A New Experience as USA U20 Women Face Wales in Canada
A New Experience as USA U20 Women Face Wales in Canada
Twenty years after the the USA age-grade girls teams played their first games—against Canada and Wales—the USA U20s do the game thing and they celebrate the Fourth of July against the Welsh in Ottawa.
Head Coach Joel Bonnaud has named his roster to face Wales, with Dartmouth scrum half Sadie Schier captaining the squad.
USA Roster to Face Wales
1. Olivia Woods 2. Sia Mni 3. Kambria Hartrick 4. Nikki Lynch 5. Cindy Taulava 6. Lennox London 7. AJ Haughey 8. Amelia Clarke 9. Sadie Shier 10. Alissa Eisenhart 11. Serena Vualono 12. Tiahna Padilla 13. Katelyn Walker 14. Hattie Greenwood 15. Ashley Cowdrey
16. Cecilia Ellis 17. Akilah Cathey 18. Reece Woods 19. Jordan Duncan 20. Amelia Gibson 21. Cassidy Dugdale 22. Salome Schmitt 23. Julia Murray 24. Ella Slaby
Wales Roster to Face USA
1 Cana Williams 2 Rosie Carr 3 Katie Carr 4 Alaw Pyrs 5 Erin Jones 6 Jess Rogers 7 Lucy Issac 8 Gwennan Hopkins 9 Molly Reardon 10 Chelsea Williams 11 Nel Metcalfe 12 Jenna De Vera 13 Ellie Tromans 14 Seren Singleton 15 Bethan Adkins
Replacements: Molly Wakely, Chloe Thomas-Bradley, Cadi-Lois Davies, Robyn Davies, Masie Davies, Finley Jones, Sian Jones, Molly Anderson Thomas, Molly Powell, Carys Hughes, Kim Thurlow. TRS: Kate Davies, Dali Hopkins
Taking Ownership
After a somewhat abbreviated runout the first day due to wildfire air-quality issues, the team has been working hard. Bonnaud also has his squad learning the workings of the assembly and taking ownership of it all. He has split the team into five groups and each group has an area they have to track and be responsible for during the day.
Those five areas are:
- Team Bonding
- Practice Preparation
- Session Debrief
- Medical and Athletic Trainers
- Logistics
The groups rotate every day. So one group might plan a movie night, another go for board games. Each group, by the end of the assemble, will had a deeper understanding of what does into each training session, how the medical staff works, and how the team gets from A to B, what the times are, and what issues have to be addressed.
“The idea is for everyone to take ownership of what we’re doing,” said Bonnard. “They’ve really embraced it. But what is also does is, we aren’t too concerned about creating a leadership group right away—we don’t know them and they don’t know us—but instead everyone has a leadership role.”
On the field Bonnaud has plenty of talent and it’s a good mix of power, speed, athleticism, and game understanding. He has made some interesting selection choices, specifically putting scrumhalf Ashley Cowdrey at fullback, where her experience and game understanding, as well as her defense, can make an impact. Bonnard said he is excited to see what sisters Olivia and Reece Woods can bring to the game, but he opted not to have them on the field at the same time. Putting Reece on the bench, and, it seems, having them both play prop rather than lock of loose forward.
He has a very mobile second row with tweeter Nikki Lynch out of Brown and Pleasanton Cavalier (by way of Sydney, Australia) Cindy Taulava. Both are very strong but can also move and get a lot of work done.
Lennox London has game-changing speed at flanker, while Sadie Schier has blossomed in her tole as a leader and captain and become more and more vocal.
Dealing with Chaos
The way they play is kind of weaponizing chaos. The game itself is chaotic so once again Bonnaud is breaking it down into units. Those two-forwards-and-a-back trios work together and communicate to read the game and make decisions.
“We’re not dictating a shape or a sequence,” said Bonnaud. “As long as we’re connected and we’ve got those units together they can make decisions based on what they see.”
And Then There's Wales
Wales will be a tough ask. This group has assembled more frequently than the USA team. Many of the players participated in the Celtic Challenge, which is a World Rugby-funded development competition involving Wales Development, The Thistles out of Scotland, and Ireland’s Combined Provinces.
“We have talked about beating USA on July 4th but the most important thing is that we perform, learn from this experience and build from there for the future,” captain and center Jenna De Vera told Simon Roberts of WRU.Wales. ““It’s just really exciting to be involved in this and all the players feel the same way. We have learnt so much during the camps we have had and we just want to execute what we have done in training on the pitch now.”
“The players are excited to play someone new,” added USA’s Bonnaud. “And we have discussed some of the things we expect to see with regards to kicking and set piece. But we look at it as ‘this is something you could see, but there are things you know you can do. We haven’t seen Wales play so it will be a new experience.”
Kickoff if 6:30PM ET.
