With an impressive resume as player, coach and administrator, Nigel David Melville took over the helm of U.S.A. Rugby in 2006. His goal was to help rugby achieve the ‘American Dream’ by establishing a professional league, and guiding the Eagles to new heights, a quarter-finals run at the 2011 World Cup.

With an impressive resume as player, coach and administrator, Nigel David Melville took over the helm of U.S.A. Rugby in 2006. His goal was to help rugby achieve the ‘American Dream’ by establishing a professional league, and guiding the Eagles to new heights, a quarter-finals run at the 2011 World Cup.

“My job is to put structures and systems in place that ensure an endless flow of talent into and through the game,” Melville wrote in The Guardian shortly after accepting the position. CLICK HERE to read the entire Guardian article.

U.S.A. Rugby could not have picked a better person to help develop the game in the talent rich land. As a player many believe Melville would have been England’s greatest scrum-half if not for ongoing injury problems including a serious neck injury, shoulder damage, five knee operations and a chipped ankle, to name a few.

After hanging up his boot in 1988, Melville immediate made an impact on the coaching stage. With Wasps, Melville guided the team to their first professional Premiership title in 1996. He followed that up with three National Cup Final appearances, winning two.

He then moved to Gloucester Rugby in 2002 and his success followed topping the Zurich Premiership table by 15 points.

And with his experiences in England, the birth place of rugby, during a period of transition when the game was moving from an amateur to professional status will help him ‘avoid the potholes’ that will come as he leads the U.S. game through a similar transition.