The Capital Rugby Union (CGU) began in Fall 2013, as a result of the consolidation of the Virginia Rugby Union (info below) and the Potomac Rugby Union (info below), both formerly part of the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union.
The CGU organizes, administers, controls, regulates, improves, teaches and fosters the growth and maintains the standards of the game of Rugby Union Football for the clubs that are its members within the geographic area. It represents its members before other official administrative bodies of rugby on a regional, national or international level (including, the International Rugby Board [the “IRB”] and USA Rugby [“USAR”]), and shall organize, control and administer rugby games between regional bodies and visiting clubs as necessary.
The CGU is a Geographic Union member within the USAR administrative structure; its teams play within the Mid Atlantic Conference (also called National Competitive Region Four or NCR4) .
Why Capital? Easy! Our region has the colonial capital (Williamsburg) and the United States capital (Washington, DC).
Note: A capital is a seat of government; a capitol is a building.
Virginia Rugby Union
Prior to 1972, clubs playing in Virginia had no sub-union organization and were considered clubs at large in the greater Eastern Rugby Union (ERU; later referred to as USA Rugby-East or USARE). The ERU was established in 1934 and generally encompassed Maine to Louisiana. In May of 1972, the ERU authorized the Virginia Rugby Association to be formed in order to determine if the new organization structure was viable and to monitor the Associations ability to perform. In 1974, the next administrative step was taken with the formation of the Virginia/North Carolina Rugby Union. One year later, in January 1975, Virginia made the final step by becoming the Virginia Rugby Union (VRU).
In the Fall of 1975, the VRU held its first State Tournament for Mens Clubs, the Ed Lee Cup. In 1976, the Sandy Lee Cup was added for Womens teams; in 1980, a College Mens bracket was initiated.
With the advent of National Championships, league play was instituted for the Mens club teams in 1980 and was followed in ensuing years for the other brackets.
In 1994, the VRU became a member of the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union (MARFU) with the Potomac and Eastern Pennsylvania Unions.
Clubs played in a number of brackets and divisions within the VRU: Mens Club Division I, II and III; Women’s Club Division II, Collegiate Men Division I, II, and III; and Collegiate Womens Division I and II. These clubs included over 2,000 active playing members and others in administrative, coaching and social roles.
The VRU was the first to have a U.S. club home page (Blacksburg RFC), the first to have a Collegiate Mens and Womens rugby home page (Virginia Tech Men and Women) and the first to have a fully-featured WWW site for a local rugby union.
The VRU Crest was designed and adopted by the VRU in 1977 to reflect the spirit of rugby football and to relate that spirit to the symbols of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The VRUs colors of navy blue and white were derived from the dominant colors of the present day Virginia state flag. The VRU crest is a replica of Queen Elizabeth the Firsts Royal Coat of Arms minus the royal rampant dragons, a British royal symbol. Virginia takes its name from this English queen.
The crest was the dominant symbol of the VRU and it was worn on players jerseys and blazers and appears on most gifts that are given by the Union. In this way, the crest was a continuous representation of the Commonwealth of Virginia and a symbol of excellence for those chosen to wear it as players, coaches, and administrators on the state team.
On September 1, 2013, the VRU merged with the PRU to form the Capital Rugby Union.
Potomac Rugby Union
The Potomac Rugby Union, or the PRU, was the governing body for all rugby in northern Virginia, DC, Maryland, and parts of Pennsylvania. The PRU was responsible for competitions at all levels, all star teams, assisting clubs with admin matters, running coaching and player clinics, and disciplinary matters.
The PRU was known as a local area union (or LAU in the parlance of USA Rugby), the smallest subdivision of the national governing body. The Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union (MARFU, for short) was one of seven territorial unions (or TU) of USA Rugby. MARFU comprised the PRU, Virginia Rugby Union (VRU), and Eastern Penn Rugby Union (EPRU).
The PRUs member clubs were in eight different gender and age groups senior men, senior women, college men, college women, high school boys, high school girls, youth, and old boys/girls.
On September 1, 2013, the PRU merged with the VRU to become the Capital Rugby Union.
Capital Rugby Union 
You must be logged in to post a comment.