The Athletic recently published an article titled, U.S. rugby needs more players. The answer could lie in basketball. (Paywall, depending on how many articles you’ve recently accessed). The article makes the case that USA Rugby should try to get more former basketball players to try rugby instead of focusing on former American Football players. It then profiles former National Team player Luke Gross who played NCAA D1 Basketball at Marshall and how the USA Women’s program targets players with basketball backgrounds.

Rugby – Handball (in the U.S.) Parallels

If you’ve been following this website and handball in the U.S. you likely know that when it comes to niche sport challenges rugby, more than any other team sport is the most analagous to handball. Indeed, the parallels, are many. Here are a few:

• In the U.S. both are niche team sports with a small, but passionate following.
• In other parts of the world, both sports have a wider following that wants to grow the U.S. market
• Both sports have relied on expats to teach the sport and to boost club roster strength
• Both sports are typcially discovered by stateside athletes later in their sport careers
• Both sports are mostly a collegiate club sport (Rugby has NCAA women’s teams and some colleges have granted “varsity” status to their men’s teams)
• Both USA National Team have mostly struggled in international competition, but have had periods where they’ve shown signs of promise
• Both sports have “cousin” sports that are similar and significantly more popular in the U.S. (Rugby- American Football; Handball- Basketball)
• Both sports have often relied on crossover talent and/or dual citizens to field their national teams

Why the parallels even include community rancor and disappointment with the NGB office. If you want to have a little fun just go on Reddit and read the posts on the USARugby subreddit and replace “rugby” with “handball”. Over and over you’ll find threads where you will immediately recognize that what’s being discussed and debated could just as easily be said about handball in the U.S.

Where Rugby and Handball (in the U.S.) Diverge

But, while the parallels are numerous they are major differences. A really big one is that while both sports are niche, rugby has a much larger foothold in the U.S. Depending on your metric (clubs/membership) rugby is around 25 to 100 times more popular. Another big difference which arguably has facilitated rugby’s growth is that it’s an outdoor sport that doesn’t have to fight for gym time. I also think that rugby’s mostly native English speaking expat community was also better equipped to sell the sport in the 20th century than handball’s mostly English as a second language expat community.

Competing for the Same Guys and Girls…

The Athletic article’s premise that rugby should look more towards identifying former basketball athletes is a logical one with some major caveats. As Luke Gross, the former D1 basketball player aptly notes, “Basketball might be physical, but there is no comparison to getting hammered in a tackle.”

And, as a long time witness of cross-over talent I’ve seen more than one basketball get pretty miffed the first time a handball defender hits him head on and he’s told that’s not only allowed… it’s expected. Anecdotally, I would estimate that around 30% of those guys who get that first hit are never to be seen ever again on a handball court.

But, around 70% of those basketball players could be decent handball players. And, I’m not a rugby expert, but I suspect they have the same issue and probably it’s more pronounced. Most likely there are basketball player that never even come near a rugby pitch because they have zero desire to be tackled.

Whatever the percentage according to a quick AI search there are a lot of former basketball players out there that could play handball, rugby or some other sport. Every year, around 120,000 boy’s high school basketball players don’t play in college and around 4,000 men’s college players don’t turn pro. With the women the numbers are around 85,000 girls not playing college basketball and around 3,500 not turning pro. (all estimates based on AI and further complicated by the different NCAA divisions and NAIA)

Regardless, that’s a lot of athletes. Some of those athletes will be content to play pick up basketball, but some will be looking for another sporting outlet which could be rugby, could be handball or could be some other sport.

Competition for College Athletes

At the college level there is actually some low level competition to recruit these athletes. I say “low level” because in most cases rugby clubs are in a much better position to recruit. Their clubs are well established and at most colleges there isn’t a handball team to even possibly be an alternative. But, at schools where there are club programs for both sports it’s at least a consideration.

In particular, it’s been an issue with the women’s handball programs at both West Point and the Air Force Academy. One reason West Point didn’t even have a women’s rugby club until 2002 was that it had a very well established women’s handball club. And, vice versa, a very strong women’s rugby program at Air Force since 1977 is a major reason that except for a few years in the early 90s Air Force hasn’t had a women’s handball program. Both instititutions are big on athletic clubs, but there are only around 1,200 women at each school. Factor in that a high percentage of that 1,200 are already playing an NCAA sport and the number of potential athletes drops more. Both sports then compete for athletes with the same mentality and willingness to play a physical sport. There’s only so many athletes to go around and it’s a little harder to maintain clubs in both sports.

On the men’s side, I bet you that I could go to almost any collegiate rugby club practice and pretty quickly identify 10 athletes from which one could start a pretty good handball club. And, in the few instances where handball clubs are well established the reverse also is true. Does anyone doubt that some recent West Point handball players could also have been pretty solid if not great rugby players?

Competition for Post College Athletes

For many years handball actually had the advantage here because rugby wasn’t an Olympic sport. The elevator pitch to a would be crossover athlete was “Make the U.S. National Handball Team and you will be an Olympian.” Whereas, for rugby the best one could offer was a possible Rugby World Cup opportunity. Nice… but, nothing like being an Olympian. However, as Olympic qualification became more and more challenging for handball and since Rugby 7s gained Olympic status the advantage has clearly shifted more towards rugby.

It’s very debatable, however, as to whether post college athletes are actually desirable for either sport. It’s not that there aren’t some great post college basketball athletes out there, it’s just that age 22 is a fairly late age to change to another sport. It can be done, but it’s more challenging and many athletes can’t afford to spend time learning to play a sport for little to no compensation for a period of years. This is especially true when there’s no guarantee that they will eventually improve enough to get a decent pro contract. And, the reality is that a “decent pro contract” in either rugby or handball is probably less than what they could make in another profession that they won’t age out of in their 30s.

But, with a hosted Olympics in 2028 there is a narrow window where being a handball Olympian is a very real prospect for any talented women’s basketball player out there. And, based on the U.S Rugby 7s Women’s team bronze medal performance in Paris 2024 I suspect cracking that lineup would be pretty tough for a newcomer.

On the Men’s side being an Olympian would seem unlikely for a crossover athlete in either rugby or handball. Thanks to a golden generation of dual citizen athletes there just aren’t many (if any) available roster spots for handball. For sure, it would take one hell of an athlete to go from zero to hero in just 2 years. And, on the rugby side of things the men’s team is also fairly well established and rugby 7s (not the traditional 15s game) might be less suited for basketball crossover talent.

Some Day… Real Competition for Talent?

Today, the overall reality is that while both rugby and handball are niche sports in the U.S., rugby is still a much larger fish than handball. Any competition for players is a skirmish that rugby is winning easily without much of a fight taking place.

But, maybe… just, maybe handball will develop to the point where some day athletes will actually ponder the pros and cons of each sport and how their skills might better apply to one or the other. A real competition for talent. I, for one, wouldn’t mind seeing a reddit post some day whining about handball poaching some of the talent they used to get.