Rugby union in Lesotho on the national capital, and only sizable city, Maseru. Lesotho's poverty and lack of infrastructure make it difficult to maintain a proper national league structure. The country is surrounded on all sides by South Africa. Rugby union in South Africa is a major sport - the country has both hosted and won the Rugby World Cup - and Lesotho is saturated by South African media of various types. Lesotho can therefore be considered one of several countries within South African rugby's sphere of influence - including Namibia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and Botswana. In late 2011 the Maseru Kings Rugby Club was
Lesotho–United States relations Lesotho–United States relations Lesotho–United States relations are bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Lesotho and the United States of America. The United States was one of the first four countries to establish an embassy in Maseru after Lesotho gained its independence from Great Britain in 1966. Since this time, Lesotho and the United States have consistently maintained positive bilateral relations. In 1996, the United States closed its bilateral aid program in Lesotho. The Southern African regional office of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Gaborone, Botswana now administers most of the U.S. assistance to Lesotho, which totalled approximately