The USA Eagles jersey ceremony last night at the York Hilton was standing room only as family, friends, and Eagles past and present, including Krista McFarren, Jan Rutkowski, and myself from the 1991 World Cup Championship team, and Eagle legendary prop and USA Rugby Board Member Jamie Burke, watched the starting 15 and reserves get their jerseys for the USA vs Australia match.
Eagle Krista McFarren was introduced as the special guest speaker with a short highlight film that pumped up the players and crowd and included some highlights of Krista‘s Hall of Fame career and a few historical newspaper article headlines from our 1991 victory. She is the second-most capped Eagle in the World Cup with 16, behind Patty Jervey at 18.
As I watched and listened to Krista’s talk , the 2025 players were also listening intently. I think one point in particular of her message came through loud and clear:
Krista spoke about how 1991, the first World Cup, was a much smaller event. For better or worse, we didn’t know that much about opponents and they didn’t know about us. We didn’t have scouting reports and film and analytics to study- we hadn’t played each other -so we had to figure out what to do and how to adapt to our opponents mostly on the field, in real time.
Not to date myself, but these were the rugby days of old: no substitutions, unless there was a legitimate injury, and coaching staff sat in the stands until halftime.
So, in that era, we players had to talk amongst ourselves, ead what the opponents were giving us (or not giving us) and adapt our play accordingly.
Krista told the 2025ers, EVERYTHING we 1991 World Cup Champions needed was right there on the pitch. We were all we needed. We had all we needed. We could figure it out, we could and did trust each other, and doing so led to success.
We didn’t look elsewhere; we couldn’t expect the coach or anyone to give us any information or tell us what to do. We could and DID figure it out.
In her talk last night, which was well received, Krista reminded the 2025 Eagles that they too had each other, and they too had everything they needed. And that they could and would rely on each other and ALL the answers were within them.
There seemed to be a steely resolve amongst the Eagles last night at the jersey ceremony. I’m hopeful to see how it all plays out on Saturday night at the York Community Stadium. It really is a must win for the Eagles.
Working for Goff Rugby Report I used my media credential the other day to go out to the Australia team camp and attend their Team Announcement press conference.
Their team hotel is a Marriott out by the York racetrack, a bit further out of town and eerily close to something called The Tyburn, which is a place where common criminals, highwaymen, horse thieves , etc back in the day were executed by hangings, beheadings, disembowlments, and other medieval atrocities. Crowds would gather and cheer as the (allegedly) guilty met their fate.
As I walked out to the Australian hotel for the press conference, I stopped and studied the historical Tyburn plaque, looked at the actual stone-still there, though worn down over the centuries, where the poor souls were hanged and/or drawn and quartered and/or beheaded. Ruthless. Their end was swift and merciless.
I don’t know that much about the Australia Wallaroos but I’m aware of the May 2025 PAC Four result, and have watched some highlights (and lowlights) of that match.
I left the Australia press conference thinking that Australia believes that the May 2025 result is the norm and not the exception. Hmmm. I’m mindful that numbers and percentages don’t necessarily matter in World Cup rugby, where all bets can be off, but am also encouraged that USA has won 66% of the time the teams have played.
