Can Adam Freier’s California Legion solve America’s rugby problem?

Adam Freier: “Our mantra is to be brave, to be bold and to be first.” Photograph: California Legion/MLR

One day in March 2012, Adam Freier sat down to write a column for the Sydney Morning Herald. His Melbourne Rebels were on a losing streak and though he had 25 caps at hooker including a World Cup campaign for Australia, he was nearly 32 and staring at the end of a career at the coalface, 12 years in the front row of the scrum at the highest level. Describing a body breaking down, a struggling club, the agony of endless defeats, he imagined group therapy in front of “strangers in the local hall”.

“My name is Adam Freier, and I hate to lose.”