On Friday, IRB CEO Brett Gosper suggested that, with the commercial success of the Team USA Rugby against New Zealand in Chicago's Soldier Field, the next step would be to host 6 Nations games in the States to grow the game there. This comes off the success of moving the annual third Bledisloe test between Australia and New Zealand to Hong Kong and Japan in the past, and NFL's successful staging of regular season games in London.
Needless to say, twitter was not impressed in the slightest with the idea of US 6 Nations games , as you can see:
Talk of a 6 Nations game played in the US is right stinky chat. Horrible.
— Rucktales (@Rucktales) November 1, 2014
@WalesRugby @rbs_6_nations what a joke...The real rugby fans will miss out for a money making scheme. — Dan Hitchings (@DanHitchings) October 31, 2014
@brettgosper @simonrug @RhyanStrasters the only thing it seems good for is bank balances.
— Cian Hyland (@cianhyland) November 2, 2014
@brettgosper @simonrug @RhyanStrasters the only thing it seems good for is bank balances.
— Cian Hyland (@cianhyland) November 2, 2014
Have just seen suggestion that occasional 6 Nations games be held in the US. As bad ideas go that's right up there.
— Andrew Cotter (@MrAndrewCotter) November 1, 2014
@RugbySco @RugbyWal @RugbyGlasgow @RugbyEng @RugbyFra. Hell no we wont go. 6 Nations to stay in Europe
— #rugbyireland (@RugbyIre) November 3, 2014
@BHHooker just play more games in the US in general, don't move 6 Nations matches.
— Michael Nixon (@welshboymick) November 3, 2014
@BHHooker No value in it. Games for 6N are always packed and sellout, and it's an institution in Britain + France. Go and play....
— Keejay (@keejayOV) November 3, 2014
However, It seems that not everyone is totally against the idea:
@BHHooker I'd happily see Eng give up a home game w/ Ire to play that fixture in Boston, or similar w/ Ita and play it in New York.
— Alex Shaw (@alexshawsport) November 3, 2014
It would be easy to imagine Ireland coming out to a Boston crowd to this tune:
