Leadership at #10 Important for Eagle Women
Leadership at #10 Important for Eagle Women
Saturday's test match against France will be a test of resilience and perhaps leadership.
The USA women take on France in WXV 1
Their lineup is largely unchanged, and that's a good thing as the players and coaches ... the entire program, really, look to establish some continuity. GRR asked USA captain Kate Zackary if she found herself mentoring future captains. She said that's part of the job.
"We've just got a good leadership group," said Zackary, who is a supremely steady hand on the tiller. "We've got like a nice balance of players who've been around, but also players like Mac in our leadership group."
She's talking about flyhalf McKenzie Hawkins, who is a crucial piece of the puzzle right now. After a series of games where the Eagles seemed to be playing musical flyhalves, they have settled on Hawkins and allowed her time to grow into the position.
"She's someone who's we're just kind of slowly feeding her into this onfield leadership role," said Zackary. We're building that up and then moving to the off-field stuff. She always leads by example but there are always those little things. It's the who's next concept, right? Who's next in the jersey?"
"We're building toward next year and to a World Cup and you never know what's going to happen after 2025, so we need to be lining up players who can take it forward," Zackary added.
Hawkins is improving her kicking from hand, and has been important as a goalkicker. She continues to be stronger as a playmaker And so I think we're, especially in the next year building
"She's been growing into that role at 10," added USA Head Coach SIone Fukofuka. "She is providing continuity at that position and that's so important. It allows for growth and development and she can build confidence. She has directed the team well and earned the opportunity to play [multiple tests]."
Partnering with young scrumhalves such as Taina Tukuafu is also a big part of building a future USA team that isn't just in the WXV 1, but thinking about winning it.
"It's been nice to give them time together and Tai, as she develops and learns more and pushes her physicali attributes, she's going to be very good," continued Fukofuka. "While Mac in particular is extremely astute. She's a very intelligent person and our work now has been around giving her the confidence to sit in that pocket and be more of a ball player."
USA vs France kicks off Saturday at 3:30PM ET and is live on RugbyPass.
