A proposed August game between Premiership rugby side Leicester and the National Rugby Football League club Rough Riders, a team that was set to include overseas professionals and American converts from college and professional football, "has been cancelled," according to Martin Pengelly of the London GUARDIAN. The game, which was scheduled to be played at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Aug. 8, "has not received the necessary sanction from USA Rugby." Tickets for the game "had been on sale." USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville said, "In order to sanction the proposed game USA Rugby require the teams to be in good standing with their respective unions. The Rough Riders are not a USA Rugby registered team and their players are not registered USA Rugby players. If they were we would sanction the game" (GUARDIAN, 6/7). STUFF's Richard Knowler reported the match of Super Rugby side Crusaders' Knights against Premiership rugby team Saracens in New Orleans "cannot be played until sanctioned by USA Rugby." Crusaders CEO Hamish Riach and Andrew Clements, the founder of RugbyLaw, the organization arranging the match at the Superdome on Aug. 1, "were confident the match would proceed" but a positive outcome hinges on the U.S. national body.
NZ Rugby has "approved the fixture but until USA Rugby also sign it off, there is no chance of World Rugby (formerly the IRB) allowing it to be staged." Riach: "We've received every assurance to date from the organizers that the match will be going ahead as planned." Clements, speaking from the U.S., confirmed that USA Rugby "had yet to authorise the game." When asked what the deadline was for approval, he said that there "wasn't one" (STUFF, 6/6).
