A Reason to Move for the Eagle Women

10.05.2023National Teams

milton haig usa wnt scrim ireland 2023 0046

Headed into WXV2, the USA Women’s National Team has been chastened, humbled, and turned every which way.

All photos by Ian Muir

Now on their third coach in less than a year, the Eagles face off against Samoa October 14, Scotland October 20, and Italy October 28 in the 2nd tier of this world-league WXV. Warming up for all of this they played a scrimmage against Ireland, and then a test match against Wales, which they lost 38-18.

Mitigating Factors

OK, while we at GRR have not had much sympathy for blaming the conditions, it was wet and that did make ball handling difficult. But modern rugby balls have these lovely little dimples on them that make them catchable in the rain—if you make good passes. Passes at a teammate’s face don’t count, and if you look at some of the handling errors, they come partly from imperfect passes. However, Wales didn't have the same problem. Wales scored tries in catch-pass.

They also come from just not holding the ball strongly enough. Losing the ball in contact is, for the most part, completely avoidable. You just have to decide to hold it strong, and not be weak.

That said, the conditions were not conducive to the USA in part because, as new Interim Head Coach Milton Haig told GRR, the weather had been sunny and dry throughout the buildup.

In addition, there were a few rather curious refereeing decisions in the game, chiefly a clear in from the side that helped set up the first Wales try that wasn’t called, and the refusal of Wales to play on their feet being allowed.

The result of that was there was very little opportunity to poach ball from Wales, and over the course of the game there was a two-to-one disparity in possession. That translated almost perfectly into how the scoring went. Wales scored a point every 83 seconds of possession. USA scored a point every 88 seconds. It’s just that Wales had the ball over 1,600 more seconds than the Eagles did.

In addition, the yellow card on Eti Haungatau was, in our view, very harsh. She ended up being penalized for tackling low and hard, and in watching repeated replays of the tackle, we still saw no clear striking of the tackles player’s head. Meanwhile, right after that tackle, and with play still going on, Welsh players walked offside to start a fight, and yet there was nothing said or done about that. We left the game (figuratively speaking) rather soured on how Wales plays the game, which is sad.

However, Charli Jacoby clapping in the face of a Welsh player being yellow-carded wasn't much more sporting and reflects poorly on her.

A Few GRR Observations

Briefly on the players: Freda Tafuna is clearly the best player on the team. Everything they need to do, she does (except perhaps jump in the lineout). Her ability to break the gainline, make thundering tackles, work hard in tight, clear out rucks, steal ball, and support her teammates are all what everyone should be aspiring to. We'd probably say the same about Kate Zackary if she were playing in the loose forwards. Now that she's an outside center, we didn't see her much in the Wales game because she just didn't get a lot of front-foot ball.

The entire back row, in fact, was very good against Wales.

The 9-10 combo has to be figured out. It's not settled.

Eti Haungatau showed more of her physicality and ability to take control of the game. It's interesting in the Wales game Emily Henrich was a late scratch (to the bench) and Haungatau got the starting nod, perhaps due to the conditions.

Why Milton Haig?

We did have the chance to sit down and talk to Haig after the game, and discuss what his plans are. This is Haig’s first time coaching women, and it’s been a good experience for him. He told us how he was reluctant to take on what is a seven-week stint as a caretaker coach to a program in transition. In the end, it was his two daughters who urged him to take the job. “Dad, you’ve got to help them,” they told him. OK then.

Milton Haig will serve as the USA Women 15s Head Coach during WXV2. Ian Muir photo.

Having now thrown himself into it, “I love it.”

The plan was always to have Haig come in and work with USA Rugby in some capacity, but helming the Eagle women for just a few weeks turned out to be a late adjustment to his marching orders.

“I’ve spent a lot of time doing this, coaches all around the world and all I want to do is help you be better,” Haig told the players. “I’m a rugby guy and I just want to help you be a better team.”

Learning on the Fly

“We’ve seen everybody play,” said Haig, who had, of course, to sit down with outgoing interim Head Coach Rich Ashfield to get an idea of who he had and what they could do. “You’re discovering things about people in training. In the long run [former Black Fern] Mel Bosman is in charge of coaching the forwards. We have combinations who we think can get the job done but we’ve leant heavily on the information that Rich has given us and there inevitably will be some things we will change.

Against Wales

“I was expecting us to be good around our attack shape and I was expecting us to be good around our systems. That’s something we’ve train on a reasonable time the last couple of weeks.”

Haig had praise for the team’s defense. But they gave up 38 points, how could he be happy about that? Well first off, there were two tries, one at the end of each half, that were a little soft, and a little unlucky. Overall, he said, the USA battled hard to defend their line and made Wales work for their points.

“I thought that first half, especially in the first 30 minutes we really were under pressure a lot, and I thought we did really well coming out of that.”

On attack, it’s simple: “If we can get some front-foot ball, there’s some really really good work there.”

Put the Boot In

Perhaps the biggest issue for the USA team and American women’s rugby in general, really, is kicking from the hand. Getting accuracy and distance, and thus being able to exit efficiently, is key. Gabby Cantorna, who plays much of her rugby at inside center, was the flyhalf, and while she’s an effective goalkicker, and she got some good clearance kicks booted, they need more.

“We don’t really have a big kicking game at the moment,” said Haig. “We have to sort of use the ball to get territory and get out of our zone. We don’t really have anyone to kick and so it’s about looking at different options in how we exit. The run-kick option is something we can do.”

Interestingly, going into the World Cup under Rob Cain last year, the stated plan was to kick, and yet in the end it turns out the Eagles don’t have the kickers to execute such a plan.

“I’ve challenged the coaching staff, and myself, to find ways we can use the ball to get out of our zone,” said Haig. “And we just also have to make sure our kickers take their time.”

What he means by this is not that the kickers should be slow in executing the kick, but more there shouldn’t be a rush to secure the ruck, get the kicker in place, and make all the connections. A few extra seconds to ensure all the pieces are all in place (and the scrumhalf’s pass is secure) could do wonders.

Longer term, it’s about working on it. It’s a closed skill, said Haig. Every player with Eagle aspirations can work on her kicking from the hand at any time.

The USA Can Score

“We only got into Wales’s scoring territory twice in the first half; we kicked a goal in one and we turned the ball over straight away the other time,” said Haig. “In the second half we got into their zone four times and scored three times.”

So the Eagles have the ability to attack, make ground, and score points. In fact, said Haig, they might have more ability than they know.

“I’m a new Zealander and we like to play attacking rugby; it’s in our DNA,” Haig said. “But what you have to do is look at the profile of your players and decide whether or not they can actually do that. When we first trained we were very clunky, I thought. We didn’t move very well; we were very slow moving. But on the fourth day I ran a game that generally tells me a lot about people and how they can play. It’s a two-and-a-half-minute chaos game. I create chaos and see how they handle it. It was really interesting because when I did that exercise I didn’t think we could play the way I wanted. But I was actually stunned as we found out we could move.”

The team put in their best scores after that with regard to moving and running hard.

“They can move; I’ve just got to give them a really good reason,” said Haig

Eagle Women