs in a sponsorship type deal. I wonder where universities and colleges would stand on the sports status if they could get funding from an outside source. Of course the likelihood is slim at best but now is the
time for looking at this area.

College Rugby is a fertile area for the development of the game here in the USA. Probably only second to Youth Rugby.

USA Rugby needs to throw the majority of it's weight behind these early age rugby programs and reap the benefits in 20 years.