Madison John Hughes (born October 26, 1992) is a professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who plays as a fullback. Born in England, he represents

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

at international level after qualifying on residency grounds. Hughes captained the US Eagles to their highest ever finish in the sevens series (sixth place) in the 2014/2015 season, a significant improvement on the team's 12th place finish the previous year. This feat was matched with another strong year in the 2015/2016 Season, where Hughes was the highest points scorer in the World Series. Hughes was the second highest scorer for the 2015 series with 296 points. In the last leg of the series Hughes lead the Eagles to victory at the

2015 London Sevens The 2015 London Sevens was the ninth and final tournament within the 2014–15 Sevens World Series. This edition of the London Sevens was held over the weekend of 16–17 May 2015 at Twickenham in London. The most notable headline from this even ...

, and was named player of the tournament at that event. Though American in status, he was born in England. Hughes captains the Rocky Mountain Experts of Premier Rugby Sevens and led them to a fourth-place finish during the 2023 season.

Early life

Hughes attended Wellington College, in England where he played rugby from 2006 to 2011. Wellington College is a public school which has also produced rugby players such as

James Haskell James Andrew Welbon Haskell (born 2 April 1985) is an English former rugby union player who played chiefly as a flanker for Wasps RFC and Northampton Saints in the Aviva Premiership, and internationally for England. In August 2019 he announc ...

Thom Evans Thom Evans (born 2 April 1985) is a Scottish former international rugby union player and model. He last played on the wing for Glasgow Warriors in the Celtic League. Evans's rugby career ended aged 24 on his tenth appearance for Scotland when ...

and Max Evans. He was also a member of the Wellington cricket, rackets and soccer teams, playing to county level for cricket, representing Surrey. Hughes played

college rugby College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the auspices of ...

as a fullback for

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

, and also played on Dartmouth's

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

team. Hughes began playing with Dartmouth rugby as an 18-year-old freshman becoming the club captain by his junior year. Hughes rose to national prominence with his performance for Dartmouth at the Collegiate Rugby Championship. Hughes was named to the CRC All-Tournament team in 2012, 2013, and again in 2014. In the 2012 CRC, Hughes was the tournament's third-leading try scorer with six tries. In the 2013 CRC, Hughes was the second-leading try scorer with eight tries and the second-leading points scorer with 58. Hughes was captain of the 2013 7s All Americans and the 2014 15s All Americans.

International career

United States Sevens

Hughes debuted with the

United States national rugby sevens team The United States national rugby sevens team competes in international rugby sevens competitions. The national sevens team is organized by USA Rugby, and was led by Head Coach Mike Friday from 2014-2024, when he resigned and was replaced b ...

in the 2013–14 season. Hughes was the leading scorer for the U.S. at the 2014 Wellington Sevens (33 points) and 2014 Japan Sevens (28 points). For the 2014–15 season, Hughes was named team captain for the 2014 Gold Coast Sevens in October 2014, even though at 21 he was the youngest player in the team. Hughes again captained the USA 7's team to a sixth place finish in the 2015/2016 season, becoming the highest points scorer in the world for the year."Young Hughes Up to Captain's Task"
Rugby Today, September 29, 2014. Hughes was the U.S. starting scrum-half at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. Hughes competed for the

at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

United States

Hughes played fullback for the United States national under-20 rugby union team. Hughes was the top scorer of the tournament at the 2012 IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy with 72 points, and was the U.S. leading try-scorer with four tries. Hughes debuted for the

United States national rugby union team The United States men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Eagles, represents the United States in men's international rugby union competitions. USA Rugby is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States, a ...

fifteen a-side team in 2016, playing at fullback. He recorded three caps for the Eagles in 2016 before returning to rugby sevens for the remainder of the 2016-17 season.

Premier Rugby Sevens

2021

During the inaugural PR7s season, Hughes commentated at the 2021 Memphis Tournament after announcing a month prior that he was stepping away from playing Sevens for a while. He analyzed 18 games throughout the tournament.

2022

In 2022, Hughes made his return to the pitch, suiting up with the Rocky Mountain Experts for one of the three tournaments during the PR7s season. Hughes competed in the second stop of the three-tournament circuit at Audi Field in Washington, D.C. Hughes compiled four conversions for eight points that day.

2023

During the 2023 season, Hughes captained the Rocky Mountain Experts. Hughes joined the Experts in 2023 leading them to one tournament win and an overall fourth place finish. Hughes ended the season with 21 points, one try, eight conversions, seven tackles and six steals. At the Western Conference Kickoff at TCO Stadium in Minneapolis, the Experts went 2-0, securing their first tournament win of the season. The day started off with a 26-19 win over the SoCal Loggerheads and then a 22-19 walkoff win against the Golden State Retrievers. The Experts fell short at the Western Conference Finals in San Jose at

PayPal Park PayPal Park (formerly Earthquakes Stadium and Avaya Stadium) is a soccer-specific stadium in San Jose, California. It is the home stadium of the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer (MLS) and Bay FC of the National Women's Soccer League ...

losing 15-12 to the Loggerheads. However, their second-place finish guaranteed qualification to the PR7s Championship in August. The Experts' first win of the day was a close 15-14 victory over the Northern Loonies. Hughes added one try, seven points, seven tackles at this tournament. At the PR7s Championship at

Audi Field Audi Field is a soccer-specific stadium in the Buzzard Point neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is the home of D.C. United, DC Power FC, and Washington Spirit soccer teams, and the DC Defenders American football team. The stadium seats 20,000 p ...

in Washington, D.C., the Experts opened the day with a loss to the Loggerheads, condemning them to a third-place match against the Texas Team. The Experts went 0-2 in the Championship Tournament with Hughes converting three conversions for six points. Although, the men Experts did not win an individual championship, the franchise won the 2023 PR7s United Championship, which combines the men's and women's season-long results for all five tournaments.

Career statistics

International sevens series by year

Reference:

References

External links

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Madison Hughes
at

USA Rugby USA Rugby (formally the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugby ...

archive February 26, 2021
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Madison Hughes
at the

Paris 2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Madison 1992 births Living people Dartmouth College alumni American rugby union players United States international rugby sevens players United States international rugby union players Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Rugby sevens players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic rugby sevens players for the United States Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games Rugby sevens players at the 2015 Pan American Games Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States in rugby sevens Rugby union fullbacks Rugby union players from Epsom Rugby sevens players at the 2024 Summer Olympics Dartmouth Big Green rugby Dartmouth Big Green athletes