The USA Falcons was one of two national representative

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

teams from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that competed in the

North America 4 Series North America 4, also known as IRB North America 4, was a North American rugby union competition launched in 2006. The competition was contested between two newly formed representative teams from each of Canada and the United States. The competi ...

History

Formation

The Falcons were founded in 2005 by the NA4 Committee. The NA4 Committee is made up of the

International Rugby Board World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

Rugby Canada Rugby Canada is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in Canada. Rugby Canada was incorporated in 1974, and stems from the Canadian Rugby Football Union, a body established in 1884 that now governs amateur Canadian football a ...

and

USA Rugby USA Rugby (officially the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugb ...

. The committee is charged with operating and financing the four North American teams (the others being the USA Hawks,

Canada East Canada East (french: links=no, Canada-Est) was the northeastern portion of the United Province of Canada. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new ...

, and

Canada West The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report on the ...

. In 2008, however, each franchise will be sold and become privately owned.

Inaugural Competition: 2006 North America 4 Series

The Falcons' first ever match occurred on 20 May 2006 during the inaugural NA 4 Series. They faced

in pool play and won the match 29-14. They finished the competition with a 3-2-0 record and had an average of 29 points scored and 23 points scored against per match. They faced

in the championship final and lost by a score of 20-31 on 29 July.Official 2006 NA4 Series Results
/ref> South African native Patrick Bell, of

Life University Life University is a private university focused on training chiropractors and located in Marietta, Georgia, USA. It was established in 1974 by a chiropractor, Sid E. Williams. History The university was founded in 1974 by Williams as "Life C ...

, captained the squad during the inaugural campaign.

PARMA Select XV

The PARMA Select XV is the All-Star squad composed of the best players of the competition as determined by the Pan-American Rugby Media Association. Patrick Bell, Hayden Mexted, Mark Aylor, Vaha Esikia, Andrew “Tui” Osborne, and Brian Barnard were selected to the starting XV. John Tarpoff, Alex Parker, Chad Erskine, and Jason Pye were named as reserves. Of the 22 spots on the PARMA XV, 10 were from the Falcons squad, the most of any NA4 club.

2006 squad

''The 2006 NA4 squad is as follows'' * Jarvis Albury -

Arkansas State Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage l ...

* James Angus - Frederick * Kevin Armstrong - Santa Monica Rugby Club * Mark Aylor - Austin Blacks * Brian Barnard - San Francisco Golden Gate * Patrick Bell -

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

* Matt Brown - OPSB * Chris Cowan - Santa Monica Rugby Club * Aaron Davis - Santa Monica Rugby Club * Vaha Esikia - Las Vegas Blackjacks * Chad Erskine - OMBAC * James Finau - Hayward * Mike French - OMBAC * Mark Griffin - Old Blue * Carl Hansen -

Olympic Club The Olympic Club is an sports club, athletic club and private social club in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. First named the "San Francisco Olympic Club", it is the oldest sports club, athletic club in the United States. Established o ...

* Jeff Hullinger -

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

* Scott Jones -

Chicago Lions Founded in 1964, the Chicago Lions Rugby Football Club is a USA Rugby club based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The Chicago Lions namesake is taken from the two large lion statues that guard the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago Bu ...

* Kimball Kjar -

Dallas Harlequins The Dallas Harlequins Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team based in Dallas, Texas. The Harlequins formerly played in the Super League, but now play in the Texas Rugby Union Men's Division 1. The Harlequins won the 1984 USA National Champions ...

* Saimone Laulaupeaalu - Hayward * Sean Kim - Charlotte Rugby Club * Andrew Locke - USMA * Hayden Mexted -

St. Louis Bombers The St. Louis Bombers were a National Basketball Association team based in St. Louis from 1946 to 1950. Franchise history The St. Louis Bombers were originally part of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1946. The BAA merged wit ...

* Andrew Osborne -

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

* Alec Parker -

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the '' Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (Chin ...

* Mike Petrie -

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

* Tony Petruzzella -

* Jason Pye -

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

* David Rader -

New York Athletic Club The New York Athletic Club is a private social club and athletic club in New York state. Founded in 1868, the club has approximately 8,600 members and two facilities: the City House, located at 180 Central Park South in Manhattan, and Travers ...

* Ronald Rosser - Caly Poly * Doug Rowe - Old Blue * Brian Schoener - OPSB * Kort Schubert -

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

* Garry Sullivan -

* John Tarpoff -

* Alipate Tuilevuka -

* John Vitale -

References

{{Rugby union in the United States Rugby union teams in the United States North America 4 teams Rugby clubs established in 2005 2005 establishments in the United States