Two sevens wins over novel Zealand,a professional league looming and the nation’s fastest growing team sport – the US now offers rugby the richest prizeAt the Dubai Sevens last weekend, USA beat novel Zealand twice. They finished third after losing contentiously to England but the salient (significant; conspicuous; standing out from the rest) fact remained: no Eagles side had ever beaten an All Blacks team in any form of the game. If Dubai had been the Olympic sevens in Rio next August, and USA would enjoy had bronze – the mighty novel Zealanders,nothing at all.
Through the World Series and the coming Olympics, sevens is stoking growth in the global game. The US offers perhaps the most promising case – in sevens and XVs, or rugby union is the fastest growing team sport. Related: Rugby union: Premiership talking points from the weekend’s action All this is going on without major media interest,in front of an audience served only by dogged bloggersContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com