“Imagine what it’s going to be like in 2020 if we’ve got some kids from the Bronx and Brooklyn, playing in the Olympic Games in Tokyo.”  Related: USA third place at Dubai Sevens gives notice of growing stake in global game | Martin Pengelly  In his spare office in New York City, on 9th and West 45th, trophies stacked with bags of rugby balls on the metal shelves behind him, Mark Griffin smiles and takes a sip of water. Griffin is the founder and CEO of Play Rugby USA, an inner-city nonprofit which is now joint-operator of America’s first community Olympic development programme (COPD) for rugby union. The sport returns to the Games in Rio this summer but Griffin is looking four years ahead.  In Las Vegas, meanwhile, the best men’s teams in the world are looking only to the next three days, in which they will contest the USA Sevens.  The big teams are attacking Olympic year in earnest: New Zealand will field Sonny Bill Williams, while Bryan Habana is in South Africa’s squad.  The US Eagles do not have such superstars, though they do have Carlin Isles, Perry Baker and Zack Test, crossovers from football who have made themselves increasingly well known. In Vegas, they will be contenders for a knockout place, for a tournament win, for points on the HSBC World Series.  Related: USA sevens rugby star Perry Baker earns Eagles wings in new arena  In this Olympic year, though, the Eagles’ job extends beyond the field of play. They must begin to win the attention of the American sporting public – both TV viewers and, perhaps more importantly, striving young athletes.  That is where Griffin and others come in. When it comes to the effect the Games can have on American youth rugby, most such operators agree with Don James, a former Eagles prop turned entrepreneur who will on Friday stage an awareness-raising event at Sam Boyd Stadium in Vegas, under the title “Rise of Rugby”.  “Rugby is the fastest-growing youth sport in America,” James says, down the phone from San Francisco, citing a familiar statistic from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association which says participation in US youth rugby grew by 81.6% from 2008 to 2013.  James then cites a familiar view in rugby, bolstered by the same survey finding that in the same period youth participation in tackle football fell by 21%: “We need to seize that Olympic moment with parents who maybe don’t want their kids playing football.”  Rugby, it should be said, has problems with head injuries too. But James continues: “Just the fact that rugby is included is a game-changer. The US public are very keen on the Olympics, it brings exposure, funding from the government and other bodies too. This is the very tip of the iceberg for what that’s going to mean.”  Griffin, after 10 years’ work on the cracked asphalt of Queens and Manhattan a recipient through the COPD of some of that funding, puts the same point another way.  Forty million people watch the Olympics in the US. This year, many of them will see some rugby sevens  “[Olympic inclusion] makes the stakes so much bigger than ever. When you look at viewing figures on NBC for US rugby events recently, maybe a million watch every time. Forty million people watch the Olympics in the US. This year, many of them will see some rugby sevens. For me, that makes for a massive ‘so what?’”  Griffin smiles, and spreads his hands.  “I mean that positively. So what do we, in American rugby, make of this opportunity?”  In his case, he will work with the official Northeast Academy to provide a pathway from inner-city, school or rugby club to elite Olympic competition.  Rugby now has a foothold in America. Or, to stay with the dubious moutaineering analogies, potentially frightening exposure. The performance of the Eagles’ men’s and women’s teams in Rio will help determine how fast and safe the climb can be.  So will the many stakeholders of American rugby. In terms of developing the men and women who will play in Tokyo and beyond, governing body USA Rugby supervises, from Colorado, as a number of organisations seek out talent. There is also Tiger Rugby in Ohio and Atavus in Seattle, and more. The English are interested too: Premiership Rugby recently launched its Try Rugby USA programme, also in New York.  Related: US women's rugby seeks gold on road to Rio Olympic Games  In Play Rugby USA’s case, though, four young women who discovered the game with the programme will this weekend represent storied sevens team Atlantis in the Las Vegas Invitational, a huge club, high school and college event that runs alongside the international tournament. None of the New York girls had seen a rugby ball till relatively recently; one will go on to play for the High School All-Americans in Vancouver next week.  “We’re at the forefront of girls’ rugby,” Griffin says, “and we equally promote it with the boys. It’s about equal opportunity, although our high-school program is now 51% girls.”  James adds: “Olympic inclusion is particularly important for the women’s game because with Title IX, colleges are looking for women’s sports. This is a massive opportunity for rugby.”  That sense of opportunity is not confined to the Olympics: in 2018 the men’s and women’s World Cup Sevens will be held in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the full 15-a-side version of the game, PRO Rugby, a five-team professional league, is due to kick off next month.  But most observers agree: come finals day in Rio, 11 August, if the American men and women are on the podium, the game at home will receive a tremendous boost. A gold medal may be, in Griffin’s words, “Miracle on Ice sort of stuff”. But if nothing else, his reference to the 1980 Olympic hockey win over the Soviets shows the stakes for which American rugby is playing.
As the Eagles prepare to take on Sonny Bill Williams and Bryan Habana, some developing the next generation of American talent say that in an Olympic year, the sport has reached a vital turning point