For Cassh Maluia, making his USA debut against Canada was a moment he had never really allowed himself to imagine.

Only a few years earlier, rugby had barely featured in his sporting life. His world was football. He had played quarterback in high school before developing into a linebacker at Wyoming, eventually achieving what every American football player dreams of.

He made it to the NFL.

Maluia was drafted in the sixth round of the 2020 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots under Bill Belichick, experiencing life inside one of the most successful organisations in the sport before later joining the Tennessee Titans. Although he spent much of his time on the practice squad, he also made appearances on the active roster. A long-term professional football career seemed firmly within reach.

But the NFL is not a place that guarantees you get to stay.

For all the glamour surrounding professional football, Maluia experienced the other side of the game. The constant movement between active rosters and practice squads, the releases and signings, the flights across the country, and the uncertainty over whether you were good enough, whether you belonged, and whether the dream you had spent your entire life chasing was slipping away.

“They'll sign you, release you, sign you back, release you,” Maluia tells me as we catch up over the phone.

“It just takes a toll on your mental energy. Am I good enough? Am I really worth being here? Should I really be here? Do I belong here?

“I worked hard. Maybe my mindset wasn’t always perfect. But ultimately, sometimes the sport you love doesn't love you back.”

Maluia eventually returned to Wyoming, where he found himself living with his college roommate and, by his own admission, “moping around” about what might have been.

It was at this point that rugby entered the picture.

There was no grand plan to become an international rugby player. It started with touch rugby at a small club in Laramie, offering a gentle introduction to a game he had seen some of his family members play and watch.

Maluia’s father had played rugby. So had his sister. Despite growing up around the sport, however, he had never actually played it himself.

Touch rugby became training, and training soon turned into games. Before long, Maluia was travelling to Montana to play with the Pig Athletic Club at the 2022 Maggofest. Then came the opportunity that would change the direction of his sporting career: the Glendale Raptors.

“I was living with my former college roommate and teammate, Nela, at the time in Wyoming,” Maluia explains. “We had been going to training sessions locally and continuing to play touch rugby. But we also watched videos of athletes making the crossover from football to rugby. We came across this program out of Glendale, Colorado, called XOs and decided to take a chance. We emailed the Glendale Raptors who operated the crossover program, asking for an opportunity.”

They got one.

The pair were invited to join the Raptors and lined up in an exhibition game against a Canadian select team. Both were offered contracts, but when a job opportunity came up for his roommate, he ultimately stayed in Wyoming. Maluia, meanwhile, committed to rugby.

As he puts it, “that's where it all took off.”

Maluia’s transition is exactly why crossover athletes have become such an intriguing part of the American rugby story.

At six feet tall and 245 pounds, he already had the physical tools. He possessed the size and explosiveness of a linebacker, but rugby quickly taught him that athleticism alone would not be enough.

Fitness was one of the biggest adjustments.

“In football you get at most four seconds per play and then you get like 40 seconds off,” he says. “In terms of fitness, that was one of the biggest things I had to improve on.”

Despite the physical demands, there was something about rugby that immediately appealed to him.

“I loved the ability to tackle and then also run with the ball. That allowed me to feel free and express myself.”

It took just a year with the Raptors for Maluia to catch the attention of Major League Rugby coaches. He signed with the Chicago Hounds in 2024 before returning to his native state of California to play for San Diego Legion in 2025. He then joined California Legion for the 2026 season.

The hard-nosed centre has brought the power and physicality of his football background into his rugby, while continuing to develop into a more rounded player in the position.

His time with the Legion proved particularly significant. Maluia enjoyed a standout season, helping the side reach last June’s Championship final. Although they ultimately lost to the Chicago Hounds, the experience and development he gained along the way helped him catch the eye of USA Eagles head coach Scott Lawrence, earning him opportunities in national team camps over the following months.

Reflecting on his season with the Legion, Maluia explains how he had to earn his place in the side.

“I started the season having to earn opportunities, often coming off the bench for 15 or 20 minutes,” he says.

“But I gradually earned more time on the field.”

That progression also reflected how much he had learned about the tactical demands of rugby, particularly the need to make quick decisions under pressure.

“The biggest learning curve from my transition from football to rugby is you have to be decisive. You gotta defend the run, you gotta defend a bridge pass or a skip pass or a kick or a kick pass. That thought process in terms of transitioning, you just have to have everything on the spot.”

Yet the physical and tactical adjustments tell only part of the story. Just as important has been Maluia’s connection with rugby culture.

He describes the football environment as “cut throat”, with players often only focused on their own assignments. Rugby, by contrast, offered a different sense of togetherness, something he felt almost immediately and would experience again when he received his call-up to the USA Eagles.

Maluia’s international opportunity came against Canada in the recent Pacific Nations Cup. Although he was nervous, the feeling was different from what he had experienced ahead of his NFL debut.

In football, he had felt the weight of expectation and the pressure to prove himself. With the Eagles, the support of his teammates helped take some of that pressure away.

“There’s a real pressure and expectation to prove yourself in the NFL,” he says. “Meanwhile in rugby, they just got around me and I bought into it.

“I didn't know if it was even possible to play with the USA, let alone play in the game with USA.

“Damn, I just remember thinking, ‘I’m really about to play with the USA, United States against Canada.’ It was a huge moment for me and one that has made me eager for more.”

The Eagles ultimately fell to Canada 19-16, but the result did little to diminish the significance of the occasion for Maluia. Now, his attention turns to the upcoming fixtures against Australia XV on home soil, with another opportunity to continue pushing his case for international selection.

Maluia is now using the lessons from his football career to help chase a new goal: making the USA squad for next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia.

“My football career itself didn’t work out as planned,” he reflects.

“It allowed me to understand that setbacks doesn’t mean the end. I understood the importance of being patient and buying your time. When one door closes God opens another.”

A World Cup would be the biggest achievement of his sporting career.

“I think that'll be number one,” says Maluia.

“In the NFL you only play against people in the States. But going to the World Cup, going against all those teams, all those legends that you only watch on TV or Instagram reels or whatever, it's just a bigger stage.”

Maluia believes there are plenty of American athletes who could make the same transition. He does not see rugby as a Plan B, but as another opportunity to remain an athlete.

“Nobody wants to quit football or quit any sport and go to a new job,” he says. “That's a difficult task to do. And I think rugby being there, not necessarily a Plan B but rugby being there for some cushion.”

His advice to those considering the crossover is simple.

“Be a sponge,” he says. “Learn from the players around you. Listen to the coaches. Watch other games. Take what you can and find a way to make it part of your own game.”

Maluia has done just that. The former NFL linebacker has already made one unlikely transition. Now, he is hoping to see just how far the next one can take him.