Can Eagles Leverage Time, Returners, and Sevens Players Against England?

09.28.2024

The WXV 1 is a tough series of games for the USA women, but there are some serious positives to take out of it regardless of results.

First off, they qualified for this event, rather than WXV 2, and that’s a step forward.

Second, the Eagles have been going through coaches and players and struggling to find continuity, and now we’re close to having the same Head Coach for a year. That’s not long, but with all the changes back-and-forth since 2021, that’s a welcome thing.

Third, that continuity also raises its head with the Eagles having an extra week of preparation at deWilde Rugby Fields in northern Washington state. Being able to train for extra days without a game to worry about at the end of it is almost a luxury for a team like the USA, which has players playing all over the continent, and, indeed, in the UK.

“We had the week and a bit in Bellingham, which was excellent,” said USA Head Coach Sione Fukofuka. “It’s probably the only time we’ve had independent of preparing for a specific test, to work on how we want to play and our key behaviors.”

With players also adding into the squad—Hope Rogers, Kate Zachary, and Rachel Johnson coming back from injury and USA Sevens players Cheta Emba, Kris Thomas, and Alev Kelter all joined—Fukofuka also had a job to do to reassemble the group.

“Reintroducing them to the group was a big part of [the first few days] with our leadership on and off the field,” added the coach. “It was nice to have that time to integrate them in and work through that and work through how we want to play England. It’s become a two-week prep and normally we get five or six days, so it’s very much a test focus. It was nice to have a bit of time to build some competition within the group and we’ve prepared as well as we can for this English challenge.”

In adding those players, Rogers is a world-class prop and an excellent addition. Zachary is the longtime USA captain and a world-class flanker, as is Johnson. These are massive additions to the team. Thomas and Emba come in to play wing, with Kelter a game-changer anywhere she plays.

Emba, of course, is an interesting situation because she’s considered a prop and a bit of a bruiser in 7s, but comes to the 15s team and is on the wing. Fukofuka talks about that, and also the job Emilie Bydwell has done with the USA Sevens team.

“Well, as a group, obviously Emily's done a fantastic job out there at Chula Vista in preparing a team for the last couple of years for the Olympics. As a collective they've brought pace, power, and skills, which is obviously integral to our backline, Cheta in particular.”

Kris Thomas is another 7s player and she's on the other wing. She's a bit more of a classic burner on the outside—that was her role with the 7s team too—while Emba, Fukofuka added, can be a bruiser in any position.

“She's a big body we wanna use on first phase or a channel,” continued Fukofuka. “She has the ability to beat defenders both with speed and footwork, but she also breaks tackles and is looking for offloads. And that's added another dimension to our attack that's been really exciting. What Emily's done really building that USA sevens group to, to have a core identity. It links with ours around that physicality and that, trying to play that attacking mindset to exploit opportunities in those wider channels, that's where hopefully you'll see. Cheta will get touches in close bumping over smaller defenders, but also out wide, getting those extra touches in the in the wider channel against their outside backs.”

This breaks the game down into smaller pieces. Yes the Eagles haven’t beaten England in a long time, but getting caught up in that is self-defeating.

“Obviously winning is the ultimate outcome,” Zachary told GRR. “There's a scoreline at the end of the match, but throughout a game, and I recall this, maybe it was two years ago, we played England at Exeter, and in the first half we were actually winning. So for us, like that was a positive moment, and the growth is, how do you then become the 80 minute team? You've got England, who's a team who spends just about every waking moment together. So how do you pick apart a well-structured team? That will be some small goals we'll be looking for—how do we win a race at a ruck? How do we beat them off the line on when we're on defense” How do we close the space quicker? Little wins like that I think will get us to the right outcomes and if that ends up being the win at the end, then great. If it's not, but we walk away with our heads held high in other areas, then we'll be also quite positive and use that momentum into the rest of the tournament.”

And that’s it, too. There’s England on Sunday, September 29, France on October 5, and Ireland on October 11. That’s a gift, too, to play these teams.