Are Eagles Ready for 2015?
Are Eagles Ready for 2015?
It seems now we get to say this every four years, which is a good thing - preparation for the Men’s 15s Rugby World Cup appears to be better than last time.
In 2003, the USA team was in solid form when it arrived in Australia, and the result was a bonus-point victory, and a one-point loss in a year that yielded more victories, seven, than any Eagle team before or since.
But … those victories included two World Cup Qualifiers in the early part of the year. One of the difficulties faced by the Eagles that season was an uncertain future - they didn’t know they were going to the World Cup until mid-April.
And then they had to play 13 test matches in nine months (and send their A team to another game). It was, perhaps, a bit too much, although the team itself played well.
In 2007, preparation was solidly in the “poor” camp. The Eagles had changed coaches in 2006, and while they secured qualification late that year, they had the opposite problem to that of 2003, namely, not enough games. They had the Churchill Cup, which was three matches, and then a game against Munster in Chicago. As a result, the non-test NA4 games had to be used as trial matches, rather than the development tool it was supposed to be.
But overall, the USA team that entered France was not fully-cooked, and there’d been precious little time to instill a system that both players and coaches were fully behind. They left France winless.
And then in 2011 it wasn’t a new coach, but an old one, that was the issue. By the time New Zealand 2011 rolled around, players and Head Coach Eddie O’Sullivan were not emotionally on the same page. When I mentioned to a member of the staff that O’Sullivan had ducked an interview and didn’t want to talk to me, the reply was, “he doesn’t want to talk to anybody.”
That doesn’t seem to be good, does it? While the Eagles had games to play that year, they just flat couldn’t score, and demonstrated that through the tournament - they won a game, but scored only 38 points in four matches, last in the tournament - showing that little had changed during all of those games.
So to this year. There’s no last-minute coaching change. Mike Tolkin has been the coach since early 2012 and he has the players behind an approach that certainly needed fixing in 2013, but has shown it can produce tries.
In seven test matches in 2012-2013, the Eagles were 0-7, scored 80 points, and six tries. In seven test matches in 2013-2014, they were 4-2-1, scored 185 points, and scored 21 tries. So a strike rate improvement of 250%, and a scoring rate improvement of 131%.
In addition, the players seem to like Tolkin’s approach, and have warmed to the assistants he brought on late last year - Justin Fitzpatrick, Phil Bailey, and Billy Millard.
Because of all of this, the development games can be used as they should be. The Americas Rugby Championship won’t be for Tolkin to install a new game plan, it will be to get game time for domestic Eagles, and test guys who are trying to make the team. He can get minutes for those players, and relish the fact that he’s got a complete forward pack playing professionally overseas, and several backs there, too.
With the ARC now a place for players to prove themselves, as opposed to a place to find players you don’t know much about, the results have improved. In 2012 the USA Selects lost all three games, scoring 14 points and allowing 88. In 2013 they were 2-1, scoring 59 and allowing 45. That improvement was a direct result of Tolkin having more time to select the team, and knowing more clearly what he wanted to do with it. (That included testing the new approach and the new coaches.)
And, finally, the 2015 buildup looks manageable. There will be three Pacific Nations Cup games, a couple of games, probably, against Canada, and one or two other matches sprinkled in there, possibly just for domestic players.
So is all of this to blow warm, comforting air up your skirt and say the Eagles will go 2-2 in England 2015 and produce the greatest World Cup performance ever? No. They could get it all right and still go 0-4. But … this is the model to work from in the future.
It’s tough enough playing for the USA. You either have to play amateur or semi-pro domestically, or you have to go overseas to try to beg, borrow, and steal playing time.
Even if we had professional rugby here in the USA, and all of the players were Stateside, we’d have difficulties because the country is so large and the seasons don’t jibe, making it very difficult to get the team together on a regular basis.
It’s still tough, which is why it’s important to get the buildup right. We have to have a coaching staff and a player roster on the same page. We have to have playing opportunities for the team throughout the year. We have to be aware if there are problems in the team’s performance and fix them - hoping it will get better isn’t enough.
There are things that need to be fixed. The scrum has to be more than barely adequate. The Eagles have to settle on what’s going to happen at halfback. With Adam Siddall back in the saddle, and a few others on the wings waiting to break in, does that mean it’s a battle at scrumhalf between Mike Petri and Shalom Suniula? Is there enough pace in the back row? Should they be finding a ground-eating, ball-poaching #7? Now that they can score tries against Tier II nations, can they score against the big boys?
And what about that tendency to get within five meters of the tryline and then fail to score?
With all of this, they can’t lose sight of what they’ve always been good at - the lineout, the restart - and have to hold onto what they’ve developed of late - physicality, poise in close games.
For me, it all starts in October at the ARC. Can Tolkin and his staff find more ways to score - ways to roll 40 points on Uruguay - and make victory less of a constant battle?
Because we’re in position now. We’ve got sub-test matches, then four internationals, and then a well-planned buildup to England 2015. For once. That’s good, but hoping it helps isn’t enough.
