Less than 20 miles away from the centre of downtown Atlanta, where large crowds gathered when the city hosted the Olympic Games in 1996, stands Kennesaw State University, where this weekend, the third round of the World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series kicks off.

With the prospect of qualification for next year’s Olympic Games drawing ever closer, the USA's women are hoping to be in the hunt and will be sure to step it up this weekend.

But further down the chain, rugby in the United States is growing and the host union, USA Rugby, is creating new initiatives to get girls into the sport. 

The "Stay in the Game"  programme is aimed at players and coaches in high school and college, where they are urged to stick with the sport by female players and leaders, serve as mentors for others and a place where coaches can get together and share information and ideas. 

"Stay in the Game" continues on from the introductory work of "Rookie Rugby" and "Try On Rugby" by bringing young athletes together with coaches and national team players to show the possibilities of staying with rugby through college.

Women’s national player Katy Augustyn said: “Participation in the sport has increased significantly, the US has hosted many high level men’s and women’s tournaments, rugby is getting some television coverage on major networks, and, with the 2016 Olympics coming up, we will only gain more exposure for our sport,” 

Augustyn was one of several current Eagles helping out with the "Stay in the Game" pilot activity earlier this year in California. More than 30 young women attended the programme, during which they were assembled into groups and put through drills with local college and club coaches. Each group was also given a mentor-player from a local college or club, with Eagles also filling in with a few groups. 

In addition to the international pathway being revamped for women’s rugby in the United States so too is the talent identification process. More domestic competitions are set to be reviewed by USA Rugby staff, who will in turn promote athletes into the newly-designed pathway. The increased scouting is combined with USA Rugby academy camps, recruitment festivals, and the growing Olympic Development Academy programme to create the most comprehensive approach to selections ever for the women’s game.

“Our goal is to broaden the number of selection opportunities for athletes,” USA Rugby Director of Performance Alex Magleby said.

“Athletes physically mature at different ages – we have multiple “training ages” at different levels, so it makes sense to give both current rugby players and crossover athletes multiple entry points into the pathway.”

It tied in with this week's events in Atlanta where players from the 12 competing international teams visited schools to teach skills to some and introduce the game to others, in a country where the game could be set to prosper.