The Italy game, tied at 10 after a half hour, was 'a chance that slipped away', Mike Tolkin said in an interview regarding the national team's June results.
The season-opening Canada match was 'rusty', he noted, while Georgia was a 'coming out' as the four-try performance showed encouraging signs of the more expansive gameplan the first-year coach is looking to implement.
In a preliminary summary, Tolkin observed that 'We have to start taking advantage of other people's errors', pointing out that Italy dropped the ball on three consecutive kickoffs but America subsequently scored just three points. 'Special teams' are a facet the Eagles can exploit, he believes.
Scrummage and kicking remain liabilities, he acknowledged, though in his view the Eagle pack progressed from last October's Italian World Cup match to Saturday's encounter.
The former Xavier and New York Athletic Club coach talked most excitedly of the USA's attack, unveiled during the three-and-a-half week assembly. With many if not most of the squad likely to return for November's games against Tonga, Russia, and Romania, these are 'teams we can go after', he said.
The fall schedule opens with the Americas Rugby Championship. In a change from Eddie O'Sullivan's tenure, Tolkin expects the balance of the group to have little if any international experience, whereas in previous years the squad essentially comprised domestic-based internationals.
After beating Georgia in Denver and falling to Italy in Houston and Canada in Kingston, Ontario, the US retained 17th place in the International Rugby Board standings, moving up nearly a full point to 66.61 from 65.63. 18th-place Romania also gained points over the course of the month, while Russia climbed from 22d to 19th.
Good Luck to Mike Tolkin. He is a good coach and he is an American, long time member of our US rugby community and a NewYorker. Will be pulling for him and our team.
Just listened to the RuggaMatrix interview with new PAID college director Rich Cortez. God help us. He was bad. Without vision or answers. It was hard to think USAR could do worse than Todd Bell, but they might have.
Posted by: Eagles Fan | 26 June 2012 at 10:28
RE: Tolkin
Let's hope he has the sense to bench his protege Petri in favor of a 9 that can compete at the international level.
RE: Cortez
Wait till you hear the results of the shambolic events from the college coaches meetings in Houston!
Posted by: ScrumPox | 26 June 2012 at 11:03
Lay off Petri. Some of the comments on him are very unfair.
the eagles are finally scoring tries and now he's not good enough, give it a break.
yes, he's my friend, but i also respect him highly as a player, very few work as hard as him and bring it daily like him.
Posted by: bruce mclane | 26 June 2012 at 11:19
i heard houston meetings were very productive, only spoke to one guy, but i heard it was really good, took time to get going, but when it got going it was good.
cortez obviously couldn't say too much on that podcast as the meeting hadn't happened.
hopefully we follow up with he and a coach or 2.
Posted by: bruce mclane | 26 June 2012 at 11:25
Petri isn't cutting it. He has had multiple opportunities to shine, including 2 chances in professional rugby, and hasn't been good enough. Time to put some fresh blood in there so we have an international level 9 ready for the 2015 RWC. Sorry Bruce, but facts are facts.
Posted by: Does Tolkin Have the Balls? | 26 June 2012 at 11:31
Petri was a victim of the passport issue. He was good enough in general, but for an American playing rugby in Europe, you need to be better than that to warrant a passport spot on a team. Read the blog entry below.
Posted by: Sergeant Hulka | 26 June 2012 at 11:40
DTHTB- i respectfully disagree.
either way it is no matter, to me petri is clearly the best SH eligible for the USA, but i, like you, have no say in who tolkin picks.
hopefully whatever tolkin decides is in the best interest of the team
Posted by: bruce mclane | 26 June 2012 at 11:41
We all know how this will play out. Tolkin will stick by Petri until the 2015 RWC, and the Eagles will suffer in the long term as development of a 9 will seize for over 4 years.
Posted by: EagleFanClub | 26 June 2012 at 11:54
Am I the only one that thinks Biller is overrated and too small for international rugby? A big athletic hooker would certainly help in the scrum, and for a small hooker Biller is not bringing a "4th loose forward" element to the pack.
9 & 2 are the biggest problems in the team right now that can be fixed. As far as the biggest problem at 10, not sure if we can fix that one via selections of young blood.
Posted by: FrontRowClub | 26 June 2012 at 18:40
Cortez' interview sounded like a candid overview of the challenges facing top-level college rugby, a critique of some of the errors made in the past in the rush to create new competitions, a rationale for some of the structures that will remain in place, and a preview of some issues we'll be working through in the years to come. I don't understand why people already have the knives out.
Posted by: Anti-USAR Knee-Jerk Reaction | 26 June 2012 at 22:06
With programs like Cal and BYU out of the mix in D1-A, the void is going to be filled with programs who have coaches that want to parade around the fact their team is in D1-A and talk up high performance and IRB grants, but the reality is there will be no change in the quality. Basically, all the bottom teams from the 1st year of the CPD and new pretenders will be the new D1-A.
Posted by: CollegeRugger | 26 June 2012 at 23:22
All I heard was him saying that if you weren't D1A or aspire to be then you were not pushing your program as far as it could go - utter crap.
Well maybe at Wyoming you can have that kind of view. But maybe he should visit a few big football schools to see how hard some of the rugby programs are working when faced with an 800 pound gorilla, that obviously isn't at Wyoming, before slamming non-D1A schools.
Great start Rich!
Posted by: College Conference | 27 June 2012 at 05:01
Put the 250K from the IRB into identification of the best players and then coaching them. Not on travel costs so that Notre Dame can play Claremont Colleges.
Posted by: CollegeRugger | 27 June 2012 at 06:29
USA v Russia scoring highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v01tUdkKb2k&feature=plcp
Posted by: M.O. | 27 June 2012 at 06:53
Cortez doesn't know squat, because nobody knows squat. Cortez just babbled and tried to defend status quo in an sinking D1A. It was a laugh when Alex Goff pointed out he didn't seem to understand the departing teams must not be happy and a new approach was required.
Cortez just wanted to hear his own scattered thoughts. At one point he might have inferred he was going to do for all of us what he did for Wyoming.
Posted by: D1AAA | 27 June 2012 at 09:03
Hey here's an idea. Let's use the HP funds for D1A to find and develop former NFL and NCAA football players. Get these athletes trained up quickly, and watch them take over the world of rugby.
Its such a waste to use HP funds to develop college teams....
Posted by: 'merica! | 27 June 2012 at 09:44
Maybe Kevin Battle can share with us what he's doing at UCSB. Didn't little Claremont college relegate UCSB to D2 the year before last.
Posted by: SoCal | 27 June 2012 at 10:09
We (UCSB) are training...hard!
Posted by: Kevin Battle | 27 June 2012 at 12:18
I would like to see the breakdown of the $250,000 HP grant to D1A. It is understood that $60,000 will be spent on the teams post-season travel. How much of the remaining $190,000 will be spent on salaries? Or better stated what is the breakdown of the whole $250,000?
Posted by: question for USAR | 27 June 2012 at 13:03
Hey Kev, cat got your tongue? Training so hard you've got no time for transparency?
Posted by: inguiring minds want to know | 28 June 2012 at 11:25
Given that the coaches vote on how the money is allocated I think it's safe to assume it's not being used for staff salaries.
Posted by: Show Me The IRB Money | 28 June 2012 at 12:22