Eagle Women-You've Got to be Ready to be Ready
Eagle Women-You've Got to be Ready to be Ready
It’s test match time now for the USA women’s national 15s team and, indeed, test matches building toward a World Cup.
So there’s little time to ease into things even with two weeks of preparation going on right now. The Eagles have Japan to face and then Canada and Fiji before Sione Fukofuka finalizes his World Cup squad.
What that means, ultimately, is that every player has to be on her A-game right now—physically fit, mentally clued-in, and knowledgeable about how the team goes about its business.
Virtual meetings have been crucial in getting the plays, plan, structure, and approach down. But the players have to have done their homework. Coaching staff presented the players with the details of attack, defense, and set piece in a variety of emails and then that was backed up by a Zoom meeting to go over details and answer questions.
“The expectation is that the players have done their homework,” said Fukofuka. “They've had a look at it, firstly, to digest it, and then in that meeting to ask questions. Obviously we'll lead and try and provide as much detail as possible. But when they roll up on the Sunday, and we start Monday, there's a clear expectation that they understand their roles. They've got the content down, and we're effectively ready to go.”
The players have lived up to that side of the bargain, said the coach. Some coaching continuity and continuity of message has helped there.
“We’re pretty lucky as this is our second year,” added Fukofuka. “So really we implemented and installed a lot of stuff last year that we're building off. So the changes this year have been refinements versus a whole new system or structure which has made the first two days pretty seamless to be fair, and the vast majority of the players in this squad were either involved last year or in the ID camp in January. So again, pretty seamless. They've had access to the game model and we’ve felt really positive around how they've come in.”
And if there are issues or bits of confusion, often the most useful coach is the veteran player.
“I usually try to stay pretty cool,” said captain Kate Zachary, who puts plenty of pressure on herself to be 100% comfortable with how the team approaches its rugby. “But the majority of the team were involved in some facet last year. And even launching this year we've had a talent ID camp in January, where some of these younger players who are in this camp now would have already been then introduced to some of the content, so everyone's had plenty of opportunities to kind of get the bare bones of things.
“Obviously, there's always going to be a bit of learning on the move. Everyone's got learning styles and things. So what the coaches have done a great job is you've got the print version, you've got video versions, there's graphics, you name it.”
But there are activities and motions you can’t simply know because you saw a video, you have to do it, with teammates. That’s where the extra week comes in.
“What's great is that even this week we've already had an install-slash-kind of Running at Pace Day,” said Zachary. “So you can tell. They've done their work. They're at least asking the right questions, which I think is what's most important. And then, obviously, additionally for us, we've obviously got our S-and-C and markers for the remote side of things. In the past, sometimes we've struggled with people maybe being motivated to complete those things. But what's great to see is, being that we're less than 125 days out [from the World Cup]., everyone seems very eager about earning their spot to World Cup.”
But the start has been about showing up having already started. It’s a World Cup year, and no one wants to be left behind.
