There have been a ton of articles about the quality of play at the Jr Olympics and a ton of fingers being pointed and a ton of reasons offered but I would submit the biggest reason for our failure is the program as a whole, both for 7s and for 15s. What is the root cause, lack of meaningful competition for the HS age and a complete lack of HS age HPD programs.

Those lack of programs feed a broken USAR system that has neither the time nor money to do the one thing a team needs more than anything else, time together. So what do we get, a bunch of pretty good athletes who happen to be able to attend a RAST who are then selected to a team who NEVER practice together prior to leaving the country and we wonder at our performance? Of course we are going to get our butts handed to us. One could argue about Vegas and the US beating BC in the HS Elite finals but if you spend the time to watch the video, we beat them by playing 15s with 7 people. We hammered them 15s style and they did not have a strategy to combat it. Can’t blame them, they were there to play 7s but I am sure Shane Thompson will have learned from that mistake.

If you mention HPDs to a State Rugby Organization the first thing most will say is “ We cannot afford that…Its too expensive” and they would be correct for the same reasons USAR cannot afford it. They are simply incredibly expensive. You can mitigate this to a point by being a school team or club but you then have issues with not only the school but a territorialism and a “ not my idea, not my team” mentality. What do you do?

I am telling you that there is a solution to this problem.

First, you need a corporation dedicated to REAL, MEASURABLE performance of its players. They need to initially be from the same city or county to mitigate residency (living) issues. Find and hire S&C coaches, Run fundraisers and pay for top level coaches to come and train your team in camps. You can open those camps to other teams and coaches to not only offset costs but make money as well. Hire or find a fundraising manager to track down donations, grants, sponsors and the money needed to operate. Have the players and parents have a stake in the game and pay for what they are receiving. Enforce strict academic standards so that collegiate coaches come to you for players that can not only play the sport but actually get into a University. Practice year round, work with players to allow them to play other sports but if your program is good, most won’t look elsewhere. Finally tour, tour, and tour some more. Give those players an incredible experience they will want to talk to everyone about but more importantly, make them work together. They will gel as a team and the chemistry will fall into place to create a unit. That unit, with all of the other work, exposure, training, education, etc. will lead to not only a championship team but an organization that produces top quality RUGBY athletes. Finally, you need to win. Once you start winning, market you brand. Protect it as you would a child. Nurture your brand and only affiliate it with people, positions, and products that will improve your brand. Sound like a business? It is! With the right plans in place the facilities, stadium access, residences, etc. will come but they need to be a focus of the efforts. You cannot expect USAR or a SRO to come to your aid but treat rugby like a business and create a product the players love and they will come to you!

It takes a lot of work but those teams that will do this early on will become the de facto go-to teams for players going forward with USAR. Why bother with observing players once a year in a RAST when you can see them whenever you want with the HPD organization, monitor progress electronically through player stats (this implies you have a LTPD pathway and measurable statistics that can be baselined and shared). Watch video analysis of games and practices at your leisure and then reach out to those organizations to communicate with the players. The team’s youth who are on the watchlist should be identified FAR in advance and held to specific standards. These youth HPD programs are that vehicle. That way , when USAR finally funds multi-week residency programs for those selected to the Jr Olympics and HSAA teams, they will not only get far better athletes but by having programs that are consistently meeting those HPD standards set by the Olympic and National team coaches, they can pull player who have played together for long periods of time and who have exposure to international play prior to landing on one of these teams.

There are programs that are working and moving in that direction. One I am familiar with is the Utah Lions. The Lions have refocused exclusively on 7s and have a very strict selection process and a very high performance model for the players. It’s not perfect but the team has won 21 of its last 23 games and has only lost to BC Gold. It has won the major Youth 7s tourneys in the US and took second in Victoria. In 2014, the team raised $50k for travel and HPD tools/ evaluation/coaching resources. In 2015 they will raise $80k and tour internationally and domestically including the Rosslyn Park 7s. They have also expanded into an Elite and a Developmental side to insure growth and replacement as players graduate out or are hurt. Lastly, aside from all the S&C, sports psychology training, leadership training, skills and tactics, the players are held to a high academic standard. They are made to work and that work ethic shows up on the field. The goal is produce not only superior rugby players that can become international caliber but leaders and scholars as well. More programs like this will alleviate much of the non-funding issues for USAR since they will become one stop shops for player selection which could occur at the 10th grade level and which could, with good relationships, be shaped for needs at an national and Olympic level. Let these companies build the players, USAR can then focus on getting them to pay well together.