The USA U20 team has a couple of games to play in two weeks, when they face off with Canada’s U20s March 23 at Shawnigan Lake, BC, and March 27 in Langford, BC.

The two-game series will decide which of the two teams will compete in the Junior World Rugby Trophy. 

Canada completed a camp in late January under the watch of new coaches Jeff Williams and Kenny Goodland, and will play Romania’s U20s in a warmup on March 14.

While Williams and Goodland were announced relatively late - January 19 - the Canadian team has a specific buildup period from January through the qualification games. For the USA, things have been much more stop-start. No coach was in place in the fall when Michael Engelbrecht jump-started the process with a camp around Thanksgiving. 

That camp helped give the players in the mix an idea of what would be expected, and news that Billy Millard would be their coach. But weeks later, Millard took a job with the Cardiff Blues, and no coach was named after that as various groups within and without USA Rugby got into heated discussions about how the program should be run.

The short story is that in an Olympic Qualifier and Men’s 15s World Cup year, the trials and tribulations of the U20 team fall on the back burner. Despite this, a team has been picked, and a coaching staff is in place.

The team hasn’t been released, but we know that nine players who were at the 2014 JWRT, where the USA finished 3rd, will return. We also know there are a few prospects from overseas in the team, including Hawaiian-born wing/center Paula Hafoka, who is in the Warratahs program in Australia. Some of the overseas-trained players are actually now in school in the USA. We know that the HS All American program and the Stars & Stripes games have prodded a few players, and that all of the players in the squad to face Canada are in college or academies.

“The Stars & Stripes game has been useful because it identifies players who are seniors in high school, who might be too old to go on tour for the HS All Americans, but need to be tracked,” said Engelbrecht. “Everyone should know that the door is always open along the pathway. So a player doesn’t make the HS All Americans, but his body gets a bit bigger or he just improves as a player, he will still be looked at.”

Who looks at him is still up for debate, but with Alex Magleby serving as Director of Performance for all national teams, there’s someone in place who can communicate with all of the teams, and Magleby has told Goff Rugby Report that he is in regular contact with all of the coaches and working with them to track and develop players.

As for the coaching staff of the U20s, Engelbrecht is the guy. He might be interim - that’s not entirely clear - but what could well happen is, if Engelbrecht is successful, and his team wins qualification to the JWRT, then he might be replaced for the tournament itself. If he’s unsuccessful, and the USA loses the two-game series, then he might stay on to direct the team through a tour.

Engelbrecht is Head Coach and Defensive Coach. Coaching the forwards and the lineouts will be Luke Gross, while former Canterbury and Munster prop Pete Borlase will work with the scrum. Mark Stcherbina, who played for the Australian 7s team, is back to work as an assistant (see his earlier comments about the team here), while former USA scrumhalf David Williams will be the attack coach. Brian Finn will be the physio.

“We’re not going to change much from last year,” said Engelbrecht. “We want to have some consistency. We will add a few wrinkles offensively, but 

The team will assemble March 18 in the Victoria, BC area, and be together for ten days. They are supported by USA Rugby funds, and also got a nice donation from the Classic Eagles team, the assembly of former USA players.

A 26-player roster has been selected, if not named, and a solid group of alternates are also on the list and Engelbrecht said they will need to be ready for this spring, too.

Notes: USA Rugby and Rugby Canada decided not to have a game in Canada and a game in the USA for the qualifiers because it would cost too much and take too much time. Instead, since there will now be some sort of series every year, the series will alternate between Canada and the USA.

The winner of this year's series joins Pool B of the JWRT with Hong, Namibia, and Tonga.