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For several reasons, the USA won’t compete in next year’s JWRT, but the national U20s team will tour overseas.
Following this year’s Junior World Championship and Trophy tournaments there was a wholesale restructure, resulting in the IRB deciding that only one seed from North America would be eligible to compete in the 2010 Junior World Trophy.
As Canada was relegated from the Junior World Championship and the USA finished runners-up to Romania in the Trophy, Dublin ruled that the Canadians would be the likely seed unless the tournament were to be held in a country that had already qualified such as Romania.
In that case, the US possibly could have entered as a wild card, however, the Romanians pulled out as hosts leaving Russia to step in as their replacement for 2010.
Another issue is the timing of the event. The JWRT is played in May, a time of year when the United States is not able to get its best players meaning USA Rugby would have no choice other than to pick players who are available rather than picking the best possible team.
“The solution for us is therefore to not compete in next year’s event,” USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville tells ARN.
“The IRB will help us fund a tour for the U20s that will be in the best window for us, and then we host in 2011, in the window we want, and compete as hosts.
“The coaches of the U20s were very keen for this to happen, so they now have what they wanted and we can work on the All-American High School squad to develop a strong team for 2011 and win the Trophy in the US.”
