(New Head Coach Mike Friday might signal some stability? KLC Photos.)
 

SUNIULA OUT, ISLES OUT NIUA OUT ... HAWKINS OUT, FRIDAY IN

It was upheaval. For the last two-and-a-half years it’s been about upheaval. In 2011 Al Cravelli left the USA program, and Alex Magleby stepped in. Magleby left for personal reasons at the end of the 2012-13 season, forcing one more coach search.

That search produced Matt Hawkins, who was the captain of the team under Magleby and still playing. Hawkins hung up his boots to coach - eventually - but the team did not produce too many good results under his direction. Worse, still, there seemed to be personality issues within the team. Shalom Suniula lost his starting job, and then his place on the squad. Eventually he left the program entirely. Both Folau Niua and Carlin Isles took contracts in Glasgow - Isles entertained a move to football, and clearly left because he wasn’t getting any playing time on a team that wasn’t scoring.

So Hawkins is asked to step down. Niua and Isles immediately decide they want to come back to Chila Vista. In comes Mike Friday, who had also taken a Director of Rugby job at London Scottish. That turned out to be the missing piece of the puzzle, as USA Rugby could now afford Friday since he had another job, and wouldn’t balk at Friday not being in the USA all the time (Chris Brown would be the coach in residence).

The story of this year is the changing of the guard, and the fact that good rugby players have options - if they don’t like the coaching or how they are being used, they will go find somewhere else to play. In his short time with the Eagles, Friday has brought back the aforementioned Niua and Isles, as well as Maka Unufe. He has changed captains again, and demoted players who seemed to undercut team unity. He’s made dramatic changes in the kinds of athletes he wants on the squad.

So will the story of 2015 be how it all worked so well? We’ll see. At Goff Rugby Report we like the changes Friday has brought because we agree with them. And so far they’ve produced some decent results. Upheaval, then, is the story of 2014, with the ending being that perhaps it will all calm down a bit now.

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