Could Test rugby be headed to New York City? World Rugby is keen
World Rugby is looking to shore up American interest for Rugby World Cup 2031, hatching a plan to take the final series of the Nations Championship to New York City in 2030.
World Rugby chairman, Australian Brett Robinson, revealed the thinking in Sydney on Monday, when the former Wallabies back-rower was in town to announce Nine Entertainment Co. broadcast partnership for the next three World Cups.
But it is the men’s event in 2031 that is flickering both brightly and concerningly in the distance, with World Rugby desperate to crack into the lucrative American market, but also fully aware of just what it will take to make that happen.
Part of that is fostering dramatic improvement in the men’s national team – which might yet include a team thrust into Super Rugby Pacific – but also taking the sport to the broader American market, which is largely unaware of the game’s huge global profile.
Staging the final series of the Nations Championship, which will first be contested in 2026, would bring top-level rugby to one of the country’s most iconic cities, and lay down a marker of what Americans could expect when 24 countries hit the States 12 months later.
“From my perspective, it’s locking down a commitment to the US, I’ve just come from LA, just come from a meeting with the U.S. Federation, and we’re going to take to council next week a recommitment to 31 and to 33 (women’s World Cup), and how do we do that with the unions?,” Robinson said when asked what would be front and centre on the agenda for the upcoming World Rugby council meeting.
“So how do we align the major nations taking product to the US ahead of the 31? How do we ensure that the Chicago All Blacks Test match (against Ireland) later this year is not just a one-off, but we build a program of events with all the major unions to raise the profile?
“How do we work on a 2030 Nations Championship final series in New York where we’re going to host the final?
“They’re the sorts of conversations that we need to get into with the major unions in the next six months to galvanise our direction.”
While the plan appears to be very much in its infancy, World Rugby would have a few different options in terms of stadia it could use for a New York City showpiece.
New Jersey’s Metlife Stadium, the home of the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets, has capacity for 82,500 people, but is typically an astroturf surface. However, FIFA World Cup games will be played on grass at the venue in 2026, and while the dimensions could be a tad tight, the fact the NRL has taken games to Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium the past two years shows how compromises can be made.
The other option would be the grass field at Major League Soccer club New York Red Bulls, though that stadium, also in New Jersey, has a capacity of 25,000, making it a much smaller venue than Metlife Stadium.
World Rugby is still to finalise just where the first Nations Championship final series will be played, with London previously in the box seat. However, in recent times, the lure of a big-money pay day in the Middle East has generated reports that World Rugby might be considering a switch to either Saudi Arabia or Qatar.
Saudi Arabia recently also flagged it interest in staging a Rugby World Cup, perhaps in conjunction with other Gulf nations, but World Rugby will first want to see how successful it can be by breaking new ground in the United States.
A large part of that is having a competitive Eagles team, at least one that could reach the Round of 16, which will first be contested through an expanded Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia. Having failed to qualify for France 2023, the scope of the challenge in front of USA Rugby, and World Rugby from a broader perspective, has the game’s global stewards working on solutions in the background.
Its foray into Major League Rugby through all-American franchise Anthem Rugby, based out of North Carolina, has not gone so well, with the team winless in 2025. While stepping up to Super Rugby Pacific with a similar framework would appear to be a stepping stone the country is not yet prepared for, Robinson said it was a pathway he was interested in after reports surfaced last week that discussions had already taken place in the background.
“I mean, from our perspective, having a really successful Rugby World Cup in the US and the national teams be competitive are separate but connected,” he said.
“And, as I said earlier, we certainly are really excited about what the women’s 15 and sevens teams are doing globally.
“We met with the U..S board on Monday and they would agree that there’s more to do around how do we lift the standard of their men’s team.
“Certainly the MLR is playing a role, the Anthem team is playing a role, but if there was an opportunity in Super Rugby – and that’s a competition we don’t own and control, that’s in the hands of New Zealand and Australia, were wanting to talk to us about participation, or if it was the URC (United Rugby Championship) wanting to talk about participation – we could work collectively on a conversation around that.
“But World Rugby is on the record of trying to build and grow international capacity and capability.
“The [Fijian] Drua is a great story. Rugby Australia, with World Rugby, invested in the NRC for three years, then elevated to the Drua playing in the Super Rugby, and then the Fijians go to quarterfinals at the World Cup. So that’s a well-trodden path, systemically built together by leveraging World Rugby and the member unions, and if there was an opportunity to try and do something similar in the US, we’re open to that conversation.”
Source: espn.com