On the way to getting back to the upper echelon the USA Women’s National 15s team faces a difficult opponent Saturday in the person of Italy.
What they want to do is show they’ve taken strides since the last time played (and lost to) Italy, which was 2022.
“The areas we’ve improved a lot are just being confident is a big one,” USA captain Kate Zackary told our correspondent Hanno van Vuuren. “We tried to go back to the basics and focus on the things we’re good at—in rugby you can add in all sorts of moves and starter plays and things like that
but if you can own your one-on-one tackles, your team structure, your attack plans, what your passing looks like, and you work off the ball, then you’ve got a really good team.”
So concentrating on those things have provided clarity. Certainly Head Coach Milton Haig wanted to see those things taken care of.
“When we first came together I thought our catch-pass was average,” said the coach. “Now it’s really gotten better.”