What is Going on with USA Rugby?
The 2018 season was probably the greatest season USA Rugby has ever had. The MLR had just been created, the Eagles won the Americas Rugby Championship, defeated both Scotland and Samoa for the first ever, and finished the season ranked 12th in the world. The US finished the year 10-2, only losing to Ireland and the Maori All Blacks, coming away with a margin of 366 points scored to 262 conceded. In their 10 wins they had a margin of 330-148. The 2019 season was not quite as successful, going 6-3 prior to the world cup and 6-6 after the World Cup, they still earned another win over Samoa, and fought close with France for 60 minutes. Unfortunately, the trajectory for USA Rugby on the international stage has continued to slide downhill from there.
USA’s First Ever Win over Scotland
In the post-Covid-19 and post bankruptcy era, the Eagles have gone 4-6. In matches against Tier 2 opposition they have gone 3-3, splitting the series with Canada, Uruguay, and Chile—only winning the Canada series through aggregate. The most recent loss is to Chile, a team that the USA in 2016-2019 had defeated, 64-0, 57-9, 45-13, and 71-8. The US must now hope to win the repcharge playoff for the final spot at the RWC 2023 in France by beating Portugal, Kenya, and most probably Hong Kong (due to Tonga being a heavy favorite for the Asia/Pacific spot being contested for this upcoming weekend). Based on recent form, Portugal is looking to be the favorite to come out on top even with the USA being the top ranked team coming into the tournament. So, what has happened to the US? Why have they fallen so hard from what seemed to be a major turning point in 2018?
It isn’t an issue of talent, the current crop of American players seem to be as talented and deep, if not more so, than those 4 years ago. While MLR has been criticized for the amount of foreign players in the competition, it has still helped hundreds of US eligible players, most through birth and some via residency/family, get regular training and game time. What then is the problem?
The Eagles in their last few games have seemed to lack a clear game plan, a desire to win that matches their opponents, and cohesion. The Eagles kicking tactics have looked especially aimless, often going out on the full, lacking a unified and consistent kick chase, and rarely putting the opposition under pressure. This past weekend, the first 30 minutes against Chile featured good phase play by the US while the team click as they went up 19-0. After a yellow card awarded to Nick Civetta, things quickly fell apart as the Eagles looked shaken—losing all semblance of cohesion. The Chileans tore through the US and outscored them through the rest of the game by 31-10. The passion and will to fight for a World Cup slot clearly sat in the mind and body of the Chilean team. They were unified in their pride for the jersey and ambition of making the World Cup, proving themselves a deserving world class contender. This isn’t meant to accuse the US players of lacking patriotism or drive, but it was clear which team made the outcome of this game their mission.
USA Loses the Americas Two Spot to Chile
It’s not unusual to claim that it’s Gary Gold’s fault, but coaching is not the only problem. After all, Gary Gold was the coach that led the US through the historic 2018 season. The bankruptcy fiasco of 2020 crippled USAR, and they have obviously still not recovered. The Union appears to lack the requisite funding to allow for the team to train together more regularly in camps and for the team to get together for more than a week of prep time before matches. In 2018 and 2019 the Eagles played 25 matches, while in 2021 and 2022 they are on pace to only play 13 matches, a pretty significant drop in international playing time. The Union should seriously rethink how they spend the money they do have, putting out a competitive national side should be their first concern, perhaps even their only concern for the time being. It might benefit USAR to take a step back from the college game, funding championships and tournaments won’t go very far in deepening the player pool given the current makeup of the collegiate game, and allowing the individual conferences to run things for now could be the way to go. Tournaments will still happen, they’ll unfortunately just be smaller and probably more localized.
With their limited funds the national union should probably also look to reward MLR for their creation of their own academies by giving them some say in how youth rugby is structured and ran in the US. This partnership could allow USAR to take a step back and save itself some funding and manpower while still maintaining oversight and ensuring the youth game is in capable hands. It makes sense to let MLR handle talent discovery and development, except where the junior national sides are concerned. Most top nations rely mostly on their professional clubs’ academies to bring up talent and then send them to the age grade national teams before they get to the senior sides.
An MLR Academy Match Between the New England Free Jacks and Old Glory DC Academies
Overall, the shortcomings that the USA has faced in recent years since the bankruptcy, coaching, management, etc. are highlighted more by the significant strides nations like Uruguay and Chile are making. As I pointed out previously, Chile lost their match against the US in 2019 by 63 points, now they have won their last match by 2, a whopping 65 point turnaround. Meanwhile, the Eagles have played Uruguay 20 times, going 15-1-4. In the last 6 matches the US has lost 3 of those games. The game of rugby changes very quickly, and if a team is even a year behind on new tactics they can be completely outclassed, the US appears to still be playing like it’s 2018. Uruguay and Chile are significantly better more cohesive teams now than they ever have been, and the US’s failure to keep up with this is why it is now feasible that the Eagles will completely miss the 2023 World Cup. Hopefully, this is the rude awakening the Union needed to completely reevaluate the entire plan of USAR and make some drastic changes.
There is hope, World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin said after the match, in an article from the Guardian, that while the ARC is unlikely to return, there are “quite advanced” plans being made for an “Asia Pacific Americas competition that will see USA, Canada, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina etc playing regularly.” This new competition is expected to start in 2024 and be played between the three Pacific Island teams, Japan, Canada, the USA, Chile, and Uruguay. This, coupled with the expectation that tier 2 nations should get more regular game time against the big boys in the eventual reorganization of international rugby, should solve the Eagle’s issue of needing more game time. The Eagles are only on course to play 6 games this year and had played 7 in 2021, they previously played 12 in 2018 and 13 in 2019. Not to mention, Gilpin has also stated that “awarding Rugby World Cups men’s and women’s to the US for 2031 and ’33 was always going to be part of a much broader plan, a 10-year plan to grow the sport in the US and that’s incredibly multifaceted.” While times are tough for USA Rugby, all is not loss, a closer friendship between World Rugby (and some much needed cash), the MLR, and a lot of changes within the organization should eventually put America back on track to being a legitimate threat rather than an also-ran.
