Brendan O’Meara: The American Coach Who Learned Rugby’s Language — And Now Speaks It Fluently

Anthem RC’s attack coach is the only current U.S.-born, U.S.-rugby-system coach in Major League Rugby. His journey from San Francisco high school football to studying the game alongside some of the world’s sharpest coaching minds is a uniquely American rugby story.

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Erich Storti credits Brendan O’Meara with teaching him how to kick and pass at Saint Mary’s College. “Getting back with him is pretty exciting,” Storti says. The two have stayed close since college — and now, at Anthem, the coach-player connection that began in Moraga picks up exactly where it left off.

It is a connection that runs through every layer of what Anthem RC is building: an American coach who developed American players at one of the country’s most successful college rugby programs, now coaching them at the professional franchise designed to feed the national team. The through-line from Moraga to Charlotte is O’Meara.

“I’d be careful,” O’Meara says when the label comes up. “Currently I’m probably the only U.S.-born and U.S.-rugby-system coach in the league, but there have been guys previously. I don’t want it to be like I’m the only one who’s made it.”

The humility is characteristic. But the distinction matters.

From San Francisco to Saint Mary’s

O’Meara grew up in San Francisco, the son of Irish immigrants — his father from Tyrone, his mother from Cork. Sport wasn’t optional. “My dad wasn’t rugby people at all,” he says. “Gaelic and soccer. But we had to play a sport every season, no matter what.”

He captained his high school football team, played point guard in basketball, and picked up Gaelic football through the Bay Area’s Irish expat league. Rugby found him at fifteen. By the time he arrived at Saint Mary’s College — affordable through scholarships and home to one of America’s most storied rugby programs under legendary coach Tim O’Brien — he knew he’d found something different.

“Football’s checkers compared to rugby, which is chess,” he says. “In football, coaches tell you what to do and you go do it. In rugby, the decisions are yours.”

O’Meara earned All-American honors at Saint Mary’s and scored tries in both the semifinal and championship of the National All-Star Championship with the Pacific Coast Grizzlies. But it was his mind for the game, not his body, that would define his career.

From playing to coaching — the long way round

After college, O’Meara spent a club season in Wellington, New Zealand, training alongside future All Blacks Dane Coles and Charlie Ngatai. He returned home and played for San Francisco Golden Gate in the Super League — then the highest level of domestic American rugby — while working full-time. When his body couldn’t sustain both, he drifted back to Saint Mary’s as a volunteer coach with, as he puts it, “zero thoughts of coaching as a job.”

Then came an invitation to coach the USA Under-20s. Something clicked. “That sparked me wanting to push my coaching,” he says. “I started thinking — could I actually get paid for this? Because this is what I’m thinking about when I’m at work.”

His wife Lisa — a Division I college basketball coach, now at the University of Oregon — had already taken her shot at a coaching career. The deal was simple: if a real opportunity came for him, it was his turn. It arrived via the Austin Gilgronis, who offered him a role as assistant coach and academy head coach. He left a stable career at the Port of San Francisco to take it.

“I told friends: it’s professional sports. I can get fired the first week.”

What he found instead was a revelation. His coaching colleagues — head coach Sam Harris, Mark Gerard, Jamie Macintosh, Isaac Ross — were players he’d watched on his college Super Rugby subscription. “Those were literally names I knew as a fan and thought, this is a completely different world I’d never get to. Now they were my contemporaries.”

Austin finished top of the table before the franchise dissolved ahead of playoffs. O’Meara moved to the Raptors in Super Rugby Americas for a year, then spent two seasons as assistant coach at the Utah Warriors. Each stop broadened his coaching toolkit and deepened his network. When Utah exited the league, the body of work O’Meara had accumulated across three professional environments made him one of the most experienced American coaches in the country.

A seat at the global table

What O’Meara built through those years is something rare for an American rugby coach: genuine working relationships with some of the best coaching minds in world rugby. He has spent time embedded with provincial teams in Ireland and Top 14 clubs in France, and regularly talks shop with experienced coaches operating at the highest levels of the international game — from the Six Nations to Super Rugby.

These aren’t courtesy calls. They’re working conversations about attacking shape, player development, and the evolving science of coaching — discussions where O’Meara contributes as a peer. It speaks to something broader about where American rugby coaching is heading: no longer looking in from the outside, but earning a place in the room.

“I’ve always had a healthy chip as an American who came to this sport late,” he says. “Watching rugby is a rep. Studying rugby is a rep. I’m just pretty obsessive about it.”

Why Anthem

When Anthem came calling, O’Meara did his homework. He’d known Scott Lawrence for years and spoke to every player he could find who’d worked with Cavalieri. The verdict was unanimous.

The coaching structure sealed it. At Anthem, Cavalieri handles defense and forwards; O’Meara takes attack and backs. It’s a lean operation with a broad canvas. “I like having a big role,” he says. “The balance works — as humans and as coaches, the fit is really good.”

He arrived in Charlotte to find a backline that genuinely excites him. Luke Carty, whose career he’s long admired. Junior Gaffa, who would “run through a brick wall.” Julian Roberts and Tom Pitman, both hungry to establish themselves. Malachi Elldale, an incredible athlete transitioning from sevens. Will Leonard, determined to make a bigger impact this season.

Then there are the scrumhalves — three of them, each offering something completely different. For fans new to the sport, the scrumhalf, together with their fly-half partner, are a sort of two-headed quarterback equivalent — only with offensive and defensive playbooks in their heads instead of plays being called in from the sidelines. O’Meara’s three options give him rare tactical range.

“Carl’s got very high rugby IQ, great left foot, silky skills,” he says. “Zion is a force of nature — athletic, big, tough, strong. And Ish is pure speed. They’re all different. Depending on how you want to unleash them, that gives you real options.”

A new league, a new opportunity

With MLR’s restructuring concentrating the best American talent across fewer, more competitive rosters, the 2026 season represents a step change for the entire league — and Anthem is positioned at the center of it. Ten capped USA Eagles, sixteen-plus new signings, and a coaching partnership designed to maximize both development and results.

“Our job is to get these players to be the best version of themselves,” O’Meara says. “The majority of our guys are current national team players trying to solidify their position, guys trying to fight their way in, or guys trying to get noticed. If they play at their best here, the national team benefits. That’s the whole point.”

His philosophy for the attack is characteristically precise: build a foundation of clarity first, then layer in variation as the season progresses. “Simple things done really well. High-level execution. We can’t have it all in three weeks — so let’s be really clear about what we are, and execute it at the highest level we can.”

Making history

O’Meara is staying on a hobby horse farm outside Troutman, North Carolina, while his wife coaches basketball three thousand miles away in Oregon. It’s quiet out there — a long way from San Francisco, from Wellington, from the Bay Area career he left behind. But it’s exactly where he wants to be.

“The players and staff have been working really hard to make sure the 2026 season is a history-making season,” he says. “We want all the fans to be part of making that a reality.”

The only American-developed coach in Major League Rugby has a backline full of Eagles, a head coach he trusts completely, and an attack to build from scratch. Every coaching stop along the way brought him closer to this moment.