Rugby union in American Samoa is a growing sport.

Governing body

The governing body is the American Samoa Rugby Union (ASRU), which is a full member of both the

Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions Oceania Rugby, previously known as the Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions (FORU), is the regional governing body for rugby union in Oceania. It was founded in 2000 to represent the interests of Oceania rugby within World Rugby, the international g ...

(FORU) and the

International Rugby Board World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competit ...

(IRB).

History

Rugby union has been played in

American Samoa American Samoa is an Territories of the United States, unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States located in the Polynesia region of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. Centered on , it is southeast of the island count ...

since at least 1924, but the national development of the game has been overshadowed by the popularity of

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

since the 1970s. The ASRU was only established in 1990, and did not become fully affiliated to the IRB until 2012. As such, unlike neighbouring

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

, American Samoa has had limited international rugby competition. While Samoa, whose team calls itself "Manu Samoa" meaning the Samoan team, has reached the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

on a number of occasions, most of American Samoa's matches have been played at the

South Pacific Games The Pacific Games (French: Jeux du Pacifique), is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from Oceania. The inaugural Games took place in 1963 in Suva, Fiji, and most recently in 2023 in Honiara, Solomon Islands. ...

National team (15s)

American Samoa played some international rugby matches before being affiliated to IRB, including winning the rugby 15's silver medal at the

1991 South Pacific Games The 9th South Pacific Games, also known as Port Moresby 1991 () held on 7–21 September 1991 in Port Moresby and Lae, Papua New Guinea, was the ninth edition of the South Pacific Games. This was the first time that events at one games had been h ...

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

. The American Samoan team is known as the "Talavalu"—named after a traditional ironwood war club with eight carved diamond-shaped teeth on one edge.

National team (7s)

Since 2010, the ASRU has focused more of its attention toward the seven-a-side form of the game. American Samoa competed at the Pacific Games Rugby 7s in 2011, and the Oceania Rugby 7s in 2011 and 2012.

External links

IRB American Samoa page

Oceania nations, American Samoa

Reference list