Eagle Women Keep Climbing That Mountain
Eagle Women Keep Climbing That Mountain
As the USA women’s 15s Eagles look to Friday’s WXV 1 game against Ireland they have to feel like they are making progress.
Now one wonders how they can show that against Ireland … and Ireland team, by the way, that beat New Zealand less than two weeks ago.
“From the outset we knew that Ireland would be close to us and we felt that if we built through the tournament that we could have the opportunity to play well against France and take that momentum, and that’s the way it’s played out,” said Head Coach Sione Fukofuka, and he added that the development is very much evident in training (using a turn of phrase that means “night and Day”. “Overall in our practice if you see where we are this year compared to three weeks ago it’s chalk and cheese. The professionalism and the accuracy that is on display at the moment is so pleasing.”
All of that comes with time together.
So does perseverance and resilience. Fukofuka and captain Kate Zachary both had talked about wanting to play a full 80 minutes. Have they done that yet? No. Are they getting closer? For sure.
“We competed against England for long periods of time but clearly there were periods where they were able to get momentum,” said Fukofuka. “Against France we were much better. Reviewing the game I felt we didn’t take opportunities at the start that could’ve changed the shape of the game.”
Five minutes inside the French 22 at the beginning of the game that didn’t yield a try was tough. Giving up a try to France right after halftime was tough, too.
Finishing off pressure is huge, said Zackary.
“It’s one thing to get into the 22 but it’s another to come away with points,” she said. “The biggest thing is getting there and in the French game first five mintues we were in there the whole time. But then the biggest thing is that conversion factor. We are willing to play 10, 12 phases; you saw that against Australia. We’re happy to kick to touch and back our set piece. I’ve talked a lot about confidence and we’ve got great players.”
You give the ball close to the line to Hope Rogers or Rachel Johnson, they’re going to score, Zackary added.
“So now it’s making the most of each individual talent.”
Other improvements fans saw against France were fewer penalties, especially late in the game, and just a rise in tempo. That coincided with the arrival of Cassidy Bargell at scrumhalf and she earns a start this Friday. Coming back from severe acute ulcerative colitis that led to her colon being removed, Bargell has shown enormous resilience to earn her first cap this year. And Fukofuka acknowledged she was perhaps frustrated not to get much time this WXV 1 assembly. But she made the most of the time she got.
“It’s not a surprise that in the last 25 minutes, when she entered the game, we picked up our pace, our ruck speed was quicker, we had more possession, our penalty rate went down. That’s not all on the back of Cass, obviously, but she brings a whole lot of energy and a whole lot of speed to the ball. Her width of pass allows us to play a little bit wide and her perseverance to come back from what she’s gone through to make her debut at the start of the , go through the disappointment of not playing as much as she wanted and really adding value to our playing group and we’re excited to see her start for the first time.”
It’s a big rankings game for the USA, but really more this is about bringing it all together. We in these pages talked about consistency, but we got a chance to ask Hope Rogers, set to get her 50th cap, about it.
“It’s been massively important, just having the consistency this past year; you can see it in our performances and in our ability to compete much longer and score tries,” said the 2016 MA Sorensen Award-winner. “From earlier this year when we played South Africa and now we’re playing some of the top teams in the world … the game against France was a game we could have won. I am not sure we could have done that a year ago. Now with the consistency and the same messaging and out ability to grow and know what we need to work on and where we fit in has been massively important. As an older and senior play I’ve been really excited about it.”