At Bottom of the Ruck, the goal has never been to simply amplify one perspective on grassroots rugby, even when it is our own. The real strength of Clubland has always come from the shared experiences, debates, frustrations, and perspectives experienced by volunteers, players, administrators, and supporters everywhere.

While our accents, competitions, and geography may differ, rugby clubs across the globe wrestle with many of the same challenges. We all struggle for sustainability, identity, inclusion, and how to grow without sacrificing the core values of rugby. Creating space for those voices to be heard matters here at Bottom of the Ruck.

This guest piece is part of that commitment, not just to tell the story of grassroots rugby, but to let the wider community help write it. If you’re interested in sharing your experience, perspective or insights, reach out to us to discuss further. 

Author, Steve Mace, Founder and President of Exiles Rugby Club in Alpharetta, Georgia

“Let them eat cake” is a phrase often used to describe a leadership class that has lost touch with the realities faced by the people it claims to represent. It captures the moment when decisions are made far above the ground level of a system, with little regard for how those decisions affect those who must live with them.

In many ways that phrase now captures the growing disconnect within American club rugby.

Across the country, grassroots clubs struggle to survive. Volunteers work to secure fields, cover referee fees, recruit players, and simply keep teams on the field week after week. Budgets are often modest. Travel is difficult. Many clubs are fighting simply to remain viable.

And yet the National Championship Series marches on.

For years the National Championship Series has been promoted as the pinnacle of senior club rugby in the United States. The premise sounds appealing. Clubs compete locally, advance through regional rounds, and ultimately a national champion is crowned.

But the deeper one looks at the National Championship Series, the clearer it becomes that it is built on assumptions that do not match the reality of American club rugby. In practice, it has become a distraction from the real work of building sustainable clubs and healthy regional competition.

The problem begins with a misconception about how rugby operates in successful rugby nations.

In countries such as England and Ireland, club rugby revolves around league systems administered by their national unions such as the Rugby Football Union and the Irish Rugby Football Union.

Clubs compete within structured league pyramids connected through promotion and relegation. Teams move up or down based on results over the course of a full season. The strongest club is simply the team that finishes first in the top league.

The championship emerges naturally from league play. There is no separate amateur playoff tournament layered over local leagues to crown a national champion. The league itself determines the outcome. Promotion and relegation maintain competitive balance while preserving local rivalries and manageable travel.

These systems work because they are built around geography, sustainability, and long term club stability.

The American model is fundamentally different.

The National Championship Series is not the culmination of a unified competition pyramid. It is a tournament pathway placed on top of a fragmented landscape of local competitions.

That distinction matters because the United States does not have the infrastructure required to support a national playoff competition at the grassroots level.

American rugby clubs are scattered across a vast geographic area. Many operate on modest budgets and rely entirely on volunteers to keep their programs running. Field rentals, insurance, referee fees, and equipment already strain limited resources. Long distance travel required by a multi stage playoff system can quickly become financially unrealistic.

Yet the manufactured prestige attached to the National Championship Series encourages clubs to pursue that pathway anyway.

In many cases this pursuit pushes clubs beyond sustainable limits. Travel costs escalate. Volunteer administrators become overwhelmed. Clubs assemble short term rosters in an attempt to remain competitive. When the competitive window closes, the consequences often remain.

Meanwhile clubs focused on steady development, youth pathways, and community engagement gain little advantage from the system. In some cases they are placed at a disadvantage against organizations that prioritize short term success in the national bracket.

The National Championship Series also influences how leagues are organized. Instead of building schedules around geography and sustainability, unions often structure competitions to meet qualification requirements for the national tournament. Local rugby begins to serve the national bracket rather than the other way around.

This reverses the natural order of a healthy sports ecosystem.

Strong local leagues should form the foundation of club rugby. Regional competition should foster rivalries, manageable travel, and regular meaningful matches. If a national championship exists, it should emerge naturally from that structure.

The American system attempts to reverse this process. It places a national tournament at the center and expects local rugby to organize itself around that objective.

The cultural impact of this model is now visible throughout the American rugby system. From youth programs to senior clubs, the idea of chasing a national championship has been hammered into the structure of the sport. Young players are often taught to view rugby through the lens of national tournaments rather than through the experience of club participation and local competition.

This mindset distorts priorities from the very beginning. Development becomes secondary to tournament results. Travel and prestige begin to overshadow community and continuity. The long term health of clubs becomes less important than the pursuit of short term recognition.

Compounding the problem is the ambiguous governance environment surrounding the competition. Following the financial collapse of USA Rugby in 2020, much of the operational administration of senior club competition shifted toward what is commonly known as USA Club Rugby. The working structure behind that brand is the Senior Club Council.

The Senior Club Council was never designated or authorized to function as a governing body. It was created as a representative council intended to provide senior clubs with a voice within the national union. Over time it has taken on responsibilities that resemble governance, including administration of the National Championship Series.

The SCC also operates through a system of weighted voting tied to union size. In practice this structure gives the largest and wealthiest Geographic Unions the greatest influence within the council. Those unions tend to represent the most financially secure rugby environments with deeper player pools, stronger sponsorship bases, and greater capacity to sustain the travel and logistical demands associated with a national playoff structure.

Smaller and less resourced unions operate under very different realities. Their clubs may struggle simply to field consistent sides, maintain reasonable travel budgets, and recruit players within smaller communities. Yet these unions have far less influence over decisions that shape the competition structure affecting their clubs.

The result is a council frequently described as representative but which in practice reflects the priorities of the strongest rugby markets far more than the broader club ecosystem.

This evolution occurred not through formal mandate but through mission drift and the absence of consistent oversight from the national governing body.

The result is a national competition system administered through a representative structure that was never intended to regulate the sport and that does not function as a truly balanced voice for the entire club game.

None of this means that recognizing excellence in club rugby is a bad idea. Competitive ambition is a healthy part of sport. For a small number of well resourced clubs, competing at a national level can be exciting and meaningful.

But a system that works for a handful of clubs should not dictate the structure of the entire grassroots ecosystem.

American rugby will grow through strong clubs, vibrant regional leagues, and competitions designed around the realities of the American landscape. Sustainable travel, regular fixtures, and community rooted programs are far more important to the health of the sport than a national playoff bracket.

The game will never truly grow in any meaningful fashion until the concept of the National Championship Series, and the pressure that comes with it, is given a proper Viking funeral, set alight, and cast out to sea.

Until that day arrives, the National Championship Series will remain exactly what it has become. Not the pinnacle of American club rugby, but a manufactured prize. Designed for the few. Promoted by the few. Controlled by the few.

And imposed upon the many who are simply trying to make the game grow in a meaningful way.