The United States of America is the third largest country in the world in terms of both size and population with a land area of nearly 10 million square kilometres and a population of some 290 million people.
Rugby was introduced into the United States by English soldiers and colonists in the mid-1800s with the first recorded game taking place in May 1874 between Harvard University and McGill University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The sport was one of the most popular in the country around the turn of the 20th Century and the United States won the gold medal at the last two of the four Olympic Games to feature rugby in 1920 and 1924.
However rugby’s removal from the Olympic programme saw its popularity decline until it enjoyed a revival in the 1960s and 1970s with the United States of America Rugby Football Union, now abbreviated to USA Rugby, formed in June 1975.
This national body is made up of seven territorial unions, which are then divided into 37 local area unions and boast more than 1,000 clubs and 50,000 people now playing the sport throughout high school, the collegiate system and at senior clubs.