Rugby Americas North

What is RAN?

Rugby Americas North (RAN) is the regional association for rugby union in North America and the Caribbean within World Rugby. World Rugby’s membership page counts “133 national member Unions” and names Rugby Americas North as one of its six regional associations.^[1] Its about page describes a federation of “134 national member federations affiliated through six regional associations”.^[11]

The association describes itself as “the governing body responsible for the promotion, development, administration, and management of international competitions for the 21 member unions across North America and the Caribbean”, and its about page states: “Formed in 2001, Rugby Americas North (RAN) is the governing body for rugby union in the North American continental region.”^[4] Both are its own descriptions; World Rugby calls the six bodies regional associations, and in its bye-laws “Member Associations”.^[1][2]

Its legal form could not be established from its own pages or from World Rugby’s bye-laws. Its staff page says that the general manager “resides in the BVI from where he leads a team of three RAN staff members”, which places its administration in the British Virgin Islands; a statutory seat could not be retrieved.^[6] Its sister body for the south of the continent is Sudamérica Rugby.^[1]

What does RAN govern or do?

RAN writes no laws of the game; the laws, the World Cups and the world rankings are World Rugby’s. The association’s field is regional competition and development, which its own description sums up as “the promotion, development, administration, and management of international competitions” for its member unions.^[4]

Its competitions page lists men’s and women’s sevens, men’s and women’s fifteens, a men’s under-19 fifteens tournament and interregional test matches.^[7] On its fifteens page RAN says that it “supports the organization and oversight of interregional test matches, working to create more formal competition opportunities between our member unions’ men’s and women’s fifteens programs”, and it reports the fixtures of two of its members, Canada and the United States, in the WXV women’s competition and the men’s Pacific Nations Cup.^[8]

RAN also has a voice in World Rugby’s governance. Under Bye-Law 9.1(b) the World Rugby Council includes “one Representative from each of the following Member Associations”, a list that ends with “Rugby Americas North”, and Bye-Law 9.1(e) adds one more from each, “provided such additional Representative is female”.^[2] No document retrieved names RAN as a signatory of the World Anti-Doping Code in its own right.

When was RAN founded and where is it based?

The association states that it was “Formed in 2001”.^[4] No independent source for the date, and no founding document, could be retrieved, so the year rests on RAN’s own account. Its about page names no earlier body and no change of name, and none is given here.^[4]

RAN describes its territory as spanning seven time zones; its membership page puts it this way: “RAN’s membership is diverse; encompassing seven time zones and reaches from the Arctic Circle almost to the equator, from the Canadian mountains to the Caribbean waters.”^[5]

The executive committee list names Araba Chintoh (Canada) as president, Paul Santinelli (USA) as vice-president, Pablo Septién (Mexico) as treasurer and Maria Thomas (Trinidad and Tobago) as secretary, with Willet Wayne Pantor (Trinidad and Tobago) as a further committee member; each officer is marked with a membership category letter from A to D. The staff, under general manager Niall Brooks (British Virgin Islands), include development, training, communications and competitions managers from the United States, Canada and Mexico.^[6] The general manager’s residence in the British Virgin Islands is the only office location the association gives.^[6]

How is RAN recognised?

The recognising instrument is World Rugby’s. Its membership page names Rugby Americas North among its six regional associations, and its about page describes the national member federations as “affiliated through six regional associations”.^[1][11] Its bye-laws treat the six as “Member Associations”: Bye-Law 9.1(b) gives the Council “one Representative from each of the following Member Associations: Asia Rugby, Rugby Africa, Rugby Europe, Oceania Rugby, Sudamericana Rugby (Rugby Americas South) and Rugby Americas North”, and Bye-Law 9.4(c) provides that “each Member Association set out in Bye-Law 9.1(b) shall have two votes”.^[2] The bye-law page carries the note “Bye Law 9 & Bye Law 10 - effective post-Council Nov 2024”.^[2]

The national unions remain World Rugby’s own members, “affiliated through” the regional associations, in World Rugby’s words; RAN’s members include the United States, whose union is USA Rugby.^[11][4] Olympic recognition is World Rugby’s; no document retrieved gives RAN a recognition of its own from the IOC.

The continental multi-sport tie is the Pan American Games of Panam Sports: rugby is on the programme of the Lima 2027 Games, 23 July to 8 August 2027.^[10] A Panam Sports document naming RAN for rugby could not be retrieved.

What does RAN organise?

RAN’s senior regional championship is in sevens. It describes RAN Sevens as an “annual sevens tournament for senior men’s and women’s programs in our region” that “showcases the region’s top athletes in the nonstop format of sevens, vying for qualification to future events and regional bragging rights”.^[9] The 2024 edition was played in Arima, Trinidad, from 22 to 24 November; RAN reports that Canada won the men’s final 38–0 against Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico the women’s final 19–12 against Jamaica.^[9] For 2023, RAN reports that Mexico’s men’s and women’s teams “earned qualification to the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger”.^[9] Its competitions page lists the 2025 edition in Arima from 21 to 23 November 2025, with Canada winning the men’s Tier 1 cup final against Barbados and Mexico the women’s cup final against Jamaica, and on 17 September 2026 it announced that the 2026 RAN Sevens would return to Trinidad.^[7][3]

In fifteens, RAN’s competitions page lists 2026 men’s fixtures in Tier 2 and Tier 3 and women’s fixtures among “international events held by Rugby Americas North and other governing bodies”, without naming a championship title for them.^[7] Its fifteens page describes interregional test matches and an annual men’s under-19 tournament, which “Rugby Americas North hosts … for member Unions to participate in”.^[8] RAN reports that in the 2024 under-19 gold final USA South beat Bermuda 27–14, and that Mexico beat Jamaica 46–19 in a women’s test match played alongside the tournament.^[8] On 31 August 2026 it announced that the men’s under-19 fifteens would go to Trinidad and Tobago in 2027.^[3]

Who are its members?

RAN gives its membership as 21 member unions, and its about page names them: Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United States.^[4] The members page, read the same day, omits the Dominican Republic.^[5]

Neither page says which unions are full members of World Rugby and which hold another status, and no breakdown of membership categories could be retrieved from RAN.^[4][5] Its officers are listed with category letters, Canada’s president in category A and the United States’ vice-president in category B, but the categories are not defined on the page retrieved.^[6]

World Rugby’s own totals differed between its pages on 4 October 2026: the membership page gave “133 national member Unions”, “115 full member Unions and 18 associate member Unions”, without a regional breakdown, and the about page “134 national member federations”.^[1][11] RAN’s list names French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique among its member unions.^[4]