Meet Will Hooley - Driving America’s Mlr to Greater Heights

We recently got the chance to have a quickfire interview with Will Hooley, formerly of Northampton Saints, Exeter Chiefs, Saracens and San Diego Legion – and now working fulltime for Major League Rugby (MLR) in the U.S. Here’s his take on the game in the States and where he thinks it’s heading.

You’ve played both in England and the U.S. How would you rank them against each other right now in terms of the standing at international level?

There is still a big gap obviously between an England side and a USA side. The current USA team is quite an inexperienced young group, which is exciting for the future. England have a lot more test matches behind them, with their players playing more rugby all year round, so there is still very much a gap I would say, but hopefully it'll be closing.

How big a role in developing the local game will the 2031 World Cup in the U.S. play?

Developing the local game is going to be essential for the Rugby World Cup in 2031. It will have to leave to a legacy behind, and I know World Rugby want that to be the case as well. Major League Rugby - the professional driver of rugby in this country - wants to make sure that post the Rugby World Cup, success is building, and that grassroots rugby is coming through. I think it will be great event, and RWC 31 is so important for the growth of the game globally, not just here in America.

Where is your major focus - underage, grassroots, or the professional game?

We are a professional competition business and want to run a well-oiled league that’s seen round the world as a proper, genuine league that's marketed correctly. We are incredibly serious about being a platform where some of the top players in the world want to come to play, but equally, we want to be a league for USA talent, with the clubs branching into the grassroots areas of their own societies and their own cultures.

Is rugby seen by parents as a safe game for their kids to play?

There is definitely a positive feel around it, with kids getting technical, tactical coaching early doors - particularly around that technical side of the contact area. I absolutely think that the technical side of things is taught more than in American football, where you put your helmet on and just go running into things.

Is there much of an awareness about player safety - and head protection in particular - in your side of the world?

As rugby is a contact sport, parents understand that there is always an element of risk. It's definitely my belief, however, that we're doing all we can to safeguard the players with our technology, with our technique, and with our education. There's education around head injury over here. The NFL went through some of those big lawsuits and I think rugby absolutely wants to get on top of things earlier - making sure that our protocols are in place. We've invested ourselves into partnering with N-PRO with trying to deliver the best protective equipment we can to the team.