Thank you all for your replies. i agree with you FlukeArtist the timing is perfect for rugby. The NFL season is over and a competition of the magnitude of Superrugby for the first time in primetime tv is just unreal. If you look at the progress of soccer in the USA in the last 15 years it is amazing. We have a very viable league with great soccer stadiums and the US national team is very competitive on the international stage. I only imagine what would happen if rugby develop here. That would be incredible. There are some talented players in the USA, if they had a decent professional league, rugby would take off in a heartbeat.
To put it in perspective to watch rugby the USA before this deal with Direct TV you had to invest some serious money. I had to buy 3 sat systems. One from Canada (Bell) because of Setanta sports and TV5 ( so I could see NRL, Top 14, New Zealand and South African provincial competitions. An International sat for Sky sport 1,2,3 BBC1 and 2 , Eurosport UK 1 and 2 and ESPN UK. On direct TV until today I had fox sport soccer for Aviva, heineken, and magners. I had to use mediazone out of South Africa for streaming tri nation, currie cup and S14. You had to be a rugby fanatic like me to try to watch rugby in the USA. As you can imagine I am not a native yank having played in South Africa , France ( USAP,Toulon, and Racing ) that was in the 70s and 80s. Finishing in the US rugbysuperleague with the Dallas Harlequins. Still playing with the old boys at 49 years old ( twenty one seasons with the Quins ).
I am so happy to see this great sport on primetime in the USA, and I hope that many Americans are going to be exposed to the sport and embrace it. There is no sport that can compare to rugby even the NFL. The Dallas cowboys are a bunch of overpaid divas compared to any franchise in the Super 15. Those guys will be crying if they were in a ruck with the like of Matfield or Chabal, nor they would last running 80 minutes playing offense and defense.
