Rising star ‘Wreck-It Will’ Sherman has roots in US rugby’s past and eyes on its future

Will Sherman made his Major League Rugby debut for Anthem RC last week. Photograph: Major League Rugby Will Sherman may be the future of US rugby, but his roots are in the game’s American past. The 22-year-old standout second-row forward for Anthem Rugby Carolina in Major League Rugby is the son of Wade Sherman, a member of a champion Cal Berkeley team that included Mark Bingham , who on 11 September 2001 was one of the Flight 93 passengers who fought their hijackers and kept it from reaching Washington.

“There was a super old photo that my dad pulled up, and the first time I heard that story was from him,” Sherman said. “He was like, ‘That guy standing to my left is an American hero. ’” Sherman “loves telling the story” of how his dad found rugby – which after all is the reason he found it too .

Sherman senior “went to Australia when he was 14 or 15”, his son said, speaking from Charlotte, North Carolina, where Anthem play. “He and his buddies went to the beach at Bondi, and they saw these guys throwing the ball around, tackling each other, and they were like, ‘Wow, that looks like the most fun thing ever. ’ They joined in.

When my dad got back to northern California, he found a high school team, then he played at Cal for two years, then at BYU [in Utah] two more. And then he was my first coach. ” That was with a kids’ team in Salt Lake City, after which Sherman played at East High School, part of Utah’s long-established rugby scene.