USA Rugby

And Team USA make history in Paris.

USA Rugby is heading to Australia.

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ready.

Bill and Fitzy will be right back.

And now, back to the show!

Joe, that's a good question there because I wanted to ask, right, because there were some circles where when it was announced that USA Rugby had hired Jack Hanratty as the head coach, and he's been on this program a couple times since, but people are like, who's this Irish guy who's coaching the Canadian sevens women's team? Like, why are we getting another sevens coach for 15s? It seems like, I guess, does it seem like he's kind of maybe cast off those doubters, those naysayers, just based upon the last few results?

I think, obviously, to be honest, yes, is the really short answer.

Alex Goff runs GoffRugbyReport.com. He's been in the rugby media space for...

Over two decades, maybe even more than that now, and he was recently just inducted into the USA Rugby Hall of Fame.

I am super juiced to have Alex on for this episode.

We're going to have him on for other episodes as the season commences.

You know, I think this is maybe your fourth or fifth time on the pod.

I can't remember exactly, but I do need to reintroduce Hall of Fame member, Alex Goff.

USA Rugby Hall of Fame member, Alex Goff, ladies and gentlemen.

Congratulations on

Here we go.

Is the Eagles letterman's jacket your favorite piece of USA rugby kit?

I'll run with it and say most definitely.

That is actually my favorite.

Yeah, I was actually at that game, Dia Viva, and it was a pretty cool game to watch and sit in the stands as, again, a little bit of the reverse of you, but as a kind of Irish heritage.

I'm literally there on a trip visiting my family, but get to go to the game, a ticket from USA Rugby, and sit in the stands and watch the Eagles give them hell for 40, 50 minutes.

And at the time, Ireland's in and out of being the number one team in the world.

So it was cool.

Listen, they're all there to be broken, but I just want to see the MLR succeed and give somebody else a chance to go ahead and break it.

Man, it's been great to have you on.

I think the last thing, as you've said it a bunch already, but just any final words for those people in their rugby journeys, especially in the USA rugby space, any last words of encouragement?

I suppose, again, the road less traveled for me is the sacrifices that I had to...

And if we don't work together, none of us are going to be successful with rugby.

Yeah, I think that's an important message that can be communicated across the United States from sea to sea is that, you know, sometimes we kind of get in our own way, right? And we have to kind of remember why are we doing all this or at least what is our end goal? I think everybody in the USA rugby community wants to see this sport grow and become, I mean, ideally as popular as the NFL, although I think we have to temper our realistic standards.

But again, I mean, that would be the ideal, right? And if we can keep our eye on that ball and say, this is what we can all agree upon, we might actually be able to just accomplish a little bit more all working towards that goal rather than working towards perhaps our own ends.

Absolutely.

It's actually something we're working with for our young kids is to get kids items and you know swag items that have the high school teams on there so they know hey when i want to play mine at the next level this is where i can go play for and that's important

Yeah, they have to see that pathway and it has to be tangible too, which I think is really, really important.

We're seeing that at the USA Rugby level, right? If kids know that there's that where to find programming so they can get seen and so that pathway is clear, it goes a long way to helping kids continue along their rugby path.

I want to talk real quick and ask you this, because, again, I think part of my purpose here is to perhaps help or for others who are doing similar things to find a morsel, something that they can say, oh.

But after that, I will retire.

welcome to u.s rugby happy hour unfiltered interviews with the biggest names in american rugby the chicago hounds cap off a perfect season and team usa make history in paris usa rugby is heading to australia get ready pour yourself a drink pull up a chair let's go

Hello, welcome to the show.

This is U.S. Rugby Happy Hour.

like that.

Stupid but controlled.

It sounds like a t-shirt for the next motto for USA Rugby.

Stupid.