RuggaMatrix America's Alex Goff caught up with USA Rugby Board of Directors Chair Tom Cusack to talk about the issues facing the national governing body.

This interview was conducted following the Board's open letter to the membership that was an update on the organization's Strategic Review, High Performance Review, and growth strategies. Cusack does discuss the letter but he also goes into depth about several other issues.

Here are some of the highlights:

USA Rugby is still in a money crunch, and until there are more national team events which open the door to sponsorship, that money crunch will remain.

However, those games are coming. The USA Women's 15s team will kick off the PAC 4 at the end of March and then will compete in the WXV competition.

The men will get some games this summer in Europe, and will be joining a new Americas-Pacific competition (APAC) in 2024. The podcast goes into details on those.

In addition, World Rugby is fronting USA Rugby money in commercial income to help jump-start some of their ventures.

The participation of World Rugby is also a topic, as Cusack and Goff discuss whether World Rugby has undue influence over USA Rugby. 

The USA Hawks team (MLR, USA Rugby Combine to Form Hawks Development Team) is also discussed as part of the the HP Review and USA Rugby's relationship with Major League Rugby.

More topics touched on include:

• Whether national team coaches should be required to live in the USA
• How far apart USA Rugby and NCR are
• That is the World Cup legacy money and what's the story there
• And the loss of trust between the membership and the governing body