Early morning US time sees the USA men get back at it in the SVNS World Series, and there is a ton of work to do.
Ranked 11th out of 12 teams after two tournaments, the Eagles came off inexperienced, inconsistent, and not fit enough.
New Head Coach Simon Amor reacted by bringing in some top coaches and former team captains to push the players through a bit of a boot camp.
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And then they had to deal with players getting sick—flu, seasonal cold, bad humors ... we're not sure what it was, but the players were laid low one after another.
That forced some changes, but Amor was also looking to make changes anyway.
“Since the holiday break we’ve had a really intensive training block with the players, looking to improve our fitness levels that the SVNS series standards require," said Amor. "Our kickoff has similarly been a matter of focus going into Perth, but we’ve covered a lot over the last 10 days. A few guys have been ill recently, which has been a challenge, so we look forward to training with the full squad soon. Ultimately our aim in Perth is to be far more competitive and consistent than we were in Dubai and Cape Town. We know we’re on a journey, it’s going to be a long one, but we’re confident to see step-by-step improvements in our fitness standards and set piece next weekend in Perth.”
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Amor's squad features four changes. Darius Law, Michael Hand, Porter Goodrum, and Pita Vi all stay home—three of those made their SVNS debuts in Dubai. Ben Broselle, Adam Channel, Will Chevalier, and Stephen Tomasin all step in. While we don't know which of those are out because of illness (although we know it's at least a couple), this is a trade of 17 SVNS tournaments for 96. OK, 60 of those are Tomasin, but the other three have also been in the cauldron of the World Series before.
We do see a debutant as Jake Broselle joins his brother Ben in the team as a traveling reserve. This is pretty cool for not only the Broselle family but also the Chuckanut Rugby family, which has produced a long line of Eagles in 15s and 7s. Want further proof of that? Amor named new co-captains, Will Chevalier (Neuqua, Ill., and Indiana) and Jack Wendling (Chuckanut and Central Washington). So there are three Chuckanut players on this squad of 12. That's pretty astonishing for a little ol' rugby club in Ferndale, Wash.
