Rugby tries to make inroads in US sports scene – San Jose Mercury News

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SAN JOSE — Seamus Kelly wanted to keep pursuing rugby after earning a degree in political economy from Cal.

So, he crashed in a Berkeley garage during the spring to remain close to the Golden Bears’ training facilities.

Kelly, 24, said the living arrangement was not unusual for aspiring American rugby players who often have to scrape by to continue in the sport after college.

“It adds to our character,” the New Yorker said. “We face more adversity than most teams. It gives us an edge.”

U.S. players will need all the advantages they can muster starting Saturday at Avaya Stadium in the Pacific Nations Cup against rugby power Samoa.

The Americans have assembled in the Bay Area to begin the road to the Rugby World Cup starting in September in England.

The game against Samoa is part of a doubleheader in a five-country event created to help Pacific Rim teams get more international test events. World Cup qualifiers Canada and Japan will play in the first game, starting at 5 p.m.

The United States also plays Japan on Friday in Sacramento and then four more games before the World Cup opener Sept. 20 against second-seeded Samoa in Pool B.

Kelly, a four-time All-American, is one of seven Bay Area players in the national team mix that includes star Todd Clever of San Jose.

Kelly and most of the Americans have toiled in obscurity while trying to compete on the world stage as well as build the sport up by the bootstraps.

Does that remind anyone of the story of American soccer?

The Rugby World Cup is a miniature version of soccer’s quadrennial showcase tournament with 20 countries drawn into four groups. New Zealand and Australia are the sport’s powerhouses with Argentina, England, France, Ireland and South Africa also among the elite.

The United States is seeded fifth out of five Pool B teams.

“We’ve always had the athleticism and desire and struggled with time together,” Kelly said.

But the players hope to build some cohesion over the pre-Cup tour and then surprise folks in England this fall.

The timing for a good showing is perfect because the digital-age version of rugby called sevens makes its Olympic debut next summer in Rio de Janeiro.

“There is some serious magic in those five rings,” long-time Cal coach Jack Clark said. “It reeks credibility.”

The United States currently is ranked sixth in the World Series standings in the game with seven to a side instead of the usual 15.

U.S. rugby officials hope to further showcase the sport after the Olympics when the 2018 World Cup Sevens comes to Avaya Stadium and AT&T Park.

It was no accident officials brought the world championships in the Bay Area. The region is one place in America where rugby is a known commodity, if not quite mainstream. Cal and Saint Mary’s College are perennial powers as the area has become a pipeline to national team rosters.

“The game is on a low-boil everywhere, but on a rapid boil in places like California,” said Clark, a former Cal football player who has coached Berkeley rugby since 1982.

The Bay Area was at the sport’s center in the 1920s when the United States became a two-time Olympic champion.

The 1924 Olympic team had nine players from Stanford, five from Santa Clara University and three from Cal. But rugby was discontinued after the Paris Games in ’24.

Its popularity faded as professional sports took root in American culture.

“Soccer is here now,” Clark said. “The next sport is rugby. Rugby is pretty resilient.”

An international sevens tournament in Las Vegas this year drew almost 76,000 fans over three days. Former football and basketball players, sprinters and others have migrated to the sport.

“Guys are coming out of nowhere,” said Danny Barrett, a former Cal star who helped the United States qualify for the Olympics. “Rio is our big steppingstone.”

Orinda’s Chris O’Brien marvels at the sport’s ascent when he sees East Bay kids with rugby T-shirts. Kids as young as 8 know how to pass a ball, a skill O’Brien’s generation didn’t learn until their mid-20s.

“Kids go straight from football right into rugby season,” said O’Brien, a U.S. assistant coach who played in the 1991 World Cup. “When the United States gets it right, it will awaken the sleeping giant.”

But like soccer, it has taken decades to make inroads.

O’Brien grew up on the Peninsula playing Pop Warner football with future Stanford quarterback John Paye. He was a professional trick water skier as well as a kicker at Foothill College and San Diego State.

O’Brien, whose brother Tim O’Brien has built the powerhouse program at Saint Mary’s, finally settled on rugby, a sport his father played at Stanford.

Barrett, of Pacifica, followed two older brothers to Cal as well as into rugby. Like many members of the U.S. team, Barrett played football, the sport that grew out of rugby.

But he gravitated to the helmet-less sport because the Sacred Heart Cathedral football team used him mostly as a blocking tight end.

“In rugby, I get to carry the ball and make tackles,” Barrett said.

Contact Elliott Almond at 408-920-5865. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/elliottalmond.