USA Rugby Looking For New Women's Head Coach
USA Rugby has announced it is launching its official search for the USA Women's 15s National Team Head Coach.
Pete Steinberg stepped down in October following the Women's Rugby World Cup. His post has been unfilled since then, while new General Manager of Women's High Performance, Emilie Bydwell, has been working on a new strategic plan.
More details can be read here, including how to apply. Deadline is February 14, so applicants have to move fast.
Atavus and the Tip Of The Spear
By Austin Willis
While the NFL sees their youth participation decline due to the pressing concussion issue, rugby has quickly become the fastest growing sport in the United States increasing by 81% between 2008-2013 (Sports & Fitness Industry).
The NFL shells out billions of dollars in concussion settlements and research, while Waisale Serevi and the data-driven athletic performance improvement company Atavus are the tip of the spear innovating these two contact sports in the United States.
The phone rings off the hook. NFL agent after agent trying to scoop up a dual-sport athlete coming off a Pac-12 Conference Championship, and a College Football playoff birth. He lets the phone keep ringing.
More From Boys HSAA Winter Camp
Some notes from the Boys HS All American Winter Camp.
Former HSAA player Nafi Maafu, who is playing with Narbonne in France, was a guest assistant and struck a chord with the players with his words on humility and hard work. See more here. (And see why Maafu made such an impression as a player in this highlight. If you don't see the video, please refresh the page.
Christmas Present For Eagles
USA Rugby and the Worcester Warriors have announced that Gary Gold, who was expected to stay with Worcester through May, will join the Eagles January 1.
Gold has been released from his contract as Director of Rugby with the Warriors - probably because they are now not last in the Premiership standings and because a sale of the club is reportedly very close - and will take over as the full-time USA Men's National Team Head Coach.
For more details on the how, what, where, and why, please go here.
The USA kicks off its schedule February 3. Here's how the season looks:
Feb 3 USA v Argentina XV, Carson CA
Feb 10 USA v Canada, Sacramento, CA
Feb 17 USA v Chile, Fullerton, CA
Feb 24 USA at Brazil
USA Opens 2018 With Doubleheader Involving Super Rugby
LAFAYETTE, Colo. (USA Rugby Release) - Coming into the Americas Rugby Championship for the first time as defending champions, the United States Men's 15s team looks to kick off the 2018 competition with an opening match with Argentina XV.
The match will headline a double-header feature, following a Super Rugby pre-season showcase between the Vodacom Bulls of Pretoria and Cape Town's DHL Stormers, February 3 at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., just outside of Los Angeles. Presale tickets will be available November 16.
The 5pm PT kickoff between the United States and Argentina XV will be a rematch of the final game of last year's ARC, which ended in a 27-27 tie, good enough to secure the USA the ARC title. These two teams also tied in 2016.
Eagles Should Be Busy Hosts In 2018
USA Rugby is reportedly going to host six men's national team games, and possibly more, in 2018.
The Americas Rugby Championship is expected to be back in February, 2018, and the Eagles, the defending champions, will have three home games.
Those games will be against Argentina XV, Chile, and Canada. The Argentina game will not be a full test match and no caps will be awarded. This was how the 2016 ARC operated, and the USA went 2-0-1 at home before losing twice on the road to Brazil and Uruguay. In 2017, the Eagles beat both Uruguay and Brazil at home and Canada and Chile on the road, before tying Argentina and winning the ARC based on having more bonus points than the Argentina team.
USA Selects Picked For Americas Pacific Challenge
USA Rugby has named its squad to play for the USA Selects at the Americas Pacific Challenge.
The games will be played in Montevideo, Uruguay, the same venue for last year. The USA will play Samoa A, Uruguay A, and Canada A. Also in the competition are Argentina XV and Tonga A
USA Rugby Selects | Americas Pacific Challenge 2017 |
Girls Age Grades Need More Skill Development - Snape Rogers
With the Girls HS All Americans on their way to the European U18 7s championships this coming weekend in France, we we wanted to look at where we are as an age-grade program overall.
Will Snape Rogers, who heads up the Women U20s and worked closely with the Girls HS All Americans spoke with Goff Rugby Report's Alex Goff about the programs.
"It's really important that we look at those guys under one blanket," said Snape Rogers.
The programs played against their Canadian counterparts this summer and lost, but "you saw the growth," said Snape Rogers. Those games, he said, were hugely important. Canada, he added, has a huge advantage with a stronger provincial championship, but to compete with that the HSAA and U20s can work with the US Rugby Academy with Atavus (the sponsor of the programs).
GHSAA Powered By Atavus Set For Euro 7s
the Girs HS All Americans Powered by Atavus will travel to France to play in the Women's European U18 7s Championships this month.
The HSAA team lost 34-24 in the final last year, and bring a much changed team to this tournament.
The tournament will run September 16-17 and will be shown live on rugbyeurope.tv.
Eagles WRWC Journey Begins - Irish Rugby Tours Helps Out
The USA Women's National Team is in Ireland now for the Women's Rugby World Cup, and they've arrived early.
It's by design, of course. The Eagles have a window in which they can be in Ireland and get expenses covered by World Rugby, but Head Coach Pete Steinberg wanted more time with the players, and so he negotiated a plan to take the players over August 1, and worked it all out with Irish Rugby Tours.
What's Next For USA U20s?
Obscured within all the other rugby news this summer was the small fact that the USA U20s, after being thoroughly beaten by Canada in their opening clash June 13, won their second game.
The victory was somewhat pyrrhic as Canada easily won the two-game series (1st score was 46-12, second 25-27, leaving the aggregate scoreline 71-39).
So Canada will be playing in the World Rugby U20 Trophy competition, while the USA stays home. But Head Coach JD Stephenson was pleased to come away with something.
“I do not fault the effort,” said Stephenson. “Not to take anything away from the performance of Canada, but we hadn’t had a lot of time together and it showed. We weren’t disciplined and that really hurt us. And really it took us 80 minutes to get in-sync and start playing together. As I said, the effort was there, but we needed to be more accurate.”
USA Beats Canada, Qualifies for Rugby World Cup
The USA defeated Canada 52-16 in the second leg of the two-game Rugby World Cup to take the series and qualify as Americas #1 for the first time ever.
USA college and HS products featured prominently in the scoring. Cam Dolan (Naples HS, Life University) scored two tries, as did Joe Taufete'e (Belmont Shore U19s). Nate Brakeley (St. John's Prep, Dartmouth College), David Tameilau (Peninsula Green) Nate Augspurger (Southside HS, U. Minnesota), and Dino Waldren (Saint Mary's College) all touched down.
Since the late 1990s, Canada has had the USA's number in World Cup Qualifying. The Eagles lost to Canada in the 1998 qualifiers for RWC 1999, but beat Uruguay in a four-game playoff for three seeds. In 2002 Canada earned the Americas #1 seed, sweeping the USA in the process, while the USA had to go through the repechage.
HSAA Pics From Game V Ontario
The HS All Americans defeated Ontario's U19s Thursday evening at the University of Guelph northwest of Hamilton and southwest of Toronto.
It was a wet evening in Guelph. It rained hard until kickoff and while the rain eased off, it was still there during the game and made for some handling errors by both teams.
Here's the game report.
Friday both teams have to recover quickly on Friday because they turn right around and play again on Saturday.
Here are the player who suited up on Thursday, with some photos from Allison Bradfield
HSAAs On Tour in Ontario
The Boys HS All Americans are on tour in Ontario hoping to repeat their two-game sweep of the Blues in 2016.
The lineups for Thursday's game is here. The teams play again on Saturday.
Report on HSAA v Ontario June 29, 2017
In addition, Eagle Impact Rugby Academy teams will tour British Columbia in less than two weeks, and Ontario later in July.
Watch for coverage of those tours as they happen.
Women Junior All Americans Go Into Camp
The USA Women's Junior All-Americans have assembled for a camp to select the squad to play a two-game U19 series against Canada in August.
Head Coach Wil Snape said the goal is, as always, to prepare young athletes to be full internationals, and that means handling the rigors of assembly as well as the demands of playing at an international level.
"It's a longer Can-Am Series, so the players will have to adjust to tournament-style conditions and variable training loads," Snape told USA Rugby. "As a squad we will need to come together quickly and create an environment and team ethic that will lead us to success. We just can't wait to get out there and challenge Canada again."
