San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby (MLR) has expanded its programming into the senior women’s sphere. The Legion Women’s team will debut in the upcoming Rugby Tens Series in southern California, and former USA Women’s 7s Head Coach Richie Walker is the head coach. The addition comes as U.S. women’s rugby enjoys heightened exposure post-Olympics, and with the support of Rugby Tens, an organization that prioritizes equity and inclusion.

“San Diego Legion is excited to announce a Women’s Legion Team competing in the Rugby Tens Series in October, in San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente,” said Ryan Patterson, owner of the San Diego Legion and chairman of the MLR Board of Directors. “The momentum generated from the USA Women’s 7s Olympic Bronze Medal is a powerful catalyst to excelling women’s rugby in the San Diego area. Our Girls Legion World Cup Development Program initiated earlier this year lays the foundation for a pathway for women and girls to compete at higher levels building towards the Women’s 2033 Rugby World Cup hosted here in the USA.”

The Rugby Tens Series (“The Series”) in SoCal includes four tournaments on Oct. 4, 12, 18 and 26, during which the franchises will accumulate points towards winning the Series Trophy. All four Rugby Tens global franchises, as well as invitational side San Diego Legion, will supply men’s and women’s teams.

 

 

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“I’m really excited to be part of the coaching staff for the San Diego Legion Women’s Team,” Walker said. “Not only is it an exciting time for women’s rugby right now but even more excitement is around young girls wanting to give rugby a try. With what the Legion are doing with youth camps and in schools, it helps girls want to be like the players they see on TV, and the reality is they could be that girl representing the national team one day.

“We are honored to be invited to play in the international Rugby Tens Series,” he added. “Tens rugby is a springboard, in my opinion, to play 7s and 15s for national teams. I have coached in the MLR and now I get to coach a women’s team for a great MLR franchise. I really appreciate the San Diego Legion giving me this opportunity.”

The Series is a new competition to the Rugby Tens ecosystem. With it being held in the U.S., the event is a good opportunity to better understand what Rugby Tens as an organization is building worldwide and how the U.S. fits into that plan. It all starts with Rhinos Rugby, the original brand, which formed in California in 2014 and focused on the youth. With time, the organization grew to include all age grades up through the senior ranks.

The Birth of Franchises

2020 was a pivotal time period for all rugby teams, but especially for San Clemente Rhinos. During covid, the World Tens Series held a men’s event in Bermuda, and San Clemente Rhinos was able to join at the last minute.

“We were kind of the ugly duckling,” said Andreea Trufasu, CEO and co-founder of Rugby Tens. “We didn’t have any big names and were definitely the underdog, but we finished in second place.

 

“During that event, I talked with the organizers – we’re happy to support the men’s event next year, but can we involve women,” Trufasu said. “They kind of avoided the subject, but I kept pressing, and they said, ‘Maybe in five years.’ Five years!? That’s basically saying, ‘We could care less.’”

So for 2021, San Clemente Rhinos, together with Nic Benson and Thierry Daupin from MLR, decided to host their own women’s 10s event in Portugal. When the World Tens Series folded after one year, Rhinos reworked its tournament to include the men. That expansion spurred a more comprehensive outlook for rugby growth.

“Let’s do franchises,” Trufasu said. “Every franchise has to have teams for men, women, boys and girls. The only problem was, no club had all four [except SC Rhinos], so we not only had to organize the event, but also put together three new brands from scratch – names, identity, colors, players, logistics etc.”

Rugby Tens became the parent organization, while the original brand, San Clemente Rhinos, evolved to represent North America. Rhinos joined three more Rugby Tens global franchises: Balkans Honey Badgers (Europe & Middle East), Cape Town Wild Dogs (southern Africa) and Serengeti Elephants (eastern Africa). In November 2021, all four franchises reported to Portugal with men’s, women’s, U18 boys’ and U18 girls’ teams for a 10s tournament.

The Championship Matures

The 2021 event was the first Championship and has evolved into a two-week competition. All four global franchises are involved in the annual event, and any regional franchises that are based in the Championship’s location are also invited to compete. In 2022 and 2023, the Championship was held in South Africa, and three regional franchises – Blue Bulls, Boland, Western Province – participated in one or both tournaments.

 

 

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Champions are named in each division, and final places afford standings points that are all added together to name a franchise champ. There’s prize money attached so there’s incentive to unite within a franchise and produce the highest results for all members. The Honey Badgers were the first to really embrace this collaborative mindset and have won the franchise trophy in 2022 and 2023.

Rugby Tens was eager to develop this full-club feel and introduced Mixed Play rugby in 2023.

“I come from swimming where you have mixed relays – two women, two men. Same with track and field,” Trufasu said. “So the question was: How do we bring that to team sports?”

The teams are co-ed, however, the on-field squads are not mixed. Instead the game is divided by halves. In a senior game, the men, for example, would play the first half, and the women the second half. For a U18 match, the girls could play the first half and the boys the second half.

“The winner of the coin toss decides which side, men or women, play first, and it’s strategy,” Trufasu said. “Do you start with the stronger side [relative to the competition] to build a lead? All the players, all the coaches, they’re on the bench together and collaborating and supporting each other. We don’t have a situation where the men and women don’t watch each other’s games, because they’re in the same game.”

 

Trufasu indicated that some of the franchises were nervous because they were unsure of how the men’s and women’s cultures would mix, but it ended up being a highlight of the competition. It was so successful that Rugby Tens applied the Mixed Play concept to a girls and women’s-only event in South Africa. A four-day event around Easter catered to rugby players from U13-adult. South Africa’s National Junior pathway supplied six teams, and individuals traveling from as far as 12 hours away and slept in churches just to participate.

“In this competition, we ran Mixed Play by combining the women and the U16 girls,” Trufasu said. “So the women were serving as mentors to the younger girls and realizing you carry a responsibility to the younger generation of how you behave on and off the field. The senior and U16 coaches collaborate and learn from each other during these mixed events. … It’s beautiful.”

Building a Pathway

The Championship event is the showpiece, but Rugby Tens understood that its franchises needed year-long programming.

“What we’ve learned over time is that we need a pathway in order for people to invest their time and funds,” Trufasu said. “And it has to be clear. With the events launching in the U.S. this October, we essentially complete our pathway.”

 

The pathway starts with the High Performance Program and residency, which is available in San Clemente and Cape Town. During four-month blocks, members live in a full-time training environment, and that lifestyle readies players from Tier 2 and Tier 3 rugby countries for the level of Rugby Tens competitions. To this date, 30-plus countries have been represented in Rugby Tens events.

The HP Program and residency also provides access to academics – from earning World Rugby certificates, to taking coursework in mental health, marketing, etc. There’s also opportunity for employment.

“PoolRx is our company that makes money and about 50% of our wealth goes into rugby,” Trufasu said of funding. “That’s about a $4 million budget. This year, we moved production of the pool product from South Africa to the U.S. and can give jobs to U.S. players. We have other career programs, too. Four of our 10s players are now full-time coaches.”

Rugby Tens needed to build out its competition schedule, too, and added invitationals. These are 1-2-day tournaments, lower budget and more regionally based. A good performance, though, could result in an invitation to the Championship event.

 

And now in 2024, Rugby Tens has launched The Series, which goes live in October in SoCal. The structure mirrors that of the HSBC series, with four tournaments every weekend of the month. Teams accrue standings points during each leg, and a franchise champion will be named after the Oct. 26 tournament. Given the time period, The Series is for senior men and women only.

Host San Clemente Rhinos will enter two teams apiece and will be joined by the three other global franchises. San Diego Legion is representing the local community.

Expansion in the U.S.

“Mikey Te’o pushed for this,” Trufasu said of the USA Eagle and Legion player. “He played with the Rhinos in Bermuda [in 2021] and has played in all the previous Rugby Tens [championships]. He took this concept and made a good case to Legion to participate in The Series.”

San Diego Legion has also been invited to participate in The Championship, which occurs November 23, 27 and 30 in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano, Calif. But that invitation hinges on whether Legion can also field U18 boys’ and U18 girls’ teams.

Apply to participate on a Rugby Tens Championship team: Application Link

 

 

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Again, there is incentive from a reward standpoint. Between The Series and The Championship, there is a total of $1 million in prizes. Half of that is in cash; the other half is in high-performance residence slots that the winners can use themselves or sell to aspiring rugby players.

“San Diego Legion is very exciting,” Trufasu said of the possibilities. “For me, I hope it serves as inspiration. [MLR’s] Utah, L.A., Seattle – we will make it easier for them to participate next year, because we help with accommodation and meals, and they just need to get here.”

Here’s hoping that Legion’s participation in the Rugby Tens Series and Championship spurs more interest from professional rugby entities in the U.S., and the country as a whole acknowledges an organization that espouses and represents equal treatment.

Be sure to tune into The Series and The Championship tournaments via Rugby Tens’ free live-stream!