Melville lands USA Rugby job

Nigel Melville has been appointed the chief executive officer and president of rugby operations for USA Rugby.

Melville, the former director of rugby at Wasps and Gloucester, has signed a two-year contract and his challenge is to help the American game reach its vast potential.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone who loves rugby," he said. "The fact that I have been coaching and working in both the professional and amateur rugby business for over 10 years now has really helped me prepare for this position. In truth, I feel that everything I have done in the past has led me to this, and I am just really excited to get started."

The USA qualified for the World Cup with a victory over Uruguay in Stanford at the weekend but join an ominously strong group with England, South Africa and Samoa.

At present qualification is the extent of America's ambitions.

But the plan is to develop a Tri-Nations tournament including Canada and Argentina and expand the domestic game by creating four regional teams to compete in a cross-border Super 12-style competition.

The USA Rugby board is chaired by Kevin Roberts, the former president of Pepsi Canada and board member of the New Zealand Rugby Union.

He helped secure New Zealand's record sponsorship deal with adidas - second only in value to Nike's with the Brazilian football team - and has major ambitions for American rugby.

"The biggest commercial market in the world and the game we love the most. It's bloody marvellous. We want to see how fast we can fly and how big we can dream," he recently told the Sunday Times.

"We want to reach the quarter-finals of the world sevens by 2009 and the quarter-finals of the 2011 Rugby World Cup."