2016 PRO Rugby season
The 2016 PRO Rugby season was the inaugural and only season of the PRO Rugby, contested by teams from the United States. The season ran from April to July 2016. This was the first season of professional rugby union in North America.
PRO Rugby contracted 102 players for its five teams. Of these 102 players, 54 have played international rugby, including 36 for the United States national rugby union team. About 30 players were picked from Pacific Rugby Premiership teams and 15 from Midwest Rugby Premiership teams.
Competition format
Each team played a twelve match schedule with six matches at home and six away. Most matches took place on Sunday to give clubs and schools the chance to play on Saturday and Friday.The league had a lighter schedule on June 5 and 12. Those days had just one match. There was however a full slate on June 19 and 26 and teams lost players to the United States, Canadian or other national teams during this time.
Broadcasting
Matches were available for the 2016 inaugural season to stream through prorugby.org or on cable through ONE World Sports or Time Warner Cable Sports Channel. Initially selected matches were available free to all online through www.aol.com but this came to an inexplicable abrupt end. Through the league's official website all matches were streamed free to all viewers. ONE World Sports was offered by multiple cable and satellite providers and covered a range of sports, most notably a large selection of soccer.Teams and officials
Match officials
PRO Rugby named the following five referees and three assistant referees to handle the regular-season games for the 2016 season.;Referees
- Leah Berard
- Scott Green
- Nick Ricono
- Derek Summers
- Kurt Weaver
Players
Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps.Top try scorers
Updated: July 31, 2016Overall points scorers
Updated: September 6, 2016Team of the season
The following shows the team of the season, as selected by various media outlets.| Pos | Rugby Today | Americas Rugby News |
| 1 | Jamie Mackintosh | Jamie Mackintosh |
| 2 | Zach Fenoglio | Zach Fenoglio |
| 3 | Chris Baumann | Olive Kilifi |
| 4 | Tai Tuisamoa | Tai Tuisamoa |
| 5 | Logan Collins | Brendan Daly |
| 6 | Kyle Sumsion | Sam Finau |
| 7 | Sebastian Kalm | Sebastian Kalm |
| 8 | Pedrie Wannenburg | Pedrie Wannenburg |
| Pos | Rugby Today | Americas Rugby News |
| 9 | Shaun Davies | Shaun Davies |
| 10 | Will Magie | Will Magie |
| 11 | Timana Tahu | Timana Tahu |
| 12 | Roland Suniula | Orene Ai'i |
| 13 | Orene Ai'i | Chad London |
| 14 | Spike Davis | Spike Davis |
| 15 | Mike Te'o | Mike Te'o |
Player development
The following list shows PRO Rugby players who earned their debut cap for the U.S. national rugby team during the 2016 season:Attendance
By team
These are the attendance records of each of the teams at the end of the home and away season. The table does not include finals series attendances.| Team | Hosted | ||||
| Sacramento Express | 6 | 2,150 | 3,400 | 1,500 | 12,900 |
| San Diego Breakers | 6 | 1,916 | 2,500 | 1,500 | 11,500 |
| Denver Stampede | 6 | 1,941 | 2,346 | 1,500 | 11,646 |
| Ohio Aviators | 6 | 1,691 | 3,400 | 750 | 10,050 |
| San Francisco Rush | 6 | 916 | 1,700 | 700 | 5,500 |
| League total | 30 | 1,723 | 3,400 | 700 | 51,696 |