World Rugby, USA Rugby Continue Countdown to Future World Cups

When the Pacific Nations Cup came to Salt Lake City on Saturday for its final weekend of competition, one team was absent: The United States.

Its absence was noted with excitement. Because with a 29-13 victory over Samoa in Denver earlier in the tournament, the U.S. clinched a berth in the 2027 Rugby World Cup, its first appearance in the tournament since 2019 and a crucial step ahead of when the tournament comes to the U.S. in six years’ time.

“It’s the single most significant event in the last seven or eight years,” said Mick Hogan, who works as a consultant for USA Rugby and World Rugby. “This is the most competitive sports market in the world. They love winners, they love teams that are on an upward trajectory to world success and we can start to say that now with the USA men’s team.”

Between the U.S. men qualifying for Australia in 2027 and the U.S. women’s performance in the Women’s World Cup this summer in England, narrowly missing on the quarterfinals, the path before World Cups come to U.S. markets in 2031 for men and 2033 for women will be full of events. World Rugby plans to make the sport’s emergence within the country an increased focus.

“We’re going to be doing annual events over the next six to eight years,” Hogan said. “It just puts more eyeballs on the sport.”

Among those annual events will be several international weekends next summer although locations and scheduling around the 2026 FIFA World Cup remains to be seen. There will also be four-team events held over multiple weekends and the potential for some marquee international one-off matches such as next month’s game in Chicago between New Zealand and Ireland.

It all is leading to the future World Cups, for which potential host cities are already jockeying for position. Ross Young, World Rugby general manager for U.S. operations and former USA Rugby CEO, said the governing body has visited 46 venues in 35 cities that have expressed interest in 2031 (the process of finding hosts for 2033 will be determined once 2031 hosts are settled).

There will be a workshop in Chicago on October 31 around the New Zealand vs. Ireland match with the hope of having core venues lined up by early 2027. Young said there’s hope for close to 30 cities to be part of the formal application process.

“We’re using a number of venues that are going to be involved in MLS or NFL, so unlike most Rugby World Cups where we have dedicated access to venues for five or six weeks, we’re going to have to bump in and out of a few more,” Young said. “So we’re estimating anywhere between 13 and 15 venues for the world cup in ’31.”

Multiple cities have made the trip to England to take in games during this summer’s Women’s World Cup, which also informs the potential bidding process.

“You can show all the videos you want, you can show all the stats you want on a PowerPoint presentation, but to actually be there, see the fans or see the city, you can’t measure atmosphere,” Hogan said. “It’s really important for the cities because they can go back and talk to the right people within their structures and communities to say, ‘this is actually a big deal.’ By certain measures, the Rugby World Cup is the third biggest sporting event in the world. So to be involved in that is really significant for any city from an economic impact perspective and all the reasons you want to get involved in international sport.”