It's another new mix of players assembling for the USA Men's 15s team as they look to their three November tour matches November 9, 16, and 23.
Each assembly Head Coach Scott Lawrence has been bringing in new players. Sometimes those players get capped, sometimes not, but the idea is to get them to a level of understanding about what being on the national team means.
"The new guys we're bringing up to speed; we're doing a heck of a lot onboarding," said Lawrence. "I think the core group is definitely on the same page around how we want to play and how the team needs to progress. Players who are fighting their way into the touring squad, there are some changes there, some new faces, so there's always an adjustment period [and] ther'll be a limit as to how much you can really progress. You really have to go back to executing the basic parts of your game really well."
So players aren't always expected to come in and break into the test team.
Sometimes they can, but the expectations can be adjusted for each player.
"It all depends on the propensity of the player," Lawrence told GRR. "One of the criteria of being an international is to learn quickly. We work a lot on communicating once."
They don't have time to slow everything down for one player, so newer players might have to ask a teammate or do some extra work off the field to know and understand what's expected of him. "For some guys it just snaps," said Lawrence. For some guys it just takes a more work."
