My fellow Americans - or rather, my fellow American sports fans - or rather yet, my fellow American sports fans who acknowledge rugby exists, my fellow citizens of a group that is so infinitely small because let's face it, the average American is not interested in rugby.

American sports fans don't pay attention to rugby because when they watch it, it resembles chaos with a ball.

The truth is, rugby is anything but chaos. It's basically what you get when you fuse soccer and football together and throw out the forward pass.

Americans don't pay attention to rugby because all of the top American athletes are playing what are considered the "mainstream" sports.

"American rugby is starting to catch on, it's starting to pick up," Penn State head coach Don Ferrell said. "But we're still missing out on a lot of the top athletes because they just don't know about our sport."

Considering the population difference between the United States and its foreign opponents, you wouldn't think that the U.S. wouldn't have trouble with numbers - and they don't.

Tony Smeeth, one of the U.S. national team coaches (as well as the head coach of the Trinity squad who recently trained here at Penn State), had this to say about the current state of American rugby following last week's match:

"It's a massive participation sport. You just don't get TV exposure. You certainly got more players than Ireland has, with all the colleges. There are what, 500 colleges? You get the participation; you just don't get the press.

"We just don't have the athletes here, and I'm saying 'we' as a U.S. coach. Anyone big is not fast, because they're all playing other sports. All the big and fast players are playing football."

American rugby could be among the best in the world if the LaVar Arringtons, Paul Pozluznys and similar athletes were exposed to rugby at a younger age and given the sport as another option.

OK, that may rival Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal as the most absurd idea of the past 400 years, but it's really not as far-fetched as it sounds, because it's already happening.

"We gotta get guys playing younger. Gotta get guys playing at nine, 10, 11, 12, and that's beginning to happen in parts of the states. So it is picking up, but it's a long haul you know?" Smeeth said.

Americans don't pay attention to rugby because what little talent we do have, has to play overseas to face sufficient competition. What's left of it is divvied up among a handful of schools and clubs spread out so far across the country that they never see each other.

"The big thing they gotta do, for them to compete on the world stage, is they gotta get an Americas professional league," Smeeth said. "Until we get full-time American rugby players, we're never going to be able to compete with full-time European [and] Australian teams. You just can't compete. You can't have amateurs competing against professionals."

The problem with finding competition isn't only on the professional tiers, it's at the collegiate level as well.

"It's hard, really hard to improve, understand the level of play, and pick up things when you're playing somebody that you're beating by 100 points," Ferrell said. "What we really need more than anything is for the top programs, the top collegiate programs, to find a way for them to play each other regularly. The only way to get better is to play good competition."

With exposure and talent on the way, U.S. rugby is well on it's way to competing with the world's top teams, all it needs now is an avenue for constant player development, similar to what the MLS is for American soccer.

It will take a lot to produce the spark that's needed to ignite widespread interest in rugby, but it's time Americans take notice regardless.

Rugby is the second-most popular sport on the planet, behind only soccer. And it is in soccer that the U.S. has progressed tremendously in the past few years.

Calling all American sports enthusiasts; the day when America is able to compete with the rest of the world in rugby isn't that far off.

So show up -- early and often. After all, I don't see any other American national teams trying to win anything of significance.