America's First-Ever Professional Rugby League Is Ready to Launch

Matt Hughston got into rugby when his friends convinced him to try out during his junior year of high school. In his first game, he was red-carded and ejected for a high tackle, but the experience left enough of an impression on him that he quit his other sports and went on to play rugby at East Carolina University and as a member of the United States team that participated in the 2009 Junior World Trophy tournament in Kenya.

Like many American former college rugby players, Hughston dreamed of competing overseas; like many, he found himself playing semipro—in his case, with a team in Charlotte—and feeling overlooked. So when the newly formed Professional Rugby Organization, or PRO Rugby, asked the 26-year-old last year if he wanted to play in North America's first-ever professional league, Hughston was primed to say yes.

There was just one catch.

"I got drafted to Ohio," he says.

Fortunately for Hughston, he was able to leave his fiancée, his house, and his fulltime job with Bank of America behind—his employers gave him permission to work remotely—to give rugby a shot. On Sunday, both he and PRO Rugby will make their debut, with four of the league's five teams facing off.

First announced last November, PRO Rugby is the first American competition sanctioned by both USA Rugby and World Rugby, the sport's global and domestic governing bodies. The league is the brainchild of CEO and owner Doug Schoninger—a New York financier with a background in sports stadium deals—and showcases the traditional 15-player-a-side version of the sport, with clubs in Denver, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and Ohio.

According to Schoninger, the league's modest start belies an ambitious set of goals: create a viable, profitable American pro league where previous efforts have failed; tap into potential fans of the country's fastest-growing participatory sport; grow spectator interest in the game, particularly among millennials; and ultimately help the United States become an international rugby power.

Of course, PRO Rugby first has to get off the ground. The past six months have been a whirlwind for league director Steve Lewis, as rosters, coaches, referees, and venues all have been put together on the fly. Recent changes to World Rugby regulations on suitable artificial turf ruled out a number of potential playing fields in the Northeast, forcing the league to shelve a sixth planned franchise near New York, where PRO Rugby's headquarters are located.

The league plans to expand to New York and Boston in coming seasons—both cities are rugby strongholds—but for now Schoninger is looking to start slow and sustainable, with PRO Rugby's first season acting like something of a proof of concept.

"This isn't a Broadway show, where there's dress rehearsals and then all of a sudden this is it," Schoninger told VICE Sports. "This very much is about a journey and giving ownership to the fan, so I think this is a great base to start.

"Some things are going to work, some things are going to work better, and some things are going to work less. It's a bunch of fine-tuning that will happen based on a lot of data we didn't have and that we're just getting in now."

Among the aspects that need additional tuning? Each of the league's five clubs has a city, a basic set of uniform colors, and … that's it. As the season progresses, Schoninger plans to hold competitions to choose names and logos, allowing fans to have a say in creating team identities.

The league's broadcast availability is similarly bottom-up. Unlike last year's Rugby World Cup—which was available at sports bars or for extra cable-television fees—PRO Rugby is streaming its matches online via AOL and on cable through One World Sports.

"We're very interested in reaching outside the rugby community, of course," Schoninger said. "So to go through traditional rugby channels is probably not the answer for us. Our rugby fans are going to find us where we are and non-rugby fans are the ones we want to find."

To make the sport more appealing to casual American viewers, World Rugby has blessed a pair of rule tweaks: scrum resets will be limited to keep the ball in play more, and sudden-death overtime will ensure the no one has to ever utter the word draw.

"I think it's exciting to get the ball into play," said San Francisco head coach Paul Keeler, who helped develop both rule changes. "All the coaches are pretty committed to playing a fast, ball-in-hand of rugby, with a real attacking mindset."

Each PRO Rugby player's jersey will feature a chest-level red line, the better to give referees a rough visual aid in spotting illegal high tackles. World Rugby outlaws mid-air contact and tackles above the chest, and Schoninger says the sport is taking increasing concerns about player safety and the long-term ramifications of head and brain injuries seriously.

"To me, [the jersey lines are] a symbolism of us saying, 'We're aware,'" he said. "This is not a big step, I get it. It's not scientific, I get it. But it's a first step."

In addition to showcasing homegrown players such as Hughston, PRO Rugby is following the example of Major League Soccer and importing experienced professionals from overseas. The biggest name is San Francisco fullback Mils Muliaina, one of only six players to earn 100 caps for New Zealand's national team, the world's most successful side.

While it's tempting to frame Muliaina as the David Beckham of PRO Rugby, the 35-year-old World Cup Champion respectfully shrugs off the comparison.

"I certainly hope that I can do my absolute best, and I will do it, to help promote the game of rugby in the U.S.," said Muliaina, who will join San Francisco three weeks into the PRO Rugby season after finishing a stint with the Italian club Zebres. "But if you're comparing David Beckham to me, I think you might do Beckham a disservice. He's an absolute superstar. I'm not."

San Diego features 29-year-old Canadian winger Phil Mackenzie, who played in the English Premiership, League One, and in two World Cups. Like Muliaina, he's excited by the prospect of working with a startup league in an untapped, potentially underserved rugby market.

"When I committed to this league, I wanted to be part of helping it grow and doing whatever I can to make it successful," Mackenzie told VICE Sports. "Because I think it would be a great way to finish my career if I could play for five, six years—however long my body holds out for—and watch this league grow and change over those years."

When it comes to international competitiveness, America lags behind much of the world. U.S. teams have enjoyed some recent success in the quicker, more open seven-player version of rugby, but haven't done much in the traditional 15-player game since winning a gold medal at the 1924 Paris Olympics. (The United States was one of three nations to field a team.)

Over time, Keeler says, PRO Rugby could improve Team USA. "It's staggering what it should do for the U.S. game, regardless of whether or not all the players in the league play for the U.S.," he said. "It should start to filter down, make better coaches and make better rugby throughout the country."

For former American college players such as Hughston who recently completed their first PRO Rugby training camps, the league already has meant more exposure—both to a higher level of play, and to future playing opportunities. "It's really moved my game to the next level and put me in a position where the Olympic coaches respect me more," he says. "Playing in the South and in a not so respected region, where you're not playing against the best of the best, you kind of get overlooked sometimes. That's been the biggest challenge with my rugby journey."

Hughston's ultimate aspirations remain the same: play overseas on a top league, like the Southern Hemisphere, Japan's Super Rugby, or Europe's Pro12. If PRO Rugby is successful, he says, that goal will become less far-fetched. And moving to Ohio will be worth all the trouble.

"For domestic players like myself, it actually gives us a legitimate chance to achieve that," Hughston says. "It gives us something tangible, that I can actually prove myself against these players who are already playing overseas."