US Pro League To Start in 2016

A new professional club rugby league in the United States is set to become a reality with the action getting underway as early as April 2016.

PRO Rugby, the organisation behind the new league, has revealed that the competition will initially be contested by six teams from “major metropolitan areas in the north-east, the Rocky Mountains and California” and each will play 10 fixtures between April and July.

Canadian teams are also set to join the league in 2017 and, while the first six teams are yet to be confirmed, Sacramento, San Francisco, Denver and Philadelphia have all been mentioned.

Other details such as broadcast plans and sponsors also remain unclear but the competition has been sanctioned by USA Rugby and World Rugby and USA Rugby chairman Bob Latham says the time is right to launch the league.

“As the fastest growing team sport in the USA, it is the time to have a sanctioned professional competition,” he said.

“We are very happy to partner with PRO Rugby in taking this step to popularise the game, to inspire Americans to fall in love with rugby, and to show the rugby world what American players can do.”

A similar league in the form of the National Rugby Football League was founded in 2014 and was due to be launched with a match against Leicester Tigers in August of this year but it was scrapped after it failed to apply for USA Rugby sanctioning.

A Premiership club is now heading to the States to play a regular season game though after London Irish announced recently that they are taking their fixture against Saracens on March 12 to New York.