Play Rugby USA was founded in New York City by Mark Griffin in 2003 to deliver a transformational sports education experience to America’s urban youth through rugby. Starting with a weekend program serving 75 children from a homeless shelter in Brooklyn PRUSA has now worked in and with 140 schools and community based organizations serving 10,000 students with an average of 1,500 students in the program each week.

Play Rugby USA has worked in every borough of New York City, with a wide range of program partners. We are a verified NYC Department of Education approved vendor allowing us to work in school phys ed programs and partnering on fantastic initiatives like the Co Operative Healthy Active Motivated Positive Students (C.H.A.M.P.S) out of school program.

New York has many challenges when coaching rugby. Space is at a real premium especially at the elementary and middle school level where the majority of schools do not have a field or access to one. With this in mind our entire curriculum has been designed to be totally flexible and we can coach safely in virtually any indoor or out door space including gymnasiums, cafeteria spaces, basketball courts and hard tops:

As part of our community and character development initiatives Play Rugby USA now runs tournaments for participating program and community partners as well as a 6 week spring league. This gives the students a chance to compete against other students from other programs, coming from all areas of the 5 boroughs and beyond. By mixing public, private and catholic schools together, some of the most valuable life lessons and character benefits are attained through the process of preparation, competing, winning and losing.

The annual New York City Rugby Cup (formerly known as the Mayor’s Cup) Festival
The first NYC Rugby Cup festival was held in 2008 at Columbia Baker Field and involved 24 teams. In just 3 short years this has grown to over 54 teams and over 700 participants having to be moved to Randall’s Island to accommodate the rising number of participants, parents and spectators.
2010 saw the inclusion of High School tackle rugby for the first time as we hosted the final weekend of tournaments in the first ever PSAL 7s rugby season.

Each year the NYC Rugby Cup adopts a theme that encapsulates “The World in Union”, global aspect of the sport. The Mayor’s NYC Cup allows students to explore and learn about different countries and cultures as well as opening their eyes to the opportunity of lifelong participation and travel through the sport. This is sometimes a lot harder to do in more “traditional” American sports.

Play Rugby USA plans to continue the New York City Rugby Cup Festival every year in June as the focal point of the program. We bring together as many teams as possible from different backgrounds and locations, for a fun filled, action packed day. The NYC Rugby Cup embodies what the rugby spirit is all about, and is an event the New York rugby community can get behind and be proud of.

Students await the start of the 3^rd annual New York City rugby festival in 2010.