Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with players from the Rugby World Cup Champion New Zealand All Blacks, Irish Rugby National Team and USA Rugby Eagles prior to the USA Rugby and TLA Worldwide announcement of “The Rugby Weekend” to take place on Friday, November 4th and Saturday, November 5th for two separate international rugby matches.

“The Rugby Weekend” will open on Friday, November 4 at Toyota Park as the USA Rugby Eagles take on the Maori All Blacks. The following night, fans will witness the current defending World Cup Champion New Zealand All Blacks against the defending RBS 6 Nations Champions, Ireland. The day-two match will be played on Saturday, November 5th at historic Soldier Field.

The last time the New Zealand All Blacks took to the pitch in the United States, a record crowd of over 61,500 filled Soldier Field on November 1, 2014, in what was unquestionably the biggest rugby event in the history of the United States. This will mark just the fourth time since the team’s inception that the World Champions will play in America and the latest since it became the first international rugby team to go back to back as World Cup Champions in October 2015.

The Irish Rugby Football Union is the reigning RBS 6 Nations champions, a title the team has held twelve times outright and shared eight times.

The Maori All Blacks are an elite rugby union team from New Zealand. A prerequisite for playing for this team is that the player is to have Maori whakapapa or genealogy. This will be the fourth time the USA Eagles will face the Maori All Blacks, the last time being in Philadelphia in September of 2013 before a sold-out crowd of 18,500 attendees.

###

Left to Right: Tommy Bowe/Irish Rugby, Andrew Suniula/USA Rugby and Ryan Crotty/New Zealand All Blacks
Photo Credit: Brooke E. Collins, City of Chicago