Madison John Hughes (born October 26, 1992) is a

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 it ...

player who was the captain of the

United States national rugby sevens team The United States national rugby sevens team competes in international rugby sevens competitions. The national sevens team is organized by USA Rugby, and the team has been led by Head Coach Mike Friday since 2014. The main competition the tea ...

from 2014 until he stepped away from the team in late 2021. Hughes was named captain of the United States national team at the start of the 2014 Sevens World Series, shortly after the appointment of new head coach

Mike Friday Michael John "Mike" Friday (born April 25, 1972) has been the head coach of the United States national rugby sevens team since summer 2014. Friday was appointed head coach after the U.S. coach for the 2013–14 season, Matt Hawkins, was asked to ...

. Hughes captained the US Eagles to their highest ever finish in the sevens series (sixth place) in the 2014/2015 season, a significant improvement on the team's 12th place finish the previous year. This feat was matched with another strong year in the 2015/2016 Season, where Hughes was the highest points scorer in the World Series. Hughes was the second highest scorer for the 2015 series with 296 points. In the last leg of the series Hughes lead the Eagles to victory at the

2015 London Sevens The 2015 London Sevens was the ninth and final tournament within the 2014–15 Sevens World Series. This edition of the London Sevens was held over the weekend of 16–17 May 2015 at Twickenham in London. The most notable headline from this eve ...

, and was named player of the tournament at that event. Though American in status, he was born in England.

Early life

Hughes attended

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: * Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin *Wellington College, Wellington, New ...

, in England where he played rugby from 2006 to 2011. Wellington College is a public school which has also produced rugby players such as James Haskell,

Thom Evans Thom Evans (born 2 April 1985) is a Scottish former international rugby union player and model. He last played on the wing for Glasgow Warriors in the Celtic League. Evans's rugby career ended aged 24 on his tenth appearance for Scotland when ...

and Max Evans. He was also a member of the Wellington cricket, rackets and soccer teams, playing to county level for cricket, representing Surrey.

College rugby

Hughes played

college rugby College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States of America. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the ...

as a fullback for

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

, and also played on Dartmouth's rugby sevens team. Hughes began playing with Dartmouth rugby as an 18-year-old freshman becoming the club captain by his junior year. Hughes rose to national prominence with his performance for Dartmouth at the

Collegiate Rugby Championship The Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) is an annual college rugby sevens tournament. The CRC is the highest profile college rugby sevens competition in the United States, with the tournament broadcast live on NBC from 2010–2017, on ESPN News an ...

. Hughes was named to the CRC All-Tournament team in 2012, 2013, and again in 2014. In the 2012 CRC, Hughes was the tournament's third-leading try scorer with six tries. In the 2013 CRC, Hughes was the second-leading try scorer with eight tries and the second-leading points scorer with 58. Hughes was captain of the 2013 7s All Americans and the 2014 15s All Americans.

United States national teams

Sevens

Hughes debuted with the

in the 2013–14 season. Hughes was the leading scorer for the U.S. at the 2014 Wellington Sevens (33 points) and 2014 Japan Sevens (28 points). For the 2014–15 season, Hughes was named team captain for the 2014 Gold Coast Sevens in October 2014, even though at 21 he was the youngest player in the team. Hughes again captained the USA 7's team to a sixth place finish in the 2015/2016 season, becoming the highest points scorer in the world for the year."Young Hughes Up to Captain's Task"
Rugby Today, September 29, 2014. Hughes was the U.S. starting scrum-half at the

2016 Summer Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

Fifteens

Hughes played fullback for the

United States national under-20 rugby union team The United States national under-20 rugby union team, for sponsorship reasons known as the AIG Men's Junior All-Americans, is the United States' junior rugby team at the national level. The U-20 team has competed at the IRB Junior World Championsh ...

. Hughes was the top scorer of the tournament at the

2012 IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy The 2012 IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy was the fifth annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams, second-tier world championship. The winner of the competition, the United States, was promoted to the IRB Junior World C ...

with 72 points, and was the U.S. leading try-scorer with four tries.IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy – 2012 Statistics
, IRB.com. Retrieved October 1, 2014. Hughes debuted for the

United States national rugby union team The United States men's national rugby union team represents the United States in men's international rugby union. Nicknamed the Eagles, it is controlled by USA Rugby, the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United Sta ...

fifteen a-side team in 2016, playing at fullback. He recorded three caps for the Eagles in 2016 before returning to rugby sevens for the remainder of the 2016-17 season.

References

External links

*
Madison Hughes
at

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 ru ...

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Madison 1992 births Living people Dartmouth College alumni American rugby union players United States international rugby sevens players Rugby sevens players at the 2015 Pan American Games Olympic rugby sevens players for the United States Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Pan American Games medalists in rugby sevens Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States United States international rugby union players Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games Rugby sevens players at the 2020 Summer Olympics