When USA Rugby departed the 2015 Rugby World Cup after a winless pool stage, they did so with a very clear message: Amateurism just isn't going to cut it.
"One of the things that we know is that to be in the top eight [teams in the world], we need a fully professional team," then-USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville said at the time. "All the teams with amateur players failed to make the top 8 -- Georgia, Namibia, Canada, Romania -- and even some of those with fully professional teams did not make it. This has to continue to be a focus moving forward.