United States National Rugby Union Team
The United States men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Eagles, represents the United States in the sport of rugby union. The national team is controlled by USA Rugby, which is a member of the North American and Caribbean Rugby Association, one of six regional governing bodies under the International Rugby Board. The United States is the reigning Olympic champion in rugby, having won gold at the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympics.
As of November 19, 2012 the Eagles are ranked 16th in the world by the IRB World Rankings. Their highest ranking was from October 2, 2006 – September 10, 2007 at the 14th position, following two consecutive wins against Uruguay in 2006 to qualify for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. Their lowest ranking was 20th from June - November 2008, following a winless campaign at the June 2008 Churchill Cup.
The Eagles have played in six of the seven Rugby World Cups, which have been held every four years since 1987. At the 1987 Rugby World Cup they finished 10th, beating Japan, but losing to Australia and England. At the 2003 Rugby World Cup the Eagles finished 13th, beating Japan, losing to Fiji (by 1 point), France and Scotland. The United States has expressed interest in hosting a Rugby World Cup, possibly in 2023 or 2027.
The Eagles have competed in international tournaments such as the now defunct Churchill Cup and the Pan American Championship. Beginning in 2012, every June the United States hosts friendly matches from Tier 1 and Tier 2 rugby nations during the annual June test window.
Read more about United States National Rugby Union Team: Recent Results, Stadium, Coaches, Rivalry With Canada, Women's National Team
Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, national, union and/or team:
“As a Tax-Paying Citizen of the United States I am entitled to a voice in Governmental affairs.... Having paid this unlawful Tax under written Protest for forty years, I am entitled to receive from the Treasury of “Uncle Sam” the full amount of both Principal and Interest.”
—Susan Pecker Fowler (1823–1911)
“We are told to maintain constitutions because they are constitutions, and what is laid down in those constitutions?... Certain great fundamental ideas of right are common to the world, and ... all laws of man’s making which trample on these ideas, are null and void—wrong to obey, right to disobey. The Constitution of the United States recognizes human slavery; and makes the souls of men articles of purchase and of sale.”
—Anna Elizabeth Dickinson (1842–1932)
“On the whole, the great success of marriage in the States is due partly to the fact that no American man is ever idle, and partly to the fact that no American wife is considered responsible for the quality of her husband’s dinners.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Just so before we’re international,
We’re national and act as nationals.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“These semi-traitors [Union generals who were not hostile to slavery] must be watched.—Let us be careful who become army leaders in the reorganized army at the end of this Rebellion. The man who thinks that the perpetuity of slavery is essential to the existence of the Union, is unfit to be trusted. The deadliest enemy the Union has is slavery—in fact, its only enemy.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“I also heard the whooping of the ice in the pond, my great bed-fellow in that part of Concord, as if it were restless in its bed and would fain turn over, were troubled with flatulency and bad dreams; or I was waked by the cracking of the ground by the frost, as if some one had driven a team against my door, and in the morning would find a crack in the earth a quarter of a mile long and a third of an inch wide.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)