The second round of the SVNS World Championship is set for Valladolid in Spain and the USA women's team is looking to rebound from a somewhat substandard Hong Kong outing.
Having been consistently in the semifinals, and showing consistent improvement (finishes of 5th, 4th, 4th, 4th, 3rd, and 3rd) in SVNS 1, the Eagles struggled a bit. They beat teams that they were expected to beat in Argentina and Japan, but lost to the teams they have been beating relatively consistently.
They lost to France 19-14, a team the USA had beaten three times out of four this season. They lost to Canada 19-7, and were also 3-1 against them going into Hong Kong.
Head Coach Emilie Bydwell was quick to say it wasn't the best outcome in Hong Kong, and told GRR that those losses came down to "errors of attention."
"Against France it was about role clarity and game plan clarity," Bydwell said. Against Canada, they messed up coverage of a center-field tap penalty move. Those were things the team knows they need to be better at.
"It took us a long time to settle into our games," added captain Kristi Kirsche. "We have to make sure that we are ready to go from Minute One. We felt we left something on the table in Hong Kong."
So the task during this last training block for the Eagles has been switching on at the right time, and handling more intense pressure.
"We have to train under pressure and get used to being pressured," said Bydwell. And that's why they asked USA Rugby to assemble a team of accomplished boys players to play them at Chula Vista. "We know going forward that we're going to be under the most pressure of any USA Rugby team ever—we are trying to win an Olympic medal back-to-back and try to do it at home. So we have to understand how we play under pressure, how we defend."
Kirshe added that pressure can force players into indecisiveness. Wanting to make that perfect play to right the ship can leave a player in two minds, or three.
"Its more important to be decisive than be perfect," said Kirshe. "If you're decisive then the team will have your back."
Be dialed in early, be decisive, and use the experience of playing faster and under more pressure that was created in training, and the USA team can easily move up from 5th.
