Countries United States Runners-up Ohio Aviators | Champions Denver Stampede Matches played 30 | |
Date 17 April – 31 July 2016 Attendance 51,696 (average 1,723 per match) | ||
The 2016 PRO Rugby season is the inaugural season of the PRO Rugby, contested by teams from the United States. The season runs from April to July 2016. This is the first season of professional rugby union in North America.
Contents
- Competition format
- Broadcasting
- Match officials
- Players
- Overall points scorers
- Team of the season
- Player development
- By team
- References
PRO Rugby contracted 102 players for its five teams. Of these 102 players, 54 have played international rugby, including 36 for the United States national rugby union team. About 30 players were picked from Pacific Rugby Premiership teams and 15 from Midwest Rugby Premiership teams.
Competition format
Each team plays a twelve match schedule with six matches at home and six away. Most matches will take place on Sunday to give clubs and schools the chance to play on Saturday and Friday.
The league will have a lighter schedule on June 5 and 12 (the 12th being during the three-week June international window). Those days will have just one match. There will however be a full slate on June 19 and 26 (both during the international window) and it's expected that each team will lose players to the United States, Canadian or other national teams during this time.
Broadcasting
Matches are available for the 2016 inaugural season to stream through prorugby.org or on cable through ONE World Sports or Time Warner Cable Sports Channel. Initially selected matches were available free to all online through www.aol.com but this came to an inexplicable abrupt end. Through the league's official website all matches are streamed free to all viewers. ONE World Sports is offered by multiple cable and satellite providers and covers a range of sports, most notably a large selection of soccer.
Match officials
PRO Rugby named the following five referees and three assistant referees to handle the regular-season games for the 2016 season.
Players
Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps.
Updated: July 31, 2016
Overall points scorers
Updated: September 6, 2016
Team of the season
The following shows the team of the season, as selected by various media outlets.
Player development
The following list shows PRO Rugby players who earned their debut cap for the U.S. national rugby team during the 2016 season:
By team
These are the attendance records of each of the teams at the end of the home and away season. The table does not include finals series attendances.