From an epic Rugby World Cup Sevens hosted in the San Francisco Bay Area, to new competitions and milestones in development, the Rugby Americas North region has racked up an impressive list of accomplishments. Check it our 2018 RAN year in review!
Key highlights of year – including winners of tournaments
- Jamaica Men and Mexico Women are first teams from the region other than USA and Canada to appear in a Rugby World Cup Sevens, with both competing in 2018 in San Francisco
- USA host a successful Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in San Francisco
- USA Men’s National team climb to highest ever ranked regional Union, 12th in World Rugby’s rankings and both USA and Canada qualify for Rugby World Cup 2019
- USA Men’s Sevens earned their second-consecutive silver medal and reached a first-place ranking in the current HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2019 standings, both achievements -- back-to-back medals and No. 1 placing -- occurred for the first time in the history of the program.
- In Sevens, Jamaica Men and Mexico Women retain their top spots in the region by winning the 2018 RAN sevens. Note: USA and Canada do not compete.
- Mexico Men win Silver, Jamaica Men win Bronze at CAC Games
- Mexico Women win Bronze at 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games
- USA Men’s team player Perry Baker is the World Rugby Sevens player of the year for the second year in a row
- Canada qualify for Rugby World Cup
- 4 out of 6 teams in the Americas Rugby Championship are participating in the 2019 Rugby World Cup
Development
- New pilot Leading Rugby course and workshop held for the Jamaica RFU
- Majority of member unions all took advantage of a number of L1 FAIR and L2 ICIR courses offered around the region, further enhancing and demonstrating RAN’s ongoing commitment to player welfare
- Inaugural RAN Citing Commissioner Educator courses held in the region enabling RAN to be “self-sufficient” in offering Citing Commissioner training and accreditation
- A first Judicial Educator course was held in RAN and will lead to an initial Judicial course in 2019.
- Representatives of RAN member unions contributed to the revision and updating of World Rugby coaching resources.
- RAN Regional Development Manager made 12 development visits to Unions in 2018, and RAN supported 2 visits by experts to Dominican Republic. In total, RAN visited a total of 16 Unions in 2018
- First multinational Educator course held in the Caribbean, with participants from Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and Canada training, to become Educators of Coaches or Referees. Educators in Dominican Republic and Haiti also received further support or opportunities to reinforce their skills
New members of regional association
- No new regional association members, but Belize and Aruba progressing quickly; Aruba sent their first ever national Sevens team to play against Curacao, and Belize hosted a multi-location sevens league and their first international Sevens match. Puerto Rico Rugby has recovered quickly from the devastating hurricanes, having Get Into Rugby festivals and building stronger relations with USA Rugby.
Milestones
- WiLD (Women in Leadership Initiatives) group was established and launched. Their work in 2018 included 8 visits to regional unions, which comprised of a first-of-its kind women's video analyst training, presentations on WiLD's mission, coaching sessions, medial presentations and networking--with plans to even further expand their impact in 2019.
- RAN, in conjunction with World Rugby, award three Women’s Development Scholarships to Araba ‘Roo’ Chintoh, Maria Thomas and Jillion Potter.
- Cristina Flores Justic was appointed RAN World Rugby Council Representative.
- Youth Olympic Games Qualifiers held in Las Vegas
- Mexico and Barbados fielded national U17 Women’s Sevens teams for the first time, competing in the Youth Olympic Games Sevens Qualifiers, which also saw Jamaica and Barbados field their first U17 national men’s Sevens teams.
GIR and Participation
- RAN leads all regions in girls participation in Get Into Rugby/Rookie Rugby, at 46%.
- As of the end of November, RAN had grown its total participation by almost 10% over 2017.
- Canada ranked 10th overall in World Rugby GIR Participation.
Digital Media
- Facebook - 3,000 New LIKES in 2018
- Twitter - 300 new FOLLOWERS in 2018
- Youtube - Youtube growth climbed in 2018, with 68K total views, with the highest viewed video being watched 8.4K times. The channel gained almost 675 new subscribers in 2018.
- Website - In 2018 RAN had an average of 3.1K monthly active users, and hit a high of 5.6K monthly active users, as well as 39K overall page views and 25K total users.
