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?"
